Blogtober - Fall Recipes

Today's blog prompt is an easy one, we need to share our favorite fall recipes.

Both of my favorites are Julia Child's recipes and they're both delicious soups. Honestly, one of the reasons I most look forward to the weather cooling down is so I have an excuse to eat more soups. They just make me so happy. The smells coming off of the stove top for hours, the warmth that spreads through your belly when you eat them. The excuse to eat carbs so you have something to dip in them. Love it.

The first of my favorites is Julia's French Onion Soup which I wrote about here.

It is not good for you at all, but it's delicious and smells amazing and just oh man. 

The second is Julia's Mediterranean Tomato and Rice Soup which, if all my cookbooks weren't packed up I would type up for you, but since they are, here is another blogger's post about it.

{image via}

This soup is super simple, but we just love it. It's homey and tasty and kind of thick depending on how much rice you put into it. So damn good.

What are your favorite Fall recipes?

Lamb Meatballs Simmered In Creamy Spinach Sauce

I've mentioned on here before that Mike and I started doing Sunday Night Dinners where we make something a little more complicated, rich, or fancy. We make it together, have cocktails or wine, and actually eat it at the dinner table instead of in front of the tv. Recently, we made lamb meatballs simmered in creamy spinach sauce from Padma Lakshmi's coockbook Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet and it was GOOD. My sister has been asking me for the recipe so I figured, if I took the time to type the whole damn thing, I might as well post it for everyone. Enjoy!

Lamb Meatballs Simmered In Creamy Spinach Sauce

For the Meatballs:

1.5 pounds ground lamb

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

.5 cup minced fresh cilantro

.5 to 1 teaspoon cayenne, to taste

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 cup minced yellow onion

1 teaspoon salt

For the Sauce:

3 tablespoons canola oil, plus extra for greasing hands and pan

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

3 whole dried red chilies

3 cloves

4 star anise pods

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup diced yellow onions

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes

1 teaspoon sambar curry powder (or Madras curry powder)

1 tablespoon tomato paste, dissolved in approximately 4 cups boiling water

.5 cup beef or chicken stock

1 pound fresh spinach, washed and chopped thinly (we only used about .5 pound)

1 cup full-fat yogurt

Salt

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients to make the meatballs, kneading the mixture to a uniform, doughlike consistency.

Rub a few drops of cooking oil into the palms of your hands, so the meat will not stick, and form meatballs about 2 inches in diameter. You will have about 12 to 14 meatballs.

With a bit of oil on a paper towel, rub the inside of a shallow dish to grease it. Place all the meatballs in a single layer, cover them with plastic wrap, and refrigerate them for at least 2 hours.

Remove the meatballs from the fridge and set them on a kitchen counter. To make the sauce, in a large, wide, deep skillet, heat the 3 tablespoons of oil on medium heat. Toss in the cumin, chilies cloves, and star anise. After 2 minutes, or when the seeds and chilies start to color, add the garlic, onions, and ginger, and stir for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onions become glassy. Then add the fresh tomatoes, and stir until they lose their shape. Add the curry powder and stir to mix evenly.

Add the tomato paste water and stock, and continue to stir for 3 to 5 more minutes.

With a serving spoon, gently lay all the meatballs into the sauce, pouring a bit of sauce over them to keep them moist. Add enough boiling water to completely bathe the meatballs, if needed. Cover the casserole with its lid, and reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer the meatballs on low heat for 40 minutes, gently stirring often to make sure they remain bathed in sauce and do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Do not break meatballs.

Reduce the heat to low, add the fresh spinach, and cover the pan. Once the spinach has wilted and reduced, about 4 minutes, lift the lid and slowly add the yogurt while carefully stirring. Once all the yogurt has been mixed in, add salt to taste, about .5 teaspoon or so.

Continue to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes more on very low heat until the yogurt starts to separate a bit. 

Serve hot over plain Basmati rice.

NaBloPoMo Day 16 - Recipes

For those that asked, here are the recipes from the date night cooking class we took recently.  Enjoy!!

NaBloPoMo Day 10 - Scrambled Eggs

My husband has been making scrambled eggs like crazy recently since he found this video by Gordon Ramsay on how to make perfect scrambled eggs. Of course it involves too much butter, but I mean really, eggs are good for you right?  These are DELICIOUS and fluffy and oh man.  Enjoy!

NaBloPoMo Day 7 - Date Night

Okay, I admittedly think it's kind of annoying when married couples go out to dinner together or do something fun together and call it "date night." You're with each other all the time, you have tons of meals together, why is one a date night and one isn't? Because you shaved your legs? Probably, actually.

Moving on.

Mike and I decided since we are currently (and probably going to be forever??) baby-less, that we should go on more dates. Basically, we need to get out of the damn house more. So we signed up for a cooking class at this local catering company/kitchen store that we love so much and they sell that most amazing $8 bloody mary mix holy man that stuff is good - Quality Street Catering.

