Elle's New England Kitchen

I love soup. L-O-V-E it. It's so comforting to have a big old pot of soup simmering away on the stove. It warms the home and smells so good, too. My mom made soup a lot. Not only because it's a good way to stretch your food budget, but it's a great way to get a healthy hot meal to your family with little effort. Pair it with a sandwich, crusty bread, or even a nice salad--and you've got a delicious lunch or dinner. And leftovers the next day? YUM.


When I heard the Danny at Gourmet Gastronomer was having a Soup-Off to follow up his Mac and Cheese-Off, I knew I'd enter that one, too.


This soup is a favorite. I've made it twice already and we love it! The second time, I added a splash of red wine and a little pesto to the simmering soup--my husband liked it better the first time, and preferred adding a dollop of pesto to his own bowl. Picky, picky...so--you can choose to add those or not, it's up to you.


For the tortellini, I used dry ones filled with pesto from Trader Joe's. I know Barilla has some, too. If you can't find dried ones, go ahead and use the fresh ones like Buitoni. Just add them close to the end of cooking, and remember they only need a few minutes to cook.

Chicken Pesto Tortellini Soup

1-2 TBSP olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 small-ish leeks, rinsed and sliced across, not into long strips
1-1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
4 cloves garlic, minced
28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
6 cups chicken broth
14 oz can chickpeas, undrained
2 boneless chicken breasts, sliced thinly
2 small zucchini, diced
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
3 cups dried tortellini (fresh is fine, but keep in mind those take less time to cook)
fresh cracked black pepper
pesto for dolloping individual servings
fresh shaved Parmesan




Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Add the onion, leek, garlic and Italian seasoning, and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the tomatoes, broth, and chickpeas.
Bring to a boil and cover, then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Add the chicken, zucchini, and peas, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 more minutes.
Stir in the tortellini and keep the soup at a low to medium boil for the required pasta cooking time, or until al dente.
Taste first, then season with pepper--I don't think you'll need salt, but add it if you need to. (Keep in mind--you'll be adding pesto and Parmesan to each serving.)
Top each serving with a dollop of pesto and some fresh shaved Parmesan.

To print this recipe, click here!

My inspiration for these came from of course, Mexican Hot Chocolate. I saw some somewhere online and decided to translate the cinnamon-laced chocolate drink to my my favorite little hand-held-excuse-to-have-cake-for-breakfast, muffins.

It wasn't very difficult--a basic chocolate muffin, and add some cinnamon and chocolate chips for good measure. And then a nice chocolatey, cinnamony streusel over the top. I found the streusel here, and just added a good dose of cinnamon to it. It's so good! Could've sat there and eaten the streusel with a spoon. A little crunchy that way, but so tasty.



These are my entry to Grace's Cinnamon Celebration. I love Grace! She makes the most delectable sweet things that constantly make me say "I want that!" And she's got a thing for cinnamon. Lots of cinnamon.

The winner of the Cinnamon Celebration is getting some Vietnamese Cinnamon bark. That's a good reason to enter right there! Head on over and give her your best cinnamon recipe!



Mexican Hot Chocolate Muffins

Muffins:
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter, melted
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

Streusel:
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of flour
2 TB cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 TB of melted butter



Heat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
Sift the dry stuff together, and make a well in the center.
Add the butter, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla and chocolate chips.
Mix well, but don't overdo it.
Fill the muffin cups evenly.



Mix the streusel stuff until it's crumbly and top each muffin with some.
Bake for 17 minutes or so, and check for doneness.
Cool in pan for a few minutes then remove to a rack.
A cooling rack, not the old torturing device.
And really, I hope you don't have one of those lying around.
Because then you're probably too mean to make nice little streusely muffins.

To print this recipe, click here!




The Sisterhood Award


This award comes from Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. They are two of the sweetest ladies in the food blogging world, and I'm happy to have met them through their blog. Thank you, ladies! Now, all of you, get on over there and check them out--they have tons of wonderful recipes!

Here are the rules:

The rules for recipients are:
- Put the logo on your blog or post.
- Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
- Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
- Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


I happily pass this award along to these lovely blogs and sisters in blogging (in no particular order):

1. Kelly at Sass & Veracity
2. Kat at A Good Appetite
3. Grace at A Southern Grace
4. Shelby at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch
5. Deborah at B More Sweet
6. Lori at Recipegirl
7. Nikki at Canarygirl.com
8. Judy at No Fear Entertaining
9. Shaye at Smarter Than Pancakes
10. Dawn at Vanilla Sugar

Is there anyone out there that doesn't like Macaroni and Cheese? Anyone? Bueller? I didn't think so. It's right up there at the top of my list of good old comfort food.

