Thursday, February 19, 2015

Tortilla Soup

I like soup.  Ok, I LOVE soup!  Especially in the winter.  It's warm, filling, and comforting. Unfortunately, today was NOT a day that I needed to make a hot soup.  It's not like it's the middle of January and 30 degrees.  It's the middle of January and we had a high of over 60. Oh well.  At least the soup was yummy.


Soup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
salt, to taste
3 garlic cloves, diced or crushed
2 jalapenos, diced and seeded (if preferred to reduce heat)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
14.5 oz can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth or stock, low sodium
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
4 6-inch white corn tortillas, chopped
3 cups shredded chicken, fresh-rotisserie, or frozen-defrost in microwave for 1:30 minutes
juice of half a lime


Garnishes:
chopped cilantro
lime wedges
fried tortilla strips-packaged or homemade
diced avocado or guacamole
cotija cheese

Heat olive oil in large pot or dutch oven and saute chopped onion with a pinch of salt until translucent or just browned, 5-7 minutes.  Add garlic, chopped jalapenos, cumin and coriander.  Let saute for another 2-3 minutes.


With an immersion blender:
Blend util smooth the sauteed onion mixture with fire roasted tomatoes, chopped tortillas and 1 cup chicken broth.


With a blender/food processor:
Add onion mixture, fire roasted tomatoes, chopped tortillas and 1 cup broth.  Ensure there is still room for the mixture to expand.  Take care as hot liquids expand greatly and can create a mess and injury if there isn't enough room in the machine.  Blend until smooth.  Return mixture to pot.


Let pureed mixture cook another 2-3 minutes.  Add in the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth and the crushed tomatoes.  Add in the cooked chicken and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Add in the juice of half the lime and season to taste.


Serve in soup bowls or mugs with your choice of garnishes.


Personally, I could have added the seeds of one jalapeno to this.  I prefer to under season and under spice as you can add more at the finish.  I did add a tiny sprinkle of cayenne to my bowl and could still have used more spice.

*Note, take care when chopping and seeding the jalapenos.  They have capsicum in the ribs and seeds which can cause severe irritation to eyes and any open skin.  Use gloves if possible, and thoroughly wash hands after handling them.*


The soup overall was quite good, except for the level of heat.  I liked my use of frozen chicken.  It's quick, and easy.  I prefer to warm it up just slightly in the microwave though I imagine you could put it in frozen.  I decided not to so that so any frost wouldn't water down my soup.  I also used less broth than the original recipe called for as I didn't want it to be too soupy.


To see the original recipe, click here!  It came from an episode of The Chew from Michael Symon.

Update:  I made this again for Valentine's Day and I added one whole jalapeno and one seeded.  I found the spice level much more to my liking!  I also added 2 more tortillas before blending and used the whole 4 cup carton of stock.  It stretched the soup out a little further but the consistency was still perfect! 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

My first scarf!!

I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of myself!  I finished a scarf.  It's for my friend Emily.  I figured a scarf would be a nice and personal Christmas present, even if it came a few weeks late.  I mean, I only started to learn how to knit a few weeks before, so it would have been amazing to have finished on time.  Still, I'm excited and she loved it, so SUCCESS!!



I used this yarn I found at Wal-Mart.  I figured for my first few projects I should stick with inexpensive yarn.  I used two skeins and size 8 needles.


I used a pattern I found in a pattern book from Michael's.  Nothing fancy, just a 4 row pattern.  It used knit, purl, knit 2 together and knit front & back.  For copyright reasons, I won't list the actual pattern.


Now, for picture-palooza.








Thursday, February 5, 2015

Rotelle with Zucchini and Corn (and FETA)

Feta is probably one of my most favorite things, period.  Cheese in general, but definitely feta.  It's a problem, just not for me.  The pictures in this post will NOT accurately reflect this obsession, because, let's face it, you'd think I was crazy-pants.  I'm not, I just love my feta!

