Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread Muffins

What's better than Irish soda bread at Saint Patrick's Day time?  Nothing, I say.  Some might claim that corned beef and cabbage is better, but ... considering that when my mom made it this year, and it was tough, and then Daisy pooped under the table while we ate, I would have to say that even my carnivorous family would agree that soda bread is better.

This year I changed things up a bit and tried a new recipe instead of our tried-and-true recipe.  I got the idea of checking out Skinny Taste to see if she had any great ideas on how to make it a healthier food, and stumbled across these little guys: whole wheat Irish soda bread muffins!  The muffin idea is excellent: portion control right there.  And the whole wheat is added to equal amounts of all purpose flour so they don't get dense.

Differently from my other recipe, these have butter (which seems strange since I was going for skinny muffins - but don't worry, there is only 3 tablespoons in the 12 muffins), and baking powder in addition to baking soda.  They do still, however, come out of the oven tasting like a delicious Irish soda bread (and they puff up beautifully!).  They were such a hit, I ended up making 2 batches over Saint Patrick's day weekend.  Easy, quick, and a delicious alternative to making one big loaf of soda bread!

Recipe:

whole wheat Irish soda bread muffins
from Skinny Taste
makes 12 muffins

serving size: 1 muffin
Points+: 4 points
calories: 147.8
fat: 3.7 g

Ingredients:
baking spray
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons chilled butter
1 cup 1% buttermilk
3 tablespoons honey or agave
1 large egg, beaten
3 ounces raisins (about 2/3 cup)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with baking spray.

2) In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).  Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3) In a small bowl, stir together buttermilk, honey or agave, and egg until blended.  Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Stir in raisins.

4) Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.

5) Remove tin and cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes before muffins from tin; finish cooling on rack.  Serve warm or cool completely and store muffins in an airtight in an airtight container or ziplock bags at room temperature.

Stir Fried Singapore Noodles with Garlic Ginger Sauce

Apparently the theme of the week was Asian noodle dishes, because two days after posting the Filipino pancit recipe, here's another one: stir fried Singapore noodles with garlic ginger sauce.  Drooling yet?  Well hold on: imagine soft rice noodles mixed with fresh stir-fried vegetables like peppers, shallots, mushrooms and peas, and douse it all in a garlic ginger sauce.  Now you're drooling.

In real life, if I read that explanation to my family, more than half of them would whine as soon as I said "mushrooms."  In the interest of world peace, I left them out of this recipe.  I also meant to use a few different bell peppers to add lots of color, but only found one lonely green one in the refrigerator (and of course 2 days later I found another green and a red hiding behind the giant head of broccoli).  As I said the other day, I randomly have tons of cabbage on hand right now, so I used some chopped cabbage in place of mushrooms (and bean sprouts, which I haven't been able to find anywhere in years.  Literally).

The rice noodles -yes, this is gluten-free! - get soaked in cold water while you stir fry all the vegetables until they're tender-crisp.  Then you toss the noodles in and stir fry them too.  After you remove it from the heat, you add the sauce slowly - there is a lot of it - and little by little, it gets absorbed and thickens and sticks to the noodles perfectly.  Mmmm.

This was Rachael's request; I made it for lunch one day when it was just me, her and Alex home.  They liked it but wished there were less peas (I did double the recipe, and perhaps doubling the peas was too much).  There is a lot of flavor; that sauce is full of chicken broth and soy sauce and garlic and ginger and even something called mirin, which is a sweet Japanese rice wine used in cooking (think, lower alcohol content, higher sugar content).  Apparently it has a pretty mild flavor but is awesome for making sauces "glossy" and helping it cling to foods due to its almost syrupy texture (yes I did my research).  Got any good mirin recipes for me?  Because I have a huge bottle of it now :)

Recipe:

stir fried Singapore noodles with garlic ginger sauce
from Pinch of Yum
serves 4

Ingredients:
4 ounces thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon oil
2 bell peppers. thinly sliced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas
sliced scallions for topping
for the sauce:
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek (I skipped this; it adds spice)

Instructions:

1) Soak the rice noodles in a large bowl of cold water.  Wash and cut all the vegetables.  Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

2) Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Add the peppers, shallots, bean sprouts and curry powder.  Stir fry for 3 - 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and peas; stir fry for 2 minutes.  The vegetables should be bright and tender-crisp.

