Vegan Carrot Curry Soup (Emily Drolshagan)

Ingredients

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
• 14 ounces water
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. Pour the vegetable broth into a soup pot, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in the curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, and ginger; add the carrots. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes, stirring often.
2. Strain out the carrots from the broth, and place carrots into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Pour about 1/4 cup vegetable broth into the blender to allow the carrots to puree. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the carrots moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth, if needed; return the pureed carrots to the vegetable broth. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the carrots right in the cooking pot.
3. Stir in the coconut milk and the water (use the coconut milk can to measure). Bring back to a simmer; sprinkle with cilantro to serve.

Chicken marinated in Buttermilk and Basil with Bacon and Asparagus (Christine Restivo Mulvania)

This recipe is super good.  It's a nice way to make chicken interesting and using buttermilk as a marinade is great because it helps keep all the juices in so you won't be serving up any dry chicken with this.  You can use any cut of chicken that you'd like.  I like to make it with a mix of chicken wings, thighs, and drumsticks. The sweet and savory marinade makes for some very tasty skin on the chicken too.  This can be cooked either on the grill or in the oven on broil.  Plus asparagus and bacon were like practically made for each other.  Best vegetable side dish ever.  Serves about 4-5 people.

Need: about 8-10 pieces of chicken ( drumsticks, wings, and thighs), 2 cups of buttermilk, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil, 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper, 1 tsp. salt, 1 bunch of asparagus, 3 slices of bacon.

Directions:  Place the chicken in a large Ziploc bag.  If all the pieces don't fit, divide into 2 bags but be sure to divide your marinade ingredients evenly in both bags.  Add the buttermilk, chopped garlic, chopped basil, salt and pepper to the Ziploc bag.  Toss and evenly coat the chicken.  Place in the refrigerator and allow to sit for about 30 minutes.  After they have marinaded for a bit, place in an oven safe dish and broil or place on the grill.  I usually cook the chicken for about 30 minutes or so (15 min on each side) depending on the size of the pieces.  When the chicken is done, you will notice that some of the skin will have turned a nice golden brown and when cut into the juices will run clear.

For the asparagus-Cook the bacon slices in a frying pan.  When they are done remove and place on a plate with a paper towel.  Add the asparagus to that same pan and saute in the bacon grease for a few minutes until they are a bright green and tender.  Chop up the bacon slices, toss with the asparagus in the pan.  Remove and serve.

Steak in a Red Wine Cream Sauce with Steamed Broccoli (Christine Restivo Mulvania)

I will usually serve this over a nicely sliced roast or london broil but you can use any type or cut of beef that you prefer.

Need: Your preference of steak, 1 large portobello mushroom cap, 1 cup of red wine, 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. fresh chopped parsley separated ( you can substitute with dried parsley if fresh is unavailable), olive oil, salt, and pepper and 2 crowns of broccoli for the side.

Directions:  Put the steak in an oven safe dish.  Generously cover the steak in olive oil, 1 tbsp. of parsley, pepper (the flavor of fresh ground pepper goes very nicely with the sauce so go generous on the pepper), and salt to taste.  Cook in the oven at the specified temperature for the cut and pound amount of meat.  This is usually stated on the label.  Cook until desired preference is reached.  I like to have my steak medium to medium rare. In a saucepan over medium heat add the red wine.  Brush the portobello mushroom cap clean and remove the stem.  Dice it up and add to the red wine.  Allow this to simmer until the liquid is about 1/3 cup. Add the cream to the wine while stirring continuously with a wire whisk, lower the heat to a very low setting and add 1 tsp. of fresh parsley, fresh ground pepper and about 1/4-1/2 tsp. salt (feel free to salt this to your taste).   Cut up the broccoli crowns and steam.  I usually steam broccoli on the stove top using a large pot with about an inch of water in the bottom and placing a colander inside the pot ( I know, kind of ghetto, but my vegetable steamer is still packed from my move, so if you don't have a steamer try it this way) where I put the broccoli, a little salt, and pepper, cover and steam (set the small amount of water in the pot to boil) for about 5-7 minutes until tender. 

Slice and plate your meat, cover with about 3 tsp. of the cream sauce and serve the broccoli on the side.  I made this once and served alongside some roasted potatoes which were perfect if there was a little extra sauce on the plate.  mmmm so good.

Tortellini Sausage Soup (Tobi Wilkinson)

Tortellini Sausage Soup (Our Best Bites)
3 links Italian sausage
4 cloves pressed garlic
1 onion, diced
½ c. water
2 15-oz. cans chicken broth
½ c. apple cider (don’t leave this out! I did once and it wasn’t the same…)
1 16-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 c. sliced carrots
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 medium zucchini, grated (great way to use your food processor if you have one)
8-10 oz. package cheese tortellini (check the freezer section of your grocery store; if you can find it there, it will almost always be way cheaper than fresh tortellini. Also, Barilla makes a great dry cheese tortellini)
2 Tbsp. dried parsley (yes, that’s two tablespoons)
If you’re using link sausage, remove the casings and crumble into a large soup pot. To remove the casings, you can use a sharp knife to cut a slit down one side of the sausage and then peel back the casing. And just so you know, both Sara and I have tried taking pictures of this method and there is no G-rated way of posting those pictures…
Begin cooking sausage over medium heat, stirring frequently. If your sausage is pretty fatty, you’ll want to drain it when it’s about halfway cooked. Meanwhile, chop onions and garlic

and add to the sausage. Continue cooking until onions are translucent and your sausage is cooked. Your house will smell heavenly.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, juice, water, chicken broth, carrots, oregano, and basil. Cover and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add parsley and zucchini and simmer for another 15 minutes or so.

Add the tortelli, cook until tender and then serve with bread and grated parmesan

Herbed Crusted Pizza By Katie Bell

3 cups flour

1 1/4 cups warm water

1 tbsp olive oil (herbed use a good quality evoo)

1 tsp fast rising yeast (bread machine yeast also works)

12 tsp brown sugar

12 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp basil

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp parmesan cheese (finely grated) 

1	Preheat your oven to roughly 150 degrees. Just enough to make it warm enough to cause the dough to rise well. Then turn your oven off as soon as it heats up.
2	Add all the above ingredients in the order above into your stand mixing bowl. Mix using a dough hook until it forms a ball. Place it in an oiled bowl and cover with a cloth. Place in the warm oven for about 30 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.
3	When dough has doubled, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
4	Roll out the dough in desired shape. You may need to flour your surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking. I usually just sprinkle my baking sheet (or stone) with corn meal and garlic salt and just press out my dough. (I pressed it)
5	Add your favorite toppings and bake for approximately 15-18 minutes depending on the size of pizza you're making. Should just be bubbly.
6	Enjoy with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

 NOTES:  I actually changed this slightly.  I mixed the yeast and warm water together and let it foam up prior to adding it to the rest of the ingredients.  Seemed to make the pizza more light and fluffy.

ALSO, I used my homemade marinara sauce I had bottled. (It can be found under sauces)  I just put it into the blender to make it really smooth.  Add your choice of cheese and toppings.  ENJOY!

 

Herb Garlic Butter

Herb Garlic Butter Recipe

1-2 sticks of butter (Fill ice cube molds halfway)
1-2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed

On low heat, melt a stick of butter into a small pan. 

In the meantime, finely chop the parsley and crush the garlic cloves. 

Mix into the melted butter for about 5 minutes and pour mixture into ice cube trays. Store in the refrigerator for about a week or in the freezer for longer.

(Idea From Wishful Chef)