Tag: From Scratch

Chicken Lasagna Soup

It had been a few years since my neck of the woods had measurable snow fall, but last week that changed when a Nor’easter dropped a few inches of snow that required me to break out of my shovel and get to work. And unfortunately, it wasn’t the nice powdery snow that’s easy to shovel, it was the heavy wet snow that can be a bit of a back-breaker to clean. The snow also brought with it colder temperatures. The weekend before the snow it was in the 50’s, but after the snow it was in the 30’s with wind chills making it feel much colder. Thankfully, I had today’s delicious soup to enjoy on those cold days, a Chicken Lasagna Soup. I know the name might conjure up all kinds of ideas as to what it could be, but it’s pretty much a very fancy chicken noodle soup.

So, why a Chicken Lasagna Soup? Well, I have a recipe for a lasagna that I want to make, and I tend to purchase grocery items that I know I am going to need in the future when they are on sale, so I bought the lasagna noodles when they were on sale, only to reread the recipe and realize they were the wrong ones. I was supposed to buy no-boil ones, but I didn’t want them to go to waste so I started thinking of other things I could make with them and remembered seeing quite a few recipes for lasagna soup.

The soup came together rather quickly. I started off by poaching chicken breasts in seasoned chicken broth along with onions and mushrooms. Once the chicken was cooked, I removed it from the broth, shredded it and then added it back to the broth along with baby spinach, sun dried tomatoes, heavy cream and the lasagna noodles (already cooked). I opted to cook the noodles separately as opposed to cooking them in the soup to reduce the amount of starch added to the soup, which would have made the soup consistency thicker. Once the spinach was wilted, I added in cheeses and gave everything a good few stirs until they were melted and then it was ready to be enjoyed.

And this soup didn’t disappoint. It was flavorful and hearty, the perfect soup for cold winter days!

Chicken Lasagna Soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cups sliced mushrooms (8oz. package)

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2 skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)

8 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces

1 5oz. bag baby spinach

1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup shredded provolone cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a large pot or Dutch oven melt the butter and flour together over medium heat. Add in the onions, mushrooms, rosemary, basil, oregano and garlic and stir everything to combine. Add in the chicken broth and stir again. Add the chicken breast along with the red pepper flakes, salt & pepper. Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked.

Meanwhile, cook the lasagna noodles in a separate pot per the package instructions. Drain and set aside.

Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pot and shred, then return to the pot. Raise the heat and bring the soup to a boil and add in the noodles, spinach, sundried tomatoes and heavy cream. Stir and allow the soup to lightly boil until the spinach wilts. Add in the cheese and stir until melted.

Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Recipe adapted from Half Baked Harvest

Sour Cream-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake (and a few other things!)

It’s been a bit quiet around here. Almost two months since my last post. Partly because this summer has been way too hot to turn my oven on to bake anything and because I was gone for about 10 days in late July / early August. I finally made it across the pond! I went to Barcelona for two days and then headed out on a Mediterranean cruise which made stops in Mallorca, Marseille, La Spezia (Florence), Civitavecchia (Rome) and Naples. Since I was on a cruise, I really didn’t get the opportunity to try a lot of the local food, but while in Marseille I did try a traditional cookie called a Navette (it wasn’t to my liking) and while in Lucca I enjoyed pizza and gelato (both were delish!).

And not food related whatsoever, but too beautiful not to share a few pics of the Mediterranean and a few sunrise and sunset pics from the ship. 

A few weeks after getting back I finally turned my oven on to bake something as I was planning to visit family and wanted to bring dessert. I opted to make a Sour Cream-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake that I had flagged in a cookbook quite some time ago but hadn’t gotten around to making. I really need to go through my cookbooks and see what else I have flagged that I haven’t made! Truthfully, I felt out of sorts while prepping the batter for the cake. It was almost like I was tripping over myself. Don’t get me wrong, I have been cooking for myself even though I wasn’t baking but I never realized that I had developed a rhythm of sorts while baking.

Thankfully, my out of sorts feeling didn’t translate into the cake… It turned out delicious! The recipe called for a cinnamon sugar topping which I thought to be a bit odd, but I went with it and am happy that I did. The cinnamon flavor really added to the flavor of the cake. You could taste it, but it wasn’t overpowering.

One thing to note, the flavor of this cake gets better with time. I suggest making it a day or two ahead of time and then wrapping it tightly to keep it fresh and let the flavors develop.

