Shiner Bock Beer Cheese Soup

Cancy & I love the beach. Specifically, we love the beach in Port Aransas. J I was trying to find a recipe for Beer Cheese Soup the other day and came across this one on the website for one of the Corpus Christi news stations. It’s from Fins Grill & Icehouse in Port Aransas, which we also love. If you ever make it down to Port A, this is a great place to sit on the deck and watch the boats come in & out while you enjoy some really good food.

 

We’re headed down to Port A this weekend & I can’t wait to stop there. Oh and the soup? Yeah, it was fantastic. If you know my husband, you know he likes Shiner Bock so for us, Shiner Bock & lots of cheese… How could it possibly be a bad thing??? I made just a couple changes to the Fins original just to save a pot and to use my KitchenAid immersion blender (Which I feel I don’t use enough. It’s kind of fun.) Anyway, Enjoy!!

Shiner Bock Beer Cheese Soup

2 pound block Velveeta white cheese ( I used lower fat 2% version)
2 carrots diced
1 small yellow onion medium chop
4 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 12 oz Shiner Bock beer
2 Tbsp oil

 

In saute pan, heat oil and saute carrots and onions until onions are caramelized. Add chicken stock and stir together. Using an immersion blender, blend the carrots & onions into the broth so you are left with a smooth, blended  soup base.

 

Let this simmer while you cube the cheese into small pieces. Add to soup base. Cover tightly and heat until cheese is completely melted into stock.

 

Add beer and heat through.

 

Garnish with bacon bits and fresh green onions. (I used turkey bacon & also added some Annie’s Organic Cheddar Bunnies.)

 

Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole

I’ve come to the conclusion that casseroles just do not photograph well. The Chicken Cordon Casserole tasted a lot better than it looks. This actually came together by cleaning out the fridge a little bit. Well, that & this is for sure the lazy girl’s version of a Chicken Cordon Bleu. I just wanted to throw everything together and bake so now filling, breading, and rolling here. Just a nice easy chop, dice, layer & bake. J I hope you like it.

Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole

2 large or 3 normal sized chicken breasts

1/4 pound sliced honey ham

1/4 pound sliced Swiss cheese

1 red onion, diced

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 Tbsp whole wheat or white flour

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

1 1/2 Cups of Fat Free ½ & ½

1 Cup plain breadcrumbs

3 Tbsp Butter

 

Boil Chicken until done, remove and dice. In same pan, cook ham just until it starts to brown. In a greased 8 x 8 dish, layer the diced chicken, sliced ham, and 1/2 of the Swiss cheese. Set aside.

 

Sauté diced onion until it starts to turn slightly golden. Sprinkle Nutmeg & flour over onion and cook the flour for about a minute. Add the ½ & ½ to the pan & the Dijon mustard. Cook until it thickens, about 3-5 minutes,

 

Pour onion mixture over layers already in the pan. Top that with the remaining Swiss cheese. Melt butter & toss with breadcrumbs. Sprinkle that over top.

 

Bake @ 350 for about 30-40 minutes.

 

Ale-Braised Sausages with Bell Peppers

This originally is from Williams Sonoma. I came across is when Katie of Good Things Catered posted it. It comes together super fast and is a really easy weeknight dish.

Ale-Braised Sausages with Bell Peppers

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 lb. cooked sausages, such as kielbasa, sliced

1/2  large yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 large red bell pepper, seeded and sliced (I cheated & used a 12oz can of fire-roasted red & yellow peppers)

2 Tbs. all-purpose flour

1 cup ale

1/2 cup apple cider

3 Tbs. chopped fresh thyme

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Mashed potatoes for serving

In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the sausages and cook, stirring and turning often, until browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add the onion and bell pepper to the pot, reduce the heat to medium, and sauté until tender and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the ale and cider until the mixture is smooth and bubbly. Add the thyme and broth, whisking to blend, and bring to a simmer.

Return the sausages to the pot. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the flavors are blended, about 15 minutes. Uncover and simmer until the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide the sausages and sauce among warmed plates and serve immediately with mashed potatoes alongside. Serves 4 to 6.

 

 

 

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This recipe comes from our Port Aransas cookbook that we got down in Port A when we got married. We’ve been back a handful of times since then and enjoy it each and every time. I got the cookbook out because I started thinking about Port A again since we started to plan a trip down there at the end of the month with Cody & Carol.

