Autumn's Seasonings™

Mushroom, Barley soup with Mixed Veggies

2010-11-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

I had this yesterday at the mall and it was SO GOOD I decided to duplicate it! I think I did a pretty good job! Especially considering that the dude at the restaurant didn't want to part with his "special recipe".

Ingredients

* 1 cup barley
* 1 Tbs butter
* 2 onions, chopped
* 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
* 3 carrots, diced
* 1 stalk celery, diced
* 2 (10 ounce) packages sliced mushrooms (mix and match kinds)
* 5 cups organic mushroom broth
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 tsp oregano
* 2 tsp thyme
* 2 tsp basil
* 1 tsp ground rosemary
* 1 tsp rubbed sage
* 1 tsp parsley (dried, ground)
* 2 bay leaves
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* A splash of half and half (about two tablespoons)

Directions

1. Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, add mushrooms and onion. Sauté until tender (when onion has turned slightly translucent). Add remaining ingredients (except half and half) and bring soup to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and continue simmering 30 minutes. Just before serving add the splash of half and half if desired. Stir well.

Serve with fresh baked bread, biscuits, or rolls.

Footnotes

* If you'd like, you can throw all ingredients into a crock pot and simmer on low heat (6-8 hours) or high heat (2-4 hours). That way when you get home from work, you have a hot delicious stew waiting for you!

Bon appetit!

Almost Perfect Biscuits

2010-10-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

I tried to get a great shot of these before the kids and my boyfriend got a chance to eat them..... I didn't grab the camera in time. Lol. These are (in my opinion) just okay. They are incredibly fluffy and soft, but a little on the dry side. I'll make these again and tweak the recipe as I go. Maybe one day I'll have the perfect biscuits that are both moist and fluffy!

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg with milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Drop biscuits by the spoonful onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (I use Wilton Parchment paper, it's the only brand I've found that works!) Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Vegetarian Stew

2010-10-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

I had a migraine that I'd been suffering from all day long and when Jason asked me what I wanted to do for dinner he kindly offered to make spaghetti. Now his spaghetti is really amazing, but it's the only thing he can really cook. He makes it every time I can't (for whatever reason) make supper. I've been ill for the past week and at this point I'm quite tired of it.

Tonight I wanted something different. Something that wasn't based in tomatoes. I had no idea what I was doing when I went in the kitchen, I just diced and chopped and sautéed and then drowned the whole mix in vegetable broth.... the result was fantastic. Everyone (even the kids!) went back for thirds!! And they knew it had tofu in it!! Absolutely fabulous.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup coarsely chopped mixed peppers
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
2 small eggplants, unpeeled, cut in 1- to 2-inch chunks
1 cup chopped and diced leeks
1 package extra firm tofu, diced
3 cups vegetable broth
1 (28 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 small bag mixed veggies (I used half a BIG bag of soup mix veggies)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 cup coarsely chopped parsley
3 bay leaves

Directions

In a large skillet, heat 1 Tb. oil. Sauté onion and pepper until soft, about 10 minutes. Add 1 Tb. oil, garlic, leeks and eggplant. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is softened but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about half an hour (longer if you so choose) until heated through.
In a separate pan, cook noodles until tender (follow box instructions)
Pour stew over noodles one serving at a time. Store noodles and stew separately.

Basic Hummus

2010-01-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

Hummus is one of my all time favorite snacks. It also happens to be one of my kids' favorite snacks, which works well because it's just so darn good for you! I love it so much that I even spread it on some sandwiches instead of mayo or mustard. Not to mention that it's incredibly easy to make and there are so many ways to make it!

Basic hummus is made with garbanzo beans, but there are times I only have one or two cans on hand. Feel free to mix and match your beans, this is lovely with 2 cans black beans and 2 cans garbanzo beans.

This makes a really big batch of hummus. Feel free to cut it in half. Half of 1/3 cup is a little more than 3 tablespoons. And one tablespoon is 3 teaspoons, so half of that would be 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Ingredients:

4 cans garbanzo beans {also known as chick peas} do not drain set 'juice' from beans aside
1/3 cup tahini {sesame paste, found on the peanut butter or international isles of most grocery stores}
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons salt
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup roasted red bellpeppers {fresh do well too, but roasted adds better flavor}
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
about a tablespoon fresh parsley chopped {if desired}

Directions:

Place all ingredients in the food processor (or blender if you don't have a food processor, but you will need to add more liquid, water works just fine) except the juice from the canned beans.

