Results tagged “onion” from Bodacious Girl

We have had some cold, dreary weather here in the dessert. It is so welcomed! It washes away all the sandy grit that has an annoying tendency to coat everything. It makes everything so GREEN (a rarity in the desert in Summer...) and it makes me want soup. Some savory and spicy chicken noodle soup. Warms you up and clears your head on cold dreary days. And the best part? It is SO easy. But prep does take all day, or at least overnight.

Spicy Chicky Schnoodle Soup

Ingredients

Broth

1 whole chicken
6 cups of water
2 cups chicken stock
1 onion quartered
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
small bunch of fresh parsley (5-6 sprigs)
5 cloves garlic, smacked (translation: one hit with the mallet is fine. Don't pulverize them.)
1 T peppercorns

Soup

1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 jalapeno pepper, diced finely
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon salt (more or less to taste)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Al dente ditali noodles (optional)

Rinse chicken and place in large stock pot. Cover with water and broth. Add quartered onion, roughly chopped celery, 5-6 sprigs parsley, 5 smashed garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon peppercorns. Bring to boil, and simmer uncovered for 90 minutes. Liquid will reduce. Remove from heat. Remove chicken from pot and reserve in the refrigerator. Strain solids from broth through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate broth till fat solidifies on the top. (WARNING! Do not attempt to freeze to speed up the process. It is ineffective.)

Note: I usually either boil the chicken in the morning and make the soup at dinner. Or I roast the chicken for dinner, and boil down the carcass (Mmm, yummy!) that night for soup tomorrow. It is really about whatever works for your schedule.

Fast forward - broth chilled. You will see a layer of fat has solidified on the top. Remove carefully. You are not removing flavor, just most of the fat.

In large stock pot, could be the same one - I don't know your methods, melt butter, and saute diced onion, celery, carrots and garlic. Add reserved broth, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes and parsley. Then add as much of the chicken (shred or dice first) you would like. Let simmer for about 15 minutes, then taste. Salt and pepper to your liking. Serve with ditali and top with Pecorino Romano cheese, if you like.

Ok, it may seeeeem a lil more complex then easy, but really it's not. And the taste, mmm, is well worth it. 

I would just like to start off by saying - for those of you who... yes I am talking about you. YOU SPECIFICALLY. Yes you. You sitting there pointing to yourself, looking over your shoulder mouthing "me?" with those wide eyes...

I MISSED YOU SO MUCH! And FOOD? Oh how I missed food. I missed the taste of soft boiled eggs and thick sliced apple smoked bacon. I missed cool Hawaiian yellow fin sashimi with ponzu and scallions. I missed that juicy burger, that cheesy enchilada, that greasy cheesy pizza. I am so glad we are all back together where we belong. Quick group hug!

Oh. Yea. One thing I didn't miss. Chocolate long john donuts and cold milk. When you are sick, sugar tastes divine. So no I did not waste away to nothing in the past three weeks. Quite on the contrary. Nothing says loving like a chocolate donut and NyQuil.

Lucky for me the first chance I had to really EAT again after my three weeks with the plague / malaria / leprosy / pleurisy / was for the Wild Card playoff game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Atlanta Falcons. (Which, may I add - THE CARDS WON!) Nothing like football party food to get you back in the mood. Since I missed - oh - ALL OF THE HOLIDAYS and it's PLETHORA OF A YUMMY-LICIOUS BOUNTY. (One day I will get over this...) In the barrage of smokie links and currant jelly and cheesy meatballs and stuffed mushroom caps, I made my all time favorite football party food evah. Italian Sausage Bread with Marinara dipping sauce.

Mmm. Doesn't that look good? The actual loaf is about 18" long. 18 inches of spicy Italian sausage, caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese, all baked in a yummy basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, red pepper braided loaf of bread. Chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside. And oh so impressive looking when you show up with it. YOU? baked THIS? You brush it off - but of course. Tastes amazing on its own, or dunked into some simple marinara sauce.

Italian Sausage Bread
(Makes 2 loaves)

1 pound Italian sausage
1 large onion, diced
1 1/2 cup warm water
2 pkgs. active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
4 1/2 cup flour (an additional 1/4 cup may be needed)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1-2 cups shredded mozzarella

Brown sausage and onion. Drain and cool completely.

In a mixer utilizing the bread hook, combine warm water, yeast and sugar. Let sit 5-10 minutes or until proofed.

To yeast, add salt, rosemary, parsley, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, butter and 1 egg. Mix well. Add 2 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Gradually add the rest of the flour and knead for 8-10 minutes. 

Place in greased bowl, and turn to grease all sides. Cover & place in a warm spot to sit for about 1 hour. 1 Hour of sheer torture...

Punch down dough and divide into 6 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 2 x 18-20 inch strip. Stir your desired amount of cheese into the sausage onion mixture and spoon down the center of each length of dough. Pinch long edges together to form a 14-20" rope. Make 6 ropes and braid 3 lengths together. Let rise 45 minutes. 45 long excruciating minutes...

Beat remaining egg and brush on loaves.

Bake in 400ºF oven for 25 minutes. 25 painful minutes of licking the oven door... I do not really recommend this licking at all.

Allow to cool to the touch, then slice and serve. I like mine with just a thin tease of butter, but I serve it with...