We took the Brunch Menu class taught by the chef at our favorite local restaurant, CD Cafe. I was admittedly pleasantly surprised to find out that we weren't going to actually cook anything. We were given copies of the recipes and watched the chef prepare and explain everything while we drank wine and joked the whole time. And then we got to eat what he prepared. I mean, that's my kind of class!

Here's what he made:

Southern Maryland Style Eggs Benedict with Lump Crab, Ham & Old Bay Hollandaise

Okay, so the presentation on this one is ugly, but it was delicious. I have only made hollandaise once and I followed a recipe that used a blender and it ended up cold and messy and I hated making it. He made his the old school way and it was delicious and oh man why am I always so impressed watching people poach eggs?!

Fresh Strawberry Shortcake & Chantilly Cream

I am making this chantilly cream and I am putting it on everything.

Poached Salmon with Lemon Caper Aioli

This was by far the best dish of the night. Why have I never poached fish? Yum yum yummer face, this was good.

Bacon Potato Casserole

So he thickened up the casserole with a roux and it made it even richer and just damn yummy. I honestly didn't know you could put a roux in a casserole.  Is that sad?

Spicy Sausage Fritatta

Okay, ugly presentation again, tasty ass fritattta.  Just effing tasty.  The end.

If you live in my area, definitely sign up for one of their cooking classes! It's fun, tasty, and booozy. Which really is the best kind of class, right?

Also, if anyone wants recipes, just let me know and I'll send them your way!

NaBloMoPo Day 3 - Airmail Cocktail

A couple of weeks ago, Mike e-mailed me at work to announce that a local coffee shop we had been to a couple of times recently remodeled itself and made it wayyy smaller.

To make room for...

A speakeasy hidden in the back.

We were pretty dern excited about it.  Because, well there aren't really any great bars here and we oh so do love cocktails so very much.

You have to make reservations over the phone to get in and they give you that night's password.  When you arrive at the coffee shop in time for your reservation, you pick up an old fashioned phone in the back and give whoever answers your password. Then the bookcase in the back of the coffee shop swings open and you can walk into the bar. The bar is really cool. It's all dim lighting, candles, period decorations, comfy chairs, and the cocktails are delicious.

My favorite cocktail so far has been the airmail. I'm not sure what recipe they use at our local speakeasy, but I found this one via Imbibe. Enjoy!

(photo via)

1 1/2 oz. añejo rum
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. honey syrup (1 part honey to 1 part water)
1 oz. prosecco
Ice cubes
Tools: shaker, strainer, eyedropper
Glass: coupe
Garnish: eyedropper of Angostura bitters, mint leaf

Combine rum, lime juice, syrup and ice in shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain into glass and top with prosecco. Garnish by dragging mint leaf through bitters to create an attractive design, then laying mint leaf on top.

(recipe via)

NaBloPoMo Day 2 - Good Eats

I can't think of anything clever to start this blog post out with...

Here are some super tasty things we have made lately that you should make too.  Enjoy!!

Bacon-Wrapped Sonoran Hot Dog

We found our recipe via a tumblr that now seems to be broken, but here is an almost identical recipe.

So taaaasty.

Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

I don't normally like chicken salad sandwiches, but this one isn't mushy at all, it's crunchy, and fresh, and oh so delicious. We've been eating it for days.

Greek Tacos

Oh man oh man oh man are these good.  That's really all there is to say about it.  These are really damn tasty and if you run out of meat, the veggies make a perfect little salad.

Slow-Cooker Korean Beef Tacos

These were realllly tasty.  The only problem was that the damn corn tortillas fall apart in a millisecond. I think it also needs something else as garnish; I just haven't figured out what yet. Something spicy maybe.

What have you guys been cooking lately?

My Revolt Diary - A Healthy Breakfast Option

Hey All!

I'm still trucking along on Revolt, enjoying (aka wanting to die while doing them but enjoying the results nonetheless) the workouts and trying to stick to the diet.

I'm horrible at sticking to the diet...especially when there is a giant chocolate egg sitting in my fridge left over from Easter.

But it's still going great and I love the program.

This week I thought I'd share one of Nichole's recipes from the Revolt diet.

When you're on a low sugar, low carb, high protein diet like this one, you end up eating a LOT of egg whites.

Every breakfast includes them.

And I hate them.  Can't stand the texture.  Barf city.

So when we get recipes that use the egg whites instead of just eating them plain, I'm super happy.

Here is my favorite, the power pancakes:

For my diet which is the lowest calorie intake I use:

4 egg whites

.5 cup old fashioned oats

a splash of pure vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

cinnamon to taste

Blend that all together and then cook them up like pancakes.
(Don't bend them toooo smooth because then they won't cook nicely in the pan)

Mine make about 4 good sized pancakes.