I used to love the Blue Box when I was a kid, and occasionally my kids have it, too--and ok, I'll confess to having a bite or two. Childhood memories and all that, you know? But they do love the homemade stuff, as well! In fact, my five year old asks me to make it. The first time I made the good homemade stuff, he told me he'd eat it every day if I made it for him. How's that for a compliment? Or maybe he said he'd plead with me every day not to make it for him...nah--I'm sure I heard him right. Right?



I use a tried and true recipe, given to me by one of my best friends, Jen. It makes a cheesy, totally creamy mac and cheese. You know how some homemade ones can be grainy and well, kind of curdled and dry? This one is nothing but creamy. The secret? Food snobs, you may want to avert your eyes now...


Velveeta. Yes. I'm serious. I tried a few other recipes for mac and cheese. They tasted fine, but were dry, and I just couldn't get the famous "creamy" type that I was looking for. But with Jen's recipe, it's super creamy and just so damn good.


This one's being entered in a Mac and Cheese Off that was put together by Danny from the Gourmet Gastronomer. So have a look at his site, and check out all of the cheesy goodness.



Voting will open to the general public on Tuesday, January 6th at 5:00pm and close on Friday January 9th at 5:00pm. So if any of you guys feel inclined to head on over there and vote, that would be awesome. Also, if you want to join in, you can contact Danny anytime before voting opens.


I made some changes this time around. Yesterday, we packed the kids up in the truck, and headed to Vermont. We went to the Vermont Country Store. We love going there--they have so much in the store--cool retro stuff, great foods, and amazing Vermont Cheddar. LOVE their cheddar. It's creamy and melts in your mouth. So we grabbed a big old hunk of that, along with a bunch of other things, went out to dinner, and called it a day. You should have a look around their site--I guarantee you'll see stuff you haven't seen since you were a kid, or stuff you remember your parents and grandparents using. We make a trip up there at least three times a year and come home with bags of stuff.

Vermont Country Store, at twilight.

I'm not going to tag six people, but I am going to leave this open so anyone can do it and keep it going. Once you do, tag six more people if you like, and be sure to let them know they've been tagged!

Is there anyone that doesn't like smoked ribs, with a lip smacking sauce to dip them in? Ok, maybe there are a few people that don't, and that's fine. But these might make them change their minds. They're just so damn good!

Do any of you guys read Thursday Night Smackdown? If you don't, you should! Michelle's blog is an adventure in cooking, and doing it with humor and gusto. There are ups and downs, spectacular food and a couple that were better left in the pages of the cookbook they came from. This post and this one come to mind--there's some good reading right there! But Michelle and her cohort/sous chef, Brian, share the good and the bad from their cooking experiences.



In July, Michelle opened up TNS to her readers, for First Thursdays. On the first Thursday of every month, she posts a round up of her reader's submitted recipes. September's Smackdown theme is grilling. And since I've missed the first two, there's no way in hell I'm missing this one! So yeah, I'm early, hehe.

These ribs are fantastic! They're from the book BH&G Smoke Cooking. We've been looking at this recipe for a while, but you know, you gotta plan ahead if you want to smoke stuff (the 13 year old in me just giggled)! So knowing what the TNS theme was, I pulled out this book, and we decided to finally make them. By "we," I mean my husband Billy and I. He's the guy in charge of grilling/smoking.

There's a little out of the way place in the next town over that's a slaughterhouse/retail and wholesale meat place called Lemay & Sons. I never even knew they were there, but I was in search of something else (that will be posted in about a week or so--it takes that long to make it) and they were the only ones that had it. I was directed there by another butcher in the area. Anyway, this is the kind of place you go to for a whole pig or half a cow, or even something as small as a pound of ground buffalo meat. Good to know! They have lots of different cuts of meats and great prices, as well. They didn't have the beef back ribs that we were looking for on that day, so we went with porky baby back ribs. Two racks, totaling 5 pounds, to be specific. We also picked up a couple pounds of that buffalo meat for later. Can't beat $3.99 a pound! That's cheaper than ground beef!

