Creamy Tomato Soup with Meatballs & Orzo

I'm off from work today and wanted to do some cooking. Sooooo I decided to tackle soup, something I have never done! I tweaked the meatballs a bit to be more like my Grandma's, I was just missing the onion (only because I forgot and don't have a car to get some right now!) The soup was really delicious & hearty, and besides the meatballs was super easy. If you take out the meatballs, you can whip this up super quick. I'm very proud of myself!!



Creamy Tomato Soup with Meatballs and Orzo

Meatballs
1 lb ground sirloin
2 slices white bread, wet and shredded
1 medium onion, grated
salt, pepper
1/4 C. grated parmesan cheese (preferably locatelli)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350
Mix all ingredients well and roll into mini meatballs. Cover cookie sheet with foil and place a cooking rack on top. Put meatballs on the cooling rack and put in oven. cook for 20-25 minutes. (I did not have a cooling rack, it would have worked better)
When finished, take out of oven and set aside.

Tomato Basil soup
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 8oz. can tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic minced
Basil
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup orzo (raw) cooked according to package directions
1 cup half and half (I use fat-free half & half)
1 stick unsalted butter (you can get away with much less)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Over med. high heat put tomato products, stock, and garlic in a large stock pot. Let come to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add basil, butter and half and half and whisk until well blended.
Add meat balls and orzo and serve with parmesan cheese.

**After making this a few times, I have just used frozen mini-meatballs (Trader Joe's) and I have used MUCH less butter, I may even eliminate it next time.



Source: Culinary Infatuation Blog

Christmas Spritz Cookies!!

We have gone a tad overboard with the Christmas Spirit, and have decided to make Spritz Cookies, just like the old days. I have so many wonderful memories with my mom making these cookies...I hope they come out just as good!!

Spritz Cookies

2 ¼ cups unbleached flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder & salt together in a bowl.
With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is full of fine lumps.
Measure the egg in a measuring cup. A large egg will measure ¼ cup. If it does not, add water to the ¼ cup line.
Add the egg & vanilla extract and beat the mixture very well.
Put through the cookie press on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from sheet at once.





Source: Mom's recipes

Zucchini Bread

After dinner we made Zucchini Bread, came out delicious!!

Zucchini Bread

3 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup oil (no olive oil)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (2 medium, peeled)
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking power
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs until foamy. Add in the rest of the ingredients, flour & nuts last. Grease 2 medium loaf pans, or 4 small ones.

Bake 1 hour for 2 medium loaves, 45 minutes for small loaves. Use toothpick in center to test for doneness. Remove from pans & cool on rack.



Source: Mom's recipe

Cooking with Mom - Part 3; Grandma's Meatballs & Gravy

Today is the day!! We decided to attempt Grandma's famous meatballs & gravy once again. And as always, it was amazing. No, its not EXACTLY Grandma's, but I think we do a pretty good job!!

All the ingredients:



Cooking the gravy



Making the meatballs



Gravy & meatballs, yum!



Here is Grandma's recipe:

Italian Gravy

2-3 or more canned tomatoes (We use 4, 2 crushed & 2 whole peeled tomatoes)

Drippings from fried meatballs

Open one of the tomato cans & pour into blender combined with 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp. dry sweet basil, one small onion, and 2 bay leaves. Blend well.

Pour all cans of tomatoes, plus blended tomatoes, into sufficiently large pot, add meat drippings (and meat), also about 1 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. black pepper.

Cook over low flame, uncovered, about an hour, longer if you want meatballs to really absorb gravy. Stir frequently.

Grandma's Meatballs

2 pounds ground beef
Grated Romano cheese, 2x around or more
2-3 slices white bread, wet & shredded
2 eggs
1 medium onion, grated
Salt, 2x around
Pepper, 1x around
Basil, 2x around

Combine all ingredients together. Roll into balls, then roll in 4C seasoned bread crumbs.

Fry in oil until browned on all sides. Remove & drain on plate lined with paper towels.

Simple Fudge Tarts

This is an easy quick dessert Mom had cut from a magazine in 2000!! haha.

The pictures were not so great, but they were delicious! Here's the recipe:

Simple Fudge Tarts

24 tarts

Nonstick cooking spray
9 ounces refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate piece
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk


Spray 24 1 3/4 inch muffin cups with cooking spray; set aside. For tart shells, cut cookie dough into six equal pieces. Cut each piece into four equal slices. Place each slice of dough in a prepared cup.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 9 minutes or till edges are lightly browned and dough is slightly firm by not set. Remove tart shells from oven. Gently press a shallow indentation in each tart shell with the back of a round 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon.

Bake 2 minutes more or till the edges of tart shells are firm and light golden.
Let tart shells cool in cups on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Carefully remove tart shells from cups. Cool completely on wire racks.

For filling, combine chocolate pieces and sweetened condensed milk in a small saucepan.

