Roasted cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Soup

Closet Cooking: Roasted Cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Soup

I found this recipe on my sister's Pinterest page and it has taken me a week to finally make it. My first issue was that I couldn't find my stick blender for soups. I decided to try my food processor instead. My second issue was finding fresh thyme. 

In the meantime I stumbled upon an article in Cooking Illustrated magazine on how best to roast cauliflower.  I think if I had not found that then the soup could've easily been a failure.  I later found the recipe I needed online which you can get here.

I tried to take a few photos of the process. Still working on my food photo skills.  Overall, I liked the soup. It is a great way to eat meat-free. I served it with a multi grain bagel. Mostly I would say that it was a hit with my husband which always makes me feel happy.

2nd attempt at Old Fashioned Fudge... Fail

So the first attempt at making the fudge failed. I attribute it to the pot being too small which resulted in me being afraid of it boiling over and therefore it didn't get quite hot enough. This resulted in a thick and yummy chocolate soup which I think I ate too much of.

Tonight I decided to try again because the last attempt was still fresh in my mind.  I felt more confident too because I used an 8qt stock pot. No issues with it boiling over but still... I really think that a 4qt must be ideal. This one wasn't too wide but it was a bit deep to work with.  I had difficulty with my candy thermometer because it was so deep and then stirring at the end...

The most exciting part of the recipe tonight was the end. Once I got the temperature down I started to beat the butter and vanilla in and just when I thought it was incorporated enough I started to try to get it into the pan. Before I could do so it hardened up on the way out of the pot! No kidding. So tonight's fudge is edible but it is still not the result I am looking for.

In conclusion, I have to say that the microwave fudge recipe I made 2 weeks ago was way easier and tastier than this has been which makes me kind of sad.

Old Fashioned Fudge

Tonight I'm making my first attempt at the classic fudge recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa container. I've actually made it a few times in my life but more often than not it doesn't turn out correctly.

Tonight's issues so far is that I used a 2.5qt sauce pan when it asks for a 4qt. The reason is probably to keep it from boiling over which I was having problems with in my pan. My next possible issue is that I didn't let it get hot enough.

Right now it's cooling to 110°F. 

Practice makes perfect, right?
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The recipe is as follows:

2/3 c. Hershey's cocoa
3 c. sugar (reg. granulated type)
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine cocoa, sugar and salt in a large saucepan (4 quart size); add milk gradually and mix thoroughly. Bring to a bubbly boil on high heat, stirring continuously. Reduce heat to a medium temperature and continue to boil without stirring until the mixture reaches a temperature of 234 (or until a small amount forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water). --Usually this takes about 20 minutes at medium heat.

Remove saucepan from heat; add butter and vanilla but do not stir. Allow to cool at room temperature until the mixture reaches 110 degrees--usually the cooling process takes about 20 minutes also. Stir by hand until fudge thickens and loses some of its gloss.

Quickly pour and spread in a lightly buttered 8x8x2 inch pan. Cool and cut into squares.

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One more thing... Since I had such great results from weighing my ingredients when I made chocolate chip cookies I'm searching for weights for this recipe.

First attempt at a breakfast casserole.

So I decided that I wanted to make a breakfast casserole this morning. I looked at several recipes but they all called for packaged frozen hashbrowns. Since I discovered a year ago how much cheaper it is to make hashbrowns from scratch, I do not have any frozen ones.

So I began with the fresh hashbrowns and quickly remembered why I choose to make breakfast potatoes instead. I always seem to burn the potatoes a bit but I just continued on with the rest of the recipe.

So the recipe is as follows:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3 Cup hashbrowns cooked (I shredded ½ an onion too)
5 eggs
½ Cup milk
1 tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp garlic powder
Salt & pepper to taste
1 Cup sliced mushrooms
½ Cup sweet peppers
6 strips of turkey bacon
1 Cup Swiss cheese

As stated before cook the hashbrowns and then place them in the bottom of a casserole dish.
Mix eggs, milk, and spices. Pour on top of potatoes.

Cook veggies and bacon separately and then sprinkle evenly over egg mixture.

Finally top with the cheese, cover with foil, and cook in oven for 30 minutes or until knife stuck in middle comes out clean. Remove foil and cook an additional 5 minutes to brown the top.

My opinion of my first breakfast casserole is great. My husband rates it a 7 out of 10 but his reason was it is more effort than it's worth. I think he was just hungry and was tired of waiting.
Next time I start to make it before he wakes up.

Been away for a while...

I've neglected this blog but I don't think that anyone noticed. :-) I will try to keep it up again.

Rough week...

Well this week wasn't one I'd like to repeat but thankfully it is over now.  The meals we had this week were...  well I remember Monday night was cereal for me and oatmeal for my husband.  Tuesday we celebrated an accomplishment by eating out at Chili's.  The best part of that was, to me, it was more tasty than usual.  A nice treat.  Wednesday night we had left over Jambalaya.  Since we were having that I prepared dinner for Thursday night which was veggie pasta salad.

The pasta salad consisted of small penne pasta, Parmesan cheese, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, red onion, carrot, radish, lima beans, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  J liked it okay but thought there was too much pasta, me...  not so much.  it was missing something.  I just don't know.  I think I will try not to go it alone the next attempt I have at a pasta salad.

Tonight we're going meat-free and having frozen fish sticks, potato wedges, and cole slaw we picked up from Publix.  I might attempt to make some cookies tonight.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

The hardest thing about these was trying to get a photo that looked appetising.  The next hardest thing was trying not to eat them so fast.  This recipe was inspired by many I found on the internet.  Non seemed to be exactly as I wanted so here is my version of the Asian Lettuce Wraps.



1 lb of ground turkey
1 head of Iceberg lettuce
1/2 yellow onion cubed
1/2 bunch of scallions sliced small
1/2 cup grated carrot
1 small can diced water chesnuts
1/3 cup of cashew pieces
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup Hoisin sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce

Gently cut out the core of the head of lettuce and begin to remove the leaves in one piece as best as you can.  These will be like lettuce taco shells.  Wash and dry the leaves gently.

Brown the turkey and mince well.  Drain if necessary.  Set the meat aside and in the same pan on medium heat add all the veggies.  In a small bowl combine the sauces and the ginger.  Pour into the veggie mixture.  Cook for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add cashew pieces and meat.  Cook for another 4 minutes. 

Serve spoon fulls in the lettuce leaves and enjoy. 

You might want to add a spicy sauce to top each one with if you prefer more heat.