Just Green Goodness Soup

If you’ve resolved to eat healthier this year … whether it’s Meatless Mondays, Gluten Free Everyday, or simply an Obsession With All Things Green (this last one recently inspired by tweets from the lovely @JuliaAllison and @HabituallyChic) … then this soup is for you.

The ingredients (onion, garlic, zucchini, spinach, veggie broth, and fresh basil) are all affordable, accessible, and chock-full of vitamins.  Even better: The finished product is — at once — light and delicious and warm and comforting … so you can actually enjoy your resolution to eat well, instead of slamming a shot of wheatgrass or whatever.  The best part?  I think it’s the garnish … the finely ground toasted pecans, which add a rich, nutty flavor, plus extra protein and a satisfying crunch.

Still skeptical?  I hope you’ll try it anyway, and if you have a chance, please do let me know what you think.

Just Green Goodness Soup

Serves 4 to 6 as a first course

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 sweet yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 1/4 pound zucchini (about 5 medium zucchini), trimmed and chopped into chunks

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

3 cups packed baby spinach

3-4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth, divided

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves

For Garnish

1 cup unsalted pecan halves

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese, optional

Instructions

In a large pot or dutch oven, cook onion in oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add chopped zucchini and 1 teaspoon salt.

Add 3 cups veggie broth; cover and simmer until zucchini is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Add 3 cups baby spinach and cook until wilted, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.

Add 1 cup basil leaves. Stir and continue to simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes.

While soup is simmering, toast pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat, about 4 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

Place toasted pecans in small food processor. Process pecans until finely ground, about 30 to 45 seconds. Transfer to small serving bowl and set aside.

Remove soup pot from heat. Transfer half of the soup to the bowl of a large food processor. (Please be careful when working with and blending hot liquids!)

Process soup until pureed and smooth.

Repeat with second half of soup. Transfer all soup back to the original pot for serving.

Taste soup for seasoning and texture. Season with additional salt as needed.  You can also add the remaining 1 cup veggie broth now if you prefer a thinner soup. Then serve soup, warm, in small bowls (or coffee cups!) with a sprinkle of ground pecans (and parmesan cheese, if desired) on top.

Store left-over soup in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.  During warmer months, soup can be served room-temperature or even chilled, like gazpacho.

Cream Cheese Icing for Red Velvet Cupcakes

To finish my previous post on Red Velvet Cupcakes, here are instructions for making standard cream cheese icing.  I’ve also included some instructions about how to pipe icing onto the cupcakes using a Ziploc bag.

Cream Cheese Icing

¼ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 box (16 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

In a medium bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until creamy.

Jack loves to run the stand mixer, with supervision of course.  (This was just after a short walk outside in the cold weather … hence the hood.)

Add confectioners’ sugar, about 1 cup at a time, beating after you add each cup.  (Or you can add less at a time, like Jack, if you wish.)

I love how Jack is so serious about his cooking … look at that concentration!

The icing is finished when all ingredients are thoroughly combined and creamy.

If you want, you can decorate each cupcake by spreading the icing on top of each cupcake with a butter knife.  This is great for when you are in a rush or when kids want to participate.  On the other hand, if you have time and want something that looks a little more professional, you can pipe the icing with a Ziploc bag.

Start with a quart size Ziploc bag.  I like to use the Ziploc (name brand) Freezer Bags because they seem to be a little sturdier than the grocery-store or generic brands.  To start, gently pull apart one side seam of the bag — about half way down the bag — so that the sides can fold down.  This will create a bigger opening, which will make it easier to spoon the icing into the bag.

Now, on the opposite side of the split seam, snip off the bottom corner of the bag.  This will create a small opening for the icing to flow out.

Using a spatula, place two large scoops of icing into the bag.

Bring up the sides of the bag and press the icing down toward the cut corner, smoothing out air bubbles as you go.

Here’s a close up of the cut corner.

Now, hold the bag in your hand with the cut corner facing down.  Squeeze the bag with light pressure until the icing begins to flow out.

Bring the icing down to the cupcake.  Continue to squeeze gently as you move the bag around the perimeter of the cupcake.

This will form the first layer of icing.  Continue on to the second, bringing your hand in a few centimeters in order to create a stacked spiral effect.

