Soup! Soup! and more Soup!

It was a typical Monday, so... No class! Normally this means homework time (super lame way to spend my day off but such is the life of a student). I decided to procrastinate, another student talent, and make vegetable soup. I have a tendency to make 5 times as much food as I actually need. The bonus? LOTS of leftovers :) So after a quick stop to the store I got crackin...

Here are the main ingredients:
- carrots
- celery
- potatoes
- red and white onions
- head of garlic
- turnips (I have never eaten one or cooked with them before... this was my experiment for the day)
- diced tomatoes (I was lazy and used canned)
- peas (frozen or canned, personally I can't tell the difference in soup)
- corn (normally I use canned or frozen but... I'm an idiot and bought creamed corn instead... eek! another experiment!)
- canned mixed beans
- tomato paste
- pearl barley
- long grain brown rice and a little wild rice
- small brown lentils (any lentils work, whatever you have)
* I usually add cauliflower too but I forgot! Oops! *

(I added a bit more than what is shown above :P )

And here are the different seasonings I use (generally I just add, taste, add, taste, etc, etc until it tastes delicious!):
- lots of ground black pepper
- cayenne
- dried oregano
- dried basil
- soy sauce
- vegetable bouillon
- worchestire sauce
- tad of brown sugar
- occasionally salt (if needed)

(Clockwise from top-left: cayenne, oregano, soy sauce, cocoa powder)

If you're brave... try adding a little cocoa powder. It's my secret ingredient for chilli and some soups :)

I usually pre-slice/chop everything before hand so I can just throw stuff in when I need to. I started off heating a drizzle of olive oil in my giant pot. Then I threw in the crushed garlic and chopped onions, letting them sizzle until soft. I decided to pour in a little dry white wine to clean the pan and hopefully soak into the veggies.

(onions, garlic and wine... delicious!)

Immediately after I added shredded turnip, carrots and celery. I let them cook and absorb the delicious wine for a few minutes. I have to mention the smell.. I think it might be what heaven smells like! So yummy :)

(One reason I love cooking? The colors. They are amazing!)

At that point I added the tomatoes, tomato paste, lots of water, veggie bouillon and wild rice. After reaching a boil I left it to simmer for 15 minutes or so. During this I discovered I had once again, forgotten to buy ground pepper. Every time I tell myself... "I will never grind this much pepper by hand again!!" and every time I forget (good thing I have 15 minutes to burn). Next I added all the remaining veggies, barley, lentils and rice. This is the point where I realized I bought creamed corn. I was going to abandon it but then I thought "what the hell.." and just chucked it in there with a little frozen corn. I think it was actually better (happy surprise!).

It continued to simmer while I added all my seasoning (make sure you don't add too much,  as the veggies cook they will add their own touch. You can always add more at the end). I have to admit... I love adding soy sauce, it gives such a great flavour (this is why you don't need to add much salt, if any). I also dump a ton of cayenne in, yum yum yum!

After about 40 minutes I had to run to the gym and left my mom in charge of turning it off (classic, haha). When I came home it was waiting for me on the stove :) It was thick with veggies and plumped up grains, definitely more like a stew than a soup. A few swigs of soy sauce and cayenne and it was perfect! I now have a full freezer of vegetable soup and a happy vegetarian friend. Oh man... I'm getting hungry just writing this!! YUM!

Our First Dinner Party!

Finally, 5 months after moving into a new place, Matt and I had people over for a proper dinner! Our good friends Brandon and Emma, who are also engaged, came over for a visit :) Kelsey and Ku drifted in and out throughout the night but I'm going to include them anyway.

 Our menu was basically a giant experiment. Here is the plan:

- Penne pasta with a tomato/spicy Italian sausage sauce (Matt tried to explain his vision for the sauce but I got lost and left this completely up to him). 

- Cheesy mashed potatoes with sausage and onions (You may be wondering what's with all the sausage??? Matt got a great deal on Italian sausage so there was plenty in his freezer)

- Ceasar salad with homemade croutons and dressing

After we arrived in Vancouver, Matt and I cut up and froze the sheet carrot cake and brownies (the topic of  an earlier post). I saved a few little brownies for dessert, in addition to the round carrot cake. Matt started cooking the sausage and potatoes while I got ready (what a fantastic fiance!!). Brandon and Emma came right on time.. so we got to chat while we cooked. 

