Being my mothers daughter, there are very few things I love more than a good steamy bowl of soup and some nice crusty bread for dipping. If you need further evidence see here. The difficult thing is that I don’t always have 2 hours to spend preparing said soup. Sadness and woe ensue on any given weeknight when I need a warm bowl of pick-me-up. That is, until I sat down about a week ago to peruse my Giada’s Family Dinners Cookbook. What before my eyes did appear? Pasta e Fagioli! This looks easy, hearty and full of flavor! I made it and I was in heaven. The fiance mentioned that it tasted much like French Onion Soup but without all the icky strips of onions.

So follow along with me my fair friends on the wonder that is 30 minute Pasta e Fagioli.

First thing first, get a piece of cheesecloth out. What? You don’t have this hanging around your kitchen? For shame! Martha will smote you tonight in your sleep. You could always use a tea-ball or actually just chuck it into the pan sans-protection when the herbs are called for. Just make sure you fish them out when we pull said sachet. Anywhoo, lay out 2 good sized fresh rosemary sprigs, about 4-6 fresh thyme sprigs and 1 bay leaf or two. Mine are bottom of the bottle bay leaves so they’re tiny. I used two-ish.

Now tie it up. I like to do this by tying the diagonal ends and then the other two diagonal ends to voila! make a pouch.

Giada calls for a cup of onion. I use about a half of a large onion and chop it pretty finely. I’m not so much for the huge chunks of onion. I wanna taste it but not have these big honkin pieces on my spoon.

The recipe calls for 3 ounces of pancetta. Unless you’re like me and have a food scale at home you’ll have to guesstimate. I had the deli cut it pretty finely and 3 ounces when I weighed it on my food scale ended up being this much:

I like to chop it up pretty finely but you could leave it as large or small as you like it.

Next up is garlic. Because I’m a garlic-o-holic I like a lot. I used about two large cloves and chopped them pretty finely. The good news is that when the apocalypse comes you can be pretty confident that I’m not a vampire. So at least I’ve got that goin’ for me.

In a heavy bottomed pan or stockpot add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil. Yes, I’m aware that there is fat in the pancetta. Yes, you could probably leave these out. But it adds a great flavor to the soup and if you want to omit it, sacrificing taste is up to you.

While that heats up, now is the time for the big guns. Dig out your largest measuring device because we need 5 and one half cups of chicken stock. Wow, I know.

By now the fat should be melted, drop in the onion, garlic and pancetta. Make sure you keep the heat at a medium/medium low temperature. I’d say 4-4.5 on most stoves. Just make sure they’re sweating and not browning because super brown onions are not good eats.

While that cooks, open a can of red kidney beans. Giada has got to be a freak of nature with the most strong intestinal tract on the planet. She originally called for two cans of kidney beans for this soup. I made it this way the first time…yeah. Trust me. Go with one can. Give them a good rinse until the water is running clear.

Next the original recipe called for a 3/4 cup of elbow macaroni. Because I omitted the second can of beans I upped the noodles to a whole cup. This worked out nicely and the texture/consistency of the soup stayed about the same.

By now, the veggies/pancetta should look like this. Next time I might cook the pancetta separately so that it got a bit crispy instead of wilted.

Now add in the beans and give it a good stir.

Add in the bucket of chicken stock and stir again.

Drop in the herb sachet, herb tea-ball or loose herbs now.

Kind of shove it down into the broth so that it really starts to infuse the soup with its super yummy flavors. Then crank the heat up to high.

While that comes to a boil, get out your blender or stick blender. After a few seconds/minutes it should be up to a rolling boil.

Pop the lid on, turn the heat back to medium and let simmer for 7 minutes. Why seven? Giada said so. Duh. When that time is up take a cup’s worth of the soup (beans and veg included) and put it in the base of your blender or in a container to stick blend with.

Give it a whir until its nicely puree’d. Somewhat like below and add it back to the soup.

Add the noodles and cook according to the package recommendations.

When thats finished extract the herb sachet, herb tea-ball, loose herbs.

Then all thats left to do is dish it up! Before I handed it to a very hungry fiance I sprinkled it with some yummy Parmesano Reggiano. I know, Giada would have been proud.