Then make a third circle and end with a tip in the center.  (I realize my instructions are a little clunky … but don’t let that discourage you.  If you just try piping with a Ziploc a few times, you will quickly get the hang of it!)

To store the cupcakes, place them in a large baking pan and refrigerate for up to 48 hours.  (You can keep them longer than 48 hours, but they won’t taste quite as fresh.)

For a little extra sparkle, I like to finish the cupcakes with simple red sprinkles.  Do this before refrigerating them, as the sprinkles will stick better when the icing is still room temperature.  For serving, I like to place each cupcake in a second paper liner; this adds more color and depth.  The green and red paper liners were perfect for our Christmas party.  You could use red and white or silver for Valentine’s Day, or blue and red for the Fourth of July.  Any other ideas?  As always, please do share!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing -- Love in a Paper Liner.

Admittedly Modern Red Velvet Cupcakes

One of my favorite things about cooking is sharing recipes.  I love to hear that people out there in the world use my recipes to feed their families, celebrate birthdays, welcome neighbors, and entertain friends.  Even though it’s a small thing, just knowing that a recipe was useful to another human being makes my life feel worthwhile.

My friend's daughter, holding my cookbook. So adorable ... makes my heart melt!

With that said, you can imagine how eager I was to respond to a request by the hugely popular (and rightfully so) foodiecrush online magazine for a “tried and true” recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes.  The timing was perfect, too, as I’m in the process of making about 200 of the little red gems for John’s birthday party this coming Sunday.

Celebrating as a family on John's actual birthday last weekend

If you’d like to learn about the history of Red Velvet Cake, check out this well-researched piece on Gilt Taste: The Unknown History of Red Velvet Cake by pastry-chef and blogger Stella Parks.  While my own recipe is not true to the original Red Velvet cake (which was actually more of a chocolate cake with a slight red hue due to the interaction of cocoa powder, buttermilk, vinegar), it is not — as Parks would say — “a crimson chalk-fest,” either.

Nope, mine is a simple recipe (as usual) that uses vanilla extract (no scraping vanilla bean pods here!), red food coloring (yes, I admit it), and your standard cream cheese icing (I ain’t servin’ no icing made with raw eggs at a birthday party!).  So maybe my recipe isn’t completely authentic.  But so what?  It’s easy.  And delicious.  And in my book, that’s what counts.

Admittedly Modern Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 2 1/2 dozen

½ pound unsalted butter, softened

2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon red food coloring

1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar (or other mild vinegar, such as white balsamic)

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

6 large eggs

For Icing

¼ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 box (16 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper or foil liners.

In large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.

Mix in vanilla, food coloring, and vinegar.  (Wait, is that Elmo in my mixing bowl?  Apologies for the bad lighting in the photo.)

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Now, moving onto the cocoa powder.  If you’re like me, you’ll probably want to skip the cocoa-sifting step.  Don’t.  Cocoa powder has a tendency to clump.  If these clumps make it into your batter, they will be nearly impossible to get rid of … meaning that you’ll end up with, at best, lots of little brown dots in the finished cake, and at worst, big pockets of unsweetened cocoa powder (bleh).  To avoid these problems, use a fine mesh sieve to sift the cocoa.

Sifting with a sieve is really quite simple:  Just shake or tap the sieve with your hand and let the cocoa powder flow into a bowl.

It will look like this when you are done.  All nice and silky and clump-free.

Now combine the cocoa, with the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Then add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with buttermilk and beating in between.

Beat in eggs.

Fill lined muffin cups about 3/4 full.  For me, getting the cupcake batter into the muffin cups is always a challenge.  (I usually end up with batter all over the pan and myself.)  Lately, I’ve started using an OXO measuring cup to pour the batter into the cups, and it works wonderfully!  The little lip on the cup makes pouring a cinch.  You can use a butter knife to guide the flow of batter.

See how nice and clean my pan is?  No more burnt dribbles of batter to scrape off after cooking!

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Place on wire racks and cool completely.  In the picture below, I put a red teaspoon on the cupcake pan so you can see that, although the batter looks bright red, the cupcakes actually come out a little more maroon, which I like better.

For icing, in a medium bowl, beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until creamy.  Add confectioners’ sugar, about 1 cup at a time, beating after you add each cup.  Icing is finished when all ingredients are thoroughly combined and creamy.  Ice each cupcake with a generous amount of frosting.