The ribs! Very straightforward recipe, and the book also has some tips on smoking. They're smoked with a simple dry rub, and brushed with a sauce in the last 15 minutes of cooking, with more of the sauce served alongside. The sauce is also very simple, made with bottled bbq sauce, orange, ginger and soy sauce.

We did run into some trouble, though it was no fault of the recipe. Damn thunderstorms that we've had nearly every day this summer. grrrr. Everything was going great, nice fire, good smoke...then a couple hours into it, the sky opened up and poured buckets all over our smoker. After the lightning stopped and we were able to get out and check it, we found the fire had gone out. For whatever reason, we just couldn't get a good smoke going after that and gave up after about an hour. We brought them in the house and gave them a couple more hours in the oven at 200°. Perfect! Still nice and smoky, but also tender and juicy.

Ginger Orange Smoked Baby Back Ribs
adapted from BH&G Smoke Cooking

4 cups mesquite wood chips

Rub
3 tsp regular paprika
3 tsp smoked paprika
3 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper

5 pounds baby back ribs (2 racks)

Sauce
1 cup of your favorite bottled bbq sauce
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate, thawed
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger


At least one hour before you want to start cooking, soak the wood chips in enough water to cover them. Set aside.


Combine the rub ingredients and rub it into the ribs.


Combine the sauce ingredients and set aside in the fridge.

In your smoker or grill, arrange the heated coals, half the drained wood chips and a water pan according to the manufacturers directions.
Pour water into pan and place the ribs, bone side down, on the grill rack over the pan.


Cover and smoke for 2 1/2 - 3 hours or until ribs are tender, and brush some of the sauce on the ribs in the last 15 minutes of cooking time.


Add more coals, wood chips and water as needed during smoking time.
Serve sauce with the ribs.


Good lookin' ribs, right?

What's that? Where's the side dish?

We don't need no stinkin' side dish! We can just stuff our faces with ribs and be perfectly happy, hehe. But if I'd thought of it ahead of time, I'd have whipped up some cole slaw to go alongside. D'oh!

Go check out Thursday Night Smackdown and get your entries ready for the first Thursday in September!

My friend Grace at A Southern Grace is having a blog event called Beat the Heat. She wants recipes that won't heat up the kitchen during the hot months of summer. (And even though it's only 61° here today--that's fall weather!) And her rules say we can submit new stuff, or things we've already blogged about. I did have a recipe all picked out to make, but we have some guys working at the house, fixing insulation until Friday. So I'm stuck here and can't get to the store. And it's raining. And I have four kids. And it's supposed to rain tomorrow, too. Help. Me.



So I chose two recipes that I originally posted back in March. Did it matter that it wasn't hot out then? No way, because they're good all year 'round. But if tomatoes aren't in season in your area, do yourself a favor and spring for the pretty vine ripened ones. The recipes compliment each other so well, and if you add a couple more things to your plate, you've got a delicious and healthy feast. These are a favorite when you don't feel like heating up the kitchen, or even if you don't feel like cooking. The prep for these is easy--a bit chopping for the salad, and the hummus is all made in the food processor. Add some feta, pita wedges, and good olives if you've got them, and you have a heavenly snack or meal.

You can find the post for the Fresh Summer Salad here.



And the Roasted Red Pepper Hummus post is here.



Put them together and you get something like this:


It's a nice light, but filling combination. And that salad is so good! It's like a bowl of summer, hehe.

So that's my entry to Beat the Heat. And even though it's cool out today, I'm adding this stuff to my grocery list. If I can ever get out to the store...

I have had this recipe bookmarked since last October. I'm really quick to getting around to doing things, right? But Toontz at Okara Mountain does a Triple Dog Dare Challenge every month, where she dares you to try something new. June was fruit and July was vegetables. This one immediately came to mind because I had never cooked with tomatillos before--plus, I had made it early in the month and had the photos uploaded already--perfect!

Also, on a more serious note, this recipe is from Sher at What Did You Eat? who as a lot of you may know, passed away suddenly on July 20th. I didn't know her, but I did read her blog often--she posted such wonderful recipes. She will be missed in the blogging world.