I've made this recipe a handful of times over the years and I love it every time.  It's quick, easy, and with a minor use of feta, cheap!  The original recipe came from Food Network.  I have tweaked it as it's a bit more work than it should be.  I don't think there is enough corn or zucchini for a full pound of pasta, and I don't find the reserved pasta water necessary.  I do quite enjoy the recipe and love it for a summer meal, especially if you can find fresh, local produce.

Rotelle with Zucchini and Corn

Ingredients
1/2 lb rotelle/rotini pasta or any spiral shape-elbows would be just fine-HAVE FUN with it!
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 ears corn, cut from cob
2 medium zucchini, sliced in half moons
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup low sodium chicken broth or stock
1/2 cup garlic simmer sauce or 1/3 cup roasted garlic cloves*
2 tablespoons parsley, freshly chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
crumbled feta

Cook pasta one minute less than package instructions.  Drain but do not rinse.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in large skillet or shallow dutch oven on medium heat.  Add corn and saute until just colored, about 7 minutes.  Put the corn in a bowl and set aside.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to pan.  Add sliced zucchini.  Let cook on one side until slightly browned, then turn to cook on the other side.  


Add oregano and cook for 1 minute.  Add the corn, broth, and garlic sauce.  Let simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until most of the liquid is evaporated.  Add pasta and toss.  Sprinkle parsley and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with crumbled feta.

*Ok, so the garlic.  It seems complicated, and it could be.  The original recipe calls for 1/3c roasted garlic cloves.  Since I make my own garlic oil, I planned on using those cloves, as I save them with some oil for any future use. Side note-this is why I love oil, it preserves things nicely-which is why I will probably never fully give up oil or butter in my life.  I have previously used a garlic paste that can be purchased at Willams-Sonoma.  Unfortunately, the closest one to me is over an hour and I never plan that well with my meals.  I have found a wonderful substitute, from Trader Joe's.  It's a garlic clove simmer sauce.  


I haven't used it with anything but this recipe, but it does the trick.  I know that even with as prevalent as they are, TJ's are not to be found everywhere *cough HAWAII cough.*  So hopefully you can find something similar in your area.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Already fell off the wagon

The goal:  1 blog post a week.

It's now been two weeks.  Oops.

Anyway, I really have the best of intentions.  I have 3? 4? meals to write up, and my first knitting project that I finally gifted today.  Hopefully I can whip myself into shape and get back on the horse!

That said-I have finished two books!  A day or two after the last post I finished Slaughterhouse-Five.  Weird is about all I can say.  BUT, on a positive note, the movie followed the book perfectly!  In other words, it was just as wacky.  Trafalmador and all.

The second book finished was The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  After I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I decided I needed to get better about looking into the plot before I fully delve into a new novel.  I had NO idea what it was about and was a bit confused.  The Light didn't really fall into the normal category of books for me, but I liked it.  It is about Tom Sherbourne, a WWI decorated veteran and native Australian who returns to his country after the war and becomes a lighthouse operator.  It doesn't involve too much of him coping with his war experiences, and is more focused on his family.  This is the summary from the author's page:

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day's journey from the coast.  To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel.  Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby's cries on the wind.  A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately.  But Isabel insists the baby is a "gift from God," and against Tom's judgment, the claim her as their own baby and name her Lucy.  When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world.  Their choice has devestated one of them.

It was a bit long for me, but I was able to read it with ease, and found some unexpected tears at the end.  