Add half of the bean juice and start to puree / blend. Add more liquid as needed until you reach the level of puree you desire (I like mine blended really, really well). Top with fresh parsley.

For a creamier hummus feel free to use yogurt instead of the bean 'juice'

When feeling spunky (or when I have the extra ingredients on hand) I've been known to any mix of the following to my hummus: pickles, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, pumpkin puree, corn, extra bell peppers, more garlic.....but I digress. This is basic hummus, feel free to play around with it and add your own things.

This will taste even better the next day (or after being chilled for a few hours) when the flavors really have a chance to blend, but mine rarely lasts that long.

Serve with pita wedges, crackers, raw veggies, or on sandwiches. Or better yet, grab a spoon and enjoy it as is.

As always, let me know what you think!!

picture borrowed from Google Images because yet again I forgot to take my own.....I'll remember one of these days!

Sugar Cookies

2010-01-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Valentine's Day!! (which is how my kids and I got started on this one, looking for the "perfect" sugar cookie recipe. We searched, baked, tested and tried about 20 different recipes and finally mixed a bunch of them and concocted our own)

I'm not a big fan of icing. Ironic since I used to decorate cakes for a living, but seriously I don't really like the stuff. I needed a sugar cookie that I could just toss some sprinkles on and enjoy that way myself, but that also worked well with icing on it; kids apparently love the sugary stuff. After testing at least 20 different recipes I came up with this one (a mix from about 7 other 'basic' sugar cookies) I have to say it's pretty darn good.

Classic Sugar Cookies:

Ingredients:
1 Stick butter or stick margine plus 2 tablespoons
1/4 cup Crisco (you can use butter flavor if you like, I used regular)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (the pure stuff, imitation is just gross)
3 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
Cream together the butter {all of it, we arent saving the 2 tbsps for later you need them now}, crisco and sugar.
Add eggs one at a time, mix well
Add remaining ingredients mix well
Chill for several hours (or overnight, which worked time-wise for us)
Roll out dough very thin (almost as thin as a pie crust would be rolled out)
Cut into desired shapes
(if not using icing sprinkle your cookies, if desired, before baking)
Bake at 375° F on a lightly greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes (or until edges are slightly brown)

Decorate with icing or sprinkles and enjoy!

These are tuned to my tastes, if you change it up let me know what you did (I love suggestions!) I've thought about adding some ginger maybe next time I make these and omitting the icing all together so they're more like tea cookies than anything, but I have yet to try that myself.

Bon Appetit!

Pictures courtesy of: http://thebiggie.com/blog/category/food/; http://www.theloopyewe.com/sheri/2007/02/opal-rainforest-collection-ll-and-cookies/; http://www.jinjur.com/diy_projects/ since I completely forgot to take pictures of my own. Hopefully I'll remember to do that when I make more of these tonight!!

Autumn's Chicken Salad

2010-01-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

This one of those recipes I made up all on my own. I didn't even use a base recipe for it!! I was in the mood for some old fashioned Chicken Salad today but didn't feel like running down to the store for the normal stuff I get (besides they changed up their recipe and lately it's been more blah than ooh la la) so I played around with the contents of my cabinets and came up with a pretty awesome recipe if I do say so myself! Love it; hate it or change it, but if you try it please leave a comment and rate it! Thanks!!

Autumn's Chicken Salad
2-3 precooked chicken breasts diced (this is an awesome way to use up left-overs but be warned your salad will turn out differently depending on how the chicken breasts were marinated and cooked - but that's part of the fun)
2 stalks celery - diced
4 hard boiled eggs - chopped
1/2 small yellow onion (red onion is good too though)
1/3 cup chopped mild banana peppers OR 1/3 cup Dill Pickles - chopped into small bits
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 - 1/2 cup mayo (whatever brand you like best) (due to the fact that I am dieting I did not use this much, I used almost 1/4 cup mayo, but most people prefer their chicken salad to be surrounded in the stuff, add it at will and enjoy)

Mix all ingredients together and let sit in the fridge for an hour (this allows the flavors to blend - but if you're hungry now and you dont want to wait skip this step) If you prefer your chicken salad to not be chunky in the slightest toss everything in the food processor and blend to your liking.
Spread on your favorite sandwich bread or spread it on a wrap with lettuce or just eat plain with crackers! Just enjoy it, use it, make it your own, but again please comment and let me know what you think!!