3) Drain the water from the rice noodles and add the noodles to the pan with the vegetables.  Add a little splash of sauce - about 2 - 3 tablespoons - and stir fry, moving the noodles around in the pan continuously so they don't stick together in one big lump - they should move freely and easily.  After a few minutes of stir frying, remove the pan from the heat.

4) Once off the heat, add the sauce in small increments, tossing/stirring the noodles in between each addition, until the desires "sauciness" level is reached.  The goal is for the sauce to thicken slightly when combined with the other ingredients and cling to the noodles instead of soaking into the noodles.  Top with scallions and more sauce if desired.

Crockpot Carne Guisada

I keep forgetting how awesome slow cooker meals are.  You do a little prep the night before, toss it together in the morning, and when you get home at night, it's dinner time!  Luckily my mom chose a Crockpot meal for last Wednesday's meal, and was very helpful to getting it going as well.  Together we made this Crockpot carne guisada, which is basically a Latin beef stew.  It's flavored with things like cilantro, tomatoes, garlic, cumin, adobo, and even some beer.  As a bonus, it's even from Skinny Taste, so it's healthy!

The night before, I browned the meat (not enjoyable but I took one for the team) and sautéed the veggies.  Then my mother took over the rest, and the next morning she put the meat and vegetables into the Crockpot and added the potatoes and spices.  It takes 6 to 8 hours, so it was great to have her home to time it perfectly.  That night, we went to Wachusett High School to watch Mark play with other teachers against the Harlem Wizards; we knew it would be a crazy busy evening, so it was the perfect night for a ready-to-go dinner.  We just put on a pot of brown rice and spooned the carne guisada over the top.

This meal was a big hit with the carnivores - Nick especially.  My mom kept getting stuck on the fact that I called it a Latin beef stew; to be honest, it has far less broth than a traditional stew.  That seemed to make her upset, so I told her to just think of it as carne guisada then, but I am not sure that she could get over it.  I recommend telling your family it is a Latin beef dish - no mention of the word stew - and all will be well, because this is a very flavorful, healthy meal!

Recipe:

Crockpot carne guisada
from Skinny Taste
serves 5

Servings: 5 • Size: 1 scant cup • Old Points: 5 • Weight Watcher Points+: 6 pt 
Calories: 263 • Fat: 7 g • Carb: 17 g • Fiber: 2 g • Protein: 32 g • Sugar: 1 gSodium: 276 mg (without salt)  • Cholest: 53 mg 

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup scallions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 small tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp cilantro, minced
1 1/2 lb choice round beef stew, cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/3 cup light beer
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp dry adobo seasoning (or seasoned salt)
1/2 tsp ground achiote (or Badia Sazon, or paprika)
1 dried bay leaf
kosher salt to taste
10 oz baby red potatoes, halved or quartered

Instructions:

1) Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of oil, scallions and garlic and sauté about 2 - 3 minutes; add tomatoes, cilantro and a pinch of salt. Cook another 2 minutes, then place in the slow cooker. Wipe the skillet, add remaining oil and increase the heat to medium high. Add the beef and brown on all side, about 4 minutes. Season with salt to taste and sprinkle flour over the meat, cook 1 minute turning often, then add to the slow cooker.

2) Add beer, water, cumin, adobo, achiote, bay leaf and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Add potatoes and cover, cook on low heat 6 to 8 hours or until beef is tender and the potatoes are cooked through.

Filipino Pancit

These are the kinds of crazy recipes that I end up cooking when I ask for my mother's help in meal planning!  On my last grocery store trip, my goal was to buy mostly healthy food to help get us all in wedding shape.  I have lots of healthy recipes to share with you in the next couple weeks.  However, I can never say no to a good pasta dish, and when Mom stumbled upon this one, she was hooked.  It's a huge (serves 12 - 16) dish of stir-fried noodles mixed with vegetables, pork, and a flavorful sauce.  The blogger it came from worked in an orphanage in the Philippines for a year, and said this was their birthday party go-to meal.  I can see why!  Quick, easy, delicious, and hugely portioned, this would be a great go-to for us too.  I mean, except for the fact that it does have pork (don't worry, any pieces that accidentally made their way into my bowl were fed to Daisy under the table).

My mom has been talking about "the porky noodles" for the last week.  The name kind of grosses me out, but then again I am not entirely sure how to say pancit.  Even though this recipe makes a giant amount, it all went quickly and was gone within days.  It reheats pretty well too.