So, about the recipe. Yeah, I know, it's summer...why is Elle making stew again? I dunno. Because the tomatillos were so cute and calling out to me at the store? And I'm so glad I made this! It's so hearty and satisfying. I served it with cornbread, like I would with chili--this reminds me of chili, only it's lighter, I suppose? No beans, but I'm sure they'd be good in here if you wanted to add some. I did think it was a little light on the spices, so I added some of the trusty taco seasoning that I always have on hand. This made it just right to me. Feel free to adjust as you wish. I followed the recipe pretty much as she has it, using boneless, skinless chicken thighs. It's a very versatile recipe, though--it's originally made with pork, as posted on Food & Wine. (I seriously hope they don't have a problem with recipe modifications. hahaha!)



You can find this recipe on Sher's blog. Please visit and check out her recipes, there are so many delicious ones to choose from.



The cornbread is one from my files called Molasses Corn Bread. I don't remember where it's from, but if any of you know, let me know so I can give credit, please. It's one of my favorites! It's really moist, and sweeter than regular cornbread. I can't help it, I'm a Northern girl and just can't get into that very dry, barely sweet cornbread. I know it holds a special place in the hearts of some of you, and that's great! Traditions are a wonderful thing. But my tradition is moist, sweet cornbread.

Here is the recipe, and it's so easy to make. It would make great muffins, too.

Molasses Corn Bread

1- 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour, or all purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
2 Tbs brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1- 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
3 Tbs canola oil
5 Tbs molasses



Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square pan.
Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Pour the buttermilk into a 4-cup measuring cup or bowl.
Add all the wet stuff and stir to completely combine.
Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff and stir until thoroughly blended.
Pour the batter into the pan.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve warm and slathered with butter. yum.



I hope you give this a try! But if you want to wait till it's cooler outside, that's ok, too. This would be perfect game food! And from the countdown in my sidebar, I see that at this moment, opening day for the NFL is 35 days, 11 hours, 24 minutes and 55 seconds away. So start planning now! Don't get caught without game food, folks! (Can you tell I'm a football fan? I CAN'T WAIT!!!)

photo from stock.xchng

I L-O-V-E muffins. A kitchen with muffins baking is a happy kitchen...at least to me. Cranberry orange is one of my favorite ones to make, and of course--eat. They were a natural choice for me to mess around with and makeover to submit to Equal Opportunity Kitchen's Tried Tested and True Two.



TT&T2 is a bit different than the first TT&T. This time, the challenge is to take a family favorite and give it a makeover. Make it better for you, but still taste great.



So what changes did I make?

1) I cut out both fats--1/4 cup of oil and 1/4 cup butter, and replaced them with 6 oz of nonfat plain yogurt.
2) There are two cups of flour in these muffins, and I replaced one of them with white whole wheat flour.
3) Next came the sugar. One cup became 3/4 cup, and as usual, it's organic cane sugar.
4) I also chose a marmalade that had no high fructose corn syrup.
5) I added walnuts, which are good for you, too.



Cranberry Orange Muffins


1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup organic cane sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
6 oz plain nonfat yogurt
3/4 cup low fat milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp orange extract
1/4 cup orange marmalade
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped walnuts



1 Preheat oven to 350°.
2 Sift together dry ingredients, and make a well in the center.
3 Add eggs, yogurt, milk, and vanilla & orange extracts.
4 Mix by hand until just blended.
5 Fold in marmalade, cranberries and walnuts.
6 Spoon into lined or greased 12 muffin pan.
7 Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool for a few minutes in pan, then turn out on to cooling rack.

Makes 12 muffins

Look at those gorgeous bottoms!

So make sure you get your makeover tried and true recipes ready and send them off to Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. It's sure to be an amazing, not to mention good for you roundup! You've got until Monday, July 21st at midnight EST. And there are prizes! How can you say no to that?



Print me!

Diva, over at The Sugar Bar is having a Tasty Food Challenge called Beauty and the Feast. It's such a creative idea! Choose your favorite beauty product, and make a dish inspired by the ingredients or scents in it. So many of today's products are full of fruit and vegetables, and not only are they good for us, but they smell good enough to eat, don't they?


My inspiration came from my good friend, Bethany. She's started her own company selling the most AMAZING bath and beauty products, called South Pacific Body. (She has some things listed for sale there, and even more on her Etsy Shop.) She makes olive oil soaps, lotions, sugar scrubs, shower souffles, body sprays, deodorants and facial care products. I can personally vouch for the quality of her things. My skin feels amazingly soft from her soaps, and not only that, I walk around in a cloud of wonderful scent all day. My absolute favorite is the Aloe and Green Clover scent. It's "clean" and "green" smelling. But green aloe and clover don't exactly sound like something I want to eat, hehe. So I took inspiration from two of her other scents: Mango Tangerine and Coconut Lime. Bethany has quite a few products available in these two scents, as well as a big selection of other scents, so what are you waiting for? Go check her stuff out and try something--you won't be sorry, I promise!