Yikes!  Time to go get Jack from preschool!  Will post pictures of the icing and finished cupcakes soon. … In the meantime, dear foodiecrush, I hope this recipe meets your needs.  Do let me know how your little Smudge likes it!

Steakhouse-Style Creamed Spinach

We make creamed spinach every year on Thanksgiving.  I included a picture of the finished dish in an earlier post, and in response, sweet reader Monique asked me to post the recipe.  As Casey Kasem would say, “Well Monique, here it is.”

In addition to serving creamed spinach on special occasions, I also love to serve it on any ol’ weeknight.  It’s perfect as part of a “Steakhouse Dinner,” like the one we had last night:  NY Strip Steaks with sauteed mushrooms and onions …

… and an easy iceberg wedge salad with homemade vinaigrette, blue or feta cheese crumbles, tomatoes, and bacon (mmmm, bacon).

In case you are wondering: “Now where was little Jack during the preparation of the steakhouse dinner?”  I will tell you:  He was not interested in cooking last night, but he was — ever so conveniently — obsessed with my camera.  So I let him take pictures.  Although I was reluctant to let him use the camera on his own, it was fascinating (and hilarious!) to later see what caught his eye.  Here are some examples:

Inside of the washing machine

His golf club

His play dough creations

Christmas presents

Mom

Now here are two pictures of his reaction to when I asked him to please share the camera with mommy.

Sadly walking away

And then pouting ... of course I had to give the camera back after seeing this face.

So anyway, here’s the recipe.

Steakhouse-Style Creamed Spinach

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup diced white onion

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup 2% milk

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/8 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg

1 pound baby spinach leaves (about 4 cups), washed and dried

1/8 – 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until translucent, about 3-4 minutes.

Add flour and salt; stir well. Cook for about 30 seconds.

Add milk; stir well.  Cook for about 30 seconds.

Add cream cheese.

Add nutmeg; cook, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted and mixture is thickened and well combined.

Add spinach leaves; cook, stirring frequently, until spinach is wilted and mixture is well combined.  (Note: You can precook the spinach in the microwave or in another saucepan.  This will make the spinach a little easier to work with as you mix it into the cheese mixture. On the other hand, you will have to dirty another pan or dish.  Priorities, people.)

Transfer to oven-proof serving dish.  Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.  Serve immediately, or place serving dish in warm oven for 3 to 4 minutes, until Parmesan begins to melt.  Also, as pictured above, you can serve the creamed spinach in individual ramekins for a cleaner presentation.

Quick & Easy Homemade Pizza

At our house, especially on lazy Sunday evenings, we love to make homemade pizza. To keep it simple, we use a store-bought crust, usually the par-baked Herbed Pizza Crust from Whole Foods Market.  It has a wonderful flavor and costs only $1.99.

Another great option is the frozen pizza dough that you can find in the frozen foods section at Whole Foods or HEB.  The dough comes, frozen, in a ball (about the size of a softball).  All you have to do is let it defrost on the counter for a couple of hours; then you can roll, toss, or stretch it into a 9- or 10-inch crust.

With either type of crust, I like to then drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil on a pizza pan or cookie sheet to prevent the crust from sticking.  (Some cookbooks say to use stone-ground cornmeal; I prefer oil, as the cornmeal tends to burn and also makes a bit of a mess.)

If you are using the par-baked Herbed Crust, you can set it on the pan while you preheat the oven, make the sauce, and prepare the toppings.  However, if you are using defrosted pizza dough, you’ll want to wait to roll/stretch/toss it until after everything else is ready.  (The raw dough will shrink as it sits.)

To start, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  A nice hot oven will ensure a crispy crust.

While the oven is heating, make the sauce.  Over the years, I have tried several different cooking methods and combinations of ingredients.  My favorite, by far, is two raw Roma tomatoes blended with a few leaves of fresh basil, a sprinkle of salt, and a touch of olive oil.  (You could add a clove of garlic and some fresh or dried oregano for more flavor.)  Roma tomatoes are perfect for pizza sauce because they are less juicy than some other varieties.  You want to avoid juicy tomatoes because otherwise you’ll end up with a soggy crust.

Just chop them up and toss them in the food processor or blender.  Add two or three leaves of fresh basil, 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and salt to taste.

