French Onion Soup

Soup season is here! This is a recipe I have tinkered with for awhile and think this is super easy and flavorful!

All you need is:
a stick of butter
4 or 5 Vidalia onions
4 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
some thyme
1 cup of red wine
3 tablespoons of flour
1.5 to 2 quarts of beef broth
Gruyere cheese
bread

First melt the butter. Then add chopped up onions, diced garlic, bay leaves, sprinkle some thyme with salt and pepper. Let caramelize for about 30 minutes.

Add one cup of red wine (wine you would drink) and boil for about 10 minutes until it is reduced. Remove bay leaves.

Then add 3 tablespoons of flour and stir (turn down the heat so it won't burn) so the onions dry up a little bit.

Lastly add 1.5 to 2 quarts of beef broth, I like Pacific beef broth, and let is simmer for 40 or so minutes, until it is the flavor and thickness you like!

Broil some cheese on some bread, place it on top of the soup, and add some shredded cheese into the soup! Sprinkle French's Original Onions on top!

 Melt butter, add sliced up onions, chopped up garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Add salt and pepper.

Cook until caramelized - it should take around 30 minutes. Don't let them burn!

Add one cup of red wine and boil until the onions become dry - maybe 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves.

Add 3 tablespoons of flour and stir to dry the onions a bit.

Simmer for around 40 minutes

Broil some bread with cheese on it to top and add some grated cheese to the soup. Top with French's onions.

It's here: The Kitchen Aid Mixer

I've been coveting a kitchen aid artisan mixer for a really long time, but it's just one of those things for some reason I couldn't bring myself to buy - I know, right? So for Christmas I asked for gift cards to Williams Sonoma to buy one.  Well, the one I wanted was back ordered! It finally came this week! This thing of beauty is now on my kitchen counter begging to be used.  I thought Laura (who is super cool and has a Martha Stewart blue mixer) would help in suggesting what I should make first but she has never used hers! Insane! So, what should I make first? I like salt over sugar, so I'd rather not make a cake or something similar.   Any suggestions?

A hen inside a duck inside a turkey

If you want to try this yourself go to cajungrocer.com

It was delicious!

Progressive won't like this

I make breaded chicken a lot! You know why? Because it's EASY! I use Progressive Italian breadcrumbs, but when I am lucky enough to find breadcrumbs at a specialty store that are homemade I seriously giggle with excitement - almost.  Well two weeks ago I ran out of my specialty breadcrumbs and didn't want to go back to the store bought kind, so I had this crazy idea to make my own breadcrumbs to roll my chicken tenders into.  I took an entire loaf of white bread (it needs to be older bread) cut the crust off and put it in a food processor.  I put the breadcrumbs in a bowl and added: salt, pepper, (good) Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley and a tiny bit of oregano. 

Homemade Thin Crispy Potatos (aka Chips)

I'm really funny when it comes to potatoes, I only really like them at certain times.  For example I pretty much only eat mashed potatoes if I make a whole chicken, but even then I would rather have rice.  I eat rice almost everyday.  I'll only have a baked potato once in a blue moon.  And generally I never eat french fries unless they are really really good.  I'm just odd what can I say.  But the times I do eat potatoes I really do enjoy them, and I make homemade gnocchi several times a year.... So I saw this nice package of fingerling potatoes at Whole Foods and they say in my fridge for like a week before they almost got tossed.  I didn't really know what to do with them.  One night on a whim I was crunched for time and dinner had to be ready quickly, so I cut them up thin, tossed some salt, pepper, really good olive oil on them and baked them.  And I've made these about 10 times since! They are like homemade potato chips, but can be a little thicker depending on how you cut them, and I dip them in ketchup.  My eating partner is obsessed with them and asks me to make them all the time!

Ingredients
Fingerling potatoes (this variety works best!)
sea salt
pepper
great quality olive oil

First slice up the potatoes (don't peel them) really quite thin, unless you want them less crispy, then slice them thicker.  Spread them out in one layer on a baking sheet (they must be one layer) and drizzle all of them with olive oil, cover them all with salt and pepper (for a nice variation I use truffle sea salt sometimes) and really you could put whatever spices you want on them if you want to flavor them, but I keep them simple.  Cook them for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Keep an eye on them while they cook and you can sort of flip them and move them around if you want to, but I really don't.  I like them crispy though so I don't really need to watch them closely. 

Soup Season!

As soon as the temperature hits grey and gloomy it becomes soup season.  I love all kinds of soup and I love to make all kinds of soup.  I love fall for creamy soups! There are three I make a lot because they are so simple: cream of broccoli, cream of cauliflower, and butternut squash soup. 

Here is my recipe for cream of broccoli or cauliflower

Ingredients
one medium sized onion
2 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of flour
4 cups of chicken broth (or veggie if you want to make this vegetarian)
a "head" of broccoli or cauliflower
1/4 cup heavy cream
salt
pepper

Chop up the onion and saute it in the butter until translucent and then add the flour to it to make a thickening agent, only let that cook for a few seconds before you add the chicken stock.  Chop of the broccoli or cauliflower and add to the chicken broth and bring it to a boil for a few minutes, then let is cook on low heat with a cover on top of it for about 20 minutes.  Then add the cream, stir together and put it in a blender and puree it.  But the puree back in the pot on low heat and add salt and pepper to taste.  And you are done! So easy!