I think its at Its best when served up with some nice crusty bread for dunking. Yum! Enjoy guys!

Now let me say that I don’t love these. I’ve never really been a big fan of paper thin pancakes or paper thin anything for that matter. The fiance however, loves these like they were a big fat slice of chocolate cake. Or a Krispy Kreme and those are some supremely fattening but oh so delicious good eats. Ahem…back to the crepes. I make them the super easy way. My way doesn’t require a fancy schmancy (and expensive) crepe pan. It just requires about 30 seconds of prep, a blender and a small nonstick frying pan.

Keep in mind that you could easily fill these with fruit preserves, chopped fresh fruit, cheesecake filling, diced meats, cheeses or any combination of these things. You could probably fill it with Krispy Kreme’s if you got a wild hair up your pa-tooter. Luckily for me, Ged does not like them filled, he digs them stacked miles high with typical pancake accouterments. He swears they are the best thing ever. Having just asked him how he would describe these crepes he said they were “Effing Awesome” and “The best thing on Earth.” So there’s your testimonial folks. Read it and weep.

To make these bad boys we need to start at the beginning which means get your blender out.

Crack 4 large eggs right into the blender.

Next up is a half cup of milk. I usually use skim but if you wanna go all Paula Dean on me you could use whole or even cream.

After that a half cup of water. If you were serving this to fancy guests you could swap in orange juice or some other flavor of your liking. Water works just fine if you’re going for “traditional pancake flavor” though so I use it here.

Now to enhance the rest of the flavors, a half teaspoon of salt.

To give it some sweetness, 2 teaspoons of sugar. If you’re making savory crepes you could swap in oregano or basil or thyme or….well any other herb you’d like. Thyme would be super awesome for ham and gruyere crepes for instance. In fact those sound really fantastic right now. Anywhoo, back to the sugar and there being 2 teaspoons of it…

Next up is two tablespoons of melted butter, in she goes.

Now add in teaspoon of vanilla. Note to self: get some more real vanilla so I can stop using the fake stuff. Again if you’re making savory crepes either swap this out for another flavor or leave it out altogether.

We just need to pop the lid on and send it for a spin. Just let it go for a minute or until everything looks well blended and is a springy shade of yellow.

Thought I forgot somethin’ didn’t ya. Nope we add it now. 1 cup of flour into the mix.

Send it for a spin again.

Let it go for another 30 seconds or so until the flour gets absorbed and it looks like this when you open it.

Alright, batter. Check. Dig out an 8 inch non-stick frying pan or roughly that size. Only use a pan that isn’t nonstick if you’ve got a death wish and don’t want to actually eat any of the crepes you just made. Set it to medium-low to medium heat.

While thats heating get your fillings/toppings together. Since he likes them like a thin maple layer cake I pull out the maple syrup. Also, please make sure you’re using, you know, actual maple syrup. That maple flavored junk that Mrs. Butterworth hocks is well…junk. That is unless you’re eating it on Eggo’s. My brother and I have this whole theory that real food has to go with real maple syrup and junk food has to go with junk syrup. Hey it makes sense right?

Now that I’m off my maple syrup soapbox the pan should be nice and warm. Plop in a good teaspoon to half tablespoon of butter. You just want to get the bottom of the pan nice and lubed up with buttery goodness. Ahhh, nice and melty.

I usually use a quarter cup measure to dole out the batter. This way I don’t get overzealous and add too much or too little to the pan.

In it goes!

Now, swirl the pan until the batter stops swirling with you. Then set it down and wait.

See how the edges are starting to crinkle and the top is looking juuuuuuuuuuust set? Now is when you pull em.

I like to grab them with my fingers and slide them to the plate but they’re pretty hot so you could scoot a small spatula under them and coax them to the plate too.

Then either fill them or if you like them the way he does, sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar and top with about a teaspoon or two of maple syrup.

Then make a boatload more and keep on stackin’ until you’ve got a good sized pile that looks sort of like this.

Now because it looks fancy and takes .03 seconds I like to dust it with a little powdered sugar. I know Martha would be proud.

