Smoked Chicken, Broccoli, and Black Bean Soup

Smoked Chicken, Broccoli, and Black Bean Soup

½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup diced carrots
½ cup diced onions
½ cup diced celery
1 cup broccoli stems, diced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil
¼ cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock, hot
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon Tabasco
1 cup diced smoked chicken (recipe follows)
1 cup cooked black beans
1 cup broccoli florets
2 cups heavy cream
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with a small amount of warm water (optional)

In saucepan, add ¼ cup butter. Saute carrots, onion, celery, and broccoli stems for 5 minutes. Add thyme, oregano and basil; sauté 5 minutes more. Add wine and deglaze pan. Add hot chicken stock and reduce heat by 1/3. Add Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, smoked chicken, beans and broccoli florets. Simmer 5 minutes. Add cream, simmer 5 minutes more and season to taste (thicken with cornstarch if desired). Drop in remaining butter, piece by piece, stirring until melted and serve immediately.

Smoked Chicken:
On a covered grill, slightly smoke boneless chicken, cooking to medium rare (about 30 minutes).Do not allow the grill to get too hot.

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins.

Just had these for breakfast. Yummers!   Next time I would replace some or all of the oil with applesauce, though!

Cinnamon and Sugar Donut Muffins

• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and egg until creamy. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Pour dry mixture into the egg mixture and stir to combine. Add vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla, stirring until just combined. Divide batter evenly into muffin tin.

I always make mini muffins - so this recipe fills a 24-cup pan perfectly.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes clean, about 10-13 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove muffins from tin. In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 3 tablespoons of sugar. While the muffins are still warm, roll each one in the mixture, coating all sides with the cinnamon sugar.

Salsa

Ingredients

• 1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
• 2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies) Original or Mild
• ¼  cup Chopped Onion
• 1 clove Garlic, Minced
• ¼ tsps. Sugar
• ¼ tsps. Salt
• ½ cup Cilantro (more To Taste!)
• ½ whole Lime Juice
• 
  
• If you like your salsa spicy throw in:
• 1/2 to 1 Jalapeño, Quartered And Sliced Thin
• 1/8 tsp ground cumin

Directions:

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—I do about 10 to 15 pulses. Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.

Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour. Serve with tortilla chips or cheese nachos.

Sugar Cookies.

Somehow I avoided all frosting-laden sugar cookies (a major weakness) for all of the Valentines season (but there was plenty of Sees, believe me)  but I came across this recipe and just might have to make these for St. Patty's Day.

Ingredients:
3 sticks of salted butter softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
5 cups of all purpose flour

Tip #1: Don't use margarine. Use the good 'ol fattening BUTTER. I like to use salted butter.
Tip #2: Don't use the microwave to soften the butter. Let it sit out on the counter at room temperature until it is softened. If you use the microwave, you may melt it too much, which will impact the texture of your dough and make it too sticky.

Directions:

*Cream the softened butter and sugar together until it is nice, smooth, and fluffy.

*Next, add the eggs one at a time to the butter mixture. I use a hand mixer on low for this.

*Add the vanilla.

*Gradually add the flour and baking powder. I use my hand mixer for this also. Make sure that all the flour is mixed into the dough.

*Chill dough for 1-2 hours to stiffen up the dough. (very important step)

*When your dough has been chilled for the alloted time, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

*On a clean counter top, generously sprinkle powdered sugar (yep...not flour) onto the counter and begin rolling the dough with a rolling pin. Make sure to add some powdered sugar to your rolling pin and to the top of the dough to prevent it from sticking. (Keep adding a little powdered sugar as needed throughout this process).

Tip #3: I roll out about a third of the dough at a time so that I can carefully gauge the thickness of the dough. I like mine to be on the thick side (about 1/2 inch thick).

*Use cookie cutters to cut out your desired shapes and set them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Make sure there is at least 1 inch or so in between each cookie.

*Bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. As you can see in my pictures, my cookies were extra large (almost as big as the napkin) so I cooked them for 8 minutes.

Tip #4: Do NOT overcook. They may not look done, but they are.

*Let them cool a bit before removing them from the pan.

Tip #5: Chill in the refrigerator before frosting or serving. This helps the cookies to be moist and delicious. :)


CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
1 stick softened butter (1/2 cup) Tips #1 and #2 apply
1 brick softened cream cheese (8 oz) Tip #2 applies
Mix butter and and cream cheese until soft, add 2 tsp vanilla, beat until light and fluffy.
Add 4-5 cups powder sugar, one cup at a time, (I use 4 1/2 cups). Beat until smooth. Add your favorite food coloring to tint it your desired color.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

1/2 cup butter
2-oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.
In a small, heatproof bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir with a fork until very smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and red food coloring. Add in the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Batter should be red. If a brighter red is desired, add an additional 1/2 tsp food coloring. Add flour and salt into the bowl and stir until everything is just combined and no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Pour into prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
Prepare cheesecake mixture. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Drop in dollops onto prepared brownie batter. Gently swirl two batters with a butter knife.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until brownies and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cheesecake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.
Cool in the pan completely before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled.
Brownies can be refrigerated, covered, for several days.
Makes 16 large brownies or 24 smaller brownies

Sour Cherry Crumb Cake

Topping:

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour, plus more for dish
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamoon

Cakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups fresh sour cherries, pitted, or frozen dark sweet cherries
(I don't know why you couldn't use some other kind of fruit - I think blackberries or raspberries would be great in this)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch square baking dish, and dust with flour, tapping out excess.

2. Make topping, stir together butter, flour, sugars, salt & cinnamon

3. Make cakes: Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in bowl. With a mixer, cream butter and sugar in another bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Working in alternating batches, add flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until just combined. Pour into prepared dish, smooth with spatula. Dot top with cherries, and sprinkle with crumb topping.

4. Bake until golden and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool before cutting.

Grilled Vanilla Peaches

I haven't tried this yet, but came across this recipe again and MAN, it sounds delish. Somebody remind me to make these the SECOND I have fresh peaches again next summer.

Peel, halve, and pit 8 freestone peaches.

Preheat grill to high. Combine the juice of 1 lemon & 1 tablespoon veg. oil in a bowl. Add peaches, toss to coat. Place peaches (with liquid) on a large piece of parchment-lined foil.

Stir together 1.5 Tablespoons packed brown sugar,
2 teaspoons water,
2 teaspoons vailla,
1/8 tsp. cinnamon, and
1/4 tsp. coarse salt.

Brush over peaches. Foil foil to form packet, crimping edges to seal, Grill, covered, for 15 minutes.

Slice peaches, and divide among 8 bowls. Top with vanilla ice cream!