Bon Appetit,

Braised Chicken With Apples with Sage AND Wild Rice Sautéed with Mushrooms

2010-01-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

My friend Alix over at Casa Hice is one of my favorite bloggy people. She's honest, open and just as sassy as I am at times. She cracks me up and makes me cry with her awesome posts. A few days back she introduced her readers to Chef Green and his recipe for Braised Chicken With Apples and Sage. Which I have to admit is FABULOUS!!! I'm not one to normally cook with apples unless its a dessert. I dont know it just seems weird to me, but I have extra apples on hand and I accidentally bought boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts so I thought I'd give this a try. And I am SO glad I did!!! Chef Green sure does know what he's doing here!!

Now my version is a bit different but not by much at all. The main difference is the absence of the sage and the replacement of that sage with rosemary. Rosemary is one of my all time favorite spices, mix it with garlic and onion a little butter and just about anything else added to that and you're sure to have a winner in my book. Whether you use pork or chicken this is sure to be a winner in your books as well. Below is the recipe copied verbatim {well verbatim with my added changes, in green as usual} from Chef Green's page (but still you have GOT to check him out, he's awesome!!)

Braised Chicken With Apples And Sage
Mise En Place
4-6 chicken thighs. Take the bones out, it will cook faster and be more tender.
2 red apples, sliced. Cubed I used Jonagold last night. I used red delicious, it's all I had on hand.
1 Spanish onion, julienned.
1 palm-ful of fresh sage, Rosemary julienned.
1/4 cup brown sugar (thereabouts).
1 cap's worth of apple cider vinegar.
Chicken stock, as needed (I'll explain).
Flour, salt, and pepper.
Olive oil and butter.

Procedure
Remove the bones from the chicken using a sharp knife. Trim any excess fat or skin away, but leave the skin that covers the meat. Pat the chicken dry. (To cut down on time I just got boneless skinless chicken thighs at Walmart, paid all of $3.75 for 6 small thighs. I'm not a big fan of skin on dark meat so my braised chicken didn't brown as nicely but it was still YUMMY!) Season lightly with salt and pepper, dust the skin side lightly with flour.

Heat a large saucepan on medium high. Add a little olive oil and a pat of butter. As soon as the butter has melted, but not turned brown, add the chicken, skin side down. Don't overcrowd the pan. It might take you two batches. Bronze the chicken and then sear the raw side lightly.

Set the bronzed chicken aside. In the same hot pan, add the apple slices and julienned onion. Cook until both are tender but not completely soft. Add the sage and brown sugar. Cook until the sugar is melted and the pan starts to smell like heaven. Add the capful of vinegar (it "wakes the sleepy flavors up"). Say some happy words and wishes into the pan and let the food know you love it. (I dont normally talk to my food, I know it will taste great because I'm making it....plus I already talk to my plants and my dog, and my tv, and the computer....we dont need to add one more thing to the list haha.)

Transfer all of the food into an oven safe dish. (I just left mine in the skillet but then I had a top for it and it's an oven safe skillet.) Make sure that the chicken is still skin side up. Add enough chicken stock (or broth) to go halfway up the sides of the chicken. Cover and bake at 400 degrees F until the chicken is done (160 degrees F).

Cooking the apples and onions

The chicken on the apples and onions

The finished chicken dish (If you have skin on the thighs yours should be a bit more brown!!)

*********************************************************

I like chicken with rice, you can't really beat that combination unless you make garlic mashed potatoes (another favorite of mine, will post it tomorrow). Below is my recipe for wild rice with sautéed mushrooms and more rosemary (I told you it's one of my faves)

Wild Rice with Sautéed Mushrooms

2 cups button mushrooms sliced
1/4 cup butter
1 clove garlic chopped
1 stem rosemary shredded or chopped, your choice
Pepper and salt to taste (go easy on the salt if you use chicken broth though)

3 cups water or chicken stock (or a mix of both)
1 1/2 cups Wild Rice (any kind of rice works well, but wild is my fave)

Prep:
Cook rice according to package directions (which normally means, bring liquid to boil reduce heat, add rice, cover and simmer for 20-40 minutes or until liquid is gone and rice is tender)

While rice is cooking (and chicken is in the oven) melt butter in saucepan add sliced mushrooms. Sauté on medium low heat (medium at the highest) for 10 minutes or until mushrooms are almost tender add garlic, rosemary, pepper and salt stir well cook for 1-2 more minutes turn off stove top.

