Harira: Moroccan Soup

Harira is a typical soup in Morocco, so I made this soup recently in honor of my trip last Christmas and it definitely reminded me of a lot of the food we ate there. This particular recipe is from Emeril, found on FoodNetwork.com. See the original here.

I had never cooked with lentils before, so that was my new ingredient. In fact, before this I'd only tried a dish with chickpeas once before, so there was a lot "new" for me in this soup. I skipped the chicken, as there was plenty of protein in the soup already, and the version I had on my vacation had no meat. Also, most of what I read said that if adding meat, lamb or beef are more traditional, so you could try that instead if you'd like. I don't think I used quite as much stock as it called for and I threw in extra beans and rice because it didn't look like much. In the end, they plumped up, absorbed practically all the liquids, and I would be hard pressed to call it a soup anymore. When I make this again, I will pay more attention to the measurements and maybe add extra stock just in case.

All in all, I thought it was excellent! Obviously if you're not into bean based soups it might not be your thing. Sorry about the long ingredient list (especially after Joanna's post below), but it's mostly different spices. I measured out each one and then later thought I should've just used the "45 spices" mix I bought at the market. Next time!

Harira: Moroccan Chickpea Stew with Chicken and Lentils

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound dried chickpeas
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes and their juices
• 1 1/2 quarts rich chicken stock
• 1/4 pound dried green lentils
• 1/2 cup long-grain rice
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• Cilantro sprigs, for garnishing

Directions

Pick over the chickpeas, cover with cold water, and soak overnight at room temperature. Drain chickpeas and rinse well with cold running water. Drain and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a medium stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the chicken pieces with 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the chicken in batches, and cook until well browned, about 4 minutes per batch. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Add the onions and celery and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the ginger, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Return the chicken to the pan and add the tomatoes and their juices, stirring well. Stir in the chicken stock, lentils, and chickpeas and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook at a gentle simmer for 1 hour.

Add the rice and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and return the soup to a simmer. Cook covered for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, add the cilantro, parsley, and lemon juice and cook, uncovered for 5 minutes.

Ladle into warmed soup bowls and garnish with fresh cilantro sprigs.

Mujadara

My recipe submission for this month is mujadara. We served it with pita chips, hummus and labne. The recipe that I used is here.

Mujadara
recipe courtesy of Confused Homemaker over at Tasty Kitchen

• 1 cup Lentils
• 4 whole Onions
• 3-½ cups Water
• 1 cup White Rice
• 1 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoons Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil 

Directions

Slice the onions. The onions should be sliced long, so they look like a rain­bow ver­sus diced into small pieces.
Heat a pot on medium-high heat. Add 1 table­spoon of veg­etable oil and half an onion. Cook until onion is caramelized.
Add lentils, water, salt and pep­per. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and sim­mer for 20 minutes.
After 20 min­utes, add rice and cumin. Cover and sim­mer for addi­tional 20 minutes.
Heat a fry­ing pan over medium-high heat. Add the remain­ing 1 table­spoon of veg­etable oil and the remain­ing onions. Cook until fully caramelized and blackened.
Note: we used green lentils and yel­low onions for this dish.

My recipe for hummus is as follows:
1 can chick peas
2 garlic cloves
2 T of the liquid from the can of chick peas
2 T tahini
salt and pepper to taste
juice of a lemon
Whir it all up in a food processor or blender. Taste it to see if it needs more lemon juice or salt.When I serve it, I drizzle it with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle it with some paprika.

Labne is a Middle Eastern kefir cheese with several different spellings, depending on which country it's from. The stuff I had was Lebanese. My neighbor gave it to us and I don't know where she got it from, so I hope you can find it. But it's still VERY good without the labne.

For the pita chips, I buy thin pita, cut it up into pie shapes, spray it with olive oil spray and then sprinkle it with garlic salt. Bake at 450 for about 5 minutes or until crisp.

They way we ate it was to spread the pita chip with a bit of the labne, put some mujadara on it, the top it with hummus. I liked it just from the bowl. It's very good though!!

Japanese-Style Dumpling Soup

Here is my offering for recipe wars. I totally just made it up, but it's delicious and incredibly easy to make. I thought it was a little too salty when I made it with the bullion so use less bullion than is called for on the directions (usually 1 t. to 1 cup of water).

