Browsing Tag

celery

Tasty

Good Ol’ Irish Meal

March 10, 2014

IMG_8302

This week is green themed and what better way to kick off a St. Patrick’s Day celebration than Corned Beef and Cabbage!?

IMG_8298 IMG_8110 IMG_8116

Corned Beef and Cabbage 

  • 3-4 pounds lean corned beef brisket
  • 1/2 pound fingerlings potatoes
  • 1 small onion, cut into 1 inch wedges
  • 3 celery stalks, cut into 2 inch pieces
  • 5 carrots, peeled & cut into 2 inch pieces
  • 1/2 head of Savoy cabbage, cut into 1 inch wedges
  1. Place corned beef into crock pot.
  2. Sprinkle with spice packet (that comes with corned beef) or 3 Tablespoons pickling spice.
  3. Layer carrots, potatoes, onion, and celery over meat.
  4. Add enough hot water to cover meat by 1 inch (4-5 cups).
  5. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
  6. After 8 hours, add cabbage and cook on high for 45 minutes.
  7. Thinly slice meat against the grain and serve with vegetables.

Note: Whole Foods makes a GREAT brined corned beef (omit Step 2).

IMG_8107

*I recommend serving with grainy mustard or a yummy mixture of creme fraiche with some freshly grated horseradish.

IMG_8309

Now get your green beer ready and your grocery lists prepped for an amazing St. Patrick’s Day Meal next week!

Tasty

Hearty Soup

October 30, 2013

Butternut Squash Soup with Pumpkin Seeds

I love the fact that soup is such a versatile food item – it can be a great snack, lunch, starter, dinner… it is relatively easy to make, and (as they say) good for the soul (or is that just chicken soup?!).  One of my favorite soups is my sister Taylor’s homemade Butternut Squash soup.

Squash Soup

So make sure to hit up your local farmers market – pick up some butternut squash, celery, onion, carrot, garlic and herbs and get to the kitchen!

From Threads – By Taylor Feezor

TATA’S BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP:

  • 1 butternut squash (halved… or if you are me and have been told many elaborate stories of forewarning injury due to watermelon or squash cutting by your mother…. quartered)
  • 1 head of garlic
  • olive oil
  • sea/ kosher salt
  • fresh thyme
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 1 carrot
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • drizzle of garlic and jalapeno olive oil after the soup is bowled

1. Halve or quarter your squash. The rinds are thick, so BE CAREFUL. I quartered mine because my new knives terrify me (I draped kitchen towels on the other end of them to get a nice grip when cutting down through them… recommend!), and noticed after baking that I might have lost some moisture doing this. The cut edge also was less soft than the inside. Do half if you HAVE THE COURAGE.

2. Take the seeds out, remove as much pith and fiber as you can from them. You are going to put these on the baking sheet and make seeds to use for later. FUN!

3. Drizzle olive oil, rub on the surfaces with your hands, sprinkle salt, stuff the cavity with fresh thyme if you have it, sprinkle whole squash with dried thyme if you don’t.

4. Cut tip off of head of garlic, place in middle of baking sheet. Sprinkle with too much olive oil, too much salt. Mix butternut seeds with this extra, cascading olive oil. Keep the whole bit near center of pan to keep things from burning. Some seeds strayed from the pack and the edge ones got burnt immediately.

5. Bake everything at 425 for 40-60 minutes. Squash is done when a fork goes through easily. You’ll know. During this baking time, I threw in a loaf of parbaked bread from TJ’s (12 minutes), and quartered leeks with olive oil and salt on another pan. They get crispy and taste like onion shoe strings (30 minutes). Great on the side, and this whole party in my oven (squash/seeds/garlic/bread/leeks) helps cut down on the old PG&E Bill.

6. WHILE ITS BAKING:

Pan fry yellow onion, thinly sliced celery and carrots in olive oil until everything becomes soft and translucent in a huge ceramic pot (or something that you will eventually be able to add everything to and run through it with a hand blender). Add 4 cups of chicken stock (trick I like…. add a little more of the bullion base than you should to the water. I think it is what made this so good).

Take out butternut, scrape it with a spoon after its cooled a little, add to your big pot of other stuff. Add 4 cloves of roasted garlic to the soup. Run through everything with a hand blender for about 5 minutes. If you want more protein, add the cubes of turkey breast from Thanksgiving your mom gifted to you when you moved in. Drizzle top with the garlic and jalapeno olive oil, and enjoy!

A big congrats to Christa Pulling – the winner of the PopSugar Must Have Box giveaway!!