Add mushroom mix to rice when rice is finished cooking. Stir well. Enjoy!!

My delicious dinner!!! I will definitely be making this again!!!!

Total review of this dish:

Five out of Five Stars!! Thanks Chef Green for sharing this with the blogging community!!!

Taco Soup

2010-01-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

One of my good bloggy friends Cate told us on Twitter this morning that she was making Taco Soup. Well us southern girls love tacos and when it gets cold out there's nothing better than a hot bowl of soup!! This combines both things!!! Original recipe/ingredients are in black, what I added or changed will be in green.

Super simple.

Brown 1lb ground beef or turkey over med-high heat until no longer pink
Dice 1 medium onion and 2-4 cloves of garlic toss in with meat while browning - drain off fat

Mix in 1 packet of taco seasoning and 1/4 cup water
Allow beef/taco seasoning to simmer for 5 minutes
Turn off stove top add meat mix to crock pot

Crockpot:
(do not drain the cans!! This helps flavor the soup!) Do not drain the cans of Rotel (diced tomatoes) or the can of green beans. Do drain and rinse the beans before added them to the crock pot - cuts down on sodium
1 can diced chilies - drained
1 can of corn (not creamed corn!) {Some southerners dont know the differnce}

1 can italian cut green beans - do not drain

2 cans Rotel - do not drain

3 cans beans (I use pinto but can use pretty much anything) - drain and rinse

1 packet ranch dressing mix

Add the meat to the crockpot, simmer forever 4-6 hours on high, 6-8 hours on low settings. Especially good served with some tortilla chips, sour cream, cheddar cheese, jalapeno peppers, whatever other Mexican toppings you like.

Thanks Cate for the recipe!! Make sure you drop by her blog too and let her know if you made this and how awesome it was!!!

Cream Cheese Sausage Dip

2010-01-08T11:53:00.001-08:00

Meet my nemesis: Cream Cheese Sausage Dip, every bit as fattening as it sounds. It's partner in crime {oreos} can NOT be made at home but for some odd reason I always crave them after chowing down on this stuff.
I can and have in the past eaten an ENTIRE BOWL of this stuff all by my lonesome and enjoyed every second of it....until the next day when I had to work off all the dern calories which wound up taking more than a WEEK to accomplish and left me with legs that were so jittery and sore and abs that hated me and a promise to myself that I would never again eat the whole bowl by myself.... yeah...... that hasn't happened again (thank God....though I should say hasn't happened again YET because lets face it when something this yummy comes along my will power takes a vacation) Anywhoodle, I'm done rambling here's one of my most favorite dips of all time (I think credit goes to Rotel but I honestly dont know where it started, my step-sister gave me the recipe a while back) {Btw I should mention my lovely step sister is all of 5'5 at best and a gorgeous size 5 at most so BLAH sis no fair, when you get a moment let me know how the heck you do it and eat this stuff will ya?!?!}

Cream Cheese Sausage Dip

(This is great for football games too!!!)

Ingredients:

2 8 oz. blocks of cream cheese
1 pound bulk turkey breakfast sausage (you can use any sausage, I just prefer turkey sausage)
1 can rotel
Directions:

Start the turkey sausage browning in a skillet.
In a separate baking dish, dice the cream cheese and add the rotel.
Pop the dish with the rotel and cream cheese in the microwave uncovered and nuke in 1 minute increments, stirring each time, until melted and well combined.
Meanwhile, finish browning the sausage, drain and rinse well before adding to the dip.
Stir until well combined.

***** Or You can Cook it THIS Way ******
Take cream cheese out of fridge set on plate to soften.
Brown Sausage in skillet, drain.
Toss sausage into crock pot, add cream cheese {which has been resting on the counter during the whole browning of the sausage thing. But if you forgot that step it's ok just make sure to stir it a bit more often. I forget to take the cream cheese out of the fridge way too often}
Turn crock pot onto LOW.
Add tomatoes, stir, let sit, stir randomly whenever you get the urge to smell the delish dish you're cooking up
Dip will be ready in 20-30 minutes.
(This way of preparing it is best for when doubling or tripling the dip for large crowds, less dishes and you can keep the crock pot on warm/low settings for the entire length of the festivities.)