Cook and stir over medium heat till chocolate is melted.
(WATCH CAREFULLY) Spoon a slightly teaspoon of filling into each cooled tart shell. Cool, allowing filling to set.



Source: Better Homes & Garden 2000

Cooking with Mom - Part 2; Pretzels again!!

We had Mexican tonight, and are going to attempt Grandma's gravy & meatballs tomorrow. SO tonight we decided to make some pretzels & a dessert. The pretzels were amazing, again. This is my new favorite recipe!!

Here are some pics of the process!!

Dan rolling the dough



Boiling baking soda water



Going in the oven!



All done!

Cooking with Mom - Part 1; Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

My mom's in town!!! So we are doing a lot of baking & cooking, and trying a few new recipes.

After a few drinks out with Dante dressed up as Peter Pan, we came home to tackle these muffins. They were DELICIOUS!!!

Making the cream cheese filling...





Putting the filling in...




All done! With Dan's jack-o-lantern :)



Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

3 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:

½ cup sugar
¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour
4 tbsp. butter, cubed
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours. (We used foil, but we think wax paper would work best!!)

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

Mangia!!



We got this recipe from this blog

Creamy Tomato Chicken

We found this recipe on a cooking blog and thought we'd give it a try.

Our pictures don't look so great, but it tasted delicious!!





And here's Dante, waiting for Grandma to visit in her bedroom!!! This is his new favorite spot...its so cute.



Creamy Tomato Chicken

Ingredients
4 thin sliced chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp flour
½ c chicken broth
¼ c light or heavy cream
1 oz cream cheese
4 oz tomato sauce (canned is fine)
½ tsp red pepper flakes
½ tsp oregano
1 tsp butter
½ c parmesan cheese
1 tsp capers

Directions
1. Melt butter in a pan; add chicken and cook until just done; move chicken to a baking dish and cover (keep drippings in the pan)
2. Add flour to the pan and stir until pasty
3. Add chicken broth and red pepper flakes, and minced garlic, simmer 1 min
4. Add cream cheese, cream, tomato sauce, most of the parmesan cheese, and oregano
5. Cook over medium-high heat until thick and bubbly, stirring almost constantly
6. Pour sauce over the chicken; top with capers and the rest of the parmesan cheese
7. Bake on 400 degrees for 10-15 min

Original recipe found on THIS
cooking blog!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffin Disaster

So Dan really wanted peanut butter chocolate chip muffins. He was practically begging me to make them. So we start making them only to realize we don't have any baking powder. No big deal, right?? Apparently it is. Unless you have a handy baking powder substitute such as molasses or cream of tartar (um, what?) you are screwed!!

We still ate them.



The finished product!!



Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder - very important!!!!
½ tsp. salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
½ cup peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
¾ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. Add in the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly between prepared muffin tins, filling each to the top.

Bake for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Soft Pretzels

So last night Dan & I decided to attempt soft pretzels! These were so fun to make and came out GREAT!

Here are some pictures of Dan working hard!



Almost done!



The finished product!



Soft Pretzel Recipe:

1/8 cup hot water
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/3 cup warm water
1/3 cup brown sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
Coarse kosher salt (we use sea salt)
Baking soda
Butter(to grease cookie sheets)
Vegetable oil (to grease counter)
1 egg, beaten + 1 tbsp water (to brush the pretzels with before baking)

Directions
- In a large bowl, mix together 1/8 cup hot water and 1 package active dry yeast until the yeast dissolves.
- Stir in the 1 1/3 cup warm water and 1/3 cup brown sugar and continue stirring until the brown sugar dissolves.
- Slowly add 4 cups of flour, stirring constantly
- Continue stirring the mixture until it is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl

To continue by hand: flour the counter lightly, and flour your hands. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth.

- Lightly oil your counter
- Grease your cookie sheets generously with butter or shortening. It is very important that you grease the cookie sheets well!
- Sprinkle greased cookie sheets with kosher salt.
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees Farenheit.
- Using a liquid measuring cup, fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water you add, add 1 tablespoon of baking soda.
- Divide the dough into 4 even pieces, and shape them like a pretzel.
- Bring the water and baking soda in the saucepan to a gentle boil.
- Using a spatula, gently lower each pretzel into the water one-by-one -- counting slowly to 30 before removing the pretzel from the water and placing it on the cookie sheet.
- Repeat until all pretzels are done.
- When all pretzels have been boiled, lightly brush each pretzel with the egg+1 tbsp water mixture, then sprinkle with more kosher salt.
- Bake for 8 minutes, or until the pretzels are golden.

Peter Pan

So Dante has decided to be Peter Pan for Halloween. He LOVES his new costume, he doesn't even want to take it off. Ok, actually he hates it. He tried to eat off his little sword and then just laid there frozen like "WHY are you doing this to me??"

Maybe Dan will be Tinkerbell????

A Day in Dante's Life

I've decided to start a blog with updates on our life & some of our hobbies here in San Diego!! I'll attach a picture of our son, who this blog is named after! :)