Turkey Noodle Soup

Can. You. Believe. It?

It's December. Already. I'm in shock. It feels like just yesterday I was pouring over Pinterest, trying to pick out Christmas 2014's cookie selections. How is it that a whole year has flown by? I know, I know, I say this every year, but does anyone else feel this way? 

2015 was one for the books in terms of recipes. I was going through my 2015 posts and statistics, trying to guesstimate which recipes are going to make the top 15 of 2015. It was a great year for food photography. An unparalleled year. I felt quite a bit of satisfaction going over the years' work. And now, we are almost to another year. I get to post new Christmas cookies this month. Yippee! This year's selection includes : 

Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Peppers

Hello friends! Up on deck today, a vegetarian stuffed pepper. Filled to the brim with marinara sauce, rice, spinach, mushrooms, panko, and of course, cheese! These are a great alternative to the standard stuffed pepper that is usually filled with a meat mixture. Use leftover rice, and you've really got yourself a meal that seems like it would take a long time but actually comes together very fast.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

We are getting so close to Thanksgiving, I thought I would share my holy grail recipe for mashed potatoes. They are made with milk and sour cream, a sprinkle of fresh herbs, and the most important part, a truckload of freshly roasted garlic. Oh yeah. Don't make this recipe for date night, unless of course part of your date entails rebuffing the advances of vampires.

Recipe Redux: Oktoberfest Stew

Recipe Redux.

Recipe Re-do.

Whatever you want to call it, it's time for this month's Recipe Redux! This one is definitely a keeper. I've been making it ever since the hubby and I moved into our new house. Literally, I think this was THE first new recipe I ever made in my brand new kitchen. Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

When the hubby and I moved out of our rental in Ashland, it was the most organized move I'd ever, well, organized. I was on top of my game. I started packing 4 weeks before our move-out date, and I went slowly, room by room. Each box I packed had a room marked on it that it should go to. Underneath the name of the room, I listed every. single. thing. in the box. It was the most helpful thing I'd ever done.

Beer-Battered Fish & Chips

This one's for you Dad! :-)

I cannot tell you how much my family loves fish and chips. When my younger brother and I were little, little kids, I can remember Skippers being a family favorite destination. We would get soooooo excited if my parents said we were going there. I mean, I know we loved the little red jello's that Skippers hands out with every meal, but we also liked the fish. And the chips. While Skippers is kind of a no-go these days, fish and chips is still a classic. It's one of those meals where if it's on a menu at a restaurant I'm currently calling on, I'm likely to choose it. That being said, the selection of fish and chips around these parts is sadly, nonexistent. The hubby and I love to go to our local brewery for pizza and beer, but I expressly avoid their fish and chips. First of all, they use haddock. Not a favorite of mine. Plus, they bread theirs and it doesn't have a lot of flavor. The other restaurants in town? They all seem to order (and serve) exactly the same frozen food, so I can honestly say, there's no where to get fish and chips around here. We'd have to drive an hour to Huntington, and needless to say, we don't do that often. 

Recipe Redux: Chicken Stroganoff

Time for this month's Recipe Redux! This month, I'm taking on one of our house favorites, Chicken Stroganoff. Beef Stroganoff is a childhood favorite of mine, and one that my mother made often. However, the hubby and I don't eat a lot of red meat. And if I have steak in the house, you can bet I'm not disguising it under stroganoff. So, we substitute chicken. Looking back at my original pictures, it was time for an update-

I'm always surprised what pictures lead people to my website. Shockingly enough, often times it's really old recipes. Like this one. I first posted Chicken Stroganoff on May 7, 2012.  Just in case you might have forgotten, here's what was happening the world when I first posted this recipe:

What I Learned In My 2nd Year of Gardening

Well, I think it's time.

I officially put the garden to bed yesterday. Actually, I did most of the work on Friday before our first heavy frost. I was at the gym, walking on the treadmill, minding my own business when the local garden guy came on the news. He advised getting any vegetables you might have in the garden, out of the garden before the cold weather. I still had a few tomatoes and peppers on the vines, so I got to work. 

I pulled the last few green tomatoes, and put them in closed paper bags in the basement. They'll be ripe in a couple of weeks, and that will be a nice treat. I pulled up the tomato and pepper plants, and added them to the compost. 

Creamy Tomato Pasta with Smoked Salmon

You might be asking yourself, "What is up with all the smoked salmon??" Well,  the answer to that is I can get very good smoked salmon around here. I can get fairly decent frozen salmon around here. I say fairly decent, because it's not fresh and to me, frozen salmon always has a different texture. A drier texture. I grew up on fresh salmon, and therefore am used to succulent, moist, delicious salmon. In Oregon, all it takes is a trip to Costco. Even though we lived about an hour from the coast, the grocery stores around us always had fresh fare.  Fresh fish is one of the things I miss most about Oregon. We tried a fresh salmon from our local big box store one time, and it was gross.  So, I stick to frozen fish and smoked salmon. Such is life.

Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

Oh yes.

