Broccoli soup, i love you!

Hey all! im back from the small blogger hiatus. (sp?) I willl do a christmas blog pretty soon, but on the future forecast, so many food blog...many many. And perhaps a movie review for "Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny"!!!!

I am a sucker for broccoli cheddar soup. I LOVVVEEE IT and i really need to cut down on my dairy and fat intake. I've going to try a few new brocooli soup recipes, and i started with this one! The recipe is Michael Smith (Chef @ home) and it was GOOOOOD. There's no cream, not too much cheese or sodiums, its awesome.

On top of that, for christmas i got the RACHAEL RAY 5 Quart CAST IRON DUTCH OVEN and yay yay! I used it for the first time today!

you cant read it well, but thats the rachael ray label on the lid.

*~ Deliciously blue and oval!~*

So without any more delay, Michael Smith's

Broccoli Potato Soup!

· 3 tbsp olive oil
· 3 onions, peeled and chopped
· 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
· 6 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
· 2 large potatoes, peeled and grated
· 1 head of broccoli, stems cut into chunks and florets reserved
· Salt and pepper
· A large pinch of nutmeg
· 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Place a 4 quart pot over medium-high heat and add oil.
2. When it's hot, add onions and sauté until they have softened.

3. Add garlic and continue to sauté for another minute. Add stock, grated potatoes and broccoli stems.

4. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until they are tender and potatoes have broken down.

5. Add nutmeg and adjust seasoning and puree with an immersion blender or in a food processor.

6. Reheat soup prior to serving and add reserved broccoli florets and cheddar cheese.

7. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until cheese has melted and florets are tender and bright green. Serve hot.

IM SORRY

HI BLOGGER WORLD!

I am dropping you a line to let you know i have not blogged much lately... i know....

Its tough keeping up with this blog, my niagara family blog AND facebook! yeah...i will openly admit it here and now...i am a facebook whore....

That is all i really had to say, as i don't have much time. Christmas is fast fast approaching and i have been living in my loft wrapping presents for 2 days already. I will take a picture of the destruction.

Soon there will be so many entries about Christmas you will want to hit me! so for now, enjoy the small break.

I leave you with a cute picture to cheer you up! not that anyone really reads this...

love,

Angie

Hurrah for Drunken cookiedom

MATT SAYS MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hey all! WOW! Christmas is fast approaching and after a KICK ASS saturday evening with some of my closest dearest friends, i am feeling an amount of refresh after a truly shit-tastic month and a half.


We drove down to Trenton for saturday and decided to make our way to PARIS ONTARIO to see my wonderful Niagara Family, Marky, melody, James, Holly, Trevor, Andy, Gigi and Baby Keegan.
We were celebrating Christmas (and thanksgiving...late) at marks house! We got there late in the evening as we were attending Matt's Grandfather's Funeral. (yes...we seriously had another close family member pass away this month)

James, Melody, Holly and Mark

But when we got there it was good times. My arms were stuffed with all my christmas cookies and presents, and Holly prepped a big dish of leftover turkey dinner for us. It was DELICIOUS! Holly was very proud of her Turkey, whom she affectionately named SKELETOR...???...

Keegan is only 2 so after a half hour of cuddles and laughs with him, Gigi and Andy headed home. Also, i got lots of yummy news!

For one, Gigi is expecting their second baby!

CONGRATULATIONS GERALDINE AND ANDREW!

And second, Trevor Proposed to Chantilly! YAY!

CONGRATULATIONS TREVOR AND CHANTILLY!

Cant wait until august, cause thats when the baby is due AND when the wedding is! Talk about one fun end to the summer! (yay barn wedding yay)
Anyways, the night was grand. we ate we drank, we laughed and jumped around. A little present exchange and some extra laughs. I got a new 7" santoku knife from chantilly, my secret santa. I can't wait to quick chop some potatos! And Chicken! HUZZAH! Matt got Rummoli and dirty playing cards with a blond chick dressed up in various outfits. including a carebear, strawberry shortcake, her cherry friend, alice of wonderland, and yes, even RAINBOW BRITE. love em they are so funny.

James and Melody, excited about their presents!

ANYWAYS!


We watched just friends and then decorated a bunch of the cookies i brought with me. It was hilarious, i wont rattle on about it. But it was funny...