Serve with corn chips of choice (something stiff or they’ll break)

For those of you who don't know what rotel is:

Enjoy, eat your hearts out and let me know how much you love it!!
XoxoxoxoxoxO,

Carolina Sweet Potato Pancakes

2010-01-07T09:01:00.000-08:00

I'm totally taking credit for this one, the base recipe can be found here and honestly it wasn't too bad the original way but I'm not partial to so much fat in a dish (unless it's dessert) and when it comes to breakfast I prefer something slightly healthy since it will be what fuels me till I remember to make myself lunch (which God knows could be as late as 4pm) I'm also having to steal their picture for this one since the day I made these (Jan 1st) I had unfortunately forgotten my camera over at my sisters house... champagne is not good for the memory I tell ya... maybe the next time I make them I'll remember to snap a few photos of the cooking process as well as the finished dish....maybe. But I will be making these often since the kiddos loved them and honestly so did I.

Ingredients

1 large can of yams/sweet potatoes in syrup drained
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
Extra ground cinnamon

Directions

Mash yams/sweet potatoes in large bowl. Add eggs, milk and butter, mix well on medium speed till fluffy
In a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Blend sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture to form a batter. (note I didnt bother to sift, call me lazy but flour has come a long way since sifting days and it doesnt make a difference in something as versatile as pancakes)
Preheat a lightly greased griddle over medium-high heat. Drop batter mixture onto the prepared griddle by 1/4 cupfuls and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Cook until golden brown, turning once with a spatula when the surface begins to bubble.

side note: I changed the name too, I'm not in Louisiana and would prefer to call these Carolina Sweet Potato Pancakes since I'm a Carolina Girl =) and since I did change up the recipe a lot (a LOT) I think I have the right to call this my own and give it the name I choose...

They Love Me they REALLY Love Me!!!

2010-01-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

I have a follower!!!! Granted this is my second blog (click here to see my other lovely blog) but since it's brand new I'm simply ecstatic over having followers (though I feel a bit like I'm only talking to one person, I'm going to write this as though there are more of you in the hopes that there soon will be!) Big hugs to Chef who is my first (and so far only) follower on here!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

This blog is yet another side to me, if I'm not careful there will be bits of me spread all over the net and not enough me left for real life (which honestly doesnt sound all that bad right now since real life is being a bitch, but then again she has her good moments too)

Moving right along....

I'm trying to come up with other fabulous things to post here (mostly recipes) and I'm going to try my damnedest to keep ONLY recipes I have tried myself. What I'd REALLY like to do is post only recipes I've tried that are JUST MINE. (Which to me means if I've had to substitute more than 3 of your ingredients and I've added crap to it, the recipe is no longer yours it's mine, even if your was the base of mine. No worries though I promise to give the base recipe maker person/site/book some credit....unless it totally sucked and I had to completely change it up to the point where it wasnt even recognizable anymore, then it's all mine and you get no credit....that's only fair right?)

Hmm... anyways.... next on the list of things I have made is Carolina Sweet Potato Pancakes!! These are delicious and if you give me five minutes I'll have a post on them and will link you to it shortly (via editing the recipe title and leading you to the next post....)

In the mean time thanks for following me and being patient as I edit and work on my blogs!!!

Ginger Snaps

2010-01-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

These are my favorite winter-time cookies. I make them pretty tiny so that I can eat a ton of them and not feel too guilty.

1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground white pepper (if desired, this give the cookies a spiciness to them!!)
1/2 tsp ground clobes
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar

1) Heat oven to 375° F
2) Beat brown sugar, shortening, molasses and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients except granulated sugar.
3) Lightly grease cookie sheet with shortening (LIGHTLY!!!)
4) Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls, dip tops into granulated sugar. Place balls sugared sides up about 1/2 an inch apart on cookie sheet.
5) Bake 5-7 minutes or just until set. Allow to cool for one minute then remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Ok couple of things: first off it is imperative that you make SMALL balls of the dough (seriously 1/2 a teaspoon in size to a full teaspoon at most, if you absolutely want to make them bigger then expect to have to cook them 10- 12 minutes and to be chewy in the center in a not so appealing way.) Secondly I like mine spicy so I tend to over do the ginger, I put at least 4 tsps of ground ginger in mine (and sometimes I even add chopped bits of real ginger to it, but if I do that I omit the pepper, no need to set anyones mouth on fire with a cookie... lol.)

These go really well with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk...... did I mention they are my faves? Just so you guys know how small these really I put a quarter next to one.... I like them tiny!! Enjoy!!