Bath Time Fun

Remember when taking a bath was this much fun?  Blessedly, these days, my fun is getting to watch bath time be this much fun and marvel at the miracle of children.

Chicken Peanut Soup with Mashed Yams

Winter is dragging on.  This week, we needed a dinner to warm us up, just to get us through.  Soup was the perfect choice, but sometimes, it needs a little something extra.  I thought, how about mashed potatoes?  Better yet, how about buttered, mashed sweet potatoes?  With every spoonful, you can get a little bit of the velvety soup and a little bit of the rich, sweet yams.  Perfection on a spoon!

Begin by making the mashed yams.  I happened to have the largest yam I've ever seen in my pantry, but if you have normal sized ones, I would use two.

Chop them up into nice small (about 1") pieces so they cook quickly.

Take a sauce pan and add a teaspoon of salt to the water and bring to a boil

before adding the yams. 

Cook for about 15 minutes, until each piece is nice and soft, easily pierced with a fork.  I'm salivating writing this, which is odd, because up until about six months ago, I thought I hated yams.  Turns out, I'm embarrassed to admit, I hadn't really tried them.  It all started one night with savory sweet potato fries and these days, I'm watering my keyboard while blogging about sweet potatoes late at night...

When the yams are nice and soft, drain them and then add 1/3 cup of milk and 3 tablespoons of butter to the pan.

Dump the yams back in, skin and all.  If you don't like the texture the skins add, you should peel the yam before you cut it up, so hopefully you aren't reading this sentence, mid preparation, for the first time.

Add salt, to taste.  That looks like an empty grinder doesn't it?  I must have fetched a new one to finish the recipe, but that just looks goofy.  My apologies.  Cover up the yams to keep them warm and set the pan aside.

The base of the soup is 4 cups of chicken stock and 1 cup of shredded chicken.  I happen to have this chicken in my freezer from the last time I made stock and it is perfect for this application, but you can also boil some chicken breasts or use the meat from a rotisserie chicken.

We also need lots of vegetables.  I used 2 carrots, 1/2 cup of roasted red bell peppers, 4 cloves of garlic, 1/2 an onion, 3 green onions, 2 stalks of celery and a bunch of cilantro.

I cut the carrots into fourths lengthwise and then sliced.

The green onions were sliced,

as was the celery.

The cilantro was roughly chopped.

The garlic minced and the onion diced.

Such pretty colors, and the kitchen should now smell wonderful.

To start the soup, place the chicken stock and chicken into an enameled roasting pan.  Mine was frozen, so I let it come to a simmer

before adding the carrots. 

Stir this all together and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

Once the carrots are tender, add one 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes with their juice.

Next, add the celery,

onion,

green onions,

roasted pepper,

and garlic.

For a little extra kick, I like to add about a teaspoon of red pepper flakes.  Omit or adjust this amount depending on how much heat you want in the soup.

Season with salt (ah, see the new salt grinder) and pepper and let simmer for another 20 minutes.

Now, for the surprise ingredient.  You should recognize this label, if your choosy....  Which I am.

I know, it sounds crazy, but it makes the soup. 

You want to add one big dollop, about 1/3 a cup, of creamy peanut butter and stir until it is nice and smooth.

Finally, add about three quarters of the cilantro, reserving the remainder for garnish.

Ladle some soup into a bowl

and then, using an ice cream scoop, add a scoop of the mashed yams.  Garnish with the remaining cilantro. 

The trick is to get a little bit of the buttery mashed yams and a little bit of the soup in each bite.  It takes practice to measure it out just right.  You might have to have several bowls! Enjoy!

Chicken Peanut Soup with Mashed Yams
serves: 4  (Recipe also on Tasty Kitchen)

• 2 medium yams, cut into 1" pieces
• 1 t salt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 T butter
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup shredded cooked chicken
• 2 carrots, diced
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 green onions, diced
• 1/2 cup roasted red bell peppers
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• salt
• pepper
  
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  
• 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped and divided
  

Begin by preparing the mashed yams. Add a teaspoon of salt to a pan of boiling water before adding the yams.  Cook for 15 minutes, until yams are easily pierced with a fork, and then drain.  Add milk and butter to the pan with the yams and mash.  Add salt, to taste.  Cover to keep warm and set aside.

For the soup, heat the chicken stock and shredded chicken to a simmer in a large enameled roasting pan or stock pot.  Add the carrots and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

Once the carrots are tender, add diced tomatoes with their juice, celery, onions, green onions, roasted pepper and garlic.  Add red pepper flakes to taste.Season with salt and pepper and let simmer for another 20 minutes. 

Add peanut butter to the pan and stir until smooth.  Remove from heat and add three quarters of the cilantro.  Ladle soup into a bowl and add a scoop of mashed yams.  Garnish with remaining cilantro.

