Vegan Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

8 large tomatoes, cut in large pieces
2 red bell peppers, cored and sliced in 4 large strips
Splash of balsamic vinegar
3 Tbs vegetable oil, divided use
1 sweet yellow onion, diced
1 cup of chopped carrots
2 ribs of celery, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of vegetable stock

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss tomatoes and bell peppers in enough vegetable oil to barely coat, about 2 Tbs. Salt and pepper, and add just a splash of balsamic vinegar. Pour onto parchment paper and roast for 40 minutes.

In a large sauce pan, saute onions, celery, carrots, and garlic in 1 Tbs of vegetable oil. When soft and translucent add roasted tomatoes and peppers. Add chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to low. Using an immersion blender, puree ingredients together. Serve warm.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

There not one part of me that is willing to give up carbs. Not one. So, we eat a lot of pasta. And I try to make up for the amount of pasta I eat, buy making light and fresh pasta sauces.  One of my favorites is a simple roasted Tomato Sauce, that can be thickened up to make a dip, thinned down to make a soup, and served as is to make a perfect pasta sauce.

Ingredients:

10 Roma Tomatoes, quartered
1 red onion, chopped into 8 large chunks
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
Salt, pepper, olive oil
1/2 c chicken stock
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Toss tomatoes, onions, and garlic in a generous amount of olive oil, salt and pepper. Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper, and dump veggies on it. Roast for 30 minutes.

Using parchment paper, transfer roasted vegetables and all the juice to a saucepan. Add chicken stock, tomato paste, and sugar. Using an immersion blender, puree all ingredients. Simmer on low for 10 minutes.

To make a dipping sauce: Omit the chicken stock, adding instead 1/2 cup of fresh breadcrumbs. Serve with warm bread.

To make soup: Add an extra cup of chicken stock. 

Stephanie's Turtles

Every Christmas that I can remember, my mom's friend Stephanie brings over a plate of miscellaneous holiday cookies. She bakes all kinds of cookies-- sugar cookies, fudge, Hersey Kisses cookies-- they are all on the plate. This plate of cookies is highly anticipated each and every year... but the cookie that is most coveted, and sparks a race to the plate? A cookie she calls: The Turtle. 

A layer of oatmeal crumble, a layer of chocolate, a layer of caramel, and a second layer of crumble. Pure heaven in a bite. The only problem? There are only three of them. Growing-up, my brother and I would battle as to who would be home on cookie day, so that we could remove, re-plate, and hide the turtles. Chores would be negotiated, bribes would be made. They are that good.

So good, that for the last five years, I've been attempting to recreate them, so that I can have a whole plate of these bad boys, all to myself. I've seen similar cookies called carmelitas, I've seen turtle candies that look and taste nothing like the originals. What follows below, is my own adaptation, and a pretty close approximation of what I imagine the original must be... my own version of "Stephanie's Turtles."

Ingredients:

40 square caramels

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (don't skimp- really cream is a MUST)

12 Tbs butter, melted

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup uncooked rolled oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

8oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (avoid nestle, use a high quality chocolate such as Ghirardeli, or Scharffenberger... it will make a difference, trust me). 

Directions:

Peel individual caramels and place in a rounded bottom sauce pan. This sounds tedious, and it is, but it's a great task to give to your kids.  My two-year-old takes this job VERY seriously, and it occupies her for close to 10 minutes (a feat in and of itself!). Add cream, and heat on low until caramel is completely melted and combined. Set aside to cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine oats, sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and melted butter. Using a fork, combine until ingredients form a crumble-- similar to the texture of a crisp topping.

Grease a 8x8 baking dish with butter, bottom and all sides. Press approximately 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the dish.

Bake for 20 minutes. You will notice that the mixture will puff up and double in size. Make sure it does this, before you remove it from the oven. 

Remove dish and cover the oatmeal mixture with the chocolate chips. They should form an almost solid layer.

Pour the melted caramel over the chocolate chips. 

This will create three distinct layers, however, don't worry if the melted caramel oozes around the spaces between chocolate chips-- trust me, it will all work out evenly in the oven.

Sprinkle the remainder of the oatmeal mixture over the caramel - you should be able to see caramel peeking through. Just like the bottom layer, this top layer of crumble will puff up, and completely cover the top when finished.