Japanese-style dumpling soup

3 quarts (12 cups) chicken stock, broth or water/bullion

¼ c soy sauce

1 t. sesame oil

4 green onions (or ½ any other style onion)

½ t. ground ginger

frozen prepared mandu (Japanese or Korean style dumplings)

Combine all the ingredients except for the dumplings and heat over medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add the frozen dumplings and let them heat through. Serve with rice.

AB's Ginger Almonds

I'll post my soup recipe for the recipe war tomorrow, since I'm making it for dinner and I can take pictures then, but for now I wanted to share this recipe I found from Alton Brown. I was very skeptical when I read the bit about the ginger (although, I probably didn't use as much as he calls for), but I'm telling you these almonds are absolutely delicious!

Ginger Almonds

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2009

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1 dried arbol chile, stemmed and broken into small pieces (I didn't have one so I used chili flakes, about 1 teaspoon or less)
• 1 pound whole natural almonds
• 1 tablespoon less-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Combine the ginger and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a 12-inch saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the arbol chile and cook, stirring frequently, until the chile begins to give off an aroma, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently until lightly toasted, approximately 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and cook until reduced slightly and the pan looks dry, approximately 1 minute. Immediately remove the nuts to the large bowl and toss with the ginger mixture.

 Spread the coated nuts into a single layer on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the pan to a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes or until completely cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Christmas Recipe - Hand Cream

Okay, so I know the idea here was most likely food recipes, and actually I do have a recipe I make every Christmas, so I'll put that here, too.  But first, the hand cream!  I was amazed at just how easy it is to make your own creamy, soft, yummy-smelling hand cream!  I found the recipe here. Just like the person in that post, I ordered the supplies I needed from Mountain Rose Herbs. Once you have the ingredients you need, it is quite economical to make, too.  I used half-pint Ball canning jars to package it.  I found some wide-mouth ones, which are perfect for the lotion! The recipe makes enough to fill 2 of these jars.

Here's the recipe:

• 1 1/4 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup emulsifying wax (I got mine from Mountain Rose Herbs)
• 1/4 cup olive or coconut oil (refined will keep the cream from smelling of coconut!)
• 24-36 drops essential oil (I got these from Mountain Rose Herbs, but had one I bought at my local health food store a couple years ago, too.)

Directions: Combine oil and wax in glass measuring cup and microwave on high for 1 minute, or until all the wax is melted.  Add the essential oil drops to this mixture and stir.  While you are doing that, microwave the water for 1 minute.  Add the wax mixture to the water (it turns the creamy white color at this point), and then pour the hot lotion into jars.  Let cool overnight and then enjoy!

The link to the original recipe also has a printout for jar labels, but I wasn't terribly fond of them, so I made my own in Microsoft Publisher.

Now for the food recipe!  Every Christmas morning, I make my grandmother's cinnamon rolls!  They are the most yummy rolls in the world! They are a bit time consuming, but worth every minute!  I actaully make mine the night before, roll them out and put them in the baking pan the night before.  I leave them in the refrigerator overnight (covered) and just let them come to room temperature in the morning before baking them. Top these with your favorite cream cheese frosting, and they are amazing!

A quick funny story about these though, especially since one of my college buddies Tina wanted to get the link to the lotion, and she would remember this!  The year after I graduated from college, Jerry was gone for a weekend on a business trip, so I invited some of my dorm mates to come stay at my place for the weekend.  I was so excited to be the keeper of my very own home and wanted to make amazing home cooked meals for my still-eating-dorm-food friends.  I decided to make this recipe for breakfast Saturday morning, but I had never made it before.  I had never made any yeasted bread recipe before for that matter! (Joanna, we should have experimented with yeasted bread instead of making so many variations on the green and purple swirly cake when we were in high school!) Anyway, it went very badly.  I didn't know how to knead dough very well.  I used my kitchen aid (which was brand-spanking-new at that time!), but the dough seemed so wet!  I kept adding flour, and by the time they rolls were completely done, they were like cinnamon rocks.  I think we ate cereal instead! :)

Grandma's Cinnamon Roll Recipe

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 stick butter
• 1 pkg. yeast (2 1/2 tsp)
• 1 cup warm water
• 7 cups flour
• pinch salt

Mix together eggs, milk, oil, and sugar in bowl.  In another bowl, combine flour and salt.  Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture.  Stir yeast and warm water and mix with the flour in the well.  Sprinkle with a little sugar.  Once yeast is active, beat in the wet mixture and soft butter.  Knead until the sides of the bowl are clean.  Let rise until double.

