A few years ago, a friend hosted a soup swap, where a bunch of us met and swapped quarts of soup. It was an impressive affair, with soups ranging from oxtail soup to clam chowder to Tom Ka Gai.
I was relatively new to cooking and had never really made soup before, so it took me a while to figure out what I could manage. I decided to go with butternut squash soup. I actually thought I was going fancy, because for me, peeling and cutting up all that squash seemed so labor-intensive! I packaged my soup with some “homemade Acme baguette croutons” on the side, hoping that it would convince people to PICK MINE!! 🙂
The event was pretty fun, and I came home with a nice variety of soups to sample. I did, however, decide that butternut squash soup was too much work to make, so I didn’t really consider making it again… untilllll…
I DISCOVERED PRE-PEELED AND CUBED BUTTERNUT SQUASH AT COSTCO!
First of all, thank you for your responses in my last post. I felt like I just made a bunch of new friends, and now I want to visit y’all in Australia and the UK and throughout the U.S.! I really do appreciate that you’ve joined me here on this blog and I hope you continue to benefit from what I share here. 😀 – JoEllen
This recipe is DELISH and I had to share it with ya while the zucchinis are still big and ripe and ready to go this season! I made it this week and brought some to our friends who just had their second child (NEWBORNS ARE SO FRESH AND SWEET AND CUTE TO HOLD!) and received this adorable feedback from their two year old son:
We thoroughly enjoyed your meal! Isaac kept saying “Joellen did not cook the soup. No no the chef cooked it.” I kept telling him auntie Jo cooked it but he kept insisting it was a chef. lol. he really loved it.
See? Kid-approved. And simple to make. Can’t ask for much more than that.
Maybe it’s just me, but zucchini in soup form tastes nothing like sauteed zucchini. I like it both ways, but I would have never guessed that the soup version would taste the way it does! It’s bright and creamy and smooth and even a little sweet.
**REMINDER: BOOK GIVEAWAY ENDS TONIGHT AT 11:59PM PST! :]]**
HOORAY! I JUST FOUND MY NEW FAVORITE WAY TO USE UP EGG WHITES!
…and I had a lot of them. I should’ve taken a picture of the three cups of egg whites brimming over in my Pyrex. Kinda gross. Why so many egg whites? Because ice cream, my friend. Lots and lots of ice cream. Specifically, lots of “frozen custard,” which is just a fancy way of describing a method of making ice cream with egg yolks.
Made an angel food cake, egg white omelette, or some macarons and have leftover egg yolks? Here are ideas for using ’em up! I love rich, creamy desserts, and here are some of my all-time favorites! Bookmark or pin them so they’re handy the next time you need this!
Using up egg yolks is easy for me. Ice cream, creme brulee, pastry cream… these are all some of my favorite things. I’m always left with a bowl full of egg whites, so I’ve had to find ways to finish off up to sixteen egg yolks at a time! Here are my favorite ways to not waste those whites. Bookmark or pin them so they’re handy the next time you need this!
My dad is an amazing cook. He’s the kind of cook who bikes to the farmer’s market, picks out what looks fresh, and picks up quality meats to go with his food. Organic, wild, etc. He rarely uses recipes, and is the legit kind of cook who just does what looks right and feels right. This is great for him, but not so great for me, because when I try to get recipes from him, his measurements are approximate and instructions general. It’s a rare feat that I actually have a recipe from the man with numbers and measurements so I can attempt it on my own.
But I have at least one. And it’s a really good one. Tasty, simple, and little prep. One of those perfect recipes that you’ll find yourself going back to whenever you feel like eating something tender and meaty but don’t want to do much cooking.
This recipe is for my dad’s baby back ribs. They are so, so good, and I would have never guessed the secret ingredient in a million years, so it’s a good thing I now have this one written down for posterity!
When I first got married, I had no idea how to cook.
“Oh, but you bake!” friends would say.
Baking ? cooking, my friends.
The whole thing was so overwhelming to me, from menu planning to grocery shopping to actually making edible things. If my husband hadn’t been so incredibly encouraging about the whole project and agreed to wash all the dishes (and there were a lot in the beginning, before experience taught me how to streamline better), I don’t know where we be today.
Since I was so daunted by the prospect of making upwards of 200 meals a year, I instead focused on making it a personal goal to simply find five good recipes to “add to the mix.” I decided to research 5 of the diet friendly dishes closest to me, to try and inspire me.
Yes. Five.
That sounds totally doable, right?
One of my favorite little restaurants in college served up a rich and creamy pasta dish called The Godfather’s Favorite. It was also my favorite. And probably lots of other people’s favorites. Perhaps it will be one of your favorites, too! I’m posting this recipe here at the request of, coincidentally, my goddaughter’s mom! Ooh. I just thought of a really clever name for my version of this recipe. Heh heh. I bet you’ve guessed it already…
Since I rarely make the trek back up to my alma mater, I had to figure out how to make this myself. Thanks to the Internet, I was able to experiment a bit and put together something really, really close. Warning: this dish is not healthy. Make it when you’re going to have a bunch of younguns over who are not yet concerned about their cholesterol, carb, or fat intake. Pair it with a side salad to make yourself feel a little better about it. But do make it. It’s creamy, tasty, and deeeeelicious!
We love eating salmon in this house. Good thing, too, because it’s always listed as one of those super healthy foods full of omega-3’s. I still don’t really get what omega-3’s are, but I know they’re good for you, so that’s reason enough for me! If you want to learn more about omega-3’s and everything salmon, check out this article here that is packed with great info!
We enjoy our salmon many ways: raw (sashimi!), seasoned and baked with garlic salt, garlic and lemon, and salt and peppered with garlic, dill, and dabs of butter. Lately, I’ve had a crush on a recipe from Ina: panko-crusted salmon! Mmmm. This one stands out because of the crunchiness. Yes, I love crunchy things. This one is a twofer: you get the crunchiness from the tasty panko topping, and the savory, mouth-watering crunch of pan-fried salmon skin on the bottom.
YUM.
I feel so fancy when I make this. I mean, panko, salmon, lemon, parsley, and dijon mustard? Doesn’t that just sound like an amazing combination to you? Yet it’s really easy to prepare. You just brush some mustard onto salmon fillets, top with a panko mixture, pan-fry on one side, then finish it off in the oven. It’s some seriously simple cooking that yields impressively tasty results. Ina’s timing for cooking salmon has always been just right for me, so I would follow the instructions to the minute.
This looked like one of those ideas that would sound good in my head but maybe not actually taste that great in real life:
Yeah… nope. It was good.
I saw it here, but… is it just me, or is there no recipe there?
I mean, the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but I know I used to be heavily recipe-dependent, so if you’d like a recipe to follow along with, I’ve approximated what I did to make mine! It’s pretty finger-lickin’ delicious.
This would be a great side for a bbq this summer– if you’re gonna get your hands dirty anyway, might as well! It makes for a fun presentation if you’re having friends over, and who can resist some savory garlic bread? Yum!
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