The Perfect Summer Soup

I have been really anxious to make a summer soup lately, but I haven't found anything that sounds appetizing.  The right balance of light and fulfilling is really hard to accomplish, but as I browsed the pages of my favorite sites, I happened upon this one for Asparagus soup.  You would never know that it wasn't cream based because the asparagus and leeks create a lovely velvety texture that is a perfect compliment to the tangy goat cheese.  Try this one out, you are going to love it!

Asparagus Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese

Courtesy of Giada de Laurentis

Ingredients

1/2 cup (4 ounces) Goat Cheese, at room temperature

2 tablespoons fresh Basil Leaves, chopped

Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Cooking Spray

2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

1 large leek (white and light green part only), thinly sliced

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

2 pounds medium Asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 fresh basil leaves, chopped

Directions

Goat cheese: Line a small backing sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Using a fork, in a small bowl, combine the goat cheese and basil till smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Using a 1/2 ounce cooking scoop or a round tablespoon measure sprayed vegetable cooking spray, scoop the goat cheese into balls and arrange on the prepared baking sheet.  

Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  

In a large saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat.  Add the leeks and cook, stirring constantly until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the broth, asparagus and basil.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook until the asparagus is tender, about 15 minutes.  Using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Keep the soup warm over low heat.  

To serve: Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and garnish with the herbed goat cheese.  

Time to Relax

The other night I was really in the mood for something I could put on the stove and then go relax.  I find cooking very relaxing and I look forward to coming home to make dinner, but sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and relax after work.  As I was searching through recipes, I came across this one from Giada for Beef and Cannellini Bean Minestrone and it sounded like the perfect thing to complete my day.  

Minestrone is one of my favorite soups, but it never has enough protein or substance to be a full meal.  Giada made a few changes to this one, the biggest one being that it calls for ground beef.  I used little shells like I do in my mom's Pasta Fagioli because Brian didn't want the beans.  I think it would be great either way.  This is one of those meals you could make to warm you up in the winter or in this case a summer soup full of great vegetables!

The best part of this meal was once I put all the ingredients in the pot, I was able to sit on the couch and watch America's Got Talent.  Nick Cannon makes me laugh!

Beef and Cannellini Bean Minestrone

Recipe courtesy of Giada

• Ingredients
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 rib celery, diced
• Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
• 8 ounces lean (8 percent fat) ground beef
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 cups low sodium beef broth
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

In a large saucepan, add the oil and heat over medium heat.  Stir in the onion, carrot and celery and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.  Increase the heat to high and add the ground beef and garlic.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Cook until the beef is browned and cooked through, about 6 to 7 minutes.  Stir in the tomato paste and mix to combine.  Add the broth, tomatoes, beans and bay leaf.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the liquid has reduced by half, about 30 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf and discard.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with Parmesan.

Looking Pretty

For months my sister and I have been trying to think of the perfect thing to do for my mom for her birthday. It is not so easy trying to plan something special for someone who is so wonderful, always doing things for everyone else and who has everything! After racking our brains, we finally felt like she came up with the perfect plan!

After Brian and I's wedding my mom had been complaining about her normal makeup routine and felt like it needed a sprucing up. I always like to learn new tricks, find new makeup colors and change things up also. I think most woman just always want to feel good about themselves and most of all pretty...a Makeup Party seemed like the perfect answer!

What goes better with makeup than great appetizers?

Pea Pesto Crostini

I would make these again and the left over pesto would be great on pasta!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates

OUTSTANDING.

Endive Stuffed With Walnuts and Cheese

Very refreshing and the citrus really cut through the cheese and nuts nicely.

Carina from Flawless Faces demonstrating her techniques!

Afterwards my dad took us all out for dinner to Seasons 52...another favorite restaurant. This is a great pic of my mom and Linda! Looking beautiful!

Craving Pasta

After Bridget and I's cooking class (if you can even call it that) on Sunday, I have been in the mood for pasta! This week I decided to pull out the big guns with my favorite "non-tomato sauce" pasta recipe. I love this recipe for Pasta Ponza because it is easy, tastes great, and you can use basically any vegetable in your fridge to make it. It calls for ingredients I usually have on hand all the time and tastes a lot better than plain old pasta.

I like to add the following things to the recipe, but it is also great in its original form. I just like to spice it up a little from time to time from the norm. I also always have a hard time coming up with other things to serve with pasta besides more carbs, so with these additions I feel like you are getting equal amounts of vegetables and pasta. My additions:

-Broccoli
-Cauliflower
-Mushrooms
-Green Olives sliced
-Zucchini

I have also tried:
-Chicken (Baked, chopped and added in with the cheese)
-Peppers
-Green Beans
-Corn
-Peas
-Crushed Red Pepper

Basically you can add as much as you want, but you need to increase the breadcrumbs to cover everything you put in the baking dish. I really reccomend you trying this one! I have never met anyone who doesn't like it.



One tip: follow the directions. I know this sounds elementary, but you need to use a pasta with ridges (for the sauce to stick) and you need to let the vegetable mixture cool for 5 minutes, otherwise it will become gummy.

Try it out and let me know what you think! Stay tuned for more Pasta to come this week...

My First Dinner Party

For a wedding gift Brian's grandpa, better known as "Red Levy", gave us a grill for our tiny patio/laundry area. This was in June, it is now late November and my husband, the BIGGEST procrastinator, finally hooked it up. In honor of this momentous occasion we decided to have a dinner party with my family to celebrate the unveiling of the WeberQ120.

I have been wanting to try this recipe from Giada for months now for Couscous-Stuffed Peppers with Basil Sauce. I saw it on her show a while ago when I was home sick with Strep Throat and I just have never had the right menu to compliment them. They just looked so delicious and beautiful...they did not disappoint. I love mixing all sorts of random things I have in my refrigerator and pantry in rice and couscous, so I knew I would just love the mix of dried fruit, spinach, feta cheese and garbanzo beans. The recipe calls for dried currants, but they are so hard to find (sometimes I get lucky), so I chopped up some dried cherries instead. I also substituted the regular feta for fat free because that is all I had on hand, tasted just as good with a fraction of the fat and calories! Same with the Creme Fraiche, I used reduced fat Sour Cream. This was a huge hit and I will be making this again soon!

I also made Bloody Mary Flank Steak for a little break from the normal flank steak marinades you see all the time. Classic recipes are wonderful, but sometimes I am in the mood for something a little more interesting. Nothing says interesting like Vodka and Hot Sauce!

Slicing my Flank Steak with my fabulous Shun Knives

The new master griller!

My sister's unbelievable Carrot Cake that is Cooking Light (tasted like the real thing)!

Our Meal (Still looking for a better way of taking pictures of food, my current strategy does not do it justice!)

Our Appetizer Dips with my cute new Anthropology Bowls (I am sure you will be seeing a lot of them. I am obsessed with tiny bowls)

Brian and his guacamole! He insisted on making it and it actually turned out great, very different from his "famous salmon". I will save that story for another post...

Whats your favorite flank steak recipe?