Chefk's Foodie Blog

[chefk]

Thanks! I promised some pictures so here they are. One is the salad of Kalyn's, next is a fantastic minestrone and the last was from a cooking light magazine recipe Tenderloin in a Black Pepper Cherry Sauce. the Swiss chard was my own.

[smay]

Mmmmmm. I want minestrone!

[chefk]

Kellie’s Minestrone Soup

1 box container of chicken or vegetable stock
1 ½ C water
1 lg can crushed tomatoes
1 lg can whole tomatoes w/ the juice (break apart into sauce)
1 can navy or white Italian bean
1 can kidney bean (pour in bean juices too)
4 lg carrots sliced
4 stalks sliced celery w/ vein removed
3 mini zucchinis quartered and sliced
4 small yellow onions cubed
1 bunch green onions sliced
2 handfuls of fresh spinach stem removed
7 med red potatoes (med to small cubes)
2 bay leaves
2 Tbs basil
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp rosemary (fresh if you have it)
½ tsp salt
Ground fresh black pepper
2 shakes red pepper
½ tsp onion powder

Put all ingredients in a lg thick bottomed stock pot and simmer for 2 hours
Serve over med shells w/ fresh baked wheat
Garnish w/ parmesan

Seriously like 5 minutes of prep. I love this stuff. I'm sure you can use up some of your tomatoes with this!

[smay]

Missing zucchini and green onions. Thoughts on how much would that impact flavor? I really want to make this!!!!!!

Hope you had a good weekend. I wish it could have been longer. This unseasonably warm weather makes me want to get stuff done outside and around the house, and that would be okay during the week if it wasn't dark by 7:00!

[chefk]

I'd go ahead and make it. I have a pretty strong feeling on soup.

If you got it, throw it in. (...and no worries if you don't!)

[chefk]

Okay a few things going on cook-wise. I have recipe club tomorrow night, so I'm off the beach then. The theme is chili cook off and fall favorites. It seems obvious that I'd make a chili since it's beachy, but I thought I'd tackle desert since I have a good fall-spin dessert that isn't on the beach, but isn't absolutely horrible. It's a dessert made with only grapes, white chocolate and crumbled peanuts. You just dip, roll and eat and they weirdly enough taste just like caramel covered apples.

Here's a picture...Disclosure alert: NOT BEACH FRIENDLY!!

There seems to be a lot of chili, sweet potato and squash dishes this time, so I don't think tomorrow will be all that bad. ...Still crossing my fingers.

[chefk]

Fun cooking weekend. I did a beef roast on the rotisserie. It had a wicked chili rub and I did up spiced red potatoes, pablanos, onions, red peppers and guac too.

[chefk]

Last night was BBQ chicken and grilled baked beans. The beans were a blast! I did them on the grill. I was really happy to make the beans like this. I used kidney and navy beans, tomato paste, mustard, vinegar, blackstrap molasses, garlic, onion and spices. Baked beans are normally off limits, but I NEEDED baked beans, so here they are...

[dragonflymt]

Ummm...can we all have Chef K cook for us?

I will be making that minnestrone soup for sure but I'd like to stick it in a crock pot??

I'm back and can't wait to get some recipes from your journal! Starting with that soup...just need to find my crockpot. Or, I guess I could just cook it over the stove!

Hope you are well...

[chefk]

Welcome back, flygirl! It's totally doable in a pot. Just toss everything in and let it cook. It's a way easy recipe. If you're actually doing P1 you could skip the red potatoes and add another handful of other stuff, but either way you'll be happy. I love love love soup season.

[smay]

Soup's on! Prep took me a bit longer since I used fresh tomatoes and I had the joy of blanching and peeling...

[JeffInJax]

Thats right, we all know how much love smay has for tomatoes this time of the year Everything always looks delicious here, what spices did you use for the "chili rub", as it looks like something id definetly want to try. Hope the recipe club was enjoyable!

[smay]

The soup was amazing. Picture of it simmering on the stove in my journal!

[chefk]

Jeff-
The rub was a "wet" rub; a short marinade...maybe 20 minutes while I cut veggies and got the grill heated. I rubbed it with oil and white vinegar in a ziplock and then added about 2 TBS ancho chili powder, tsp each of oregano, garlic, onion and paprika powders and some S&P. Massage it into the meat and let it come to room temp while you prep everything. I cut up about 10 mini red potatoes and tossed them with paprika, garlic, S&P and oil. Those cooked in a grill pan for the whole time the meat was on, tossing. The pablanos, red peppers and onions just had oregano, lime, S&P and oil and they went on in the last 15 minutes. I just tossed them into the potato basket as they got done. I pulled the beef at 155F and it was medium after resting. I would take it off at 150 next time and let it rest for MR. I'd say it took an hour on the rotisserie, but it'll vary depending on roast size and temp. This was maybe 2 lbs. I had a HUGE bowl of guacamole to go with this and it all went. Leftover meat and potatoes went into omelets in the morning! the potatoes I did off to the side with the burner off and the lid was closed so the "baked".

Glad you liked it Smay! I'll go check out your pic. Be right back...

[chefk]

Okay I'm back. Smay made my soup! Really! She has proof, go check it out!!

Recipe club was pretty dang tasty. It showed up on the scale but I think it'll be temporary since most of what I ate was good. It started with a candied walnut gorgonzola salad and a butternut squash soup...(I think you could easily alter the salad to make it beachy)