I’ve made this recipe a few times and am going to put it in my own words as the original instructions are a bit all over the place. This is a great Fall type dish and a good way to get some vegetables. We’ve made just a couple of ingredient substitutions, but here is how we like it.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

12 Large Cabbage leaves

1 lb Ground Turkey

1 Beaten Egg

1/4 C Milk

1/4 C finely chopped onion

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp pepper

1 Tsp lemon pepper

1 C Cooked Rice

1 8oz can of Tomato Sauce

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp Worcestershire

Start by browning your ground turkey. Season your ground turkey as it browns with garlic salt & lemon pepper. When this is done, drain and set aside.

Start water boiling in a large pot for your cabbage. The easiest way that I’ve found to get the leaves off is to submerge the whole head of cabbage for a couple of minutes and pull it out, taking as many leaves off as you can easily. Submerge again until you can pull a few more off. You want to keep the leaves as in tact as possible. Do this until you have about 12 whole leaves.

In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, egg, milk, onion, spices, & rice. Mix well. Take about 1/4 C of this mix and put into the center of a leaf. Fold in the sides, then fold up the bottom until it looks like a little burrito. Place them seam side down in the Crockpot until you have gone through your leaves or ran out of stuffing.

In another bowl, combine the tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, & Worcestershire. Pour this over your little cabbage burritos and put the lid on the Crockpot. Cook these in the Crockpot on low for about 6 hours.

 

 

Fall Harvest Bread

I’ve joined a Fall recipe swap and received this recipe in my email this morning. I only made one ingredient change in the recipe since we don’t really like raisins, I added toasted walnuts instead.

 

This was delicious. It made the house smell like fall and tastes like the perfect combination of everything you think about when you think of Fall. Enjoy!!

Fall Harvest Bread

 

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly-grated nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
7.5 oz. canned pumpkin (one small can)
2 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1/4 c. apple juice
1/2 small apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1/3 c. dried cranberries
1/3 c. golden raisins ( I subbed toasted Walnuts for the raisins)

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Spray 9x5 loaf pan (or can sub muffin pan or double recipe for cake/bundt pan) with baking spray.

 

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt in bowl.

 

Combine sugars, pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, and juice in large bowl. Mix until just blended.

 

Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and stir until just moistened.

 

Fold in apples, cranberries, and raisins.

 

Spoon batter into prepared pan (it will be lumpy).

 

Bake for 60-70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean.

French Onion Soup

I was craving French Onion soup last week, and since it’s finally started to get a little more Fall-like in the evenings around here, I figured I could make a nice tasty Fall Soup. French Onion Soup is pretty easy to make and the way we finish it, you don’t need to have the fancy little soup crocks to go in the oven. I hope you like it!!

French Onion Soup

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium red onions, thinly sliced

2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

Salt and black pepper

1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

3/4 cup red wine

4 cups beef stock

1 small loaf of French bread

2 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere

Heat a deep pot over medium heat. Add oil and butter to the pot. Add onions to the pot as you slice them. When all of the onions are in the pot, season with salt and pepper. Cook onions for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender & caramel colored. Add bay leaf and red wine to the pot and deglaze the pan. Add 4 cups beef stock and cover pot to bring soup to a boil.

Slice your French bread on the bias into 1” slices.  Preheat broiler to high. Sprinkle each slice with the shredded Gruyere cheese, leaving about 1/4 cheese. Broil until cheese just starts to brown. While broiling, Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with remaining Gruyere cheese. Take bread from oven and float 1 piece on the soup.

We served the soup with the remaining bread on the side to use as ‘dippers’.

Ravioli Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

I wanted something easy tonight since I had lots of random things to do around the house. I’ve had this recipe starred in my Google reader for awhile now. This comes from Clara @ iheartfoodforthought.

I scaled her recipe down to an 8 x 8 baking dish since it’s just Cancy & I. Plus this gives us some leftovers to freeze for later. Oh, we added a whole bunch of black pepper to this before mixing just to give it that extra little something. Enjoy!!

