Donut Army

I love love love the sesame oil in this soup. Really adds a lovely layer of flavor to the soup. We are divided on whether or not the additional cream was needed -- maybe taste as just a vegetable soup and add dairy as you see fit. Carrot Soup Scented with Sesame and Chives Sunday Soup (Betty Rosbottom) 4 1/2 T unsalted butter, divided 3 1/2 c carrots, peeled and diced 1 c leeks, chopped 1/2 c celery, chopped 6 c stock 1 tsp coarse salt 1/2 c light cream 1/2 c sour cream 3 tsp sesame oil 2 c homemade croutons 2 T sesame seeds 2 T chives, chopped Heat 2 1/2 T butter in a large pot. When hot, add carrots, leeks, and celery. Cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add stock and 1 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat, and cook at a simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Puree soup in a blender and return to cooking pot. Gradually whisk in cream and sour cream. Stir in 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Adjust seasonings. To make croutons, cover 2 c bread cubes in about

Easy to assemble, flavorful, and makes you feel big and strong as you eat it. Highly recommended! The original calls for bacon to get sauteed in the fat before putting the soup together. I'm sure that's delicious, but if you haven't noticed by now, I don't cook with bacon so I omitted it altogether -- with no great loss. Fall Brodo with Acorn Squash Sunday Soup (Betty Rosbottom) 1 acorn squash, cubed 4 c Swiss chard, ribs removed and leaves chopped 1 1/3 c onion, chopped 8 c stock 1 c farfalle pinch cayenne 1/2 c parmesan, grated Heat 2 T oil in a pot. When hot, add onions and saute until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Add stock and bring to a simmer. Add squash and farfalle and cook until both are tender, about 12-15 minutes. Add chard and let wilt, about 1-2 minutes. Season with salt and cayenne. To serve, ladle into bowls and pass parmesan as a topping.

A hearty and healthy soup that is pretty easy to assemble. Ingredients easy to have on hand. Bean and Barley Soup The Daily Meal 1 T olive oil   1 white or yellow onion, chopped   2 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped   2 carrots, chopped   2 T tomato paste   1 tsp dried marjoram   1 tsp dried thyme   2 tsp salt   1 tsp pepper   1/2 c barley   1/3 c lentils   2 red potatoes, cut into chunks   One 15-ounce can red beans, drained and rinsed   2 T chopped parsley Heat the olive oil in a medium to large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and carrots. Sauté until the vegetables begin to soften and become fragrant, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Season with the dried marjoram, thyme, salt, and pepper. Sauté for 3-5 minutes. Add the barley, lentils, potatoes, and kidney beans and stir to combine. Pour in enough water to cover the soup con

Stuffed shells is not in my normal cooking cycle. But, our weather took a turn for the cold and the snow, and so it seemed appropriate to have a casserole like this. This dish has a nice balance of vegetables to cheese to keep it on a "lighter" side -- as light as a stuffed shells casserole can be! Roasted Vegetable Stuffed Shells Two Peas and Their Pod 1 red bell pepper, diced 1 eggplant, diced 1 zucchini, diced 1 T olive oil salt and pepper 21 jumbo pasta shells 15 oz ricotta cheese 1 egg 1 1/2 c mozzarella, shredded, divided 1/4 c Parmesan, grated 1 bunch spinach, chopped 1/4 tsp basil, dried 1/4 tsp oregano, dried pinch nutmeg salt and pepper 2 1/2 c marinara (I used Julia Child's, An Excellent Tomato Sauce) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the diced red pepper, eggplant, and zucchini on a large baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and toss. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or until veggies are tender, stirring once.

This is fine and it shows well. Quite tasty. Frankly, it's just a bit expensive with the fennel and endive. But if you're in a region where you can grow those yourself, or if they're in your farm box, by all means, this is great! If it's going to cost you ten bucks, then maybe try a different salad. Clementine Fennel Salad with Clementine Vinaigrette Vegetarian Times , January 2005 Salad 6-8 c loosely packed greens 2 bulbs fennel, trimmed and chopped 3 endive, trimmed and chopped 4 clementines, peeled and sectioned 1/4 c pine nuts, toasted Dressing 3 clementine 2 T white wine vinegar 2 T lemon juice 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1 T vegetable oil 3 T olive oil To make dressing, grate zest from 1 clementine and set aside. Cut all clementines in half and squeeze out 1/2 c juice. Combine juice with vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Whisk until salt dissolves. Add oils in a slow, stead stream. Adjust seasoning. Add more lemon juice if too s