Marinara Sauce

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, clopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
1 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (both tomatoes and juice)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until softened, about 1-2 minutes.

Add the basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.

Stir in the parsley just before serving.

Wow your friends and family this weekend and ooh I know, make it for the playoff party you are attending / throwing. It is sooooo delicious people will beg you for the recipe. Go ahead and keep it as your secret. I wont tell. 

Everyone I know loves a good Bloody Mary. Maybe it was my Midwest upbringing. Everywhere we ever went you could get a damn good Bloody. Hell, in Kenosha, Wisconsin when you ordered one, you received a beer back (chaser)! Ah those were the days. Though after my move to the good ole' Southwest, finding a decent Bloody was next to impossible.

"CELERY SALT? Um... No... whats that?"

"We rimmed the glass with sea salt for you!"

"Would you like Absolute Citron in that?"

SOMEONE please get me the hell out of dodge! How does a BARTENDER not know how to make a SIMPLE BLOODY MARY?! This was something that drove me CRAZY for years when I first set up camp here in Arizona. So rather then travel with a Bloody Mary kit everywhere I go, I succumbed to my at home bar. First things first. A decent Vodka. And there are so many different varieties of vodka out there. The pepper ones I thought - would be the best. But I tried them and just was not happy. They weren't peppery enough for me. I needed bite. Sting. Heat. Not just from the vodka either. So I chose a brand I knew well enough and made my own infused vodka. The choice of vodka is not really important here. You simply want a plain vodka - nothing flavored because that is going to be YOUR JOB. Truth be told - I chose Seagram's this time because it was on sale. It's going to be heavily flavored and used in a Bloody Mary. You do not need that $50.00 bottle. TRUST. ME.

Next, gather your ingredients:

In this particular batch I used:

1 white onion - sliced in wedges
8-12 jalapeno peppers - halved and seeded
3-6 Anahiem peppers - halved and seeded
10-12 Thai chili peppers - stems removed
5 Tablespoons of peppercorn melange

Open Vodka and remove the pour spout. Take all your ingredients and push thru the top of the bottle. (You may need to pour off a little bit of vodka. Just whip up some vodka sauce or a martini). Put the pour spout back on. Close tightly and give it a slight shake and store in dark place for a minimum of two weeks.

It may be a little hard to tell, but the vodka from today - marked 3 weeks later - it has this amazing amber color, and smells of pepper and spice. So much better then anything you buy in the store. Next step is to pour the vodka into either decorative bottles or into another empty vodka bottle - (which I always save for just this purpose), or just into a large measuring cup until you can clean out the bottle. The sliced peppers and onions will easily shake out of the bottle. I throw away the veggies, but keep the peppercorns and bake them in the oven at 200º. Once dry they get their own grinder. AMAZING on steak. Oh heck - amazing on ANYTHING.

This bottle is going to a lucky recipient for a holiday gift. You can get about 2-3 gift bottles of vodka from one 1.75 liter bottle. Combine one with some gourmet garlic stuffed olives, maybe a little bottle of Worcestershire, Tabasco, horseradish (however, most people have this in their fridge already) and CELERY SALT and you have a perfect little Bloody Mary gift set. Just add tomato juice. Plus - that one batch of vodka - cost me about 10 dollars. The decorative bottles? 1$ each. I made two batches of vodka and got 5 decorative bottles out of it - with enough to spare for me; An impressive gift - that's cost effective yet really REALLY cool.

Ok. I've earned it. Off to get me a Bloody.

Have you noticed lately that my posts are leaning towards the foodie in me? Nothing wrong with that. My “day job” consists mostly of drawing and designing and website-ing (huh?) and my biggest love is food. It is what I do to relax. Football Sundays spent at home are one of my favorite times. I literally cook all day. The kitchen is part of the family room (where the big screen is thankyouverymuch) so I can cook, bake, whip up, sling, roast, grill, saute’ and never miss a down. It is a gastronomical Super Bowl every Sunday (when I am NOT at the actual game) at my house.

But I digress. Today’s post is not about that other love of mine - football - but rather about the evil citrus tree out back that taunts me daily. Every morning when I wake - I notice that the limon tree has dropped some of it’s oh so precious limons. And we all know what my favorite thing to do with limons (key limes) is. SO you can understand my predicament. At 5 am. No breakfast yet. Those little limons whispering sweet nothings in my ear… “Are the mountain’s blue yet? And the mugs? Are they frozen?” And they do not fall one at a time - they fall in a posse.

This morning, all I could think about was some fresh pico de gallo over fried eggs and potatoes and mmmmm hungry yet? Lucky me - fresh tomatoes and jalapenos in the yard as well - in NOVEMBER! (I have SUCH an advantage living in Arizona do I not??)

I actually use more tomatoes then what is in the photo - but I started chopping before I took the photograph. Put me around knives and I gotta chop something. Weird, my husband just ran out of the room… So here is my recipe. Simple simple simple is the key to a good pico.

Pico De Gallo

1 cup diced tomatoes
1/3 cup diced white onion
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 T seeded and minced jalapeno
1 - 1 1/2 t fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 t salt (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in non-reactive bowl. Serve chilled on anything and everything.

Can’t you just smell the freshness? More lime key recipes to come, if I don’t drink them all up first.