I liked how the recipe calls for "noodles" and "vegetables."  It's a very versatile meal.  You don't have any bell peppers (or like me, only have one small one?!)  Toss in some cabbage (because again, like me, perhaps you find yourself strangely with 2 cabbages in your fridge).  Can't find vermicelli or pancit noodles?  Rice noodles work fine, or just plain thin spaghetti, which is what I used.  The options are endless and can be based on your preferences or whatever you happen to have on hand.

Doesn't this recipe make you want a giant wok?  Definitely going to register for one :)

Recipe:

Filipino pancit
from Pinch of Yum
serves 12 - 16

Ingredients:
2 pounds uncooked noodles (this version used a combination of pancit and vermicelli)
4 cups sliced mixed veggies: cabbage, carrots, bell peppers, green onions, etc.
1 pound lean pork, cut into very small pieces
1/2 cup oil
1 onion, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 pork bouillon cube (I couldn't find it anywhere; I used chicken)
6 cups water

Instructions:

1) Soak the vermicelli in water for about 5 minutes or until soft.

2) Brown the pork in the oil with the soy sauce, garlic, and onion.

3) Add the water and bouillon cube to the pork and bring it to a low simmer.  Add the vegetables and cook for 5 - 10 minutes.  Add the uncooked pancit noodles and soaked vermicelli.  Simmer over low heat until the noodles soak up all the broth.

Vegetarian Banh Mi

I was infamous in my family for not liking sandwiches a few years back - and for much of my childhood.  I was fond of saying that I preferred to eat in a more civilized manner with silverware than with my hands.  That was mostly me being annoying, but in truth, I wasn't big on sandwiches.  Looking back now, I realize that it was simply because most sandwiches had meat in them, and I wasn't creative enough to make up vegetarian options, or motivated enough to find some veggie options.  Luckily these days, I am a sandwich fan.  How could you not love the amazing California veggie sandwiches, or the infamous pulled cauliflower BBQ sandwiches?  I have found lots of delicious vegetarian things to shove between pieces of bread.  And happily, here is another excellent option: the vegetarian banh mi.

The banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich that is gaining popularity in America.  I have been impressed how many people know what I'm talking about when I mention that I gave one a try.  Traditionally, they're made with a baguette and filled with pickled vegetables, spiced meats, mayonnaise and hot sauce.  Clearly in order for me to want to give this a shot, it had to have a lot of tweaks, and that's where my beloved A Couple Cooks blog came in.  They came up with a vegetarian option, using eggs in place of meat, so you still get lots of protein.

This sandwich has so many flavors and textures going on, it's like your mouth is at a Vietnamese circus (do those exist?)  You have the pickled shredded carrot, which is tart but sweet (they marinate in honey and vinegar); you have the crunchy sliced cucumber contrasting with the omelet-like egg, all flavored with chopped cilantro, salt and pepper.  Then the bread itself is doused with mayonnaise, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Are you drooling just thinking about the explosion of flavors that is this banh mi!?!

I will tell you that this sandwich had many skeptics in my house.  People were a little freaked out at the thought of "an egg sandwich with soy sauce" as I believe it was called.  However, one by one, my family tried small pieces, and then big pieces, and by the end, Kenzie and my mom were arguing over who would eat the last hunk for lunch the next day.  Mom judged it the best sandwich I ever made, and even Pat the carnivore was impressed.  There are just too many flavors for it to be a letdown to anyone; there is something in there for anybody.

One last note: I left off the mayonnaise on one end of the sandwich for me, and I certainly didn't miss it.  I also only added the hot sauce to one part for my mom - the rest of us are babies.  Mom said it was very spicy, so be careful!  You can pick and choose the condiments here; the banh mi is an easy sandwich, and it's yours to experiment with.

Recipe:

vegetarian banh mi
from A Couple Cooks
makes 2 large sandwiches

Ingredients:
2 large carrots (1½ cup shredded)
½ cup white or rice vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon (or more) red pepper flakes
1 English cucumber
Fresh cilantro
4 eggs
½ tablespoon butter
Kosher salt
Black pepper
2 baguettes
Mayo
Sriracha
Soy sauce

Instructions:

1) Peel and shred the carrots. Combine ½ cup vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey, and ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes in small bowl. Add the carrot and stir to mix. Let stand 15 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Peel the cucumber, then peel off long strips. Chop the cilantro.

2) In a small bowl, beat together 4 eggs, one pinch salt and a bit of black pepper. In a large skillet, heat ½ tablespoon butter over medium heat. Pour half of the eggs into the skillet. As the eggs just start to set, scrape them towards the center of the skillet into the shape of the baguette. Cook until just firm, but not dry. Repeat with the other half of the eggs for the second sandwich.

