Butternut Squash Soup

This is a really simple soup recipe, but it's so good.  I cut up one onion and sauteed it.  I cut up four small yukon potatoes and one large butternut squash.  Once the onion was cooked, I added the potatoes and squash and let them brown for a couple minutes.  Once they were brown, I added 6 cups of chicken stock, which was just enough to cover the potatoes and squash.  I let the poatoes and squash cook until fork tender.  Then I removed the big pieces, pureed them, and then added them back into the pot and let the soup cook to the desired consistency.  For more richness, I could have added some cream, I may do that next time.

Lemon Bars

These are the biggest lemons I have ever seen.  I got a cup of lemon juice from one lemon.  These were grown by a friend and they smell amazing.  The juice is plenty for making Lemon Bars.

I made the most amazing lemon bars using the juice from this lemon.  I used premade pie crust in an 8x8 inch baking dish pre cooked.  The filling was made with egg yolks, lemon juice, and a can of condensed milk.  I poured the mixture into the hot pie crust and baked it at 350 deg.  Next time, I want to make a custard to fill the pie crust.

Italian Chicken

This recipe is so fast and easy.  I trim bonesless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them into pieces.  I let them marinade in a favorite Italian dressing, sometimes even Caesar dressing.  Then cook the chicken in a skillet until done.  I usually add more dressing to the skillet while the chicken is cooking.

Tomato Basil Pasta

I love to make this pasta because it is so easy.  It's a combination of a tomato basil soup recipe and pasta.  I usually like to use a fun pasta like rigatoni or bow tie pasta, but spaghetti noodles work too.  Add the soup to the cooked, drained pasta and let it heat over the stove.

Lasagna

I love making homemade lasagna.  The recipe is so easy and so good.  First I start out by sauteing an onion, then brown a pound of meat (sometimes I use beef and sometimes I use turkey), then I add tomato paste and tomato sauce, and then add spices (oregano and basil) and let simmer for about 30 minutes.  In a lasagna pan, I layer dry lasagna noodles, the finished sauce, ricotta cheese (I used to use cottage cheese, but have switched to ricotta for the better taste), and shredded mozzarella cheese and repeat.  On the third layer, I put parmesan cheese on the top.  Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours, uncover for the last 15 min to get the top brown and bubbly.

Apple Pumpkin Soup

I had a leftover roasted pumpkin from the pumpkin pasta so I found this recipe for apple pumpkin soup.  I also had leftover leeks, so I used those too.  I chopped up an onion and the leeks really small and sauteed them.  Once they were translucent, I added the chicken stock, pumpkin, and apple.  I let simmer for about an hour so the soup could thicken.  The soup was amazing.  I added some cream to the leftover soup and that made the already amazing soup even better.

Key Lime Pie

Easiest Key Lime Pie thanks to my Kitchen Aid Mixer.  This pie was made with a frozen lime drink concentrate can, a can of sweetened condensed milk, cool whip, and one package of vanilla jello pudding.  Mix all ingredients in the Kitchen Aid Mixer and then pour into a premade graham cracker pie crust, then freeze.  This pie is amazing.  Of course you could dress it up with whip cream and lime wedges or slices, but I was ready to dig in.

Pumpkin Pasta

I love Fall, it's the only time in Houston when you're able to spend time outside.  I cooked my first ever pumpkin.  I got an organic sugar pumpkin from Whole Foods about the size of your head and bright orange.  I cut the pumpkin in half and proceeded to skin it, which was no easy task.  I think it took about 30 min just to skin half of the pumpkin.  Once I removed the skin, I cut the pumpkin in the bite size chunks that I could boil.  In a saute pan, I sauteed an onion.  Once the onion was translucent, I added the pumpkin and chicken stock.  While the pumpkin was simmering, I cooked half a pound of rigatoni to add to the pumpkin mixture.

Breakfast Bar Cookie

I had a box of Cheerios in my pantry that I had never opened, but didn't want to waste.  To use up the box of unopened Cheerios, I came up with breakfast bar cookies.  Ingredients include the box of Cheerios, craisins, banana, oatmeal, a little peanut butter, and your typical cookie ingredients.  They taste just like a breakfast cereal bar.  I eat them in the morning.

Pork Tenderloin

One of my favorite main dishes is pork tenderloin and some amazing sauce.  Usually I start by searing the meat in a saute pan, then sauteing some mushrooms, onions, shallots, and/or garlic in the same pan, then deglazing the pan with some red or white wine, and lastly, I add some chicken stock and let it reduce and simmer until the pork tenderloin is done baking in the oven.  So amazing.

Elephant Garlic and Leek Soup

While in Seattle, I visited the Pike Place Market, which has the most amazing produce and seafood selections.  I saw the biggest head of garlic that I have ever seen before.  It actually wasn't garlic at all, it was elephant garlic, and it was actually part of the leek family.  I had to buy one.  I brought it back on the airplane with me to Houston and researched recipes until I found just the right one, Elephant Garlic and Leek Soup.  The recipe began by cutting off the top quarter inch of the elephant garlic and drizzling it with olive oil.  I then put the elephant garlic in an oven safe pan and roasted it for 45 min, it smelled amazing.  To a soup pot, I added some white wine, the roasted elephant garlic, leeks, a potato, an onion, some chicken stock, and a little bit of basil and let it simmer for an hour.  After that, I pureed the soup and served warm with some homemade beer bread.

Pictures:

The first is the remnants of the elephant garlic after roasting, it smelled so amazing.

The second is a close up of the soup.