This recipe gets ripped to shreds online. And not without reason. My best advice to you is to give yourself at 3/4 of a day for this to come together. (The recipe suggests just a few hours.) For me -- and for others, apparently, online -- this dough was sluggish to respond. Also - this is milk bread. Sort of. So. It will be a completely different texture on the inside as compared to a Western bread. It is denser, but without being dense -- I liken it to Wonder bread, but without being gross. It is extremely pleasant to eat, and a little toothy, which I can like. So why is it only "sort of" like milk bread? Because milk bread should be made based off of a flour roux -- cooked flour paste. And this version skips that step. Possibly for the worse. Check out recipes for tangzhong to learn more about this missing step. Perhaps incorporating that step would make this easier to work with. Speaking of working with this dough, in absolutely no way did I get the dough to roll o

I have been making this cake since the 1990s - it's always a hit, at least among those who eat gluten. This comes from the reliable Silver Palate cookbook from 1979. Orange Poppy-seed Bundt Cake The Silver Palate 8 T salted butter, room temperature 1 1/2 c sugar 4 eggs 2 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 3/4 c milk 1/2 c poppy seeds (i jar if using a store-brand purchase) 1 tsp vanilla extract grated zest of 2 oranges Orange Glaze 1/2 c orange juice 1/2 c sugar Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10" bundt pan. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients together and sift. Then, add to the creamed mixture, alternating with additions of milk. Mix well after each addition. Fold in poppy seeds, vanilla, and orange zest . Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until the edges shrink away slightly from t

I have had this recipe for years. As long-time readers, or personal friends, might know, I collect older recipe books. And I have a fondness for the compilation -- the church recipe book; the Civic Club of Wherever recipe book; the Fill-in-the-Blank political party recipe book. Usually, people contributing to these books are submitting the best of their best. Because social capital can be gained from having a good contribution. (As opposed to asking someone you barely know for a recipe, and they give it to you but conveniently leave one key ingredient out.) In comparison to that scenario, these books are goldmines of solid, time-proven recipes. Healthy - they are not. Trendy - they are not. But tested - they definitely are. All that to say, I have had this recipe for a long time -- but hadn't made it. Nor had I saved an attribution for where I got it from. An online search brings up very few hits for a similar recipe. The Vintage Recipe Project comes the closest, even thoug

This recipe comes from Patricia Wells' book, The Paris Cookbook -- a book given to me by my dear friend Terry probably 20-25 years ago and which I still reference today. And every time I walk by the book on my shelf, I think of him. Which is a story to reflect on as you consider gifting or re-gifting cookbooks to friends. Soups are, for me, notoriously challenging to photograph. This blog is only for fun and for friends -- I don't have a whole set-up for photographs in my kitchen. I'm often just capturing something from my phone as it moves from stove to table. For this soup, I didn't even try to photograph it while it was steaming, so what you're seeing here is the leftover version, where it has thickened slightly. Still delicious!   Oliviers and Co.'s Provencal Three-Grain Soup The Paris Cookbook Patricia Wells 1/3 c spelt, whole 1/3 c pearl barley 1/3 c lentils du puy 1 T olive oil 2 bay leaves 1/2 tsp thyme, dried 3 leeks, minced 2 carrots

This recipe, while requiring some not-always-stocked kitchen ingredients, is easy to follow. And, once you taste it, you won't believe it came from your own kitchen instead of from a restaurant. I promise you. Follow the instructions and you'll be fine. Personally, I omit the shrimp paste because I think it's conceptually gross. But, never skimp on the kaffir lime leaves. They cannot be replaced with simply lime juice, as some food bloggers will suggest. It's a different taste profile altogether. You can find kaffir lime leaves in Asian and Southeast Asian groceries. I use it often enough that I buy a small plant and grow it in a pot so the leaves are always on hand. In a pot, it has grown easily in the midwest (brought indoors for the winter), in Texas (kept in a pot but outdoors, unless it was going to freeze), and now in North Carolina (growing in a sunroom). Easy to grow. It's not a particularly attractive plant, but once you start cooking with it, you'll