Ginger Carrot Soup

I really hate getting sick.  I know, so does everyone else, right?  (To be honest, I'm not totally convinced of this.  I actually think some people like the attention that comes from being sick, but maybe I'm just jaded and callous.)

I hate the physical symptoms obviously, but even more so, I hate that I can't go out and play.  When I got the flu earlier this month, it was hard to get up the energy to go to the gym or even just walk Dingo around the block.  And it was not a welcome change when I found myself getting winded walking upstairs.

Sure, it can be kind of nice to be forced to sit down, watch some tv, drink tea and slurp down some soup, but I can only take bedrest for so long.

For me, the time goes quicker when the soup is good.

Ginger and fresh vegetables are supposed to be good for your immune system - I don't really know if that's true or if it's just the placebo effect, but either way I'll take it.  This soup made me feel better!

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

In the winter, cream of (some type of) vegetable soup is my go-to.  It's just so easy, it warms you up and all the fresh vegetables keep me from getting sick (or at least I think they do).  It's everything I need from a meal.

The best part about it is that you can do it without a recipe.  You can just simmer some vegetables in broth until they're tender and then blend them up.  Throw in some spices and you're golden.

I don't think I've made a batch yet that hasn't turned out well.  The only problem is that you can't duplicate it.  If it turns out really, really well one time, there's pretty much no way you're going to get that same flavor the next time.

So, from time to time, I like to follow recipes or write down exact amounts when I'm making up a recipe for soup.

This was one of those times.  This extra creamy, cheesy, cauliflower soup is one that I'm going to want to make again and again so I'm really glad I kept track of what went into it.

Creamy Chicken Apple Chili

Yesterday, I turned 27.  It's not exactly a momentous birthday, but at the same time, I didn't really like it.

At 27, there's no getting around it, you're in your late twenties.  You'll soon be 30.  People have some serious expectations for you at this point.  No more 'figuring it all out.'

Of course, there are some people that will tell you that you have your whole life to figure it out and you should just have fun and never worry and be happy, and well...wouldn't that be great.  At least for me, it's not quite that easy.  It's not easy to not have it figured out.  It's not easy answering the hard questions like, "What do you want to be?" or "Where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 15 years?"

No one likes to be asked those questions.  Even if you're feeling good about your decisions or your plan, it makes you feel like you should reassess.  Most often, the person has no clue so they just make something up on the spot that sounds good.  (I know, because that's what I do.)

On any given day, the only thing I usually know about the future is what I'm going to eat that night.  And that's only because I'm a neurotic lister/meal-planner.  But that does give me at least some semblance of having a handle on things.

Making my own soups and stews makes me feel more like a grown up.  And since I like chili, maybe becoming an adult isn't so bad?  I don't know...I'm still figuring it all out.

Roasted Red Pepper Flavored Pasta

Usually, I am totally content traveling around the American Southwest camping, climbing and hiking.  Usually, that satisfies my intense feelings of wanderlust.

Not now though.

Now, I just want go somewhere totally different from here.  I want to be around people who speak a different language than me.  I want to eat foods that I can't get at home (or in my camp stove).

South America would fulfill my needs.  Europe would do the trick.  Anywhere really.  I just want to go.

I'd love to be sitting in an Italian restaurant (in Italy), eating plate after plate of fresh pasta.  I want the mystery of not totally knowing what I ordered and not understanding the conversations around me except for the random word or two.

You can try to recreate the feeling at home, but it will never be the same.  That's not to say that homemade pasta isn't good.  Just not the same.  But until we can make it back to Europe, this will have to do.

Crockpot Corned Beef & Cabbage

I know you're getting ready for Christmas tomorrow and you're fully in the swing of Christmas things right now, but I wanted to get you prepared for the new year too.

You're probably thinking about ham or turkey or prime rib or whatever you eat on Christmas.  You're probably not thinking about cabbage.  I don't blame you, but I didn't want you to be unprepared when Friday rolls around.  Christmas is over.  You start putting away the decorations and get ready for the next holiday.

This is all in an effort to be prepared.

As far as I understand, corned beef and cabbage is a traditional Irish dish.  One that we ate every New Year's Day and St. Patrick's Day growing up (still do, actually), being the good quite distant, Irish immigrants that we are.

My sister shared this particular slow-cooker recipe for corned beef with me last year and it blew me away.  I had no idea that corned beef could be moist!  Seriously, no idea.  This one is though.  It's so satisfyingly salty and tender.  There's next to no prep that goes into it.  Quite honestly, it makes me want to eat it more than 2x a year.