What did I finally decide to make? I gave it a lot of thought...I was going to make a cake, flavored with lime zest, with mango orange curd between the layers, then frosted and topped with coconut...but I didn't want to be tempted for a whole week having a two layer cake in the house, so I went with Lime Coconut Scones and a Mango Orange Curd.



I pretty much knew how I was going to make the curd. I followed the method for the Three Citrus Curd that I made a few weeks ago, using one orange and two mangoes. The two mangoes yielded about 1 1/3 cups of puree, so I used that instead of the citrus juice in the other recipe, along with the zest of one orange. Simple. The curd is delicious! Velvety, creamy, and orangey-mangoey. ;)

But the scones--it was those I wasn't sure about. I've made scones a couple of times before, and I was not happy with my results. The Boston Bruins might have been happy to use them as hockey pucks, though! Or perhaps donating them to someone in the process of building a stone wall. Yep. They were that dry and tough. So the first thing I did was go in search of a moist scone recipe. And the universe must have been looking out for me at that moment, because this recipe was the first one listed in google, by Jennifer A. Wickes. She researched why certain ingredients did what they did to make a moist scone, as opposed to a hockey puck. She actually won the grand prize in a Cook's Illustrated competition with this recipe! Way to go, Jennifer! We all know how picky (And I mean that in the MOST respectful way! I love those guys!) they are. The scones are perfect! I hardly ever make scones, and you don't really need to ask why, do you? hehe! But with this recipe in my repertoire, I can make them and actually be proud to serve them to people instead of a family of beavers looking for a stump of wood to chew on.

So why don't I just shut up and give you the recipes and some photos already?



Mango Orange Curd

1 orange
2 mangoes
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes

Zest the orange, and eat the rest of it!
Puree the 2 mangoes and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together the yolks and whole eggs with sugar and salt. Whisk in the mango puree.
Transfer mixture to a heavy saucepan and set over low heat. Add butter. Using a wooden spoon, stir curd constantly, making sure to reach edges around side of pan. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture has thickened, about 15 minutes.
Do the wooden spoon test. After 15 minutes, run your finger along the back of the spoon, and it should leave a trail through the curd.
Strain curd through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any lumps. Stir in zest.




Pour the curd directly into an airtight container, seal, and chill for a few hours in the fridge.













Coconut Lime Scones (Based on this recipe by Jennifer A. Wickes)

2 large eggs
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract (if you don't have this, you can use 1 tsp vanilla extract)
zest of 1 lime
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting work surface
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/3 cup shredded coconut

1. Place oven rack in middle of oven and preheat to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat 1 egg with 1 tablespoon cream in small bowl. Set aside. Whisk remaining egg, remaining 1/4 cup cream, buttermilk, and extracts together in medium bowl. Stir in lime zest.

2. Pulse flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in food processor until blended. Add butter and pulse into flour until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about ten 1-second pulses. Pour this mixture into a bowl and make a well in the center. Add buttermilk mixture and stir until batter forms moist clumps. Fold in coconut, being careful not to over mix the dough.



3. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead gently until dough comes together and is smooth, about 10 seconds. (Really, this is all it needs!) Pat dough into 7-inch circle about 1 inch thick. Using sharp knife, cut circle into 8 wedges. With pastry brush, remove excess flour from wedges. Transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet, brush tops with egg and cream glaze, and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

We interrupt this recipe with a small note from me...

(The two times I made scones, they went on the pan with the sides almost touching. I'm not sure if these are supposed to bake that way, but that's what I did. Towards the end of cooking, the tops were getting nicely golden brown, but the sides were still wet and doughy. I didn't want to overcook them and dry them out while the sides finished baking. I took my dough scraper and separated them on the sheet pan, and gave them a few more minutes. This seemed to do the trick.)


4. Bake until lightly browned and toothpick inserted in center of scones comes out with a few crumbs attached, about 15 minutes. Transfer scones to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cooled scones can be stored in airtight container for up to 2 days.)

See? No dry wood chips...I mean crumbs! These babies are moist!