(I hadn't showered yet today, don't judge my puffy face)

Serve with a small amount of sugar free syrup.

(They don't look pretty when I make them, but they're tasty!)

They are really delicious, full of protein, and low on calories and sugar.

Enjoy!!

Special thank you to Murabelle from Fit Happy for my super cute headbands.

Check her shop out here!

Good Eats

I start a diet next week.

That is mostly eggs.

So....I'm not excited.

Let's talk about tasty non-diet recipes we've tried and lovely lately!

One Pan Roast Herby Fish via The Majestic Wine Blog

We tweeked this a little bit with larger tomatoes and no anchovies.  I also think you should halve the amount of parsley in the gremolata.

Overall though, super tasty and filling, loved it.

Red Lentil Curry via Real Simple

We couldn't find red lentils anywhere so we used plain and our scallions went bad so we thinly sliced some regular onions in there (it's always something with us).

This recipe was easy and filling and good.  Definitely making again.

Now I'm off to boil some eggs...

Good Eats

Here are some delish recipes we've tried lately.

Baked Shells with Tomato and Mozzarella from Big Girls Small Kitchen

This isn't anything groundbreaking, but we had some leftover ragu and who doesn't love anything with fresh basil in it?

Chicken Tikka Masala from A Hint of Honey

This was SO good. 

And hot.

Makes your nose run hot.

Pork Meatball Banh Mi from A Hint of Honey

I don't know if I can properly explain how amazingly delicious these are.
SO SO SO good.
However, I don't know on what planet one pound of ground pork makes 24 meatballs.  I would suggest doubling the meatball ingredients, but nothing else because it makes a crapload of the pickled veggies.
So good!

The Tom Nichol's

Feeling inspired by the Faux Fancy ladies' post on the perfect bar, I wanted to share with everyone my new favorite cocktail recipe.

The Tom Nichol's.

It's DELISH.

Enjoy!

1 ¼ oz.  gin

¼ oz. fresh grapefruit juice

¼ oz. fresh orange juice

¼ oz. fresh lime juice

¼ oz. fresh lemon juice

(Mike bought all this fruit and squeezed his own juice which we keep in bottles in the fridge)

½ oz. chamomile simple syrup (see below)

Ice cubes

Tools: shaker, strainer

Glass: cocktail

Add all ingredients into an ice-filled shaker, shake vigorously and strain into a chilled glass.

For the chamomile syrup: Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and add a tablespoon of fresh chamomile or 1 bag of chamomile tea. Allow the tea to steep for about 3 minutes and turn off the heat and remove the bag (or strain out the chamomile). Add 1 cup of granulated sugar to the hot tea and stir to dissolve the sugar. Allow to cool and then transfer the syrup to a bottle and refrigerate.

{recipe via Imbibe}

Good Eats

I'm not one of those people who can just make up recipes.

Or just, you know, throw shit in a pot and it comes out tasting well.

That makes my brain hurt.

I can follow a recipe and SOMETIMES add stuff to it.

Sometimes.

It stresses me out most times though to tell the truth.

So when I find a good recipe I get excited.

(Also, I really like food)

So here are some recipes we have loved making lately.

Tomato Basil Soup from Big Girls Small Kitchen

Delicious, wouldn't change a thing about it.

Also, saving me a ton of money because now I don't have to go to Panera and get their tomato soup which I'm pretty obsessed with.

Quinoa Black Bean Burrito Bowl from The Shiksa in the Kitchen

Eat your heart out Chipotle, these are so good.

That was a cheesy sentence, but seriously these are good.

Spicy Roasted Corn and Poblano Soup from How Sweet It Is

This needs some tweaks (I just botched the peppers so we'll do it a different way next time), but it's solid and tasty and Mike loved dipping his chips into it.

Roasted Spiced Chickpeas from Whole Living

Tasty solution to munchy cravings.

Mike ate a double batch of these the other day in one sitting.

Thassa lot of protein.

You guys have any good recipes lately?

Holy Taste Balls

(Classy blog title, no?)

Last night for dinner we made this soup:

And holy crap it was delicious.

We accidentally forgot to buy carrots and Mike added chickpeas because he is obsessed with chickpeas right now, but otherwise we just followed the recipe.

Make it.

You won't be sorry.

Recipe found here.

Enjoy!

Bloody Mary's

Last weekend we had another cocktail party.

And I was a really bad blogger and didn't take pictures of any of it.

Including one of my favorite parts: our party favors.

Mike had the great idea of making Bloody Mary's for people to take home as party favors for the "morning after".

They turned out pretty darn cute.

Because I'm too lazy to recreate what they actually looked like, here is the one I have saved for me.

I love mason jars.  And they sell them in packs of 12 at Walmart for like 4 bucks.  Score.