Butternut Squash Kale Gnocchi

A few years ago, I got a set of nice pots and pans.  They were kind of an impulse buy back when Austin and I had 'real jobs' and, you know, money.

They're stainless and if you scratch them with a fork, you won't die form the Teflon.

And Austin hates them.  It's not the even cooking that he hates.  It's the cleaning.  So he doesn't use them at all.  Instead he has 2 pans - one small non-stick pan and a cast-iron skillet.  If it can't be cooked in one of those, it's probably not going to be cooked.

I guess some of his enthusiasm for 'his' pans has rubbed off, because now, I love it when I can make a whole meal in the cast-iron skillet (although this meal will work in any oven safe skillet).

Plus, one pan to clean up!  It can't get better than that!

Butternut Squash & Fried Sage Panini

When you go to a restaurant, do you order the same thing you always get or do you try something new each time?

I fall somewhere in between.  I'll definitely try out new stuff from time to time, but if something was good, I'm gonna go back for more too.

I've never understood how people can eat the exact same things over and over again.  From time to time, I'll get in a rut where I find myself eating the same thing for breakfast for a few weeks straight, but that's about where it stops.

For the most part, I like to try new foods (even though it means there will be failures) and mix those meals in with the classic standbys (spaghetti and hamburgers).

If I never experimented with my food, I would have never had crispy sage.  If I'd never had crispy sage, I don't know if my life ever would have felt complete.

It's that good.

Especially when you pair it with some smokey provolone cheese and sweet butternut squash melted between two slices of golden toasted french bread.

So good!

Mushroom Flavored Pasta

See that cat back there in the picture?  His name is Bill.  Bill E. Goat to be precise.  My sister and I took him to the vet the first time so we got to pick his name.

Everyone else calls him Bucky.

Whatever you want to call him, he's a good cat.  And by good, I mean he hangs around a lot hoping that you give him some food.

By cat standards, that's being 'nice.'

But I can't really blame him.  He gets absolutely zero variety in his diet.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all exactly the same.  The only thing special are his treats each night, which are actually just 4 or 5 pieces of a different type of kibble.

Humans have tons of variety in our diets.  We can even have different flavored pasta if we want.  I rarely eat the same thing for 2 meals in a week.  If I were a cat, I'd probably beg too.

Homemade Beet Orange Pasta

We used to have beets every year at Christmas.  When we'd go up to the farm each December, there they were.  A bowl of beets.  I don't think anyone ate them.

I didn't know it at the time, but apparently they were canned.  And therefore disgusting.

Because of this quite unpleasant experience year after year when my cousins, sisters and I would dare each other to eat one (a whole one!), I always thought that I didn't like beets.

Then, one summer, not too long ago, I had a fresh one!  Game changer for sure!

Beets are amazing!  They taste just like the earth and dirt - in a great way!  Plus, they're bright red/pink which makes them extra fun.

Basically, I used to be an idiot because I thought canned, sweetened beets were the same thing as fresh, roasted beets.  (Now I'm still an idiot, but for different reasons.)

When you make beet pasta, it's really more for the color.  Most of the beet flavor is lost, but there is definitely a hint of that earthiness in there.

Wedding Chicken (Port-a-Pitt Barbecue)

Our wedding is going to be a complete DIY wedding.  Some people say that, but I really mean it.  I think every single aspect is being made by us.

And by 'us,' I mean my mom.

She just finished up the invitations (with custom artwork!) yesterday.  She's doing the flowers, bouquets, centerpieces, and all other decorations.  And if it were just those 2 things, maybe you'd think that's not so bad.  But, she's also catering the wedding (with some help from my dad, future in-laws, sisters and aunts).

So, the food at our wedding is going to be a big barbecue.

There will still be lots of hot dishes, appetizers, multiple options...basically, all of it.  It's just going to also be really good since it will be homemade :)

In Indiana, this style of chicken was called Port-a-Pitt.  I'm guessing it has something to do with it being made in portable stations (usually sold as a fundraiser)?  Whatever the origins, like most things that come out of Indiana it tastes delicious, even if it's not super healthy.

It's a salty, vinegar brine that the chicken marinates in and then more is used to glaze the chicken as it's cooking on the grill and getting that nice char-broiled finish.

Garlic Lime Grilled Chicken

Everyone likes to cook out on the grill in the summer, right?  It's hot and you don't want to make your house even hotter by turning on the oven.

Our house doesn't even have air conditioning, so you have to figure out the 'science' of closing and opening windows and blinds in sync with the sun.  And even though we have pretty mild summers, sometimes it's still not enough.  Then you just have to sweat it out.