3) Cut the baguette in half. (If desired, toast the bread lightly prior to serving.) Spread mayonnaise on both sides of bread. Sprinkle each side with Sriracha and soy sauce (to your own taste). Fill each sandwich with egg, cucumber, and cilantro. Drain carrot-radish mixture, and spread on each sandwich. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Press top half of baguette on sandwich, and slice sandwich in half.

Chewy Granola Bars

In my never-ending quest to find a good portable breakfast for myself, I gave these chewy granola bars a shot.  My work BFF Laura had gotten the recipe off her friend's food blog (I guess she is just drawn to us bloggers!) and told me that I had to try them.  I thought the recipe looked quick and easy - they're no bake - so I gave them a shot.

I realized quickly that I was out of puffed rice cereal.  How does that happen!?  I swear, most of the time we have 3 open boxes of Rice Krispies in my cabinet.  But today there were none.  I figured I would be fine if I had another light, crunchy, small cereal - which I didn't.  So I made the executive decision to chop up some Cheerios.  I was a little worried, but it actually worked out perfectly.

Anyway, the cereal and oats get mixed together, and then you make somewhat of a syrup from half a stick of butter, some honey and light brown sugar, and don't forget some vanilla at the end.  Doesn't that sound good already?  Mix it all up good and pour it into a greased sheet, and then the fun really begins.  You can decide to top the bars with whatever you want.  I made the mistake of asking my mother for advice for what we should toss on, and she requested lots of nuts.  I hate walnuts for some some reason, so I refused to agree with that, but I did press on some almonds and pecans.  I also added pepitas (and what an excellent idea that was!), sunflower seeds, raisins, and craisins - not all over the place, mind you.  The cool part of this recipe is you get to mix and match flavors on certain areas of the bars.  So some were all nutty, some were seedy (bad adjective), some were fruity, some were a mix.

These are really, really good.  Sweet - but also salty if you choose slightly salty toppings like the sunflower seeds - with a great chewy texture.  They were all devoured by us quickly.  The next time I make them, I will definitely make a double batch.  By the way, we found that keeping them in the fridge kept them from semi-melting into a giant granola bar.  Just a helpful hint :)

Recipe:

chewy granola bars
From Fresh Mama

Ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 cups quick cooking oats (you MUST use quick oats or they will be crumbly)

1 cup puffed rice cereal

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

chocolate chips, flaked coconut, raisins, seeds or nuts for toppings (1/4 cup total)

Instructions:

1) Lightly coat a 9x13 baking sheet with cooking spray (coconut oil or vegetable oil)

2) Stir oats and rice cereal together.

3)  Melt butter, honey, and sugar in small saucepan over medium heat. Once mixture become hot and bubbly, allow to simmer for 2 minutes more.

4)  Add the vanilla and remove from heat.

5)  Pour over dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly coated.  Dump mixture onto baking sheet and spread out with a spatula.

6) Take a sheet of waxed paper and press down firmly on mixture. We used a smaller sized baking sheet to press the bars evenly.

7)  Once bars are pressed firmly, add the toppings and gently press into top of bars.  Cover bars with wax paper and allow to set at room temperature or in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I find they harden even more overnight.

Roasted Broccoli and Cheddar Millet Bake

Okay, so I will just start out with some honesty: millet is what you feed parakeets.  It's birdseed.  To be even more exact, it is a seed that is often fed to birds (and in fact I gave it to my budgerigars when I was in high school).  But don't judge.  After all, how delicious are sunflower seeds?  Pumpkin seeds?  I mean, the birds know their delicious, protein-rich, pint-sized snack.

Couscous? Nope, millet!

So imagine my surprise when my favorite healthy-yet-often-deliciously-bizarre food blog, A Couple Cooks, posted a recipe for a cheesy broccoli casserole made with millet.  Millet is full of fiber, it's gluten-free, and it's a more acceptable substitute for quinoa - at least according to my mother, who is still not a quinoa fan.  Millet can be made in two  ways: fluffy and creamy.  The creamy way apparently is a bit like mashed potatoes  -I haven't tried that yet.  The fluffy way ends up being almost exactly like couscous; I bet you could tell people it was couscous and no one would be the wiser.

