Blue Cheese Soup & Giveaway Winner
PIN IT!Happy New Year! Can you all believe it’s 2012? So how was your New Years? Do anything crazy? We had a rather low-key NYE, actually! My sister-in-law and brother-in-law were in town so we made a HUGE dinner, drank a few bottles of champagne and watched the ball drop! I know, wild. But after my last few NYE’s, I have to say it was incredible to lay low. And for the first time since I got him, I got to celebrate with my little puppy!
Plus, it’s fun to have someone to help me cook and decorate! Check out our tablescape!
Since I was gone for 10 days, I didn’t have time to buy any fun NYE accessories so we just improvised with what I had. I think it’s cute! Our menu was delicious, pot roast, mashed potatoes, blue cheese soup (recipe below!), pasta salad, fresh bread, cheesecake and two super yummy appetizers, including this goat cheese dill bruschetta!
We have enough leftovers to feed 3 families, so if you are in the DC area, please, COME EAT MY FOOD. Full fat potatoes and marbled pot roast are not exactly the kinds of food I need to be eating to lose these dreaded 20 lbs. But, before we get back into the healthy eating, I have to share this AHHHH-MAZING soup my sister-in-law made. It’s full of heavy cream and blue cheese, but it’s so worth every bite. Plus, today is still a holiday right? I mean, most offices are closed 🙂 Before we get to the soup, though, I must share the WINNER of the Julia Child’s giveaway!
Drum roll please…
The winner is Cat, whose 2012 goal was to “figure out a job I’d love to have!” A great goal Cat, and I have full faith that you will accomplish it! Congrats! If you didn’t win, I’ll have another big one in a few months, so keep your eyes peeled!
Now, SOUP!
Surprisingly, I’d never heard of blue cheese soup so when my sister-in-law suggested we make it, I was intrigued. This is a very popular English soup and is often made with Stilton blue cheese. We couldn’t find that particular type so we just used Gorgonzola. Regardless of what cheese we used, this soup was out of this world. So creamy, so decadent and had just the right amount of tanginess from the Gorgonzola. With how strong of a cheese this is, I was a little worried it was going to be overpowering. Instead, it was perfectly flavored.
The great thing about this soup is that you can use any kind of cheese you want and can serve it with anything you want! We chose to serve it with fresh croutons made from crusty french bread. The pairing of the crispy bread and soft, creamy soup was absoulutely perfect.
If you don’t have french bread, you can use store bought croutons, fresh vegetables or just eat it by itself! Trust me though, you don’t need a lot of this soup to feel satisfied. I had 1/2 cup and was surprisingly full afterwards. Plus, it’s so decadent and flavorful you don’t need a lot.
Since today is still a holiday, go a head and make this soup. Your diet can start tomorrow, trust me, it’s worth it.
BLUE CHEESE SOUP
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Yields: 6 – 8 one cup servings
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons of flour
- 3 cups of chicken stock
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 8 ounces of blue cheese
- salt and pepper
Directions:
- In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and cook until brown and soft, about 4 -5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for about one minute. Take off heat. Add chicken stock and return to heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add heavy cream and blue cheese and heat until cheese is melted. Garnish with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour soup into a blender and blend until velvety smooth, about 2 minutes. Serve with croutons and enjoy!
Nutrition facts per 1/2 cup: 260 calories, 15 grams of fat, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 14 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.
And then it was over…Christmas 2011
…and all that’s left are wrappers, boxes and half eaten pieces of candy. It’s so crazy how long it takes for us to prep for this holidayand then how quickly it goes away. This Christmas was amazing though! I got some really great loot, including a sassy pair of riding boots and some fabulous kitchen accessoreis!
I’m not going to lie, the easy bake little set was one of my favorites! For our family (extended with cousins) exchange we had to get a present for the person we picked that reminded them of their youth. I, of course, got an easy bake oven! We made little fudgey treats that tasted REALLY wet. I think we added too much water.
Although the easy bake was a HIT, my cousin got one of the coolest gifts of all, a life size jenga set!
We had a few rousing games of that before we retired last night.