Return to the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350. You want to make sure that the chocolate has completely melted, the top of the crumble has puffed up and has turned a golden brown.

Trust me, once you've had these? You won't want to stop making them. For this reason, I don't recommend doubling the recipe. You won't stop eating them until you've eaten them all... it's better to keep temptation at a minimum, and stick with an 8x8 pan.

Braised Short Ribs

I'm a seasonal cook. Not just with the fresh ingredients that I use, but I also let the weather dictate what and how I cook. During the summer, you'll find me marinating meats and veggies for the grill, making homemade salad dressings for main course salads, and playing around with cold treats. During the winter months, I use my ovens like crazy.  I love, love, love roasting. The ease of preparing a meal during nap time (or when my kids are at school), the smells emanating for the oven, the fun of one pot cooking. You can't go wrong. 

I know lots of people swear by their slow cookers, but not me. I figure that if you are going to dirty a pot by searing meat, you might as well use that same pot and transfer it from the stove to the oven.  I think you get more flavor, more texture, and less dishes to do-- if you roast in the oven. 

One of my favorite go to dishes is braising short ribs. Low and slow oven cooking in a liquid creates a fall-off the-bone tender meat. And the flavor? It just can't be matched.

Ingredients:

8-10 bone-in short ribs, about 3 inch pieces. (You can find boneless short ribs, but the ribs? They add extra flavor to your dish, and help create a yummy beef broth that you can freeze or use in future meals).

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

6 sprigs of fresh Thyme

2 TBS brown sugar

1 sweet yellow onion, chopped

5 celery ribs, chopped

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup red wine (I use Merlot)

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 cups of chicken stock

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325. Cover the bottom of a large dutch oven with olive oil. Add thyme sprigs. Heat on high (but be careful it doesn't burn). 

Once oil starts to ripple, add in short ribs. Brown on all sides. It's easier to do in two batches, than to over crowd the pan (like I did below-- but I was in a hurry). Browning seals in the flavor, and keeps the juices where they belong- in the meat, creating a more tender bite.

Once browned, remove the short ribs from the pan.  Place on a plate, or in a baking dish. You want to catch any juices that escape from the meat, and add them to the pan later. Add carrots, celery, onions and garlic to the pan. Cook until onions become slightly translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add canned tomatoes, wine, brown sugar and chicken stock. Stir to combine ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn off stove.

Add meat and any escaped liquid back into the pan. Place the ribs, bone-side up. The liquid should just cover the ribs. If too much meat is still exposed, you can add additional chicken stock.

 Place Dutch Oven into the oven. Cook for 3 1/2 hours.

Quick Tofu Soup

Ingredients:

2 boxes of beef broth (8 cups)
1 carton of extra firm tofu, chopped into bite sized pieces
1 carton of white button mushrooms, sliced (if you are using this as a really quick meal, get pre-sliced)
6 green onions, sliced
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 Tbs Sesame Seed Oil

Directions

In a large sauce pan, pour in beef broth, soy sauce, and sesame seed oil. Bring to a boil. Add tofu, mushrooms, and green onions. Reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

*If you want to get super fancy, and still make a quick soup, most grocery stores sell pre-cooked Udon noodles. Add these in, at the same time as the tofu, and you have a complete meal.

Okapi (Copy) Bread

On Christmas Morning, my sister-in-law (who is a trained chef and amaze-balls cook) posted a picture on Facebook of the Monkey Bread she made that morning... ever since then? I've been obsessed. I love the idea of Monkey Bread, and loved the idea that she used Grands Biscuits instead of making her own dough. (Although, I do make my own dough, and would totally use this recipe as an excellent alternative if I were making this the night before).

In the course of moving three times in the past four years, I inadvertently misplaced my bundt pan- which is a necessary ingredient to making Monkey Bread... so I've been creating my own version. One that doesn't require a bundt pan, but that tastes just as yummy, can be made the morning of, with minimal prep. It's an excellent copy (okapi bread... get it? My six year-olds helped me with that one).

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 TBS cinnamon
3 cartons of biscuits (I use the ones from Trader Joe's)
3/4 cup of melted, salted butter


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter a large baking dish, I used the one below, it's a 9x12.

In a gallon ziploc bag, combine the sugars and cinnamon. 

 Open all those biscuits up, and let them breathe for a minute or two.

