Safety 3rd

About a year and a half ago a friend of mine gave me a really cool soup cookbook for a housewarming gift. It sat in my car for a while, and then it sat in the kitchen for a while.....until about a week ago.

I finally got the motivation to make some soup. And it was so good I made it two days in a row!
The first day, I made a pretty bad mistake (hence the title of this entry), but the second day we improvised...

Asparagus soup with Parmesan crisps
 
1/4 oz butter
1 lb 10oz fresh asparagus spears, finely chopped (this is about 1 bunch)
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup plain flour
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cream - I used heavy cream
3 1/2 oz fresh Parmesan cheese

• Heat butter in large, heavy-based pan
• Cook the asparagus and onion. Stirring over medium heat for about 5 min (until onion is soft)
• Sprinkle flour in pan and stir for 1 minute to combine
• Remove from heat and gradually add stock. Stirring until smooth
• Return to heat and bring to boil
• Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes (until asparagus is tender)
• Transfer soup, in batches, to blender. Allow to cool before handling*
• Pour blended soup in metal bowl for the meantime
• Once all the soup is blended, transfer back to original pot
• Stir in the cream
• Reheat soup on stove, without allowing it to boil

The next steps describe how to make a Parmesan crisp. But instead, I just grated a pile of fresh Parmesan cheese on top of my soup.
You might notice that this recipe is lacking seasoning. Normally, you would add "salt and pepper to taste" but my husband and I have different tastes. So what I started doing was not seasoning our food (particularly soups) while I made it. We now just season our own portions of food. For my servings I added sea salt and hot sauce, while my husband added a lot of freshly ground black pepper.

*So, I didn't fully understand the warning about letting the soup cool before you handle it in the blender. So, I went ahead and dumped boiling hot soup into a blender, sealed it off tight and hit "go". Within moments, the top of the blender blew off and I had boiling soup land on my skin and green soup covered the kitchen. While I immediately ran to the sink to cool off my arm, my dog got a head start on the clean up.

Besides letting the soup cool a bit, what we did the second time around was remove the little plastic center from the blender top (this lets air in and pressure out) and covered/held down the lid with a dish towel. I also realized my new found need for an immersion blender.

Beat this Applebees!

Applebees is once again running their 2 for $20 combo deal (one appetizer and two entrees for $20). I think I've got them beat with this HUMUNGUS, fresh, grilled dinner for two my husband and I had a couple of weeks ago.

We went to the grocery story to find something for dinner. I didn't have anything in mind, including a budget. But we ended up spending just under $20 total and came away with a really great dinner.

It started out like this

Then ended up like this.

It was all very basic grilling. Cooked the steak with some salt and pepper. Then I topped mine with gorgonzola cheese and my husband left his plane. We wrapped asparagus in tin foil and threw in some garlic cloves and butter. Once it was done, I topped it with some fresh parmigiano cheese. We also rapped mushrooms and onions in tin foil with butter and garlic. For the starch, we sliced up some sweet potatoes and covered them in oil. I read that you can cook it like a regular potato (whole, poked, and covered in foil) but it takes at least twice as long to cook. Finally, we sliced up some pineapple and put that on that grill as dessert (not pictured because there wasn't room on the plate!).

It all was so good and filling. To add to the enjoyment, we ate it outside with some cold bottles of our favorite beers.
I recommend this menu for a quick, fresh dinner that you should try while there are some good grilling days left this "summer".

Note: The $20 total could go either way depending on the cut and quality of the steak you get. It also assumes that you already have oil, butter, and cheese at home.

Oregon

One of the gifts we received for our wedding was a cookbook from Oregon...from my husband's family....who is from Oregon. When I saw the book, I wasn't too excited because I didn't think too many interesting foods would come from Oregon. However, I still enjoyed getting the book, because the thought was really sweet and they wrote a note inside the book for us.

Well, one night we were trying to think of something to make and decided to go to the cookbooks. When I started to go through the Oregon cookbook, I was amazed! Everything inside of it looked delicious and I wanted to try all the recipes.

Below are the few that we have tried so far. I really recommend getting this book! (You can find it on Amazon)

From Raindrops to Roses: A collection of Oregon style celebrations

Blossom Festival Asparagus with Dijon Tarragon Vinaigrette

Asparagus

• Steam 2 pounds of fresh asparagus
• Remove from steamer and put in an ice bath

Dressing

3 TBS of boiling water
1/4 cup of Dijon mustard
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 TBS rice vinegar
2 TBS fresh, minced tarragon

• Slowly whisk the water into the mustard
• Slowly whisk in the olive oil until it forms a thick creamy sauce
• Slowly add vinegar until tart
• Season with S/P and tarragon
• Place chilled asparagus on platter and drizzle vinaigrette lightly over the top

Grilled Scallop Salad
This recipe also calls for asparagus, but I'm removing it from the recipe because I made the above asparagus recipe instead.

Scallops and Mushrooms

2 TBS olive oil
1 TSP soy sauce
24 sea scallops
2 cups fresh mushrooms sliced

• In a large zip bag, combine oil and soy sauce and then add scallops
• Seal bag and coat scallops - let stand for 10 min
• Arrange mushrooms on a 9" square piece of heavy duty foil coated with cooking spray
• Grill mushrooms on foil uncovered over medium heat for 10-15 min or until tender - We used the George Foreman
• Grill scallops, uncovered, over medium heat for 7-8 min on each side or until scallops are firm and opaque - We used the George Foreman

Salad

2 cups of Boston lettuce
1/4 cup cooked and crumbled bacon
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts
2 TBS Romano cheese
Balsamic vinaigrette dressing

• Arrange lettuce on serving plates, top with scallops, mushrooms, bacon, walnuts and cheese
• Drizzle with dressing

Oregon Blackberry Vodka Lemonade
This is a very good drink. However, I don't feel it is good enough to justify the amount of work involved. A regular boxed lemonade punch and vodka is just as good for me!

6 lemons
3/4 cup chilled vodka
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh blackberries
2 cups ice

• Remove zest from 4 lemons and squeeze enough juice from them and the remaining 2 lemons to measure 1 cup
• In a saucepan, boil 1 cup water with sugar - stir until dissolved
• Add zest, lemon juice, and another cup of water to sugar mixture - allow to cool
• In a food processor, puree blackberries and stir into lemonade.
• Pour mixture through a sieve into a pitcher.
• Add vodka and chill for 2 hours to 2 days