I've now moved on to Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Fun fact:  apparently Dahl was utterly unhappy with the screenplay and depiction of Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  He felt it was more focused on Wonka and not on Charlie.  Thus far, the focus has been on the Bucket's and their struggles and the movie is still in line.  Charlie and the 4 brats have reached the first room with the chocolate waterfall (DANGER AGUSTUS!!) and have just seem the Oompa Loompas. :)

I'm ALMOST caught up to where I should be with my book list.  I should finish Charlie tonight and may read the sequel.  Once I finish one more book, I'll be where I should be on my timeline!  YAY!!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

New Year, New Challenge, New Age

So.. a few months ago, I turned 30.  Eek didn't begin to cover it.  But instead of a total freak out, I decided the best way to handle it would be to challenge myself.  Do 30 things I always (or recently realized) I wanted to do.  The majority of them are self-serving if you will:  fitness goals, knowledge gain, you get the idea.  I did want to add in some new experiences as well.  I also wanted to do things that would be attainable.  While I'd LOVE to travel to Europe again, I knew with the likelihood of a move in my future, it just wouldn't be feasible.

So, with that, and with my final task of my 30 in 30 List realized, I present you:

Liz's 30 in 30 List

1.  take a pottery/glass class
2.  skydive
3.  learn to scuba dive
4.  learn more Italian/Japanese-edit Spanish
5.  run a half marathon
6.  run 15+ races-6 completed as of 1/4/15
7.  feel confident in 30 yoga poses
8.  take a guitar/piano class
9.  do 30 full push-ups
10.  read 30 books-5 read as of 1/4/15
11.  add to my tattoos-added to 11/21/14
12.  learn “Thriller”
13.  complete a half-marathon-FINISHED 09/20/14
14.  run a 10k in an hour or less
15.  do 15 pull-ups
16.  complete 2014 Grand Prix Series-COMPLETED 12/13/14
17.  see Coldplay live
18.  go ice-skating
19.  hike part of the AT
20.  learn to knit or crochet-learned to knit 12/10/14
21.  go on a bike ride and picnic
22.  travel somewhere new
23.  volunteer for something
24.  perfect 5 cooking staples
25.  learn to French braid my hair
26.  watch all 8 Harry Potters in 24 hours
27.  learn the Greek alphabet
28.  visit Harry Potter World-visited 11/18/14
29.  go horseback riding on the beach
30.  maintain my blog, at least one entry a month

30 Books to Read for my 30 in 30

1.  The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
2.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
3.  The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
4.  Divergent by Veronica Roth-read, along with Insurgent and Allegiant
5.  The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
6.  Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
7.  The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
8.  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
9.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn-read
10.  Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
11.  In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
12.  Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice
13.  Just One Day by Gayle Foreman
14.  The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
15.  The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
16.  The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman
17.  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold-read
18.  The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
19.  The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
20.  Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt-read
21.  The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
22.  Night by Elie Wiesel
23.  Number of Stars by Lois Lowry
24.  On the Road by Jack Kerouac
25.  Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
26.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
27.  Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard-read
28.  Slaughter House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut-currently reading
29.  Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
30.  Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I'm clearly a bit behind, especially in the reading.  Though, if you want to get technical, I added a few books that weren't on the list.  I finished the Divergent series by Veronica Roth and I actually started my year reading finishing the Size 12 is not Fat series by Meg Cabot.  But, I'm a stickler for rules, and won't budge.  Also, I did belatedly realize that almost every single book I'm planning to read has either been turned into a movie or a tv series.  And thus far, with the exception of Practical Magic, every book is always better.

I have had to make a concession already-which is the language.  When I initially started in September, I was learning Italian.  But, now that my move is no longer likely, but impending, I found it necessary to switch to a language that would be useful in the area.  The silver lining of all of this is that I'll be able to learn Spanish-which I have studied on and off my entire life.  I'll also be able to cross off a few other items, like taking art classes, hopefully music lessons, and most importantly-travel somewhere new.

I'm definitely nervous about moving across the country-the logistics of it are driving me mad!  Come the end of March, my husband-J, our two dogs-Bella and Marley, and our belongings will be making the 2,600+ mile journey to Southern California.  It'll be a new place for me for sure, and clearly, Spanish will be helpful.

So, what are some of your goals, for the next year or so?  Any tips on driving cross-country?  Any must-do's in SOCAL or the surrounding area?