At this point, this dough can be used to make doughnuts, or continue to make rolls.  Roll out dough into large rectangle and spread melted butter over the top.  Top this with a cinnamon sugar mixture, and add nuts and/or raisins if desired.  Roll up lengthwise and press the edge to seal.  Cut into 12 rolls and arrange in a 9X13 baking dish.  Allow to double in size again.  Bake at 350 for 20-35 minutes (depending on the degree of doneness you like.  I like mine soft.)  Top with cream cheese frosting while still warm, and enjoy!

No Play Dough For Me Mister

I don't know about you but I'm not convinced that as mothers, we must put ourselves through torture so that kids can have what society deems as "normal" childhood experiences.

For example, play dough. I abhor play dough. Can't stand the stuff. And I will boldly say that I rarely let my kids play with it and then that is only when someone else gives it to them as a gift and I can't avoid it.

Call me a horrible mommy if you will but I tell you I just don't understand why I must subject myself to MORE cleaning of floors and shampooing of chairs and sofas and carpets when I already have enough house work to do. I mean, isn't playing in the dirt outside or the sand at the beach good enough?

Okay, so I do feel a teeny bit of guilt about this. I do remember loving to play with play dough as a kid. I used to eat it because we used the stuff made of salt.

Which occurred to me, why can't they play dough with something edible. Then it'd be worth it. Say cookies or bread dough. I remember that my mom used to make marzipan* cookie dough and I really enjoyed that, as much as I ever enjoyed play dough.

So I made some marzipan cookies and let them go to town. Since I get to eat the end result, instead of just clean up, I'm feeling pretty good about play dough now...as long as it's cookie dough.

*not the same as marzipan, this is marzipan cookies...different.

Here's my mom's recipe for marzipan cookies...I think it's a Betty Crocker recipe:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter and sugar then add the flour and vanilla. Color if you want and make shapes. Traditional marzipan is shaped like fruits and vegetables. My kids made Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and other VeggieTales characters and...stuff.

Bake at 300 for about 30 minutes or until set but not brown.

Microwave Popcorn

Did you know you can make microwave popcorn without buying the expensive stuff in the special bags?

Go get yourself some good popcorn, put 1/4 cup in a brown lunch bag along with a couple teaspoons of oil and some salt if you like. Fold the top down twice and put one or two staples in it. Toss in the microwave for about 3 minutes or until there's a few seconds between pops.

Incredibly cheaper, healthier and yummier. I like to make it plain then melt some butter, drizzle and salt with popcorn salt. YUM-O!!

Also, if you haven't checked out Moda Bake Shop yet, you really should. Marie has a link to them on her personal blog and holy smokettes, they have some fantastic projects.

Candied Orange Peel

Ever feel guilty for throwing away orange peel? I do. So I decided to do something about it yesterday and made candied orange peel. They taste just like those orange slice candies. Yummy. I checked out about half a dozen recipes and they were all basically the same so I'll just tell you what I did.

I peeled 3 oranges and kept all the nice peel and gave the pulp to the girls to eat.

Put the orange peel in a pan with 1 t. salt, cover with water and boil for 20 minutes.

Dump out the water, cover orange peel again with water and boil again for 20 minutes.

*repeat this process at least once more, the more times you boil it the more mild an orange flavor the end product will have.

In your pot put 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water and boil slowly for about 8 minutes.

Add the orange peel and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Take the orange peel out and dredge in sugar.

Set the peel out to dry and store in the sugar you've dredge in.

You can use the orange syrup left in the pan for whatever you want.