It's that wonderful time of year to pull out your slow cooker again! Admittedly, there are some that use their crock pot throughout the summer. It's true, the slow cooker is a great way to cook something without raising the temperature of the home. However, what usually cooks in a slow cooker? 

Meats. The hubby and I don't eat a lot of meat in the summer, and if we do, it's from the grill. 

Soups and stews. We rarely eat soup and never stew in the summer. 

Those 3 items make up the majority of slow cooker recipes. They are all things that scream "COMFORT!!!" food. And "comfort" food almost always equates to fall and winter weather in my book.

Recipe Redux: Pasta e Fagioli with Kale

Time for this month's Recipe Redux! I think the soup was in dire need of updated pictures-

That's the funny thing about photography. The more you progress, the more you look back and think, "Why didn't I change this one little thing?" or "Why didn't I add some color to that shot?" or "For the love, just blur that background!". Even while I bemoan the state of my early food photography, I also realize it's a wonderful thing. I shared so many recipes in the early days that are the hubby and I's absolute favorites. I'm enjoying these Redux's, if only to compare how far my photography has come. 

Two Tomato & Roasted Pepper Orzo Salad

What is it about roasted peppers? How does the humble bell pepper go from "Eh" to "Oh Yeah!" with just a quick turn in the oven? I'll never know, but this is a universal truth- You can take a ho-hum veggie that people seem to either love or hate (seriously, there's not a lot of in between) and turn it into gourmet perfection, all with the flick of an oven dial. Roasting peppers changes everything. The taste, the texture, the smell of your home... Peppers roasting in the oven is one of my favorite smells. I think it's because it reminds me of the Olive Garden and all those years I spent ordering Sausage Rustica, or penne with roasted peppers, thinly sliced onions, and smoked sausage, all cooked in spicy marinara. It was one of my favorite dishes. 

Zucchini "Crab" Cakes

-with homemade tarter sauce

You've heard of them. Perhaps you've even had them. It's hard to find someone who either hasn't heard of Zucchini "Crab" Cakes or, hasn't tried them. However, you may not have heard the one tip that takes these little cakes over the top.

What is it?

Roasted Cod with Herbed Garlic Butter

A simple fish recipe is on deck today.

I love simple fish recipes. Love, love, LOVE them. If you've got lovely, fresh fish (or even just a firm one that's previously been frozen) you won't even need much help in the flavor department. For instance, my hands-down-smack-me-in-the-face favorite way to eat salmon is to sprinkle it with Cajun seasoning and garlic powder and to simply grill it. It's soooooo easy, and soooooo delicious. 

Smoked Salmon Chowder

The hubby gets home tomorrow! Hip, hip, hooray! 

I'm excited, can you tell? I guess you could say I've had my fill of Mexican food. I'm ready to have my best friend back. Sure, it's been great fun slacking on the house work. Watching Days of Our Lives with a bowl of ice cream, hair in a scrunchy, living in my pajamas. Feasting on Mexican food all day, all night. It was all very amusing. But I'm done with it now. I like my life for a reason.

Greek Pasta Salad

Bring on the warm weather, bring on the pasta salad. The two go hand in hand, don't you think? If there is one food item that epitomizes summer, it would be cold pasta.

And ice cream.

And seviche.

And gazpacho.

Ok, ok, scratch that. The correct terminology is probably more like "If there is one of many food items that epitomize summer, it would be cold pasta". But that doesn't sound as cool, does it?

Eggs Poached in Marinara with Arugula

Happy Friday folks! I've got a great, brunch-y recipe for you today. Perfect for a late Saturday morning meal with your significant other. Or for dinner. We have breakfast-like meals for dinner quite a bit. Eggs, Bacon, and Toast is one of the easiest dinners to pull together at the drop of a hat. It's also a meal the hubby can fix when I don't feel like cooking :) Mwhahaha. But I digress. 

Chicken Soup with Homemade Egg Noodles

Cabin fever has set in.

This snow is driving the dogs and me batty. My normally calm, 8-year old Haloti has taken to running through the house, scooping up any old toy, and running through the house growling and snorting at it like a puppy.

Overnight Slow-Cooker Chicken Broth

I've got all kinds of things to talk to you about today. Slow cookers, chicken carcasses, herbs, veggies, broths, oh my! 

To tell you the truth, I haven't bought chicken broth in years. Years. I keep a can of chicken bouillon with my spices, but that's it. I've been making my own ever since I learned this super-simple way to make broth.

Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti

All right, before we get started talking about my favorite casserole ever... let's talk about other stuff. For one, I'm getting out of the house today. Finally! Ok, so it's only because I have a doctor's appointment for my back, but it's a start.

Baked Chicken Fingers and Fries

-with honey mustard dipping sauce

It's hard to find a person who doesn't like chicken fingers and fries. I mean, really. I'm sitting here, racking my brain, trying to think of someone, anyone I've ever met that doesn't like the combination. It's almost like it's in American DNA to crave those deep-fried, crunchy strips of goodness that we dip into every kind of sauce under the sun.