French Onion Soup

I have been DYING to make French Onion soup - don't ask me why, because I do not know. Maybe it is the looming French Gourmet magazine on our counter ... not sure. L. was getting ready to leave town so I figured I would load him up on onions and garlic, not sure why I decided to do that either!

I have this recipe from Moosewood cookbook, that I use. I found it about 20 years ago and love how simple it is to make and how rich it tastes. I have tweaked it over the years ... I now slow cook the onions until they are caramelized and I add some garlic to it as well I do not make it vegetarian. I use a good rich beef stock - I love the richness of the beef stock and the color the soup turns.

To serve I toast slices of baguette, that have been drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with crushed garlic. The richness of the stock and onions really compliment the garlicky goodness of the toast!

Pasta e Ceci

During the day on Saturday we had a nice break from the rain and cold; but, it came back just in time for dinner. It was a good night for some comfort and a good night to join Meeta over at What's for Lunch Honey and her monthly mingle - comfort food!

As I mentioned earlier in the week we are using up everything in the house - sort of a pre-spring cleaning. So, we are limited as to what we have on hand. I have been dying to make this lovely soup, recipe from one of Jamie Oliver's books, and lucky for us we have everything in the house. As well, it is pure comfort on a cold and rainy night!

Pasta e Ceci is like a peasant dish - simple, hardy, very easy and full of flavor - onions, garlic, a small amount of celery, chickpeas and a little pasta. If you like chickpeas this soup is for you. We added a loaf of our favorite crusty french bread and opened up a bottle of Italian wine to compliment it (ever since we had a FANTASTIC bottle of Italian wine at Delfina, we have been lushing after them). Was a very nice and cozy evening.

Cheated tonight

.... too busy to cook. Picked up some Lemon Chicken with Spinach soup (was homemade) at Wholefoods, warmed it up along with a baguette and tossed together a salad .... hmmm, boring; but, good.

Nothing too exciting ...

just some left over soup from the other night. Tossed together a salad of baby greens with celery root and baked a batch of biscuits, mainly to warm up the house - it is freezing out! Did I mention, we are trying to lower our cholesterol so we are adding flaxseed to everything!

Okay, time to sit back, drink some tea and listen to L. complain about doing dishes!

Gluttony .....

that is what the past weekend has been all about. Upon arriving back home with a very rainy weekend in store, we decided we should stay as close to home as possible! Every January, we give up alcohol for a month and start eating healthy, again, at least better than we had the past holiday season. This time we decided to take advantage of the terrible rainy weekend and stay in and indulge before the clean living starts up. We definitely fulfilled that sin - lots of good food being cooked, bottles of wine & champagne to be drank, lots of sleep and being lazy in front of a TV (which we never do), some shopping and one incredible dinner out at Delfina.

Tonight we decided to start the clean living with a simple soup - a Provencal vegetable soup with Pistou, served with a crusty loaf of bread and some very creamy blue Roquefort - incredible!!!! Now we are settling in to warm up the evening with a cognac, the last drip of alcohol for the month!

Comfort Food

Sunday night I was exhausted from all the cooking I had done over the weekend, so I roasted a chicken for dinner. I took half of a chick, lifted up the skin and slide butter, shallots, garlic and thyme between the skin and meat. I then sprinkled course sea salt over the top, threw it in the oven with some acorn squash and roasted them all. The meal was simple and delicious. Monday night, I took the left over chicken and turned it into a simple roasted chicken broth & tossed in a little thyme and pasta, whipped up some biscuits and we had dinner. Perfect meal for an evening that came upon a rainy day.

Vegtable Soup with Fennel, Herbs and Parmesan Broth

I was inspired by this recipe on Food & Wine as I was looking for something "good" and light. Well, it was light but not that good - too bland and too many leeks (I thought I could hid them from L. since there was so much fennel in there ... I am BAD - he really HATES them & I realized just how much tonight)! So, after all, it was not comfort food but rather, "mental note, never cook another leek!" At least Dessert saved the day .... homemade chocolate cake and cookies and cream ice cream - a happy belated bday celebration for L. from our little friends, M., E., and M.!