If you don't like my directions, Google "candied orange peel" and you'll get all the directions you want.

corn casserole part 2

I made this again recently. It was really yummy. Except, I forgot the eggs. I had no idea until I noticed a day or two later that they were still in the fridge. So I was wondering, what difference do you think that makes? If I make it again, should I go ahead and put the eggs back in?

You Should Make This

It's really good.

Ingredients

Dressing
3T Olive oil
4T orange juice
1T balsamic vinegar
1t basil
salt and pepper, to taste

Vegetables
1 clove garlic
1 lb. green beans
15 Greek olives, sliced
1/4 onion, diced
1 1/2 tomatoes, diced
15 spears asparagus, cut into thirds

Combine all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl.

Saute garlic and onion in 1t olive oil for 3-5 minutes; the onion should still be crunchy. Add the onion and garlic to the large bowl. Blanch the asparagus and green beans for 3-5 minutes, until they are crunchy but "done". I hope you know what I'm talking about. Add all the vegetables to the bowl with the garlic, onion and dressing and toss. Salt and pepper to taste. It's best served at room temperature.

YUM-OH-YUM!

Secret Santa Stuff

Last year, didn't we all post about what we got from our secret santas? I was really looking forward to seeing pictures of it all here. Actually, we posted a lot more in general last year. Remember all the great Christmas gifts we made and posted here last Christmas? Meagan is the only one who did that again this year...You know, I bought supplies to make Christmas gifts this year, but they never got made. Something about a baby being born... I am just looking at it as an opportunity to be way ahead on next year. I am going to start making them all just as soon as I get to it and hopefully have them all done long before next Christmas. Isn't that a good plan? Please, please ask me at regular intervals if I am actually sticking to that plan.

Anyway, back to Secret Santas. Meagan had my name, which she mentioned was funny because I had her name too! This is what she sent me:

She made a tea bag holder, decorated a white towel with fabric to match, and a hot pad. It's really cute! Would you guys post your secret santa gifts, too? Please?

I also wanted to share a really yummy recipe with you. On Christmas morning, I made cinnamon rolls that were really, really super. I searched for a copy cat recipe for Cinnabon rolls, and found this recipe. If you like really cinnamon-y rolls with lots of icing, try this.

My Christmas Cranberry Tea...

Doesn't this just make your mouth water?!?!?!

It is super easy, but it has to be done beforehand, so prepare this in advance.

I actually started it at ten o'clock at night on Christmas eve, and finished it up at lunchtime on Christmas. This time I added the strainer to the sugar and water before I added the cranberries, since I don't own an actual strainer. But this worked really well, and I would do it this way again in a heartbeat....

Need the recipe???

Thank Joanna.

Hot Cranberry Tea - A Thanksgiving Tradition

We don't have a whole lot of Thanksgiving recipes that are tradition in our family. It's basic stuff generally like turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and frozen corn. We do cook the corn though. There is my grandma's stuffing and I'm here to tell you that it's better than any stuffing ever, anywhere!

We do have cranberry tea; it's more of a fall/winter tradition than a Thanksgiving tradition although no Thanksgiving would be complete without it. I think my mom got it from some lady at the Mission many, many years ago and we've adopted it as our own. I hope you make it and like it as much as I/we do.

Cranberry Tea

1 bag (1 pound) cranberries, rinsed
3 quarts water
2 cups sugar
handful of cloves (or 1t ground cloves)
4 sticks of cinnamon (or 2t cinnamon)
2 T frozen orange juice concentrate
2 T lemon juice

Boil water, cranberries and spices together for 25 minutes. Turn heat off; add remaining ingredients. Let sit there 2-12 hours. Strain and serve hot, although this is also good cold.

Optional: ¾ c red hot cinnamon candies can be substituted for some or all of the sugar.

Dwehji-Gogi - Korean BBQ Pork

Korean food seems to be a big theme on this blog. Perhaps it's because nearly half of us spent at least one year on that little peninsula. The two most popular dishes...at least for Americans, I guess, are bulgogi and dwehji-gogi. Bulgogi is most popular because it's just tasty, dwehji-gogi comes in second because, depending on where you get it, it can practically burn your tongue off with it's spiciness.

We are going to address dwehji-gogi today. Because it's yummy and you must try it. It's required. While you're at it head out to an Asian food store and snag some kimchi and some o-jing-o (seasoned shredded squid) and you'll have yourself a truly authentic and delicious Korean meal. You won't regret it. I promise.

