Summer Brunswick Stew

Whew. I don't know about you, but our summer here in Georgia has been absolutely brutal. It's HOT! I'm so ready for fall (ok, I'm always ready for fall). Don't get me wrong; I like the sun, I love the pool, and I enjoy the carefree atmosphere that summer tends to bring, but I'm just not feeling this heat. 

That said, I'm sure you're probably wondering why I'd offer you a soup recipe when it's a million degrees outside. And ok, I get it. It is a little odd to complain about the heat and then make a dinner that only makes things worse. BUT.

I am ready for fall. And I'm ready for soups and sweaters and yes, pumpkin EVERYTHING. So, soup in the summer? I'm making it work, and so can you.

I'm typically a Cooking Light girl, but the basic recipe for this recipe comes from Southern Living's June 2016 edition. Looks like SL is on board for summer soup, too. Hooray!

Summer Brunswick Stew

Adapted from Southern Living, June 2016

1 large vidalia onion, sliced

2 T olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

12 oz frozen lima beans

12 oz frozen corn

1 lb cooked pulled pork (without sauce)

1 lb yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup BBQ sauce of your choice

1 can peeled, diced tomatoes (no salt added)

Heat a dutch oven over medium heat, add oil and swirl to coat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add chicken broth and lima beans. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes.

Stir in pork, corn, potatoes and BBQ sauce. Simmer, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add tomatoes and simmer until heated through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grab a side of cornbread (whether homemade or store bought) and you've got a great summer meal!

Until next time...

Cheers!

Ginger Chicken, Shiitake and Scallion Soup

After a mild December, it's finally gotten cold here in Georgia. In fact, as I write this, it's sleeting outside. Yuck.

There's nothing I like more in the winter months - both to make and to eat - than a good homemade soup. Today's recipe is light, flavorful and super aromatic - my house smelled SO good as it was cooking!

As a tip - I'd never used star anise pods before, and I wasn't exactly sure where to find them. I eventually located them on the international foods aisle (which is also where you can find dark sesame oil and brown rice noodles). I removed them from the soup before serving.

Ginger Chicken, Shiitake and Scallion Soup

Adapted from Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2016

 

6 green onions

2 tsp dark sesame oil

4 oz shiitake mushroom caps, thinly sliced

4 1/2 cups unsalted chicken stock

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 star anise pods

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 oz brown rice noodles (pad thai)

Dash kosher salt

Dash black pepper

 

Cut white parts of onions into 1/2-inch pieces. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat; add oil to pan and swirl to coat. Add white parts of green onions and half of the sliced mushrooms. Cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add stock, garlic, anise and ginger to the pan and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes.

 

Add chicken to pan and reduce heat; simmer for 6 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove from heat.

 

Prepare noodles according to directions. Cut green parts of onions into 2-inch sections. Add onions, cooked noodles, salt, pepper and remaining 2 oz mushroom caps to the soup. Remove star anise pods and ladle into bowls.

 

Until next time...

 

Cheers!



Italian Turkey and Orzo Soup

You may have looked at the title of today's blog and thought - really? Soup? Alright, I KNOW it's been ridiculously, uncomfortably hot lately (especially for those of us who are 28 weeks pregnant...not naming names or anything), but honestly I LOVE a good homemade soup - no matter what time of year it is. Maybe I'm weird. After all, I did get the recipe from the December 2014 edition of Cooking Light, so...there you go. Either way, I'm giving you the recipe today, and you can make it now or wait until there's a bit of a chill in the air to whip up a batch. Whatever works for you.

As many of you know, I have a toddler at home; if you know anything about toddlers, you might know that they can be a tad picky at times when it comes to food. Their "taste tolerance" level, if you will, can vary greatly over time (by the way, I'm not necessarily talking week to week or even day to day here - meal to meal anyone? Yep, it happens). That being said, I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when my daughter practically devoured the small portion of this soup that my husband shared with her the other night. I'd actually heated up leftover spaghetti and meatballs for her that night and didn't even bother serving her any of the soup because I figured there was just no way she'd go for it. Of course, I was wrong - she "asked" to try some of her dad's as he was eating it, and it was clear how much she liked it once she did.

At that point, I considered it a fluke...I thought that the only reason why she liked it was because her daddy was eating it. I just knew that if I tried to give it to her again, she'd reject it without so much as a "no-thank-you" bite.

Wrong, again. She LOVED it. It was the first thing she tasted on her plate, and the ONLY thing she completely finished (although she did do well with her peas, which made me quite happy). I couldn't believe it. You better believe I was doing a happy dance, a victory dance if you will. Hey - when you're a parent, it's the little things that count.

So here you go - a healthy, homemade, EASY soup recipe that I can officially say receives Zoey's stamp of approval. Now that's saying something.

By the way, the side salad shown below is a roasted grape and feta salad. It's AMAZING, and I'll be sharing the recipe with you later this week - so stay tuned.