Once we were all falling off to dreamland matt and i slept on a couch in the basement. But we moved the coffee table up and covered it in 4 blankets...making a sort of cot. I sletp half on the couch and half on the table...i wont say it was comfortable...but my back doesnt really hurt too much, and i was pretty comfy for MOST of the night. i'de do it again if i had to.





The next morning we all woke up around the same time, and lazed about chit chatting and goofing off until we smelt bacon and his parents called us up for breakfast, SWEET! we discovered a breakfast feast! THANKS YOU GUYS!

After more chilling and laughing and our general goofy selves, matt and i headed home for my mom's family christmas. Thats all. dont know how long i rambled...

Later in the week: The unfortunate gingerbread house and the annual christmas movie and cookie day.

Beefy Beefy Tomato yum yum!

THE RECIPE I THOUGH I'D NEVER KNOW!

I'm a big fan of beef. I'm also a big fan of Giada Dilaurentis's recipes. I like watching her cook, especially cause she makes a lot of recipes that I can relate to, that remind me of home. Mind you I don’t make half of them due to the abundance of seafood this woman eats. I, don’t.

I saw her make this recipe well over a year and half ago and i didnt write it down. I couldn't find the recipe online later, and was sad about it. It looked fricken delicious. a few months ago i saw the episode again and clung to every word of instruction. I also got the name of the dish this time and THANK FOODIES I found it online! It didn't take long for me to make this one!

It didnt take me tooo long to make it (about an hour start to finish) and my food guinea pigs Matt and Dave gave it raving reviews! I was so excited about this dish that i forgot to take a presentation picture! And so, i give you matts empty plate!!!

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups finely chopped peeled carrots (about 3)
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 (3 to 4-ounces each) beef scaloppini (from London Broil or Top Sirloin)
All-purpose flour, for dredging
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup frozen peas
1-ounce thinly sliced prosciutto, coarsely chopped (roughly 4 slices)

**I had a small snaffoo or 2 but it was still good. When i went to the grocery store i was in a mad rush to do ALOT of grocery shopping in less than a half hour! When i bought my beef scallopini i ended up with 1 package of 2 large and 1 package of 4 small, when i wanted 2 packages of 2 large!....wow was that ever informationless information!**

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the carrot, onion, and garlic and saute until the carrots are tender, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Stir in the Parmesan.


Season beef with salt and pepper. Using 2 tablespoons for each, divide the carrot mixture among the beef slices. Roll up the beef slices to enclose the filling, tucking in the ends. If you screwed it up and bought the wrong size like me, this will be the most annoying part. Secure the rolls with toothpicks. (don’t do what I did and use coloured ones! Make sure you have NON coloured ones before you start)

Heat the remaining oil and the remaining tablespoon of butter in the same large frying pan over medium-high heat. Dredge the beef rolls in flour to coat lightly.

Add the beef rolls and cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and stir to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the skillet.

Add the tomatoes with their juices and the bay leaf. Now, when it comes to cooking with tinned diced tomatoes, I always use AURORA tomatoes. They are sooo red and sooo fresh and juicy and just… the superior Italian canned company! of course i took this picture of the wrong side of the can...so those of you who speak french will have no problems here! (all it says it product of italy and something about being a good brand hee hee)

Cover and simmer until the beef is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer the beef rolls to a platter. Remove the toothpicks, then cover the beef rolls with foil to keep warm.

Add the peas and prosciutto to the sauce in the skillet and stir until the peas are heated through and the sauce reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.

Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper. Drizzle the sauce over the beef rolls and serve with your choice of veg! I made a steamed garlic broccoli with melted mozzarella!

It's Crantastic!

I love Sandi Richard, and am slowly making more and more of her recipes. I was pretty intrigued by this particular one...and made it for 4 people instead of 2 which was what the original recipe was for. I got mixed reviews!!!!!!!! Melody and James gobbled theirs down wuite happily, as did I. Matt wasnt the biggest fan but prefers my other ways of making them, (I make a breaded, baked chop smothered in apple sauce and a plain grilled with vinegar and oil on it) So im including the ingredients from the original recipe and my own amounts for 4.

FOR 2 PEOPLE!

2 x pork chops, half inch thick (675 g or 24 oz)
1/4 cup flour (60 mL)
1 tsp fresh pepper (5 mL)
1 tbsp butter (15 mL)
Foil
1 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen (250 mL)
1 tbsp maple syrup (15 mL)
Reserved flour
2/3 cup apple juice (150 mL)
2/3 cup vegetable broth (preferably low sodium) (150 mL)
1 tbsp maple syrup (15 mL)

FOR 4 PEOPLE!