One thing I need to put on our wedding registry asap is a garlic press! Oh god it took me FOREVER to chop and crush a whole head of garlic (but we did put it in the sauce, potatoes, salad dressing and croutons... yikers). Everything came together really well... The sauce turned out amazing!! One of the best pasta dishes I think I've ever had. The mashed potatoes were delicious.. a mixture of monterrey jack, sausage slices, garlic and sauteed onions. I was a little uneasy about the ceasar dressing (the raw egg freaked me out a little haha) but it turned out well... could use a little more zip though. My classic homemade croutons turned out ok.. a little under toasted but I was too impatient to wait for them to finish (I swear Matt's oven was out to get me on this one). 

The food went over great. Here's Matt and his second helping <3

Dessert was great, although everyone was full so there was quite a bit left (more for the boys to eat and Brandon to take home). I can't wait to have people over again... actually... I can't wait to move into our own place and have people over. I wonder what will be next in my New Wife Project??

My Friday Ritual

So the end of the week means two things:

1. I get to go to Vancouver and visit Matthew!
2. I get to go to Vancouver and visit Matthew and must figure out what on earth I'm going to bring!

While at the gym Thursday night, I day dreamed about all the delicious things I could bake for him. After much thought I decided on carrot cake. This is not just ANY carrot cake. It's a carrot-zucchini cake with tons of crunchy walnuts and cream cheese icing. I made this a few weeks ago and it went over very well (I think a few of the boys became a tad bit addicted). On the way to the grocery store I decided to make brownies as well. Technically they are German Chocolate Squares (with chopped up Rolo's, walnuts, chippits and coconut). Do you see the need to go to the gym now? These are not thigh-friendly recipes :P I couldn't for the life of me remember how many carrots and zucchini I needed so I bought enough to feed an army, literally.

Friday morning came and I started my baking marathon (thank goodness it was a snow day! No school!). I started with the carrot cake... As I grated the carrots and zucchini I realized I bought wayyyyyy too many veggies. So what is the solution to this problem? Make 3 times the recipe! So for the next hour I grated veggies, chopped walnuts, mixed and mixed and mixed some more (have I mentioned how much I adore KitchenAid mixers yet??!!). I snapped a few pics between adding the many ingredients.

I wasn't quite paying attention... the flour went a little wild! haha

Lets just say 3x the recipe makes A LOT of cake. I ended up with three 9 inch rounds and a gigantic sheet cake. I hope Matt really really likes carrot cake because he's getting a lot of it :P 

At this point one of my bf's Kelsey came over and helped me make the cream cheese icing. Logically, if you triple the cake you need to triple the icing right? Lets just say me made a shit ton of icing. I ran into a little snafoo.. mental note people.. vanilla from Mexico is basically a billion times stronger than regular crappy vanilla from Canada. Needless to say I added half the amount and it was still too strong. I just threw in some lemon juice and zest and it was saved (thank goodness). I left one round at home for my parents and packed the rest to take to Vancouver. Here's a slice from the double layer cake I finished in Vancouver..

Matt's roommate Ku has been bugging me for months to make those brownies. I decided to, once again, triple the recipe. It normally makes a 9x9 but I used a 9x13 this time. These brownies are straight from the devil... rolo's, walnuts, chippits and coconut! Delicious! They are super fast and easy to make, especially when Kelsey does the hard work of mixing all the yummy bits in. As soon as they popped out the oven we were off to Vancouver! My phone does not do this justice..

The plan for Friday night?? Hosting a little dinner party...

Baked Tortellini

Now that school has begun, it's time to start making lunches again! I was out in Vancouver for the weekend and decided to experiment with the giant bag of tortellini in my fiance Matt's freezer. I went to the store with my partner in crime Kelsey and picked up the ingredients. As the pasta was cooking away, I sliced and fried some italian sausages until they were brown and delicious. Diced onions where then added to the pan and cooked to tender. After that I mixed the drained tortellini, sausages and onions in a large bowl with a vodka pasta sauce and shredded monterey jack cheese. I poured the mixture into several baking dishes (we definitely need to buy a larger one) and then topped with more cheese! They then went into the oven until hot and toasty on top.

Matt was a HUGE fan of this one! Nice and spicy, great flavour. I will definitely make this again :) Here's a last minute picture I snapped before we dived into it...