Back to the issue at hand: barbecuing.  We're well into summer and quite frankly, I can only eat so many hamburgers and hotdogs.  It's just a fact.

We need to get a little more creative with our grilling.  Grilled chicken isn't all that creative, but it is tasty!  Garlic lime grilled chicken that takes almost no time to make is even better.

Lasagna Rollups

I really really like meals that you can make ahead of time.  Maybe it's because I'm a morning person, but I would much rather get up at 6am and make lasagna than to start cooking at 6pm.  

I usually get more done before 10am than I do the rest of the day.  Every once in a while, I'll get a late-night surge in activity, but for the most part, I'll be sleeping.  

So for me, crockpots and casseroles really save me so I don't just eat nachos every night.  They're also the key to hosting lots of people.  No one likes to be in the kitchen the whole time friends are over and also no one likes it when your guests wander into the kitchen to see a huge pile of dishes and messes all over the counter.

These lasagna rollups are loaded with fresh zucchini and cheese and totally vegetarian-friendly.  Plus, since they're packaged in pretty little spirals, it's really a step up in the lasagna game that will impress your friends and family.  

Pizza Crust

For being a person who spends a lot of her time thinking about food, I'm really not all that picky of an eater.  Besides not eating seafood, I'm pretty much happy with anything edible.

The same cannot be said of people who fancy themselves "pizza aficionados."  I'm not talking about people that like to eat pizza often.  I'm talking about people who make their own dough.  They've developed their recipes and tested and redeveloped and retested.  They have notes that go on for pages about the temperature of the water and exactly how many times the dough should be kneaded at each step.

I can't be tied down to something like that.  I need the process to be much more forgiving.  Also, I don't think I'll ever call myself an aficionado of anything.  Maybe sarcastically.

Tossed Fruit Salad

Sometimes when you move away from a place, you miss everything about it.  Sometimes you miss a certain feeling you got when you were there.  Or the weather.  Or the people.  I've moved around a lot the past few years, and each place I leave has a unique set of things that I miss.

When I left Washington DC though, I'll admit, I didn't miss much.  I was so happy to get out of there, that I didn't think much about leaving.  Of course, we made friends there that I wish we could see more often, but I don't miss the traffic, or the stinky people on the metro, my job, the insecurity, or the noise for a second.

There are so few things that I remember fondly from my time in DC, but one thing that keeps popping back into my mind is Chop't.  If you don't have a Chop't near you (I feel ya), it's a salad chain that makes you a bucket of salad filled with whatever you ask for.  They chop it all up small (hence, the name), and it's probably the best thing in our nation's capital.

My friend, who might as well be a rabbit, would always get hers loaded up with carrots, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and then top it off with just a tiny bit of lemon vinaigrette.  I was never that healthy.  I'd get cheese, croutons, maybe some veggies, probably some fruit and then spoon on a pretty heavy dose of a cream-based salad dressing.

This tossed fruit salad is a combination of the two.  I'd say it makes a pretty good compromise.

Low Sodium Corn Chowder

This morning when I woke up, I looked out the window like I do every morning, but this time, the ground was covered in 4 inches of snow.  Sure, I live in a ski town, I'm used to snow.  That doesn't mean I have to be excited about snow when we are rapidly approaching May.

So...I guess we're not done with soup season yet.  I love soup, I just also love fresh fruits and veggies and barbecues.  I suppose there's a time for everything.

This particular soup is made with dietary restrictions in mind.  Austin's got a lot of allergies so I'm somewhat used to cooking while keeping accommodations in mind, but when I cook for Austin's parents, now I have to also think about the amount of sodium I use.

Austin's dad is on a low sodium diet and I'll admit sodium was something that I never ever looked at before.  If you do start looking, you'll notice that they put salt in everything.  Literally.  This recipe for corn chowder is low on sodium, but not on flavor - a tough task, believe me.

Egg Salad BLT

Easter is this Sunday, and while I'm not dying eggs this year, I do always like to hard boil a few eggs so I can have some egg salad in the coming week.  Obviously, I could make egg salad any time of the year, but it just doesn't seem to happen.

I need some inspiration, I guess.

If you're like me and you need a little push, here's an idea for you: egg salad BLT's.  Bacon and eggs in sandwich form can't be bad.  Also, maybe you're kind over the basics.  You've exhausted deviled eggs and you need something new.  

If you have a favorite egg salad recipe, use that, I've added mine after the break.  Happy Easter!