So add this large, fluffy, nutty millet to delicious roasted broccoli, freshly shredded cheddar cheese, and the most delicious white sauce made from garlic, butter, milk and dried thyme (I could easily have drunk that sauce) - and you have dinner.  And while it may weird some people out that they are eating "birdseed," I can tell you that my family really enjoyed this, especially Mom and Kenzie.  Mom, as I said, loved it and said it was much better than quinoa.  I ate it for lunch a few days during the week, as did Kenzie; in fact I got a text from her saying, "is that millet healthy cuz I just pounded a ton of it?"  I think that says enough :)

Recipe:

roasted broccoli and cheddar millet bake
from A Couple Cooks
serves 4-6

Ingredients:
8 cups broccoli florets (4 small heads)
1 1/2 cups millet
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon dried thyme
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

1) Preheat an oven to 450 degrees.

2) Wash and cut the broccoli into small florets.  In a bowl, combine the broccoli with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and some fresh ground pepper.  Pour onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.

3) Prepare 1 1/2 cups millet; pour into a dry pan.  Toast for 2 -3 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.  Pour in 3 cups water and add a few pinches kosher salt.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low.  Cover the pot and simmer for about 17 minutes, until the water has been completely absorbed.  Fluff the millet with a fork, then add some salt to taste.

4) Meanwhile, dice 3 cloves garlic.  In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute.  Add 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon thyme, and bring to a simmer.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese and stir until the cheese melts and the sauce thickens slightly.  Turn up the heat slightly if the cheese does not melt at first, but be careful not to overheat.

5) When the broccoli, millet and sauce are complete, turn down the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Pour the millet into a large casserole dish and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon or more kosher salt.  Add roasted broccoli, pour in sauce, and add a bit of the shredded cheese (making sure to reserve some for the top).  Stir to thoroughly combine, making sure to combine all millet with sauce and cheese.  Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese over the top.

6) Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes until warm.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Allow me to again express my gratitude and appreciation for the Pioneer Woman.  Besides the fact that she has basset hounds, and that she used to be a vegetarian (although she is as far from it as you can get now), she is just the best food blogger to go to when you need comfort food recipes.  I was explaining this at dinner the night I served this alfredo, and said, "she just has the best recipes for.... what's the word?" and Rachael said "normal people food."  Touche.  When I want to make normal people food that I know my family will love, Ree Drummond knows her stuff.

Unfortunately, her recipes are excellent but oh-so unhealthy.  However, let's be honest: fettuccine alfredo is something that is not meant to be healthified.  When my aunt Linny came to visit, we decided to make her this since she doesn't get to have pasta much at home because of Tuck's no-carb diet.  We figured it was go big or go home!  And this recipe only has 5 ingredients, so it is quick and easy enough to throw together on a weeknight.

We did decide to throw in about 3 cups of chopped broccoli with the pasta to pretend that we were making a healthy dinner.  Unfortunately, my mom also insisted on throwing in some chicken from a rotisserie chicken she'd bought, which was gross, but she kept the pieces big enough so that I could pick them out (and slip them to a sweet old basset hound under the table).  Feel free to add both or neither to yours if you'd like.

Obviously, this was excellent.  We all loved it.  It's rich, it's cheesy, and it's comfort food as its best.  I will caution you that it didn't reheat well - as most cheese-based sauces tend not to do - so make sure you totally devour it on the day you make it :)  But if you are looking for a fettuccine alfredo recipe, this is it.

Recipe:

fettuccine alfredo 
from the Pioneer Woman
serves 6

Ingredients:
1 pound fettuccine noodles
1 stick butter
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups freshly painted parmesan cheese

Instructions:
1) Cook pasta according the package directions.

2) In a saucepsn or skillet, warm butter and cream.  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

3) Grate parmesan cheese and place half of it into a large serving bowl.  Pour warm butter/cream mixture over the top.

3) Drain pasta and immediately pour it into the bowl.  Toss a couple times, then sprinkle inn the other half of the parmesan.  Toss to combine, thinning with pasta water if necessary.

4) Serve immediately as a main course or accompaniment to meat or salad.

Super Soft 'n Chewy Hoagie Rolls

I've made plenty of breads in my cooking life, but these ones may be among the best.  My friend Laura got a mixer for Christmas, and I think this has upped her baking, because out of the blue last week she texted me a picture of fresh, homemade sub rolls!  They looked so beautiful, and when she sent me the recipe, I was pleased to see they only need to rise twice, and only for a total of less than 2 hours, so I decided to give them a try too.

Check out those layers!