Ravioli Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

1 lbs pre-packaged 4-cheese ravioli, cooked and drained
1 1/2 cups frozen broccoli florets, defrosted
1 pound of boiled skinless chicken strips, diced
Alfredo sauce (I cheated tonight & used a jarred light alfredo sauce)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, divided
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

Coat the bottom of an 8 ×8 glass baking dish with a thin layer of alfredo sauce. In a medium bowl, mix the ravioli, broccoli, chicken, garlic, alfredo sauce, 1/2 of the mozzarella cheese until combined. (Be careful not to mix too hard that you tear the ravioli.)

Place mixture into baking dish and top with the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly. Set to broil for additional 5 minutes if you want it more toasty!

 

 

 

 

Taco Bake

This recipe comes was inspired by a recipe I found on Lovestoeat.  I made some changes to use what we had on hand. The picture doesn’t do this meal any justice. I’m posting it, but please know it tastes much better than it looks.

Taco Bake

1 lb. ground turkey
1 package taco seasoning
1 can RoTel
8 oz. small pasta
4 oz cream cheese (softened in microwave)
1/4 c. sour cream
8 oz. shredded queso fresco

Brown ground turkey, drain. Add taco seasoning and RoTel. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cook pasta according to directions. Drain. Mix softened cream cheese and sour cream in separate bowl.

Spray bottom of 8 x 8 pan with Pam. Put pasta in bottom of pan. Spread cream cheese mixture over pasta. (This is kind of hard to do. Just dollop spoonfuls of the mixture about an inch apart and spread the best you can.) Spoon ground beef mixture over this. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.

Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes. Cool about 15 - 20 minutes before serving.

Ben & Jerry's Cantaloupe Ice Cream

I love Cantaloupe. Cancy loves Ice Cream. I had a fresh Organic Cantaloupe from Whole Foods sitting in our fridge, wanting to be made into something good. I came across this recipe… Now I had a plan.

We tried this recipe tonight and turned out great. There’s a lot going on in this recipe so it’s nice to make this recipe with someone else. It makes a whole bunch of Ice Cream. We actually had some of the mix leftover because it wouldn’t fit in the Ice Cream Maker. All in all, it was the very best Cantaloupe ice Cream that I’ve ever had.

Ben & Jerry's Cantaloupe Ice Cream

1 large Cantaloupe, very ripe
1 Lemon, juice of
Ben & Jerry's Sweet Cream Base*

Cut the cantaloupe in half and clean out the seeds. Scoop the fruit into a mixing bowl, add the lemon juice, and mash until the fruit is purred. Drain the juice into another bowl and reserve. Cover the melon puree and refrigerate. Prepare the sweet cream base and whisk in the fruit juice. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions. After the ice cream stiffens, about 2 minutes before it is done, add the cantaloupe. if more juice has accumulated, do not pour it in because it will water down the ice cream. Continue freezing until the ice cream is ready. Makes 1 generous quart.

*Sweet cream Base:
2 Large Eggs
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 Cup Heavy or whipping cream
1 Cup Milk

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue to whisk until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.
Makes 1 quart.

 

 

Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette

I have had this recipe from Polly stored in my Google Reader forever. This originally is a Giada de Laurentiis recipe. I love balsamic vinegar so this was perfect. I made it this time using chicken thighs, but I think this would be even better using boneless/skinless chicken breasts.

Anyway the vinegar, Dijon, lemon zest, & parsley all play really well together in this dish. We had this with rice pilaf & green beans. I hope you like it. J

Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
1/4 c. Dijon mustard
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. olive oil
Chicken, cut into 6 pieces (I used chicken thighs, but breasts would be delicious too) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a 13×9x2″ baking dish whisk the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper to blend.  Whisk in the oil.  Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat.  Cover and refrigerate, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

(I added all of the marinade ingredients to a Ziploc bag, shook it around and added my chicken, squeezed out all the air, and used that to keep everything in until I was ready to cook)

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Roast the chicken uncovered until just cooked through, about 45 minutes.  Using tongs, transfer the chicken to a serving platter.  Carefully pour the cooking liquid into a small, heavy saucepan and spoon off the excess oil from atop the cooking liquid.  Boil until the liquid reduces by about half and thickens slightly, about 8 minutes.

Pour the sauce over the chicken.  Sprinkle the parsley and lemon zest over the chicken and serve. 

If the chicken gets too dark too quickly, cover it with foil, taking the foil off for the last 10 minutes of roasting.