My Minestrone

I tried Kris' minestrone soup recipe and it was delicious. Thought I'd show you a photo...

I was missing a spice or two and (gasp) was out of parmesan cheese, but it was still great. A good way too for Harrison to have carrots and celery since they're still a little too much for him to chew.

Peanut Butter Brownies

This recipe requires a couple bowls but is totally worth the clean up. It is best eaten cooled down, not right out of the oven. A brownie mix could be substituted for bowl 2 and 3 but I have never tried it that way.


mix until smooth in bowl 1:
6 oz cream cheese softened
3/4 c peanut butter
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 T milk

in bowl 2 mix:
1 c butter, melted
2 c sugar
2 t vanilla
3 egg

in bowl 3 combine:
3/4 c cocoa powder
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

add bowl 3 to bowl 2.

spread all but 1 c of chocolate mixture into 9x13 pan
spread peanut butter filling on top
drop remaining chocolate mixture over top
mix with knife for marbled or desired effect

bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.

Cabbage Rolls

This may be cheating, but we just tried a new recipe that I got from allrecipes.com for cabbage rolls. We've been trying some new meals and this one was pretty good. It was nice to put it in the crockpot and just have it ready at dinner time. We had it with a green salad. (I would double the sauce recipe)

Microwaved Cocoa Cake

This one's just a quicky, and unfortunately I just devoured the evidence so there's nothing left to photograph. I read about this on the internet a while back and tried it...It's not the finest chocolate cake I've ever had, but it might help you kill twenty minutes with the kids. I (unsurprisingly) replaced the egg in mine with 1 T ground flax.

2 packets hot cocoa mix

2 T flour

1 egg

1 T vegetable oil

splash of water

Mix all in microwave safe mug. Nuke on high for 2 minutes. Run a knife around the edge and it should just pop out.

edit: Psyche! I totally still have a photo from when I made it before. Apologies for the blurriness.

Coconut Cocoa

Today is atrocious in Chicago. We've got a foot of snow (it's still falling in heavy persistent clumps) and sub-zero temperatures. So I thought it would be a good day to make a cup of this. In my continuing battle against milk I thought I would try hot cocoa with coconut milk. Low and behold it's delicious—even to me, someone who isn't totally into coconut. The secret is cutting the coconut milk with something. Both times I've used water at about 1:1. If you're even less excited about the coconut you could do 1:2. For the 'dry' I used cocoa powder and sugar once, and regular cocoa mix. Both are good.

½ c coconut milk

½ c water (milk, etc...)

2 T cocoa powder

2 T sugar

½ dash cinnamon

Heat liquid, add dry. Mix.

p.s. I was going to add an actual photo, but it looks just like regular cocoa; brown liquid.

Lemon Curd

I bought a bunch of lemons the other day and didn't end of needing them for what I had planned on so I made this instead. It is so easy to make. One recipe filled 2 half-pint canning jars.

Lemon Curd
3/4 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 C sugar
3 eggs
1/2 C unsalted butter

Directions:In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and cook over medium-low heat*. Cook 6-10 minutes, and occasionally whisk until thick enough to hold marks from the whisk (about the consistency of pudding.) Store in the refrigerator. *If the heat is turned up too high, the eggs will curdle.

Minestrone Soup

This is what we had for dinner tonight and everyone liked it. I didn't use celery (just because I didn't have any) and threw in some summer squash also. It would be great in the summer (for most locales) when you can get all the produce fresh at the farmers market.

Minestrone Soup
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
I large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, miced
8 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
28 oz can of tomato sauce (or crushed tomato's)
2 celery stalks, diced
2 med-sized carrots, sliced
2 potato's, cut into cubes
2 med-sized zucchini, diced
1/2 C fresh parsley, chopped (or you can use 1 Tbsp dried)
1 C small pasta (shells, macaroni, etc.,)
1/2 C Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1/4 tsp. ground celery seed
Dash of cayenne pepper
Directions:Over medium heat, in a sautee pan combine olive oil, onions & garlic and 3 Tbsp of stock. Sautee until onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the remaining stock, tomato sauce, celery, carrot, potato, zucchini and all spices (do not add pasta or parmesan). Mix and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and simmer for 15 mintues. Bring to a boil again and add pasta & parmesan. Reduce to a simmer for an additional 20 minutes. I usually sprinkle some more parmesan on top once it's served. Enjoy!