And here are the tags we tied on with rope.

Rope also from Walmart.  We're thrifty people.

And here is the recipe to make your own Bloody Mary mix.  

Delish.

Easy.

Cheap.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 lbs. fresh tomatoes

1 lb. fresh carrots

6 fresh celery ribs

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

2 Tbs. horseradish root (freshly grated if possible)

1 tsp. celery salt

1 tsp. finely ground Maldon or another sea salt

 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

3 oz. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

3/4 tsp. green Tabasco

1.5 tsp. red Tabasco

Tools

Sharp knife

Cutting board

Grater

Blender or food processor

Fine strainer

Wooden spoon

Large measuring glass

Instructions

Coarsely chop the tomatoes.  In batches, blend with any accumulated juices until completely pureed, and fine-strain into a large measuring glass pushing through all liquid with a wooden spoon.  You want about 2.5 cups of tomato juice.

Grate the carrots and coarsely chop the celery (leaves included), reserving any liquid.

Blend the shredded carrots and chopped celery in two batches with the reserved liquid and 1/4 cup of water per batch (if necessary) until completely pureed.

Fine-strain into the same measuring glass as the tomato juice, pushing through all liquid with a wooden spoon.

Transfer the veggie juice into a large glass jar, add remaining ingredients, secure with a lid and shake vigorously to combine.  The mix will keep refrigerated for up to two weeks.  Shake before each use.

*We doubled the recipe and it made enough to fill 10 of the mason jars.  We gave each away with a little vodka mini from the liquor store.  Cute, boozy, and homemade.  Perfect!

Recipe via Imbibe Magazine

Eats This Week

Hubs and I have been super into trying new (mostly) healthy recipes lately and we've been having so much fun with it.

One of my favorite things to do with hubs is to cook. 

We joke around in the kitchen, shout out orders to each other,  are constantly talking and laughing and bickering.

It's something I hope we do always and that I hope our kids one day enjoy doing with us.

That said, here are some tasty things we made this week!

This soup from 365 Days of Slow Cooking is DELICIOUS.  Seriously, one of my new favorite soups ever.

It's not low fat by any means, but you could make some simple substitutions to get the calories down.

Hubs loves crock pot meals more than anything because it's easy and he loves the smell of something cooking all day; puts him in a great mood.

Only thing with this recipe, is it leaves out blending the soup.  We used our immersion blender to get it nice and smooth which is the texture we like our soups to be.

These low calorie cupcakes from Skinny Taste have become a huge hit with my family and coworkers.

We made these for my mom's birthday last month and then I made them again for a coworker's birthday who is trying to watch her weight.

For having basically nothing in them, they are delicious and satisfying. 

Pumpkin...who knew?!  

Oven crisp black bean and corn flautas from Vegetarian Times.

These were so so so tasty.  I added cheese because, hi, it's what I do.

So good, you have no idea.

We ate them with this:

Broc Guac from Heather Eats Almond Butter.

This is literally guacamole made with broccoli, which sounds weird, but it's delish!!

What are you guys cooking these days?

Eat Me

(I think it's become impossible for me to come up with appropriate post titles)

Hubs has recently started researching food and health (and of course in his robot manner, he now knows everything there is to know about it).

He has wanted to put on weight for a while (poor baby right?) but since we started running, it's been hard for him to get enough calories.

He's recently found some pretty great philosophies on eating and being healthy.

Listen to what he ate today:

Breakfast:  quiche

2nd Breakfast:  oatmeal

some kind of snack that I forget at the moment

Lunch:  fried chicken with cole slaw and potato salad

Snack:  almonds

2nd Lunch:  bowl of grape nuts

Dessert:  magic cookie bars

Dinner:  2 sweet potato tacos and chips

Seriouslyyyyyyyy.

But, I'm enjoying any eating philosophy where I am encouraged to eat froyo after a hard run.

Here are two recipes we've made this week so far on our healthy eating foray.

Sweet Potato Tacos from The Picky Eater Blog

This was delicious!

I didn't put on the yogurt sauce because I'm not a huge fan of yogurt, but the hubs loved it.

I added a little bit of cheese (because my body is 75% cheese anyways).

(That is a really unappealing picture of what is a super tasty lasagna)

Veggie Lasagna from The Picky Eater Blog

Loved this.  So tasty and it's not greasy so you don't feel weighed down or gross afterwards.

You guys have any good, healthy recipes for me?

Baking

Grad school sucks.

Have I mentioned that?

The reason today is that it made me miss out on a lot of Christmas this year.

One such thing is baking goodies for our friends and coworkers.

Mike took over this year.

He may or may not have stayed up until 2am doing it.

He's nuts.

The treats were delicious though.

Butter!

I stopped school work for five minutes to help cut the bark. 

Begging patiently.