Now, I would be a pretty bad foodie if I didn’t share some of the delicious eats we had! My family does Christmas Eve dinner BIG, not the other way around. So at about 11am, I went over to my grandmas house to help my mom prep the big feast. We had…
A luscious fruit tray
Bubolki [or sauerkraut, wet bread and 14 sticks of butter]
Goat cheese salad with beets and roasted asparagus
One of the many cheese trays
A cheeseball snowman
Rib-eye Beef Roast
A whole lotta wine
and 16,000 cookies.
We also had twice baked potatoes, 4 kinds of hot dip, including artichoke, buffalo chicken and spinach and some hot rolls. Then, on Christmas morning, we enjoyed a delicious sausage breakfast casserole and some pecan crusted french toast! I was a bit, um, not well on Christmas morning so I didn’t grab a photo of them 🙁 But I did get some great photos of the tablescape I helped my aunt create!
It was such a fabulous holiday! Now i’m going to nap, again, for the 2nd time today. Merry day after Christmas!
Claire
Tags:Christmas, christmas 2011, featured, food photography, fruit tray, holiday, ribeye beef roast, salad
Happy Christmas!
Holy cow, Christmas is 2 days away!!
Can you believe it? Luckily all my shopping is done and all I have left to do is help cook, bake and prepare the Christmas Eve and Christmas morning menu! Which, to me, sounds perfect! Plus, my darling cousin is in culinary school and he’s going to teach me his fabulous ways of cooking! As anxious as I was a few days ago, I’m feeling relaxed for the first time in god-knows how long. It’s nice to be able to spend time with family without any crazy obligations, don’t you think? Before I share some photos of the Chateau de Gazdick swanky hotel I’m staying at, I’m going to share a few recipes you have GOT to try!
Wine soaked short ribs with fresh rosemary
Plus, there are a ton of articles I did for Fabulous Foods, so check them out!
Before I share my A-list accommodations, I must share my favorite part of the holiday.
Ugly Christmas sweaters!! Don’t mind the rest of my shambled appearance, I’m not well. Now onto the Chateau de Gazdick, filled to the brim with festive holiday decor!
and it’s not Christmas without children’s bottles of liquor.
I’m off to help Elizabeth craft, she’s quite good. I keep telling her to sell her stuff on Etsy!
Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Spicy Potato Latkes
Before I begin, I want to wish a very Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrate! May these 8 days bring you love, peace and happiness! And latkes! Lots of these latkes!
Now, I’m sorry for my unplanned hiatus, but these past two days have been MADNESS, PURE MADNESS I TELL YOU. Monday I had to write about 4 articles, yesterday I was literally in the kitchen from 11 am – 11pm, cooking up a thousand different things, plus I had to photograph, edit and write those articles as well. And today, I got my hair did (YAY, FINALLY), went shopping to pick up last minute items and wrote another 4 articles. Those people who tell you that having a full time job, a full time blog and oh, another freelance career is easy should get violentally punched. I’m just saying. It’s one of the hardest things ever. BUT NOW. I’m free. At least until next week when I have another 50,000 to do. But I love it and that’s all that matters.
Moving on, new hair?
SHORT! Can you believe it? It’s so much shorter than I wanted, but I’m really pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. It’s so soft, so bouncy and really easy to manage. Plus, it’s a bit cosmo chic, so that’s good. And it’s that fabulous red color I love. After the past few months I’ve had, a nice hair cut is just what I needed.
So, now onto these delicious latkes, eh? I’m not Jewish, but I married a man who is, so I’ve been dying to try out some traditional Jewish fare. Plus, one of my articles for She Knows Fabulous Foods (a foodie’s paradise, I tell you) was to create a Hanukkah menu! So, of course, what better time to create some tasty latkes! I wanted to alter them a bit so I added some chili powder and a dash of crushed red pepper. I’ve never had a latke before, but I will tell you these are my favorite. That’s fair, right?
To begin with, potato pancakes are the next best thing to a pancake, I mean really. They are SO soft and incredibly flavorful. What I loved most about these was obviously the addition of the spice! Each bite was soft, with a bit of crunch, a bit of a chew and had a fabulous spicy flavor. Plus, I got the creamy texture and flavor from the dollop of sour cream on top.