Enjoy guys!

Now this recipe is special my dearies. Its an Ina Garten recipe that I started making last year for Fourth of July. My mom has asked me to bring it to every occasion we’ve had since. Birthdays, holidays, even Christmas Eve! People absolutely devour the stuff. I mean literally inhale it. Even people who hate guacamole (my mom included) adore this recipe. The best part about it, is that it comes together in minutes. I’d say 10 at most if you’re having trouble with the avocado seeds.

Now I know you see the fancy new layout I’ve got goin’ on here (Thanks Stephteph!). See that little button above these words that says “Print this Post”. Do it. You’ll thank me when you’re shoveling your face full of this stuff. Plus even Miss. Priss Ellie Krieger would be proud. Its super healthy and its got lots of Omega 3’s. So its totally cool if you eat the whole bowl right? Right? With me on this? Nah I didn’t think so. Its still tastes good enough to eat the whole bowl anyway.

First step. Get out 3-4 good sized ripe avocados. If they’re under ripe put them in a brown paper bag and wait a day or two. They’ll get squishy enough to be useful. Plus if they’re under ripe the flesh is all hard and not creamy. Trust me, this is not good eats.

Next we need to half them. I usually just run the knife around the pit. DO NOT TRY TO CUT THRU IT. You will either make it supremely difficult to get the pit out or you’ll make it supremely difficult to ever write a letter again because you’ll have chopped off all your fingers.

Alright look at that, its nice and pretty. In order to get this nugget of yuck out of the center of the avocado you cup the half in your hand or set it on the board. Then quickly smack the thick end of the knife into the nut.

Twist and et voila! You’ve successfully ejected the nut from the awesomeness that is now the avocado flesh.

Now all you need to do is finish pitting the rest of the avocados and scoop the flesh out. Using a regular ‘ol spoon just slide it in between the flesh and the skin to release it. If it feels hard or its having a hard time coming loose from the skin. Forget it, its way too under ripe. Trust me a good 3 avocado guacamole is better than a hard 4 avocado one anyday.

Quickly slice a lemon and juice it over the avocado. This will help them keep their glorious green color. Just the thought of brown avocado gives me the dry heaves.

Next ingredient is hot sauce. I use Tabasco because Ina used it and she is my hero because it tastes good here. Use as much or as little as you like but don’t be afraid of it. Avocados are very cooooool and creamy. You need a little kick in there to keep it interesting.

Add some salt and pepper. A good amount because the hand of doom says so.

Now take your knife and slice thru the avocado. This is the key to having nice chunky guacamole without getting everything full of green goo. Just slice away thru the mixture until its the consistency you like.

This is how I like it. You might want it a little finer or a little thicker. The plus about making it at home is that you can have it your way.

You could leave it like this and it’d be perfectly okay. But why leave it at perfectly okay right? How about super awesome instead. If you’re going the super awesome route add about half of a medium seeded, diced tomato to the mix.

And about a 1/4 of a red onion chopped. Chop the tomato and onion about as finely as you like.

Now fold (or stir if you’re impatient like I am) it all in. Only thing left to do is give it a good taste.

Hmmmm, a little more salt, pepper and hot sauce should do the trick!

Stir it up and taste it one more time…Aye Papi! Thats perfecto!

Garnish it with some extra onion and tomato just because its pretty that way.

Now if you’re serving it for a party later in the day like I was just press some saran wrap right on the dip like you would with a pudding. Then store it in the fridge until your guests arrive!

Enjoy guys!

Hey guys.  I just want to thank you all for checking in on me.  Yes, I’m still alive.  I know that the last time I posted was over a month ago but I’ve been busy checking things off of my 101 in 1001 list, renovating a bathroom, learning a new job and working on two grad school classes.  I’ve been a busy little bee.

The good news is that I’ve got two super yummy breakfast recipes to post up this week so keep your peepers peeled!

Thanks again for continuing to check in and read guys!