Jack loves to blend anything in our mini food processor, so I try to delegate the sauce to him as often as possible.

Next up?  Cheese and toppings. We love mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, olives, and grated Parmesan.  Sometimes we use Canadian bacon instead of pepperoni, and if I have it on hand, I love to mix a little Fontina cheese with the mozzarella.

When the oven is hot and all of your toppings are ready to go, you can begin to assemble your pizza.  First, spread a few spoonfuls of sauce on the crust.  (Note: You won’t use all of the sauce if you are only making one pizza.  You can store the remainder of the sauce in a small container and freeze for up to one month.)

Then add about one cup of grated mozzarella cheese.

Next, add the pepperoni.

Then the mushrooms.

Then some grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

Then, bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is lightly browned on the bottom.  Wait a minute . . . I forgot the olives.  (Perpetual mommy brain strikes again!)  No big deal though; just add the olives and continue cooking.

When the pizza is finished, I like to add some chopped basil.  Love the fresh flavor and bright green color.

Transfer the pizza to a large cutting board.  Slice with a pizza cutter (I recommend this one) and serve!

Oh, right.  One more optional step:  Peel off any toppings that the kids don’t like. To avoid waste (which is always a good justification for eating more pepperoni!), place peeled-off toppings on mommy or daddy’s slice.

As far as side dishes, I like to counter the bread/cheese/grease aspect of the meal with some simple veggies.  Oven-roasted asparagus is a favorite.

As is a big green salad.

Do you make pizza at home?  What toppings do you recommend?  What about the crust — homemade or store-bought?  Look forward to hearing from you!

Spaghetti Squash & Some Memories

What is your criteria for a good side dish? Easy? Nutritious? Affordable? Tasty? Kid-friendly?  For me, all of the above.  Lately, my favorite side dish that meets all of those requirements is spaghetti squash.  I love to bake it in the oven and then just toss the strands with parmesan and butter (recipe below).  So simple, yet so delicious.  Have you tried spaghetti squash?  How to you serve it?

When I was a kid, I remember my parents served it with a traditional bolognese sauce … which leads me to the “memories” portion of this post.  That bolognese sauce is the same one that we made on “Kids’ Cooking!” back in 1988.

Earlier this week, my friends from Austin Public Access found an old copy of the show.  I hadn’t seen it in over 20 years, so it was fun to watch and reminisce!

Here’s a short clip of the “Halloween Show” (hence, the witch costume).  In this clip, I’m making bolognese sauce for a dish called “Cowboy Macaroni.”  Please pardon the terrible quality; I haven’t figured out how to import the video directly yet, so I had to film the show playing on the television while Jack was watching it.

Oven-Roasted Spaghetti Squash with Parmesan and Butter

Serves 6 (as a side dish)

1 tablespoon light olive oil

1 spaghetti squash

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and pepper, if desired

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Drizzle the olive oil on the foil.

Microwave the whole squash for 3 minutes (this will make it easier to slice in half).  Slice the squash in half, lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and discard.  Place the squash, cut side down, on the foil-lined baking sheet.

  

Bake at 400 degrees until soft, about 35 to 40 minutes.  (As Ron Popeil would say, “set it and forget it!”)  Remove from oven.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  Using a potholder and spatula, turn the squash over so that the center is exposed. Run the tines of a fork down the center of the squash to pull up the strings of “spaghetti.”

  

Transfer pulled squash to a large bowl and toss with butter and Parmesan cheese.  Season with salt and pepper if desired.  Serve warm.

Give. Give. Give.

Jack’s preschool is collecting gifts and money this week in order to provide support to an underprivileged preschool this Christmas.  The flyer about the program says that “gift donations will be displayed in a classroom where children will then get to select that special gift for their parents.”

I get a lump in my throat every time I think about this.  About these children getting to pick out a gift for their parents, and about the satisfaction they will feel from having that opportunity.  It helps me remember that we — all of us here typing on our laptops or surfing on our iPhones — are infinitely blessed, and that as such, it is our obligation to give back to people who have less.  So Give.  Give.  Give.  Give.  Give more.  Give love, money, gifts, thanks, hugs.  Give of yourself.  Give your time.  Give more than you ever thought you could.  ’Tis the season.