Cannellini Bean and Kale Soup

Another winner from Abundant Harvest Organics. Too bad I just canceled my weekly delivery with them. A 30 minute round trip visit on a Saturday morning with just a 30 minute window to arrive at the truck was just not working for us every week as a family. Soooo I found Farm Fresh To You and am hoping to get their weekly deliveries to my doorstep starting next week. BUT I will gladly keep my door open to Abundant Harvest if they ever have a delivery site closer to home.

ANYWaaaaay... to quote my husband while he was dishing his second bowl, "You've outdone yourself! This soup is Rockin'. And this is HEALTHY for you??? Seriously, this is right up there with your Wedding Soup. I don't know how you do it." =)

Serve with Garlic Toast ... slice toast and butter. Sprinkle with garlic salt and dried parsley. Heat in the oven at 450 for a few minutes until lightly browned. Mmmmm mmm ... that makes goooooood dipping toast.

Cannellini Bean and Kale Soup

• 1 ½ Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, peeled & finely chopped
• 1 medium celery stalk
  
• 1 leek finely chopped
• 1 ½ tsp rosemary
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 quart vegetable broth
• 2 15 oz cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 bunch kale, center ribs removed, and leaves chopped
• 1 ½ tsp cider vinegar
• ½ lb Italian sausage, cut into bite size pieces (optional)

Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery or leek, and rosemary and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften. Add tomato paste and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the broth, beans, kale. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer gently until vegetables are tender. Heat remaining oil in pan with Italian sausage. When browned and cooked through add to soup, stir the cider vinegar into the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Potato and Cauliflower Casserole

Weeeeell, my husband wanted Steak and Potatoes tonight. And we recently watched Food Inc. This was sort of the nail in the coffin after other books and movies we've read/seen about the food industry. Sooooo we bought Organic grass-fed cow tonight. The last steak I bought on New Year's Eve was on sale for $1.49 per pound. This was $14.99 per pound. Ouch. Buuuut, it was delicious. A few years ago I tried wild-Salmon and now I have a hard time swallowing farm-raised. Soooo, is this the end of us eating beef most nights out of the week? And the end of our cheap beef love-affair? Time will tell. (I will also add that after we visited the Temple this week we did stop off at McDonald's for a reminder taste of our "Naive" to the food industry days, when we used to stop off there every Thursday night after working at the Temple 9 years ago.

So to embellish our new love of grass-fed cow, I cooked up my ginormous cauliflower that came in my locally-grown organic vegetable delivery. Thanks to Abundant Harvest, I found a new casserole recipe that well, at least the adults enjoyed (my daughter enjoyed it, and the other were alriiiight with it.) I'll be making this again soon ... since I still have 2 heads worth of cauliflower left on my one ginormous head.

POTATO and CAULIFLOWER CASSEROLE

2 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 Tbsp better
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

1 head of cauliflower (or one quarter in my case)
3 tbsp flour
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (but the good stuff)

Lightly grease a medium casserole dish and preheat the oven to 450. Boil potatoes until tender but still firm. Drain and set aside. Place cauliflower in a steamer basket and steam for 5 minutes.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Gradually stir in the heavy cream until thickened. Remove from heat and mix in 1/2 cup swiss cheese until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange potatoes and cauliflower in dish. Pour cream sauce over veggies and sprinkle with remaining Swiss cheese. Bake 20 minutes until it gets bubbly and lightly browned. The brown stuff is the gooooooood stuff.

Aunt Kaye's Waffles and Honey Butter

Some foods just remind you of home. My dad's famous awful waffles are on the top of that list. They are loaded with just about every kind of sugar you can dream of. And we like to use my Aunt Kaye's waffle recipe. Mmmmm mmmm!

Aunt Kaye's Waffles

* 2 eggs
* 2 cups buttermilk
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 2 cups flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 6 Tbs oil

Beat eggs well. Beat in the rest of the ingredients with a mixer until smooth.

Cook on my new cool Waring Pro Waffle Maker, courtesy of Lady Di and Granddad this Christmas so we can be just as cool as them making awful waffles, ... and enjoy!!!

AWFUL WAFFLE FAVORITES
Add butter, powdered sugar, homemade strawberry jam or homemade peach jam, whip cream and syrup if you really want to go all the way.


Aunt Kaye's Honey Butter

1/2 cube butter
1 cup butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Whip fir 10 minutes and enjoy.

Marinated Grilled Shrimp

Marinated Grilled Shrimp

Thanks to Kyndra for passing this one on.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• skewers

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, stir together the garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, and red wine vinegar. Season with basil, salt, and cayenne pepper. Add shrimp to the bowl, and stir until evenly coated. Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring once or twice.
2. Preheat grill for medium heat. Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near the tail and once near the head. Discard marinade.
3. Lightly oil grill grate. Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until opaque.

Chopped Avocado Salad

Thanks to Kyndra for this one. I sure wish I was still in the famed NYC Gourmet Club. This is my new favorite Avocado Salad.

Chopped Avocado Salad

Dressing:

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Generously salt and pepper to taste

Salad (alter proportions to your taste):

8 thick slices of bacon, chopped
6 oz baby spinach leaves chopped
1 large granny smith apple, halved, cored, thinly sliced to bite size pieces
1/4 cup very thinly sliced red onion
2 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled, cubed

toasted pine nuts

Ebelskivers

These were a favorite tradition at my home growing up. My mom didn't make them very often but I soooo loved them. I tried using her old pan for awhile, but alas it died. So I recently bought a new pan in Solvang. And I've made them twice this week already. My mom always put raspberry jam in them. My new favorites are lemon curd. Mmmm but the winner is nutella and bananas. Can't wait to make them again.

Danish Ebelskiver
Thanks to this website for the recipe.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Filling of your choice

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, granulated sugar and salt.

In a small bowl, lightly whisk together the egg yolks and buttermilk. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.

In another bowl, using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.

Put 1/2 of a teaspoon butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan.

Christmas Morning Rolls

These have been a tradition in our home for years. My mom would labor away at these on Christmas Eve every year to hand out to our friends. And of course she'd save a batch for us to eat on Christmas morning. Mmmm, I couldn't wait.

In our home we've decided to make them on the 23rd so we're not so rushed on Christmas Eve. Still just as good and just as easy.

Christmas Morning Rolls

1 bag of frozen bread dough
1 small box of Butterscotch pudding mix
a few tablespoons of cinnamon
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups butter

Butter a pan. Place the frozen dough in it. When it thaws slightly cut it into 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle with pudding mix. Sprinkle cinnamon all over it.

Melt butter and brown sugar together and pour over rolls. Yes you need all that butter and sugar. The more the merrier. Cover with a dish rag and let rise several hours. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Be sure to put a pan underneath it with a silpat on it. If you've added the right amount of butter and sugar it will probably spill over and make a mess of your stove and then start to smoke and make your rolls taste not so good. Use a silpat to prevent burning. Life is so much easier!