7-8 small pork chops (depending on serving amounts you are looking for)

1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 heaping tsp black pepper

1 1/2 tbs Butter or Margarine
1 1/2- 2 Cups Fresh Cranberries

3 tbsp maple Syrup

reserved flour
1 1/2 cups apple juice

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 tbs maple syrup

In a bag or shaker container, dredge pork chops in flour and pepper. Set aside balance of flour for later.

Heat butter in fry pan. Brown chops for 3 minutes per side or until nicely brown. Remove from pan and tightly cover with foil on a plate.

Add cranberries and sauté until slightly softened. Add syrup and stir to coat (in my picture..though its a bad one...you can see that my cranberries popped and got really soft too fast. Especially when the syrup got really hot! I suggest turning the pan down to medium low while doing this part). Sprinkle reserved flour all over pan. Gradually stir in apple juice, broth, syrup and meat drippings from plate.

Increase heat slightly at medium high until mixture starts to boil and thickens slightly.

Return chops to pan, baste with sauce and let simmer for 8 additional minutes flipping once.

VOILA! I served mine with honey brown sugar carrots and my garlic butter brussel sprouts. When i look back on this meal i think to myself...HOLY SUGAR MEAL!

I will probably make it again but for 2 people. Coming later this week, Giada'as Involtini of Beef!

Lilli the cat: Mastermind or dumbass?

Just WHY Lilli is a mischievous Kitty!

So I am sitting here uber bored and in desperate need to entertain myself. That being said, what better was to pass the time then to create a new post! But a post about what?
Something that makes me happy, always makes me smile and gives me a cozy warm feeling! My fuzzball baby, LILLIX!

Lilli has a few nicknames...nick names are lilli, lix, lillykin, lillyboo, lillybitch and shut up im trying to sleep

OK… so in the past I have made certain comments about Lillix,…whom over the years has really more become… Lilli! She is indeed, a mischievous cat!

But howwwww mischievous can she possibly be Angie? Well lets see….

She cries all day if her food is older than 6 hours. And wont eat in the morning if there is leftover food from the night before. She will piss whine and moan until fresh food makes its way in there.
She licks, bites and paws at any bare skin poking out of the blanket at night
She wont leave me alone EVER
She pushes my laptop off my lap for hugs
She plays acrobat in the loft
She finds a way to sleep in EVERYTHING



She licks and steals food off of plates but never eats it
She sits in EVERYTHING. (pasta pots, small deco boxes, purses…)
She eats photos
She steals my food but doesnt ever eat it
She runs out the doors when they open
She plays on every table, counter, mantle, side table and chair there is
She has managed to scratch the shit out of my leather couches and new leather kitchen set..she is declawed….She likes to scratch the shit out of stuff with her back paws…

So without much further ado, I give you a big healthy dose of laughing at my bad little kitty!

Archive From the Prissy Prom Queen file, I am quoted as introducing Lilli to you like so….

"This cat is...naughty? bad? She cries alll the time. If her food is more than half a day old, if there's one 'entry' in her litter box, if you arent picking her up lalala. She has a nasty thing with eating any developed pictures we leave lying around and gets onto EVERY TABLE and EVERY COUNTER we have. She sleeps ONLY on your chest and butt and between your knees. She purrs louder then a jet engine and loves to do it right in your ear at 4am. But we love her cause cry baby or not she's got nothing but love to give. Has no bad tempers, and 1001 noises, some that sound likes barks and hello's! she plays FETCH! FETCH! and TAG!She likes to play acrobat on the top edges of my loft banisters and dodges through them side to side 15 feet in the air! I have a heart attack every time.She drives my whole family crazy but they cant help but look at that face and melt! her "


As much of a pain in the ass as lilli can be, I without a doubt could care less! She is such a loving, sweet cat that even though shes all over everything and louder than the rest of us, she’s my best friend, by fuzzy baby, and matt will agree that she is our spoiled child!!!!

FINALLY!

FINALLLLLLYYYY!!!!!! It has been a WEEK! A whole WEEK i have been trying to post pictures into my blog!

So here is just a pretty picture of my beauuutiful kitty. Later there will be many pictures... As that was a story i was trying to tell....