I absolutely love latkes now. How on earth did I wait so long before one of these delicious pancakes made their way into my mouth? I urge you all to try these. Actually, no. I order you to try them. You’ll become a latke lover in no time. Plus, they take less than 5 minutes to fry and can be eaten with a fork or just with your hands (the way my dad devoured them yesterday!) Enjoy!
Spicy Potato Latkes
Serves 8
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: >5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 cups of shredded red potatoes, skin on
- 2 tablespoons grated onion
- 3 eggs beaten
- 4 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1/4 cup of olive oil for frying
Directions:
- Squeeze moisture out of potatoes and onion with a paper towel or cheese cloth. Place in a medium size mixing bowl.
- Add eggs, flour, salt, chilli powder, crushed red pepper and garlic powder and mix well. If potatoes seem too wet, add additonal flour.
- Heat oil in a medium frying pan. Scoop latkes into the pan and fry until browned on each side, about 3 – 4 minutes. Serve with sour cream or enjoy on their own!
Nutritional information per latke: 105 calories, 5 grams of fat, 21 grams of carbohydrates and 5 grams of protein.
My Weekend in Photos
What. a. weekend. I’m going to need a few days to recuperate, plus about 45 high octane workouts to burn off the 56 pounds of butter I inhaled as I baked. As I’ve already told y’all, my mother bakes about 35 different kinds of cookies a year. And I’m not just talking 35 batches of a dozen each. I’m talking 35 batches of at least 3 dozen each. This year, we made roughly 1200. As soon as I got off the train (15 hour ride, I’ll save that gem for another post), I was put to work in the kitchen. I barely made a dent in the production because my mom, her best friend Mama P and my cousin Liz dominated the baking! Since I’m still delirious from cookie dough consumption and am bleeding butter and sugar, I’ll let the photos tell the story.
It all started innocently enough with me snapping some photos of my mom’s ornaments.
There was also some lovely snowfall when I arrived. Sadly, it’s all gone and it’s like 60 degrees here today. I want some snow for xmas, darnit!
And then the mass pandemonium ensued. To begin with on Friday, the fridge decided it didn’t want to work anymore. Just, stopped working. So all the dough we made that was being cooled had to be baked, THAT NIGHT. A little bit of a bend in the road, don’t you say? Luckily, without my help since I had a mental breakdown due to negative hours of sleep, they were able to get them all baked!
Gold trimmed cranberry and white chocolate cookies
Cranberry orange bites
Key lime pie thumbprints
Chocolate ganache
and a little peanut bark, just to name a few.
Now, before we get on to more cookies, you must first see the “room of ingredients.” Since NO ONE believes me when I say we use about 500 pounds of butter, I’ll just let you see for yourselves. I’m fairly certain just looking at this room will give you Diabetes or cause you to gain an absurd amount of weight.
So, yeah, that’s real life. Just take that in for a moment. As scary as it is, each semisweet chocolate chip and each pound of butter found a lovely home in each one of these delicious cookies.
And no, we didn’t JUST eat cookies this weekend, although there was quite a bit of that to be had. Mama P, who is an AMAZING cook, whipped up a delicious shrimp soffrito, fried goat cheese salad and some homemade garlic bread. I can NOT WAIT until she shares the recipe with me because y’all are going to LOVE IT. It’s so good with just the right amount of Cuban spice. Oh and the goat cheese salad? I can’t talk about it. I just, can’t. It’s SO incredible.
We also dabbled in a little bit of cocktail tasting since my recipe creator position this month requires me to concoct 12 different drink recipes. I know, what a ROUGH life. [Can’t wait to share them with you!]
Yesterday as we were finishing up our last batches, we took inventory of the kitchen, which sort of looked like a tornado had ripped through it. But, that’s the life of a baker, especially a baker who makes 1,200 different kinds of cookies.
If you look close enough, you can see little ol’ me frosting some peppermint sandwich cookies!
The troops have left the battle station, cookies in tow, and all that’s left now are the remnants of flour on my clothes, the butter and sugar coated spatulas and a pretty exhausted family. But heck, that’s what the holidays are all about, right?
Does your family have any baking traditions? What are they?
Claire
Tags:baking, Christmas, Christmas cookie recipes, cookies, featured, holiday drink recipes, holiday week