Using kitchen shears, cut each biscuit into six equal pie sized pieces.  The shears help to keep each piece separate, and make them easier to handle. (it also minimizes your work... if you were to pull the biscuits apart, you would need to roll each piece in order to create a piece that will draw in the sugars, and play nicely with the others).

Dump a handful of the pieces into the sugar mixture and shake until completely covered, then place in the baking dish.

Layer haphazardly, until the entire pan is full.  It should be about 3-4 pieces deep all over.

Lest your worried about the copious amounts of sugar that go into this dish? You will be left with the amount below.  You just need enough to make the coating process easy for you, and to ensure that there is enough of the mixture to coat each and every piece completely.  If you don't want to waste it, it goes wonderfully well sprinkled on toast with butter (or earth's best, if you prefer).

Pour the melted butter over the entire pan, making sure to get a bit on all the exposed pieces of biscuit. Bake in the oven for 1 hour.

The typical monkey bread is dumped out onto a platter, allowing the butter to drip over all the place.  I prefer to just cut into it as is, making the mess a little more minimal....however, if you were bringing this to a brunch, or serving for friends, that is exactly what you would do.

If you are choosing to prepare your own dough, I would prepare it the night before, rolling it into equal sized balls, and coating with the sugar mixture before the second rise, the placing it in the buttered dish, and allowing it to rise in the refrigerator over night.

Wrapped Dover Sole

Growing up in a beach town gives you a distinct advantage when it comes to tasting, and liking, fish. It's always available, always fresh, and often caught be people you know. For these reasons, my children have grown up eating, and thus liking, fish. But fish can be tricky... if you're not used to it, or used to eating it, you're allowed to be picky. There are however, several mild-tasting, family friendly fish that always seem to be a hit.

Dover Sole is one of those. A light white fish, it's extremely mild, with a velvety buttery flavor that just melts in your mouth.  It's a small fish, and the fillet are extremely thin (meaning you won't stop at just one), so buy more than you think.  Classically it's prepared by soaking in milk, dredging in flour and breadcrumbs, and pan frying in butter. Delicious, indeed (if you don't believe me, try it)... but I prefer another way, that's a little bit healthier (although I still use butter), and every bit as yummy.

Because it's so thin, I tend to find that it lends itself very well to baking in the oven for a short period of time. By wrapping it in parchment paper you're in effect-steaming it all while adding flavor through herbs and other veggies. You are also allowing yourself to cook all the fillets at once... like I said, it's a thin fish, and one won't be enough.. but unless you are an executive chef with a gourmet kitchen chances are you won't have a pan large enough to accommodate all those fillets at once.

Ingredients:

6-12 Dover Sole fillets, according to your families need
1/4 cup white wine per fillet (or two ice cubes, if you freeze leftover wine)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
A handful of Italian parsley, leaves diced
2 bunches of kale, escarole (my fav), chard or other dark leafy green
2 shallots, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of Rice, cooked
Parchment paper, torn in approximately 1 1/2 feet sections (1 per fillet)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Line a large baking sheet with tin foil to catch drips (I tend to use a jelly roll pan, because it has slight sides, preventing any liquid from spilling onto the oven floor).

Mix softened butter with diced parsley, and set aside. Salt and pepper each fillet. The greens, shallots, garlic and butter mixture will be divided evenly according to the number of fillets you are making. To prepare each fillet: on each piece of parchment paper, center a handful of greens, a little bit of diced shallot, a little bit of garlic, covering them with a fillet. Place a generous spoonful of herbed butter on top of the fillet (while baking, the butter will melt over the fillet and onto the greens.* Fold the left and the right sides of the parchment paper in, toward the fillet, in 1 inch segments (this should create a lip on either side). Grab the top and bottom ends of the parchment paper and bring together at the top. Carefully pour the wine inside the package. Fold down the parchment paper you have the top once again in 1 inch folds, creating a sealed "package".  Place these finished packages on your prepared baking sheet.  Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Cut open packages using kitchen shears, being careful of the steam they will let off. You can actually serve the fish in the package next to a serving of rice, allowing guests to open it themselves; although I prefer to open, and pour the whole thing over rice.

*If you or a member of your family has a problem with dairy, you can replace the butter with olive oil, rubbing a generous amount over the fillet by hand, then sprinkling the Italian parsley over everything.

**If you can't find Dover Sole, Tilapia would be a great substitution.