Fashion Lessons: 101

I've been working my way through all my old pictures with Picasa's people identification tool.  At this point, let me issue a warning.  If you have the slightest bit of obsessive compulsive disorder tendencies, this is NOT a task you should ever start.  EVER!  Don't even try it to see how it works.  I promise, you will be sucked into the face identification vortex.  For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to identify shadows in crowds.  For instance, do I know that person, or is it a random bystander at the St Patrick's Day parade from 2004?

Anyway, while I was wasting hours tagging all my family, friends, acquaintances and strangers,  I noticed that in a high percentage of the snapshots, our youngest son is in very odd ensembles.  Now I know that we aren't fashion forward at our house, but I think he may have a problem. 

Here he is a couple of years ago.  Now, the outfit would be OK if he had on pants, and if it was winter.

How about this one taken just a few weeks ago?  That's my headband.  I'm just lucky it was on his head instead of mine, because "fixing my hair" is his other favorite thing to do while I'm trying to work...  And he is disappointed when I comb out my hair when we make a carpool run.

This is more like it.  Middle of winter, in boxers or "little pajamas", never mind the cold, with my "Jacklyn Onassis" sunglasses on.

This one screams classic confusion.  Am I superman?  Am I a cowboy?  Am I a train engineer?

Fatigues with antenna sportin' rain boots.  His explanation?  "Mom, I don't have any real army boots".

And this, this is over the top, even for him.  Tightey whiteys on his head with hot wheel sunglasses.  Hmmm...  I swear that I've always believed he was gifted, but I may need to reconsider exactly what those gifts are.

Although I will admit that the other day I threw a pair of pants and shirt at him as I was folding laundry in an effort to get him out of the aforementioned boxers and he looked at it and asked me completely deadpan, "Mom, isn't that too much green?"  How do you like them apples?

Uova in Purgatory

See this cookbook?  This well used and loved cookbook?

A few years ago, my husband was on an Italian cooking kick, and this turned into his bible.

I know...  A TV show cookbook?  But seriously, it has some great recipes in it. 

It has been rode hard and put away wet...  The pages are dog eared and tattered....

It has food splashed on it and some of the pages have stuck together, but it has been a fixture in our kitchen for many years.  These days, we make modifications of many of the recipes which have been tailored to meet the palate of our family.  But, I would highly recommend the cookbook to anyone who wants a good general purpose, traditional Italian cookbook.  I'm going to be posting a few of our favorites in the next few weeks.  Today, it is Uova  (Eggs) in Purgatory. 

The ingredients are pure and simple.  Tomatoes, eggs, garlic, basil, olive oil, and (missing from this picture) salt, pepper and Parmesan.

My family is garlic crazy, so we start with around 8 garlic cloves

and mince them up into a nice big pile.

Next, take two 14.5 ounce cans of diced or whole tomatoes

and puree them in a blender.

I think this recipe is best done in a cast iron skillet, but most types of skillets should work.  Add 1/4 of cup of olive oil to the pan along with the minced garlic.  I usually don't turn the heat on until both the oil and garlic are in the pan because of the potential to scorch the garlic if the oil is too hot.

Cook the garlic over medium heat until it is lightly browned and then add the pureed tomatoes.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste

and then stir in a bunch of basil.

Once combined, simmer the sauce over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.  While the sauce is cooking, grate 1/2 a cup of Parmesan cheese.  I like to use a coarse grate for the cheese in this dish.

The sauce is thick enough when you can see the bottom of your pan for a few seconds as you stir.

Now it is time to add 8 eggs.  I've found the easiest way to do this is to lay a spoon into the sauce, making a well, crack the egg into the spoon and then slip the spoon out from under the egg.

Try to keep the eggs evenly spaced in the pan.

Season again with salt and pepper and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top.

Cover and cook over low heat until eggs are the desired consistency.  If you like a nice runny yolk, this is usually about three minutes.

Sprinkle the dish with a little Italian parsley, if desired,

spoon two eggs with lots o' sauce onto each plate

and serve with crusty Italian bread to sop up the extra sauce and yolk.

Uova in Purgatory
serves: 4  (Recipe also on Tasty Kitchen)

• 8 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
  
• 2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes, pureed
  
•  salt
•  freshly ground pepper
• 10 basil leaves
  
• 8 eggs
• 1/2 c Parmesan, coarsely grated
  
• Italian parsley, for garnish
  

Puree the tomatoes in a blender.  Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil with minced garlic in a cast iron skillet until golden.  Add the pureed tomatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in a bunch of basil.  Simmer the sauce over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes until nicely thickened.

Making a well in the sauce with a spoon, crack an egg into the spoon and then slip the spoon out from under the egg.  Repeat for each of the eight eggs, keeping the eggs evenly spaced in the skillet.  Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the top.  Cover and cook over low heat until eggs are the desired consistency, about three minutes.

Garnish with a little Italian parsley and serve with Italian bread.