I think I am finally getting my baking legs back! I baked a Blueberry Crumb Cake that came out delish – although I did have to mix my dry ingredients twice. I flipped the measurements for salt & baking soda and added in more baking soda than the recipe called for and I didn’t want to end up with metallic soapy flavored cake. Maybe that isn’t a good example. I did bake up some treats (cookies and cheesecake brownie bites) last week along with a birthday cake that all came out perfect! I even decorated the cake… It’s been a while since I have done that. So, I guess I am getting back into the swing of things. Perfect timing to with Fall and the holidays just around the corner.

Sour Cream-Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 3/4 stick (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Spray a 9x5x3- inch loaf pan with baking spray then line with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang, then spry with additional baking spray. Set aside.

Cinnamon Sugar Topping- In a small bowl mix 2 tablespoons of the sugar with 1/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon and set aside.

In a large bowl beat the butter, vanilla extract and the remaining sugar together with a hand mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each. Beat in the sour cream, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the remaining cinnamon. Scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low, add in the flour until almost combined. Finally add in the chocolate chips and continue mixing on low until the batter is well combined.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles and then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar topping on top of the cake.

Bake in the preheated oven until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 70 – 75 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Then using the overhang lift the cake out of the pan and place on the wire rack to cool completely. Remove the foil and serve or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until ready to serve. For best flavor, let the cake sit for 1 day before serving.

Recipe from Elizabeth Alston’s Best Baking

No Churn Key Lime Ice Cream

Today marks the unofficial end of the summer. While the calendar may say that we still have a little over two weeks left to the season, with schools back in session, pumpkin spice everything popping up in stores and some cooler temps there is no doubt that Fall is just around the corner. That’s fine by me as it is my favorite season. It’s been quite some time since I posted an ice cream recipe, just under two years and surprise surprise it was for a No Churn Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream, so I decided that this unofficial end was the perfect excuse for another ice cream recipe. A flavor that can help to extend the feeling of summer… A No Churn Key Lime Ice Cream.  

If you love a classic key lime pie you are going to love this ice cream. It has all the ingredients of the traditional pie (key lime juice, lime zest, sweetened condensed milk), whipped cream (folded into the mixture as opposed to piped on top) and graham cracker crumbles. And best of all you don’t need an ice cream machine to churn up a batch of it. Just mix all the ingredients together and transfer it to loaf pan and then freeze until firm.  

No Churn Key Lime Ice Cream

Ingredients:

Graham Cracker Crumble:

4 graham crackers, crumbled

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons sugar

Ice Cream:

1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon key lime or regular lime zest

1/3 cup key lime juice*

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups heavy whipping cream

*Can use fresh key limes or Nellie & Joe’s Key Lime Juice

Directions:

In a small bowl combine the crumbled graham crackers, sugar and butter and mix together until well combined. Reserve 1 tablespoon and set aside

In another medium bowl whisk together the condensed milk, lime zest, key lime juice, vanilla extract and salt and set aside.

Using a hand mixer on medium speed beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form.

Fold the whipped cream and graham cracker crumb mixture into the condensed milk mixture until everything is combined and no streaks of either mixture remain.

Transfer the mixture to a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle the reserved graham cracker crumb mixture on top. Cover with a piece of wax paper and aluminum foil and freeze for at least 6 hours.

Recipe from Southern Living

Passion Fruit & Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Can you believe that Easter is just a little over a week away? Where is the time going? Today’s cake would be perfect for your Easter dessert. Coconut is a great Spring flavor and passion fruit is a flavor that’s not too common but pairs well with coconut. If passion fruit isn’t your thing you could try a key lime curd instead. Coconut and lime pairs together deliciously.

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To begin, I made the passion fruit curd. I wanted to make sure that it would thicken enough so I made it two days before assembling the cake. I have never seen passion fruit at any of the supermarkets I go to, so I opted to buy frozen passion fruit pulp  and let it defrost in the refrigerator overnight. If you are thinking of using passion fruit juice, I would just advise on using one that is 100% passion fruit juice, not a blend of other fruits. I began by combining egg yolks, passion fruit juice, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat and stirred it until the sugar dissolved and the mixture was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Since it can sometimes be a little difficult to determine this with the spoon I am stirring with I normally take a small spoon and run the back of it in the mixture to make sure it is thick enough. Once it was, I removed the saucepan from the heat and added in unsalted butter that I cut into chunks, stirring between each addition to make sure the butter was completely melted. I then strained the curd through a fine mesh sieve two times before placing a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of it and refrigerating it until I was ready to use. A quick tip, the second time I strained the curd I did so into the container I was planning on refrigerating the curd in.

