Soupe a L'Oignon (Onion Soup)

Soupe a L’oignon (French Onion Soup)

This wonderful recipe if from Vincent Price’s cookbook.
Serves 2.


Ingredients

3 rashers of bacon,
2 large onions
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic chopped finely
Sprig of parsley
Pinch of thyme
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon cognac
French bread

Directions
In a deep saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons bacon drippings
Saute2 large onions chopped fine in the drippings. Cook over medium heat until onions are soft.
Add 2 tablespoons flour, salt, pepper and 1 clove garlic finely chopped.Cook until mixture is golden brown but not burned.
Add a sprig of parsley, a pinch of thyme, 1 quart chicken stock, 1 cup dry white wine and simmer for 3/4 hour.
Add 1 tablespoon cognac at the very end.

Serve in individual ovenproof bowls
If you want to serve the soup gratin, bread torn into pieces and float on top of soup - sprinkle bread with parmesan cheese and place under grill.

Pumpkin Squash or Butternut Squash Bisque

PUMPKIN SQUASH OR
     BUTTERNUT SQUASH BISQUE

Ingredients

1 lb cooked pumpkin or butternut squash (Leila used butternut squash)
4 tbs butter
1 large onion
1 medium leek
4 cups chicken broth (homemade is best!)
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
1 teasp. Salt
½ teasp. Curry powder
¼ teasp. Ginger
¼ teasp. Pepper
1 bay leaf

Directions


1.  In a large pot-Melt butter and sauté leek and onion (chopped)

2. Stir in pumpkin ,broth, salt, spices and bay leaf

3. Bring to boil

4. Lower heat, simmer uncovered 15 mins.

5. Remove bay leaf

6  Puree in blender small amounts at a time

7.Add cream.

Potato Soup with Kale and Chicken Sausage

Potato Soup with Kale and Chicken Sausage

Yesterday I tasted the most delicious soup made by Marianna at Jason’s house. She found the recipe on Farmstead Chic at http://www.farmsteadchic.com/whole30-zuppa-toscana.
The original recipe used Italian sausage and organic beef tallow or ghee. Marianna used chicken sausage sliced, which she added towards the end and the chopped kale just before serving. I’m going to use olive oil to sauté the onion and garlic.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil (or beef tallow or ghee)
1 lb chicken sausage, casings removed and sliced (or Italian sausage)
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
6 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (equal parts of basil, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, cilantro, thyme, red pepper flakes)
7 medium red potatoes (approx. 3 lbs) coarsely chopped
A bunch fresh kale, stems removed and chopped
1 13.5 oz can full fat coconut milk.
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a large saucepan, saute the onions in olive oil till turning golden brown, add garlic stir for one minute. Add 6 cups chicken broth and the coarsely chopped potatoes. Add the crushed red pepper and Italian seasonings. Bring the soup to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes
Add the coconut milk, chicken sausage and chopped kale. Continue to simmer until the potatoes can be pierced with a fork and the kale is tender.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Green Beans with Slivered Almonds & Onions

This is a delicious dish that Jason made for me last week. He served it with salmon.
I came home and had to make it right away!

Ingredients

1 lb green beans
2 strips bacon
2 Cloves garlic
1/2 an onion
Handful of slivered almonds (or walnuts)
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt
Butter
Sugar

Directions

Cut off the tails of the beans, wash in cold water. Heat a saucepan water with a shake of salt, once boiling drip the beans in (whole) and cook for 6 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a pan, sauté 2 strips of bacon until crisp, lay aside on a paper towel
In the same pan saute 1/2 a chopped onion, add chopped garlic (2 cloves), towards the end add a handful of slivered almonds, a shake of red pepper flakes and 1/2 a teaspoon sugar. In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter, add the beans and the onion mixture and 1/2 a teaspoon salt. Stir and cook over medium low heat covered for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Omelette

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/4 teasp. Salt
Shake of pepper
2 tablespoons milk/ cream or almond milk (if dairy free)
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Crack the eggs in a bowl
Add salt, pepper and milk (or heavy cream or dairy free milk)
Beat well till fluffy.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, pour in the egg mixture and with a spatula, gently move the egg mixture to one side. It will start to thicken and fluff up. Once the egg is beginning to brown on one side, flip the omelette and continue cooking until the omelette is lightly browned on the other side

For variations, add cheese during the middle of cooking (grated cheddar) or sliced cooked mushrooms, or cooked asparagus. Or use all three!