So, I’ve got yet another pocket of time and I thought the best way to use that pocket was to post my recipe for Salsa.  This is no ordinary salsa dear friend,I get more requests for this recipe than ANY other recipe I make.  People drool over this stuff and eat it until they make themselves sick on it.  Its honestly that good.  My darling girlfriend’s fiance literally eats it with a spoon.  So gather round, I don’t give gem’s like this one out every day.  Not to mention its a concoction of my own creation so giving it away isn’t easy you know.  But, because I love my loyal and faithful readers, I’ll make the sacrifice. Plus if it mean that you’ll never but that garbage they sell in jars again it’ll all be worth it.  Pace Thick and Chunky is a sacrilege.  Trust.  

 First, I get out my food processor.  You could easily chop all this by hand but I’ve got the heavy artillery and why not use it.  Flaunt it if you’ve got it or some such nonsense right?  Now it all starts with about 3-4 large tomatoes.  I say 3 to 4 because it all depends on how many I can shove in my food processor.  Once it gets to roughly the top, just stop.  Otherwise your seasonings will be all wonky and you’ll have to adjust a bunch later.

Next, you could use about a whole jalapeño. Or half if you’re a wuss or double if you’re a lunatic. I like to use the jarred pickled kind because I’ve always got them in the fridge. About a quarter cup will do for a medium heat salsa. BTW, later if its not spicy enough you can use some of the pickling liquid. That stuff is like fiiiiiiireeeeeee!

Next up is garlic.  Like everything else I make I like A LOT.  Don’t be afraid of it.  I use about 4-6 or so garlic cloves.  More if its just us eating it, less if I’m serving it to company.  I was making this for a get together so I only used 4 this time. In they go.

Next up is black pepper.  Use more than you think you’ll need.  I crack in something like 50 turns of the mill.  I don’t measure as it comes out but it looks to be at least half a tablespoon.  Don’t be afraid of black pepper.  It just adds another layer of flavor and a different depth of heat.  Also add about a few teaspoons of salt.  This is one I go kind of chinzy on because too much salt is definitely not good eats.  You can add more later if you need it so start sparingly.

Tomatoes!  I CAN HAZ SOME PLZ!

Alright fine!  She gets a tomato end and we move on.  Next up is cumin.  Probably a good tablespoon.  Its what gives it that quintessentially Mexican food flavor so don’t be afraid to go pretty liberally with it.

Cilantro.  I know a lot of people don’t particularly care for cilantro but I love a ton of it.  You could probably leave it out or swap it with parsley maybe.  Also I don’t like to use fresh for this application. ZOMG CALL THE HERB POLICE!!!  This gets better as it sits in the fridge and the fresh breaks down in a weird slimy way that is not good eats either.  Dried hydrates just enough without going all gooey. 

See I told you that I use quite a bit.  Next squeeze in the juice of one lemon.  You could use the stuff from a bottle no problem.  I always have lemons in the fridge so I use fresh.  Lime might also be nice too if you wanted to try it that way.

That’s it.  All there is to it.  Now before you ask.  No I don’t use any onion.  I don’t like the crunch it lends or the bitterness of the raw onion.  Do yourself a favor and try it this way before you go all willy nilly and add onion.  Its got a sweet, spicy and even consistency.  Plus you just don’t go messin’ with a good thing now do you?  All that’s left to do is pop the lid on.

And pulse it. 

I need a manicure.  Yikes.  Let it go until its the consistency you like it.  I’ve got some picky eaters that like to just scoop the juice and not get any solids so I let it go until its pretty finely diced.

Oh man my mouth is watering just looking at it.  Only one thing left to do.  Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Eh, pinch more salt, little more pepper and a bit more cumin.  Also, don’t overestimate how not-spicy it is.  As it sits in the fridge the juices from the freshly pulsed jalapeno will start to leech out into the salsa.  So don’t adjust the heat factor until its sit in the fridge for at least a few hours.  Taste again and PERFECT!

All that’s left to do is transfer it to a serving bowl and pop it in the fridge for a few hours. 

 Now, this will last in the fridge for at least a week sometimes more.  Often in the summer time we’ll have this and tortilla chips for dinner when its too hot to cook.  Plus hey, its mostly vegetables so its good for you right?  Enjoy guys!