Spices

You all saw my spice makeover a few weeks ago (and now of course Williams-Sonoma now has similar spice jars!) so you know I am into spices.  Especially salts.  I love all kinds of salts, colors, textures, sweetness, etc.  But there is one random spice that I use a lot that I want to share with you and it is Valencia orange peel.  I use it in a lot of things and it just brings this little hint of citrusy flavor and it is my secret ingredient in many things.   I use it in my chicken teriyaki wings, butternut squash soup, and citrus marinated shrimp, as well as fresh whipped cream.  Buy some and see what ideas you come up with!

Spice Makeover

I have an obsession with packaging.  You could put crap in a nice pretty package and I'd be the  moron that bought it.  I like when things are shiny and pretty and look nice.  I decided to remodel my large collection of spices.  I bought these nice pretty tins at Specialty Bottle and transferred all of my spices into them.  I then took my label maker and wrote on them what they were.  And Viola.

Lemon Meringue

I made lemon meringue pie over the weekend with a super easy recipe.  I really just wanted the meringue part, but felt it necessary to put the meringue on top of something.

You will need for the filling
1 can of sweetended condesned milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
some lemon zest
3 egg yolks (save the whites)

You put this all together and put it in a pie shell of your choice. 

For the meringue you will need
3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/4 cup sugar

You beat the whites and the COT together until soft peaks form and then slowly beat in the sugar.  You put this meringue on top of the filling. 

Now the recipe says to cook for 12 - 15 minutes at 325, but this did not do it for my pie.  It came out really watery and did not set properly.  Then I went back and read the reviews and a lot of people had this complaint.  They suggested cooking the filling first, and then putting the meringue on top and cooking it all again.  And also then putting it in the fridge to set.   I would like to try this again cooking the filling first on its own, because it was super easy and the flavor is good, it just didn't set properly. I know most lemon meringue uses corn starch though or something for it to set....

Peaches and Pazzo

I made a peach gazpacho last week, it was good and super easy.

You will need:
6 ripe peaches
1 medium cucumber
a few splashes of champagne vinager
1 clove of garlic
olive oii
2 tspn of parsley

Basically cut all of these things up and put them in a food processor with 1/2 cup of water and gently puree.  You don't want it to be like baby food, you want it a little chunky and refrigerate.  This is also good for a marinade I think. 

On another domestic note I gave Pazzo a haircut at home.  Choppy but cute.

Rum Raisin Pudding - A Cook's Dessert

This requires no baking! Yippee.  I love rice pudding but have never made it myself, until I saw an episode with my favorite Ina making it and I was inspired. 

Here is her recipe (here)

I followed it exactly and it came out perfect:

It was super simple.  It takes a lot of stirring and a lot of little steps but it was so worth it.  This will be my snack for the entire week!

Peach Pie

I really love homemade fruit pies.  This is one of the reasons I really love the south, because it reminds me of things like cherry pie.  Now you all know I don't bake.  If I make a dessert it is what one calls a chef's dessert - i.e. no baking! Well I love peaches and I went out on a limb and baked a peach pie last week.  I even made my own crust!

I followed this Georgia Peach Pie recipe (here) 
I followed the crust to a T, but I did my own version of what was inside.

Here is the dough.  I was worried about it at first, but once I put it in the fridge for 30 minutes it made a big difference.

For the inside of the pie I sliced up 8 peaches, I drizzled over them with olive oil, some salt, a little honey, juice from half a lemon, a teaspoon of vanilla, a dusting of ginger and 1 1/2 cups of sugar.  I mixed it all together.

Then I sliced up some butter (obviously)

I spread the dough out and put it in the pie shell and filled it with the peach mix and topped it with butter slices

I then put the top on the pie and baked it!

Oh it came out sooooo yummy, and the crust was sooooo good! Here is a close up of the inside

Awesome Things

Cutting boards that tell you what to cut on them so you do not cross contaminate! For years I have been cutting raw meat and then fruits and veggies on the same board (I mean after they have been washed, I'm not dumb).  But still YUCK! These have little animals or veggies/fruit pictures on them so you never risk getting salmonella from a strawberry again....

I got these at Bed, Bath and Beyond. 

Who am I anyway?

I just want to post a little blurb about myself for those of you that are going to be following this and don't know me (yet.) The reason for the breathing part in the title of this blog, is that I have Cystic Fibrosis and had a lung transplant 6 years ago. I am currently undergoing the process of preparing for another transplant.....and I will chronicle that in this blog....The second part of the title of this blog is because I use butter in practically everything I cook and I think it makes everything delicious! It just makes life better. And I do a lot of cooking, which I will also chronicle in this blog! (Along with other things) but breathing and butter are two of my favorite!

Hi!

This is going to be a blog about breathing and butter. And by that I mean living and everything that includes, and a lot of cooking! Stay tuned...