This recipe comes directly from A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes.

Ingredients

1 pound of pork (use a pork roast and not a tenderloin as the tenderloin is too lean)
2 T soy sauce

2 T red pepper powder or paste

2 T wine

3 T sugar

1 T sesame oil

1 T sesame salt

2 T chopped green onion

1 t chopped garlic

1 t chopped ginger

1/4 t black pepper

1. Slice the pork into thin strips, no thicker than 1/4 inch.

2. Mix all the other ingredients together.

3. Combine the meat and the seasoning sauce and make sure that every piece of meat is well covered with the seasoning.

4. Broil or pan-fry.

Now a few words. As is always the case, I did not use this exact recipe...because I'm a rebel like that. I have lots of daughters who are sort of wimpy and can't handle the spice so instead of 2 tablespoons of red pepper powder, I put in only 1/2 a tablespoon in one half of the seasoning and then 2 tablespoons in the other half, for Del and I. I also put in less sugar and slightly more soy sauce and more garlic, because garlic is really good. Also, I just put in sesame seeds and not sesame salt, because I'm too lazy to make sesame salt (recipe follows). My point is that the above recipe is a good skeleton. You can adjust it to your own taste and use ingredients you have on hand (ground ginger instead of fresh, etc). The only two ingredients that can't really be replace with some sort of equivalent are soy sauce and sesame oil. When you pan-fry it, make sure to do it in small batches. You want to make sure you're sauteing the meat the whole time and if you over-crowd the pan you'll end up with a soggy mess. Of course, serve with rice and if you don't like kimchi and kim (seaweed) then just serve it with some Chinese pea pods or something like that.

Sesame Salt

-roast some sesame seeds in a pan until they are done popping or until you can easily crush them between your fingers.

-grind them up.

That's it, sesame salt. They say that they call it sesame salt to differentiate between whole sesame seeds and ground up sesame seeds and not because you add any salt to it.

Best Blueberry Muffins

Best Blueberry Muffins

Note: This recipe does not require a standing mixer, but when making the batter be sure to whisk vigorously. The batter will be lumpy and bits of flour in it in the end is fine. Just be sure not to OVERMIX the batter.

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 large egg

1 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 1/4 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, preferably wild

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.

2.Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl until combined and set aside, In another medium bowl whisk egg until well combined and light colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar and whisk vigorously until thick, about 30 seconds, add melted butter in 2 to 3 steps whisking to combine after each addition, add sour cream in 2 steps whisking just until combined.

3.Add frozen blueberries to the dry ingredients and gently toss with hand to combine. Add sour cream mixture to dry ingredients and fold with rubber spatula until batter comes together and berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds (small spots of flour may remain and batter will be thick) Do not overmix.

4.Use and ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop batter into greased muffin tins. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking time. When done, let cool on wire rack, add butter and ENJOY!

This Is a Busy Post

I think that Tina should get a prize for posting our 500th post! Holy cow, that's a lot of posts!!!

Here's the bag I was working on. I had to adjust the instructions a lot. I thought the pattern was a bit flawed and then they wanted you to sew it like this: I thought that was dumb so I took it out and now it looks like this:

Much better, eh? I added lots of pockets to the inside and a button to the pocket outside. You can't see the button there because I want to cover a button with the fabric from the lining and I haven't been able to go to Joann's yet and get the right sized button to cover. I like it.

Finally, here's my entry for this month's recipe war. Mine only has three ingredients, also.

First you need some ice cream, instant espresso, milk and a huge cup.

Put some ice cream in the cup.

Mmmmmm...ice cream.

Top it with a teaspoon (or to taste) of instant espresso. Add some milk and mix it up.

Walah, coffee milkshake. Enjoy.

**I'm just joking that's not really my entry for this month; that's my current craving.

Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Okay, this is the yummiest cinnamon roll recipe I have ever had, and I've had many. At first it may look a bit involved to make, but rest assured, it is worth it. I'll add instructions at the end to make most of it the night before you want to serve it so that it can actually be a breakfast item if you want.

Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
yield: 15 rolls/1 13X9 pan

2 pkg (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
1 c. warm milk (110-115 degrees)
2 eggs
5 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
5 c. all-purpose flour

Caramel Sauce -
1 c. butter or margarine, cubed
2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. corn syrup
1/2 to 3/4 c. chopped pecans

Filling -
2 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the eggs, butter, sugar, salt, and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly loured surface; kneed until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased blow, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile for sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into a greased 13X9X2 baking dish. Sprinkle with pecans; set aside.

Once risen, punch the dough down. Turn onto a floured surface. Roll into a 17 X 15 inch rectangle. Spread butter to within 1/2 inch or edges. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over dough. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side and pinch the seams to seal.

Cut into 15 slices. Place cut side down over caramel sauce. (At this point you can cover these and put them in the refrigerator overnight. You will have to allow about 2 hours for them to warm to room temperature and rise if they have been refrigerated. Then follow the rest of the recipe as written.) Cover; let rise until doubled about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter.

This recipe came from my good friend, Maria and I used to enjoy it. Obviously there is no way to make it sugar free, so it has gone into the category of "good memories." I look forward to hearing if any of you enjoy it as much as I did!

Migas

I hope this isn't some really common recipe that everyone but me had already heard of .... but on the assumption that this is as new to you all as it is to me, here I go~
It may sound odd, but you HAVE to give it a shot. Since it is easy to make, I will accept no excuses! (this comes from my friend Patti... where all my yummy recipes lately seem to come from)

You need- 4 eggs, 8 corn tortillas ripped into small pieces (the small size-do the corn ones even come in larger sizes?), onion, salsa and oil.
This will make enough for about 3 people (unless you are feeding my husband, then it only makes enough for 2) ... it is easy to make more or less - just add 1 egg for every 2 tortillas.

heat oil (a few Tbs +/- depending on how many tortillas) in skillet and add tortillas. Cook until tortillas are nice and crispy. (this will take longer than you think... and when you think you are done cook for another minute or 2. It is nearly impossible to overcook, but this isn't nearly as good when they are not crispy enough) When they are nearly done, add finely chopped onion. How much is totally up to you, but I have found that I need to add more than I think would possibly taste good (I am not generally an onion person). Then beat eggs, add to pan, stir and cook until done. I add a few spoonfuls of salsa just before they are done cooking, but you can add the salsa once the eggs are on your plate if you would rather.
You can also add a clove of garlic with the onion, but that is just too weird for me ;-)

I'd Like to Thank...

I am so honored to have won the first cook-off contest in our group! I feel like I should make a speech or something. :) I had so much fun trying all the recipes and I was surprised at how much my family enjoyed it too. They thought it was so much fun that we were having a contest. I think I'd really love to have that muffin book that Marie posted a while ago for the prize. Speaking of prizes, I have found some here to add to the pot, so I'll really have to post them soon. I have so many things to post...one of these days I'll have a free moment.

Not Campbell's Tomato Soup

I'm not sure how people can stand to put that revolting substance in their mouths; it's so absolutely repellant. I like tomatoes a lot, but I have never cared for tomato soup. When I was pregnant with Lily, I watched a lot of Campbell's Tomato Soup commercials with that catchy jingle and being pregnant, I had a craving. The following recipe is what I came up with to satisfy the tomato soup craving. I can testify to the veracity of it's tastiness by the mere fact that when Sarah eats it, she petitions for a second bowl.

Joanna's Easy and Yet Tasty Tomato Soup

2 t oil
1/2 to 1 onion (use however much you like), chopped
4 cups chicken stock
2 14oz cans Italian style diced tomatoes
1 8oz can tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large pot put the oil and the chopped onion and cook, on medium high, until the onion is translucent.

2. Add the chicken stock, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Bring it barely to a boil and turn the heat down to medium or medium low (4). Cook for about 20 minutes or until the soup has thickend some. While it's cooking salt and pepper to taste.

Other things you can add to this soup that would make it taste yummy are rosemary, thyme and fresh parsley. We often garnish with some cheese (Parmesean, Cheddar or Mozzarella) and eat it with Goldfish crackers and fresh baked bread.
***What do you think of my stepped up vocab?