Italian Turkey and Orzo Soup

Adapted from Cooking Light, December 2014

1 tbs olive oil

1 lb ground turkey (93% lean)

1 tbs chopped fresh oregano

4 ounces sliced mushrooms (I used a blend of cremini and shitake)

5 garlic cloves, chopped

3 cups chicken stock (I use Simple Truth Organic Low Sodium Chicken Broth)

2 cups water

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained (I use the no salt added version)

3/4 cup uncooked orzo pasta

2 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 tsp lemon juice

 

Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add turkey and cook for 6 minutes or until browned. Add oregano, mushrooms and garlic and saute for 5 minutes. Add stock, water, salt, red pepper and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and add orzo. Cook for 7 minutes. Add spinach and lemon juice and cook for 2 minutes. Serve.

 

Until next time...

 

Cheers!

 

 



Pierogy Wonton Soup

Hi there, Cocktail Cutie readers. It's been a long, long time! In the past oh, 6 months or so, a few major things have happened in my life - the most important of those things being, of course, that I had a baby! My husband and I very happily welcomed our first daughter, Zoey, into the world on December 11, 2013. She's all that we imagined and more, and we love her to the moon and back! Becoming a parent really is an amazing experience. I've had 9 weeks of maternity leave so far (out of a total twelve) to enjoy with her, and I have to say that I'm very much NOT ready to go back to work and lose the time I have with her day in and day out while on leave - I'm going to be one sad momma the first day (and likely all of the subsequent days) I have to return to real life. That being said, I'm going to be rearranging some of my priorities so that I can maximize the time I spend with my family during my free time...and I've thought a lot about what those changes mean.

I didn't want to completely give up on this blog, because I really do enjoy sharing great recipes with my friends and family. I don't, however, really have time to continue to maintain it or even write in it as extensively as I might like. At this point, I feel like I really need to focus on one writing "project" at a time. In this case, that project is the urban fantasy trilogy that I've been working on for the past two years (you can read more about it here).

Like I said, though, I don't want to completely give up on Cocktail Cutie. Instead of taking a break, I've decided to simply change the "format," so to speak. I'll focus a lot more on just posting recipes rather than writing a blog post to accompany those recipes. I've already started a Pinterest board for the blog and will be utilizing that as a source of searchable recipes as well as a way to easily share my posts. Those who "like" the Cocktail Cutie Facebook page will still receive updates whenever I post a new recipe, but I'll no longer post the notifications on my personal page.

I'm hoping that this change will be better for both you and me, since only posting recipes takes a little bit of the pressure off of me but still gives you ideas for easy meals that you can make at home. This way, I should be able to share more of the great recipes that I hope you'll love!

Thanks for sticking with me. Here's your recipe for today!

 

Pierogy Wonton Soup



2 1/2 cups baby spinach

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 cans (15 oz) chicken broth

1 tsp soy sauce

1 package Mrs. T's Mini Pierogies (any flavor - I use 4 cheese)

1/2 cup sliced radishes

Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

 

Bring broth, soy sauce, garlic and ginger to a boil. Add pierogies and cook (at a boil) until heated through, 5-7 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook until spinach wilts. Add sliced radishes and remove from heat. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with sesame seeds (if using). 

Until next time...

Cheers!

Slow Cooker Special: Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know what each of you thought when you read the title to today's blog. I wouldn't be surprised if many of you looked at this post and thought "Chicken noodle soup? I can only eat that when I'm sick."

Ok, ok. It's kind of true. What do we eat when we have the flu? Chicken noodle soup, of course. When it comes to feeling under the weather, this dish is a key factor for recovery.

But what about the REST of the time? Unfortunately, I know several people who can't (or won't) eat things that they directly associate with illness. Even asking about particular dishes usually results in a disgusted face and a firm "no, thank you" head shake. This is especially true of today's soup variety. Let's face it: of all the soups out there, chicken noodle gets a bad rap.

For round three of Slow Cooker September, I'm sharing a recipe that I hope will change your mind about this "only when I'm sick" soup. This version is so hearty and flavorful that it truly trumps the watered-down, bland mess that comes out of the can. In fact, you might even find that it rivals some of your favorite comfort foods.

3 boneless chicken breasts

1 bag frozen mirepoix soup mix

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tbs dried parsley flakes

1/2 tsp dried marjoram

1 bay leaf

6 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

2 cups wide egg noodles (uncooked)

Add chicken to bottom of slow cooker and cover with frozen vegetables. Add spices and top with chicken broth and water. Cook on low for 6 1/2 hours. 

After 6 1/2 hours, remove bay leaf and shred chicken breasts finely with a fork. Add 2 cups egg noodles and stir to cover with liquid. Cook on low for an additional 20 minutes or until noodles are tender. If noodles need to be cooked longer, check for doneness every 10 minutes until ready.

Here's to making chicken noodle soup an enjoyable dish - even when you're NOT sick!

Until next time...

Cheers!