OMGSNAX!

i’d previously bought all the fixins for potato soup — something i’ve made regularly the past three winters — for a big family-style dinner at daniel’s house, but interpersonal drama* precluded the meal that evening. what happened instead was that, later in the week, i headed straight over to his house after work to listen to Ryne Watts & Team Zissou run through their set before their last-minute gig at off broadway, wash a sinkful of dishes, & make sure everyone who needed it was fed pre-show.

(* if by that fancy phrase i mean “an argument.”)

INGREDIENTS
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
4-6 mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 medium potatoes, cubed
3 cups vegetable stock
1 red pepper, sliced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 cup soy milk
2 green onions, sliced

METHOD
sautée onions, garlic, & mushrooms in soup pot. add potatoes, stock, pepper, spices, & soy sauce. bring to a boil. simmer until potatoes are tender. remove about half of the vegetables & put them in blender with soy milk. add mixture to soup. add green onions. simmer.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
(no photos this time around; i just wasn’t on the ball.)

i will tell you right now that this soup will require at LEAST one tablespoon of salt. i mean HONESTLY. let’s just be up front about these things. it also doesn’t hurt to double the seasonings, although this last time i made it, i doubled the spices AGAIN, not remembering that i’d already done that when transcribing the recipe, so it was on a little the peppery side …

the second thing is that this soup, as it stands, is vegan. i’ve made it a number of different ways — soy milk, milk, half & half, cream — & i’ve found that most people who try it seem to prefer the version made with half & half, which is how i’ve started to make it consistently.

i’ve also eliminated the mushrooms altogether, although i’ve been known to substitute mushroom stock for vegetable stock, resulting in one memorable moment involving benadryl & my former roommate katy, who has an allergy to mushrooms!

all in all, this soup makes for a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal that i tend to enjoy come winter, & i’ll make it again & again & again!

 

 

“Potato Soup” from a friend of a friend

i decided to give peanut butter cookies another try, even though i was less than impressed with my previous attempt. i want to believe that i never really developed a taste for peanut butter cookies as my mom never made them (what with my sister’s food allergies & all), but secretly i know that that doesn’t really hold water — there are a lot of things my mom never made that i absolutely LOVE (eg: pad thai, chana masala, pierogi, strawberry smoothies) — so i’m not sure WHERE my distaste for peanut butter cookies comes from. in theory, i should like them: i love peanut butter, after all, & i love cookies. in practice, though, they just seem so DRY.

INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

METHOD
preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

sift together the flour, salt, & baking soda; set aside.

cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter, & brown sugar until fluffy. beat in the egg, vanilla, & milk. add the flour mixture; mix well.

shape into 40 balls & place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.

bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. remove from oven & immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. cool & carefully remove from pan.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
so in transferring this recipe from internet to paper, i didn’t note that the muffin pan needed to be ungreased. the first batch, therefore, was greased, & the difference was pretty obvious. oops.

ready to bake

other than that, we had no real difficulties in making these cookies — especially b/c daniel did most of the work!

sugars

compared to the peanut butter cookies i made in the spring, these were a thousand times more delicious — & with a better texture to boot! there’s been some debate as to whether hershey’s kisses would work better than peanut butter cups, as the cups were a little bit overwhelming when the cookies were warm (though they tasted just fine after we’d refrigerated them).

cooling

waiting

all in all, though, i would most definitely make these again — they were easy & cute & very well-received!

 

 

“Peanut Butter Cup Cookies” from allrecipes.com.

meg fisticuffs (aka megatron, aka meg: the silkening) passed this recipe along to me back in july, saying, “i made macaroni and cheese from scratch this weekend and it was awesome. i used a martha stewart recipe. that fucking lady knows her mac.” it seemed a little hot for this particular dish till recently, when we’ve enjoyed some autumnal weather patterns here in the midwest — which means, of course, temperatures swinging wildly from the 50s (a few days ago) to the 90s (today) — so i decided that this was the appropriate time to give this recipe a shot, & since it supposedly serves twelve, i figured our sunday night dinner at daniel’s would be a good time to try it out. attending this week’s dinner: daniel, brian, val, sarah, beth, & me.

INGREDIENTS
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for dish
6 slices good white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces
5 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
4 1/2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese (about 18 ounces)
2 cups grated gruyère cheese (about 8 ounces) or 1 1/4 cups grated pecorino romano cheese (about 5 ounces)
1 pound elbow macaroni

METHOD
heat oven to 375. butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. place bread in a medium bowl. in a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. pour butter into bowl with bread, & toss. set breadcrumbs aside.

in a medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat milk. melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. when butter bubbles, add flour. cook, whisking, 1 minute.

while whisking, slowly pour in hot milk. continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles & becomes thick.

remove pan from heat. stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar cheese, & 1 1/2 cups gruyère or 1 cup pecorino romano; set cheese sauce aside.

fill a large saucepan with water; bring to a boil. add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 minutes less than manufacturer’s directions, until the outside of pasta is cooked & the inside is underdone. (different brands of macaroni cook at different rates; be sure to read the instructions.) transfer macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water, & drain well. stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

pour mixture into prepared dish. sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup gruyère or 1/4 cup pecorino romano, & breadcrumbs over top. bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes. transfer dish to a wire rack to cool 5 minutes; serve hot.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
i chose gruyère over romano b/c i happened to find it first when combing the cheese section, & it worked really well, although, weirdly, i bought the cheese by weight & ended up using somewhat less than the recipe called for — 4 1/2 cups of grated cheddar was closer to 14 ounces, for example. & regardless, this was a scandalous amount of cheese.

SO. MUCH. CHEESE.

other than eliminating cayenne pepper, i followed the recipe pretty closely — & considered myself lucky that the baking pan i bought last month for the enchiladas happened to be 3 quarts, since i had no idea going in that 3 quarts was that much stuff!

this mac & cheese required two burners plus the oven, which at daniel’s house = overloaded circuits & tripped breakers (i’ve found i can use two burners OR one burner & the oven), plus, you know, it was pretty hot, PLUS i was boiling & frying up pierogi to go with the macaroni & cheese, so the kitchen was sweltering & i was on my feet for what felt like FOREVER, grating cheese & whisking the sauce.

cheese sauce

it was worth it, though, b/c the recipe was a hit — brian told me that i should feel free to make it again, & everyone seemed to dig the crunchy crust formed by the extra cheese & the coarse breadcrumbs on top, so maybe all the rumors i’d heard about martha stewart’s recipes not working out for the layperson were a little exaggerated.

cross-section

 

 

“Macaroni & Cheese” from Martha Stewart Living