One big difference from most other bread doughs is that this one has butter added in.  It gets tossed right in, cold, with the dough.  It starts to melt a little because the dough is warm from the warm water, but I found it takes quite a while for the dough to come back together again.  Just let it mix with the dough hook till it all sticks together again.  This whole butter thing has pros and cons.  The biggest con is that Delilah is obsessed with butter.  Whenever I make bread, I let it rise in front of the wood stove; she has never once bothered the doughs... until these.  Nick caught her on her second raw dough ball, all because of the butter!  But I guess that is probably not a con for normal people's houses.

The pros?  This is the butteriest, softest, best textured roll I've ever made!  I made a batch of them Sunday night, and by Monday, they were gone (granted that was with 2 being eaten by Bad Lyle!).  We devoured them hot out of the oven, and even found that toasting them the next day brought them back to their first day splendor.  They were such a hit that I made a double batch Monday night; we used them to make meatball subs with the meatballs Mark's dad sent us, and then ate them with my fettucini alfredo the next day (stay tuned for that recipe!)  I made some of them into hoagie shape, some into dinner rolls, and some into strange blobs.  Basically you can't go wrong with them; use them as sandwich rolls, use them as dinner rolls, use them as dog treats.  Okay skip the last one, but just try these rolls!

Recipe:

super soft 'n chewy hoagie rolls
from The Kitchen Whisperer  
yield 8 rolls

Ingredients:
4 cups bread flour
1 3/8 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

Instructions:

1) Add the yeast, sugar, and 3/8 cup warm water (3/8 cup water is equal to 6 tablespoons) to the bowl of a stand mixer.  Using a whisk or spoon, mix and set aside for 5 - 10 minutes or until the yeast has bubbled quite a bit.

2) Add the flour and water.  Start off mixer on low and mix for 4 minutes.

3) Add in the salt and mix for 5 - 6 minutes until the dough is slack (the dough cannot hold a shape; it has no elasticity or spring; it is soft and smooth).  At this point, the mixer should be on medium speed.

4) Add in the butter and mix for 1 - 3 minutes, or until the dough comes back together.

5) Remove from bowl and transfer to a greased, covered bowl or until doubled in size, around 1 hour.

6) Divide into 8 pieces and shape as desired.  Transfer to a sprayed, parchment-lined tray and cover.  Allow to rise again, 30 - 45 minutes.

7) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 16 - 23 minutes or until golden brown.

Split Pea Soup

Sorry for the lack of blog posts this week.  After every vacation, it takes me a while to remember how to juggle work, cooking, and blogging!  This was a very busy week too, not even counting work: sleepover with Linny, Celtics game, driving through a snow squall to get my ring back from the jeweler, going out to eat - I feel like I will need to rest up for the majority of the weekend to recover!  But luckily the majority of the week was a good one, and it helped that I had this pea soup for lunch for the first two days of it.  I was extra happy to have it on Monday after a bitter cold recess duty in 9 degree temperatures!  This is a great, healthy, warming soup that my mom has dubbed "the best pea soup ever."  I take that as a huge compliment, since pea soup was one of my grandmother's specialties.

The best news is how easy the soup is!  You basically just have to sauté some onions, and then add split peas, garlic and a bay leaf.  Add chicken broth and simmer for 45 minutes, and then puree it all at the end.  What made this recipe different than ones I have seen before is the edition of a cup of milk after it has all pureed.  I think it helps the soup be extra creamy.

If - no, when I make this soup again, I think I want to add some carrots and maybe some potatoes.  It's delicious but I think it would raise it to the next level.  The recipe recommends topping the soup with bacon, which I obviously didn't do, but I think it would be a good addition as well.  It's definitely a great pea soup that may even be able to win over the people that claim not to like pea soups :)

Recipe:

split pea soup
from 100 Days of Real Food
makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 pound dried split peas, picked over and rinsed
8 cups chicken stock or broth
1 cup milk
optional  toppings and accompaniments: hot sauce, chopped bacon, ham, sausage or hot dogs plus biscuits or toast on the side

Instructions:

1) Heat the oil over medium heat in a large soup pot.

2) Add the onions and season with salt and pepper.

3) Once the onions have softened, add the garlic, bay leaf, and split peas, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

4) Add the broth and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low  Simmer and stir occasionally for 45 minutes or until the peas are tender.

5) Remove soup pot from heat, discard the bay leaf, and puree using a hand-held immersion blender, or in batches in a freestanding blender.

6) Stir in the milk and ladle warm soup into bowls.  Add your favorite topping and enjoy.