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Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures while making the cake layers. I intended to take pictures of them once they were cooled and I was ready to use them, but I was running short on time. The weekend I made this week I decided was also a good weekend to finally paint my hallway. I had been intending to do it ever since I finished my living room remodel, but the paint cans just sat on the floor with me walking by them everyday and the task on my to-do list every week. Well, the paint cans just started to annoy me, and I didn’t have anything to do so I went ahead and started to paint. Initially I was going to prime beforehand, but I had a lot less primer than I thought and since the paint I was using was paint and primer combined I decided to just use that. Well, I ended up needing a another can of paint. And painting the second coat took a lot longer than I was anticipating so my cake suffered. I shouldn’t say suffered, but it didn’t get the full attention that I was planning on giving it! But back to the cake… I used a recipe that I have used in the past for coconut cupcakes and just baked the batter in two 8-inch cake rounds.

After making a batch of cream cheese frosting it was time to assemble the cake. I sliced the small dome that each of the cakes had to flatten them and then piped a cream cheese border around one of the cakes to create a dam for the curd. I then filled the cake with the curd and placed the other round on top. I crumb coated the cake and after refrigerating for about 20 minutes I finished frosting the cake. I love cream cheese frosting, but I always find that it’s not the easiest to work with when it comes to piping. The cream cheese really makes the frosting soft, so I popped it in the refrigerator for a few minutes before filling a piping bag fitted with a large tip to pipe the rope border around the cake. It didn’t come out as neat as I liked but it was all good. I then sprinkled the top and sides of the cake with coconut and it was good to go. Note to self, don’t ever plan on painting and making a cake on the same day!

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So, the flavors of the cake – passion fruit, coconut, and cream cheese frosting – worked well together. If you want to up the coconut flavor in the cake, you can substitute coconut milk for the buttermilk. For this recipe you could use a cup of coconut milk with a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to get the same consistency as the buttermilk. And you could swap out the almond extract and use coconut extract instead. One more suggestion, I would slice this cake while it’s on the colder side. Once it gets too warm the passion fruit curd makes it difficult to get clean slices of the cake. You could always slice while the cake it’s cold and then let the slices come to room temperature before enjoying.

Passion Fruit & Coconut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

For the Passion Fruit Curd:

1/2 cup passion fruit juice*

7 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks

For the Coconut Cake:

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

6 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract**

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk***

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, plus more for decorating cake

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 8oz. blocks cream cheese, at room temperature

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

*I used frozen passion fruit pulp that I refrigerated overnight to defrost

**If you are not a fan of almond flavor you can reduce the amount or substitute with coconut extract

***To make my own buttermilk I combine 1 cup whole milk with 5 teaspoons of vinegar in a measuring cup and let it sit for 15 minutes until it thickens. You could also use a cup of unsweetened coconut milk with a tablespoon of vinegar.

Directions:

For the curd (make a day or two in advance to assembling the cake): In a medium saucepan combine the passion fruit juice, egg yolks and sugar. Over medium heat stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove the pan from the heat and add it the pinch of salt and the chunks of butter, one at a time. Stirring between addition to ensure the butter has melted before adding an addition piece. Strain through a fine mesh sieve 2 times. Place in a bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the curd and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 325 F. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with baking spray, or grease and lightly dust with flour. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (you could also use a hand mixer) using the paddle attachment cream together the sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl as necessary. Add in the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.

In three parts, add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, alternating between each. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Fold in the shredded coconut and divide the batter between the two prepared pans.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer (you could use a hand mixer) using the paddle attachment cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract on medium speed. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth.

To assemble the cake: If necessary, torte the cakes. Transfer some of the frosting to a piping bag with the end snipped off and pipe around the perimeter of the cake to create a dam. Fill the cake with the passion fruit curd and top with the other cake. Frost the cake with a crumb coat and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Use remaining frosting to finish frosting the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Passion Fruit Curd Recipe from Garlic and Zest

Coconut Cake Recipe from Food Network