Roasted Peppers Soup

Peppers were 10 for $10 at the grocery store the other day which is totally unheard of so I grabbed some, of course. I ate some with cheese and then thought, okay, now what? Soup!

Roasted Pepper Soup
adapted from Epicurious.com

3 tri-color peppers, cut up into big pieces
1 small jalapeno
1/2 c. half n half
4 cups chicken stock
olive oil
S+P

Preheat oven to 400. Toss the cut up peppers in olive oil and salt and place in a baking pan. Roast until soft and browned, stirring occasionally (although to be honest I always forget that step when I roast anything), about 50 minutes. Transfer to pot and add chicken broth, boil to meld flavors, 10 minutes or so. Working in batches with your blender or with the love of your life, your immersion blender, blend till smooth. Let cool slightly before stirring in half and half. Salt and pepper to taste.

You can either roast or leave raw your jalapeno depending on how spicy you want your soup: a roasted jalapeno will be a lot mellower in the spice department.

Serve with sandwiches.

Coriander Scallops with Orange-Ginger Dressing

This is such a quick, easy weeknight dinner, thank god, because babies are a lot of work.

from Epicurious

Coriander Scallops with Orange-Ginger Dressing
2 servings

12 scallops
coriander seeds, crushed

1 tbs cilantro
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tsp ginger, minced
3 tbs orange juice
S+P

Salt and pepper scallops, dredge in crushed coriander seeds and place in hot pan with olive oil. Sautee 1 1/2 to 2 minutes each side. Combine the second group of ingredients in a small bowl for the dressing. Serve scallops and dressing over mixed greens. (I grilled some ciabatta slices brushed with the dressing for a starch.) Yum!

Shepard's Pie

Holy crap, it's been a while! Honestly, one of the last things on my min dat the end of the day is cooking! I got a fussy baby most evenings. But this recipe was easy and a winner.

Shepard's Pie

2 Potatoes, cubed
1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
3 tbs flour
rosemary
sour cream
milk
butter or butter sub
S+P
1 tsp dried thyme
Parsley to taste

Preheat oven to 400.

Boil potatoes til soft. Drain. Add sour cream, salt and pepper, butter and milk and mash over low heat til thick. Set aside.

Cook veggies in olive oil til soft and then add garlic, salt and pepper; cook for twenty seconds more. Add ground turkey, rosemary and thyme; cook til meat is no longer pink. Mix 3 tbs of flour into chicken broth and pour into ground turkey mixture. Cook until thickened.

Spoon meat mixture into shallow baking dish, top with mashed potatoes and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Done!

I'm actually going to try this again tonight but with cubed chicken and phyllo dough as the topper to make chicken pot pie. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Menu Week of March 7, 2011

Gotta keep things simple because who knows when this babe will make his grand entrance. So, instead of assigning certain dishes for certain days, I'm just going to be flexible.

Broccoli Soup and Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Roast Chicken, Rice and Brussel Sprouts
Spicy Maple Salmon ( think I'll try a glaze, mix it up a bit), broccoli (hey, it's in season), Goat Cheese Quinoa
Pasta Puttenesca (have to have this every week now, per Andy)

Split Pea Soup

I woke up the other day salivating for my mom's split pea soup of my youth. Split peas fall apart in a soup so there's no need to puree anything and it's just so easy to make and it smells delicious even if you're just learning to use your new dishwasher and accidentally melt a plastic lid and don't notice until you're like, what the hell? It should only smell like soup in here! Oops.

Tipsy Shrimp

I intended to make shrimp scampi but had no white cooking wine on hand, just beer so I had to improvise! Which is good because seriously a new house deserves some new recipes, yes? Even if the kitchen is still roughly the same size? Yes.

Cantaloupe Sherbet

Oh, man, between moving and Baby-Wait 2011, I've been pretty busy! But one of the great things about moving is unearthing all the stuff I'd all but forgotten about. I don't know how I forgot I had an ice cream attachment for my Kitchen-Aid, it's practically brand-new, but I did forget. No matter, I'll make up for it.

So, anyway, I bought a cantaloupe this week and was completely overwhelmed by the amount of fruit it yielded. I'm only one person, I can't eat that much fruit before it goes bad! Sherbet to the rescue