"Creamy" Asparagus Soup

This sounds absolutely disgusting. I admit it. I found this recipe in a recipe book, and thought it looked interesting, as these are all things that I like...I just wouldn't really put them all together, and especially not in this way! However, I have made a goal to make something really weird and 'out of my comfort zone' every week, and since I had the ingredients, I decided to go ahead and try it! :) It turned out FANTASTIC! Even the kids liked it and ate it! I, of course, added a few things, and didn't add some things that I knew the kids wouldn't like...and voila! Here's the recipe that I ended up with!

500 gr (1 lb) asparagus
5 c water
5 tsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp season salt
1 small onion, finely minced
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp parsley and chives, finely chopped
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 1/2 c fresh Spinach, rinsed (can remove stems)
1/2 c minced fresh dill
Small pinch crushed red pepper
A few dashes ground Nutmeg

Trim the tips of the asparagus, and set them aside. Cut all the stalks into 1 inch pieces and place in large pot along with water, bouillon, salt, onion, bay leaf, parsley/chives, and olive oil. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 1/2 hour. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer--uncovered!--for about 5 more minutes. Remove the pot from heat and let cool. Process in a food processor (I added all the 'chunky' parts to the food processor, then enough liquid to really get it liquefied) until smooth. Return to the pot and add the asparagus tips. Let simmer for about 5 minutes or so--until the tips are tender. To serve, pour the soup into the bowls, then just before eating, drop in a small dollop of butter! It's great without it, but add that little butter to it, and this is a most fantastic soup!!! Serve with roast chicken and garlic bread. Oh man. It's good.

Dairy Free Chicken Enchiladas

I do love enchiladas...and I do love them smothered in cheese and sour cream! However, it just doesn't agree with my kids, so I invented a dairy free version. These are still incredibly tasty! Try them out and see if you really miss all the dairy...

1 small chicken, cooked (take all the meat off, discard bones, place meat in a large bowl)
6 or 7 tomatoes
2 bunches fresh parsley
1 clove garlic
1 small hot green pepper, finely chopped (wear gloves!! I often skip this part, as my kids don't like the 'bite', and it still tastes just fine)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 c cooked black beans
1 c Mexican Gravy (**see below for recipe)
8-10 flour tortillas

Place tomatoes, parsley and garlic in blender, blend until smooth. You can dice a few of the tomatoes and add them like that, as the diced tomatoes do give a nice flavor and texture! Add to chicken in the bowl. Add chopped hot pepper, onion, black beans and Mexican Gravy. Toss to mix.

Preheat oven to 350. Pour about 2 c of the Mexican Gravy in the bottom of a 9x13 rectangular pan (either glass or aluminum, doesn’t matter). Hold a tortilla in one hand and place about ¾ cup of the chicken mixture in the tortilla, then roll it up place in pan. Do this with all the tortillas, filling them with chicken mixture, rolling them up, then placing in pan until all the tortillas AND the chicken mixture is gone. Pour the Mexican Gravy over the top to cover the tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese if desired. Bake for about 30 minutes—the sauce will be bubbling and it will smell delicious!! Serve with rice and salad!!

**Mexican Gravy!!

60 g butter
1/3 c flour
3 Tbsp Chili Powder
¼ tsp Garlic Powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp cumin
About 4 c water
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon
1 small (8 oz) can tomato sauce (OR one can diced tomatoes OR 5-6 fresh tomatoes finely chopped)

Mix flour, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, oregano, and cumin in a small bowl. Melt butter in sauce pan. When butter is melted, add bowl of dry ingredients. Stir constantly until it is all mixed. SLOWLY add water and chicken bouillon. Stir constantly to get rid of any lumps and mix completely. Add tomato sauce. Sauce should be fairly thick. It’s ready to use in the recipe!

Shepherd's Pie Variation

Tonight was a 'food storage experiment' night for me. For those of you who are familiar with Shepherd's Pie (the hamburger-green bean-tomato sauce-mashed potatoes-cheese dish that's pretty popular in Utah), I always had a variation...I used cream of mushroom soup instead of tomato-whatever. Since we don't really do the cream of-- soups anymore, I was trying to think of another variation. This is what I came up with, and it was a BIG hit!

1+ lb hamburger
1+lb frozen veggies mix of some sort (I used a carrots, cauliflower, peas and green beans mix that we had in the freezer)
1 Box Mori-Nu Tofu
2 Tbsp Canola Oil
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 4oz can mushrooms
1 Tbsp beef bouillon
3 cups mashed potato flakes
2 Tbs butter
salt and pepper to taste

Cook hamburger in skillet. Pour frozen veggies into 9x13 glass baking dish. Add hamburger. In blender, blend tofu, oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar until creamy. Add mushrooms WITH liquid and beef bouillon. Blend until the mushrooms are the size you want--chunky or smooth. (Most of my family like mushrooms, but Claire does NOT...she didn't even know that she ate a TON of mushrooms tonight! Ha!) Pour the liquid over the hamburger/vegetable mix. Heat water for potatoes in a sauce pan. When it is boiling, remove from heat and add mashed potato flakes. Mix until smooth, then add butter, salt and pepper. Pour over the top of the other mix, like a crust. Bake at 375F until bubbly (about 30 minutes?). (The ingredients sound seriously gross, but it turned out SO good that Josh and Claire even had THIRDS and even Andrew and Peter ate everything on their plates!)

Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins

I love experimenting! Woohoo! It's berry season here in Helsinki, and that means fresh blueberries, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, everywhere you look! So, we made muffins with our fresh berries this morning! :)

3/4 c liquid (milk, soymilk, water)
1/4 c oil
1 large egg
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour
1/2 c sugar
1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon peel
1 Tbsp lemon juice (squeezed from the lemon by a little person...that makes it taste better...)
1 1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 Tbsp flax meal (this is, as always, optional)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c fresh (or frozen or canned) blueberries

*Make your Streusel topping if you want (see below), and set aside.

*Beat egg, liquid and oil. Add all the remaining ingredients (except blueberries) all at once and whisk by hand with either a wire whisk or a wooden spoon about 10 times! (The batter will be lumpy--if you overmix it, it becomes hard and rubbery instead of light and fluffy!) Fold in your berries. Top with the Streusel Topping, if you wish. Bake at 400F/204C for 20-25 minutes! Yum!

Streusel Topping

1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp butter (firm: not melted, not super soft, but not rock hard...)
Mix together with a hand mixer, then sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Fresh wild blueberry picking! :)

Challah Bread

Another beautiful masterpiece of bread yumminess! And it's just so PRETTY!! :)


2 Eggs PLUS enough warm Water to equal 1 1/2 cups
1/4 c Canola Oil
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Salt
2 1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour
2 c White flour
1-2 Tbsp flax meal
2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread maker OR

Mix gently for 5 minutes until all the dough is in a ball. Let rest, covered, for 15 minutes. Mix for another 10 minutes--either by hand or using dough beaters on a mixer on low. Then, cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes, or until double in bulk.

After all of that (or when your bread machine finishes) pour the dough out on a lightly floured surface and divide into three pieces. Make them into about 13"+ long 'ropes' with tapered ends. Pinch all three together at one end, and braid them together on a greased and lightly floured cookie sheet. Pinch them together at the other end. Fold both ends under just a bit to make it look pretty:
Cover and let rise in a nice warm place for about 1 hour. Using a pastry brush, glaze the bread with:

2 Egg yolks, beaten
1 Tbsp Water

Then sprinkle with Poppy Seeds.

Bake at 350F/180C for about 25 minutes. I thought it was almost too pretty to eat, but the kids LOVED pulling it apart, and it was gone in a few minutes! :)

Ciabatta

I've been on an artisan bread kick lately. This was my kick-off. It takes a really long time to make, but it's not time consuming (if that makes any sense). The kids LOVED it and have begged me to make it again! :)

**The Biga Starter:

1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 cups unbleached flour

Mix the yeast with a little of the water. Sift flour into a bowl and slowly add the yeast mixture. Begin to mix by hand, and gradually add more of the water until you have a nice, firm dough. Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes, until smooth. Return dough to the bowl and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Let sit in a nice warm place for 12-15 hours.

**The Dough:

3 tsp yeast
1 2/3 c lukewarm water
1/4 lukewarm soymilk
5 c unbleached flour (half and half works well, too)
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp Olive Oil

Mix yeast with a little of the water to make it creamy, then add the rest of the water. Add this yeast mixture to the Biga Starter, and mix well (again, by hand!). Mix in the milk, beating thoroughly, this time with a wooden spoon (hey, I was going for authentic here). Mix in the flour by hand for 15 minutes, lifting the dough, to make a very wet mixture. Add in the salt and olive oil. Cover with slightly oiled plastic wrapt and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Transfer the dough to two or three floured cookie sheet. Use a spoon to do this, and try not to punch it down! Shape carefully into long loaves, about an inch or so thick. Sprinkle with flour, and let rise for another 30 minutes. Then, bake at 425F for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown. This stuff is so worth the effort!!

Italian Breadsticks

Another of my mother's famous recipes. I just can't have spaghetti without these! Absolutely the most fantastic breadsticks ever!

3 c warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp flax meal
4 c whole wheat flour
2-3 c unbleached white flour

1 cube butter
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 Tbsp parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Combine first five ingredients in a bread mixer. Add flour and flax until dough leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead by mixer for 5 more minutes. Let rise until double. Punch down, roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into about 1" strips (I use a pizza cutter. Makes for fast and accurate work!).



Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in the oven. Add garlic and parsley. Dip strips of dough into the melted butter/garlic/parsley mixture and twist strips. Lay down in pan and repeat with remaining strips. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 400F/204C for about 25 minutes, until breadsticks are browned on top. Makes 1/2 to 2 pans of breadsticks!

(**I also use this recipe for Hungarian scones and pizza dough! For the scones, make exactly like the breadsticks, except you cut the strips shorter and thicker--2"x4" perhaps. Then, you deep fry it! Serve hot with butter, jam and/or honey, or roll in cinnamon and sugar! Fantastic stuff!)