This recipe is good for 1-2 people.
Just increase the amount of eggs and use a larger pan if feeding more people.

Nadia's Christmas Cupcakes

Each cupcake carefully decorated by my granddaughter, Nadia.
We made them from scratch, but I think a boxed mix would work just as well!

Mirabel's Mini Hot Cocoa Mugs (Dairy Free)

 

 

 

Written and Made By: Mirabel Fuleihan
(Julia Fuleihan’s Granddaughter)

Mini Hot Cocoa Mugs
(Dairy Free)
Ingredients
For 24 servings
COOKIE DOUGH
1/2 cups of unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups of brown sugar, packed
1/4 cups of sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
6 oz of semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cups of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
FOR DECORATING
6 oz of semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup of almond milk, warmed
1 cup of mini marshmallows
24 mini candy canes
Vanilla frosting
Christmas sprinkles
——————————————————————————————————————————
Instructions
First you have to preheat the oven to 375*F
After that I mixed together the butter and both sugars with an electric hand mixer(you might need a spatula to get the dough out of the mixer). Then I beat in the egg and 6 oz of chocolate chips (if you don’t have and weigher then you can lay the chocolate chips on a large flat pan or something and cut it into 4th’s because 24 divided by 6 equals 4) AFTER you mix the sugars and flour, beat this until combined. The real directions said to sift the flour in, but I think it’s just a waste of time because I didn’t and it turned out great. Mix until combined.
(This is the fun part!)I first spray the pan then I looked at my mini muffin pan and kind of measured in my mind how much dough I’ll need. By the way you have to make sure that the top is completely even and that the sides are pushed to the edge so it looks like a tiny cup.( Make sure to use a mini muffin pan because my Situ gave me a big muffin pan and it was catastrophic!)
Let the cookies/muffins bake for 8 minutes. If the sides puffed up too much on the sides, when it’s warm you can use the back of a spoon and push the sides in delicately. While your cookies/muffins cool, let’s start decorating!   
Put 4 ounces of chocolate chips into a heatproof bowl and turn into a liquid or as close as you can get. Since I’m lactose intolerant I replaced the heavy cream with almond milk, so you pour the warmed almond milk into the chocolate and mix until combined and smooth to make gnash.(It tastes the exact same as if you used heavy cream)
Once the cookies/muffins are cooled then I took them out of the pan using a knife. I put them on a cutting board and poured the gnash into the cookie/muffin cups. Next I made my chocolate glue. The recipe say’s to use two oz of chocolate chips but that’s not enough so you should use 4 oz , and put it in the microwave for 50 sec. and mix it around. Put the glue in the freezer for 10 minutes or more so it can cool. While it’s cooling take your strongest pair of scissors and cut the curved part of the candy cane to make a handle. Once the chocolate has cooled take it out of the freezer and dip the sides of the candy canes in the chocolate and press it vertically on the mini hot chocolates. Let these set in the fridge for 1 hour.
After you take the hot chocolate mugs out of the fridge, place three mini marshmallows on the top of each of the hot chocolate mugs. After that put the vanilla frosting in a piping bag and do a dollop of frosting on each marshmallow. After that I poured red, green, and white sprinkles out of the container and placed one of each color sprinkle on the mini hot chocolate’s frosting.
After you completed that YOUR DONE!!! Please enjoy your mini hot chocolates! (they’re  great for parties!)

Inspired by thegunnysack.com