Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

November 18, 2013 by pbenjay

I said I was going to make it and I did but not tonight (Sunday).  I made it last night because we weren’t all that hungry for a big meal as we had taken a trip to the local turkey farm to check out what we might want to order for Thanksgiving.  The Hincks Turkey Farm, established in 1938 has a quaint little outlet shop/restaurant in Mannasquan, NJ.  We treated ourselves to turkey sandwiches.  I had the Russian Turkey and Peter had the Flaming Turkey.  Mine, you can probably guess the ingredients but his?  His had hot cherry peppers in it!  This late lunch took place close to 3:00 so as dinner time approached, we weren’t very hungry.  

Chicken Pot Pie Soup Mix

Chicken Pot Pie Soup Mix

I switched menus and made this hearty soup.  The problem with posting about it is that I didn’t make if from scratch so I don’t have a recipe to blog about.   When we were at the Orchard a few weeks ago, I spotted the soup mixes and remembered that I had made one last year and it was beyond “souper”.  The brand is Cherchies, and they make several different kinds of hearty soup mixes.  I think I paid $6.99 for the package;  You add cooked chicken to it and dumplings if you want to really make a meal of it.  And we did! I trimmed all of the meat off of the roast chicken  we had on Friday night and used it in the soup (love getting two meals out of something)  and I made dumplings with Bisquick.  What a delightful meal!  

I also purchased their Mushroom Chowder Mix so as soon as we have another nippy evening, I might make that one. 

I like to think of myself  as a good cook and love posting recipes of dishes I’ve made so I hope I haven’t disillusioned my followers tonight.

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Everyday Food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

SOUPER BOWL Weekend

November 16, 2013 by pbenjay

It could be the slight nip in the air or just that time of the year, whatever it is, soup is on my mind and a few others as well.  I’m planning on making a chicken noodle soup tomorrow night with dumplings.  It will be the perfect Sunday night supper. Today I read on Facebook that a friend of mine made a delicious onion soup yesterday and the recipe came from the New York Times.  It reminded me that I need to check the Times’ Wednesday edition, which has the Dining Section.  I have gotten some really great recipes from there, especially around the holidays.  Anyway, Linda made the soup and gave it rave reviews-that’s good enough for me!

Here’s the recipe from the Florence Fabricant column in the New York Times.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 6 large red onions, about 3 pounds, peeled, quartered and sliced thin
  • 3 large cloves garlic, sliced
  • Salt
  • 2 tart apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 2 cups dry hard cider
  • 6 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 4 cups vegetable stock
  • Ground black pepper
  • 4 1/2 ounces Cheddar, slivered
  • 6 or 8 thick slices country bread about 4 inches in diameter, toasted

PREPARATION

1.
Melt butter in a 5- to 6-quart saucepan on very low heat. Add onions and garlic, dust with salt, stir in apples, cover and cook until onions are very soft, about 30 minutes. Stir in sugar, increase heat to high and cook, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes, until onions start to brown. Stir in cider vinegar, scraping bottom of pan.
2.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in cider, soy sauce and stock, bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently about 20 minutes. Season with pepper and, if needed, more salt. Meanwhile, pile the cheese on the toast slices, covering the bread completely.
3.
Heat broiler. Divide soup among 6 to 8 ovenproof ramekins, deep bowls or big mugs with about 12-ounce capacity. Place a slice of toast and cheese on each, place ramekins on a baking sheet and broil just until cheese melts and starts to bubble. Serve at once.
YIELD
6 to 8 servings
Onion Soup with Gratinee with Cider

Onion Soup with Gratinee with Cider

Posted in Everyday Food, Friends, New York Speaks | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

SEASONAL SENSATIONS

November 15, 2013 by pbenjay

The frost we had earlier this week pretty much killed off most of what was left of summer’s glory.  The pink begonias were black and the remaining basil turned brown.  I had already cut back the peonies and the day lilies and today I cut back the peppermint and we put covers on the patio furniture and the grill.  With Thanksgiving around the corner it’s a little strange to see the last few geraniums blooming by the back door and have a gourd and maize arrangement in the living room.  The seasons may be merging, global warming notwithstanding.  I can remember Thanksgivings that were bitter cold and some years we had snow.  Not sure what’s in store for us this year weather-wise and wonder if there will still be some “color” left in the yard besides the leaves from our neighbor’s tree.  FLASHBACK TO FORWARD.

SEPTEMBER: 

Shades of September

Shades of September

OCTOBER: 

Ghoulish October

Ghoulish October

NOVEMBER OUTSIDE:

YES Geraniums in November

YES Geraniums in November

NOVEMBER INSIDE: 

Gourdish November

Gourdish November

Posted in Fab Fotos, Ha-P 2 B in OG | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK – Hey There Gen X and Y

November 13, 2013 by pbenjay

Brrr-rr A COLD TURKEY

Brrr-rr A COLD TURKEY

Bad Day At Black Rock, I’ve used that phrase for years and didn’t actually know where it came from until the other day. I didn’t realize it was the title of a 1955 movie starring Spencer Tracey.  Although not so much used now, the phrase which means the worst day ever, was quite popular.  I guess it’s now relegated to the likes of me, women of a certain age.  Of course if you live in Manhattan and use the phrase, people might think you are complaining about working at CBS – oh no that’s just “The Rock”, oh well…. Ah Hah! A correction from my friend, Gail – CBS is known as BLACK ROCK after all.

When I was in Florida last month visiting my daughter and the grandkids, I really got a taste of living in Gulf Stream;  It is a  very small section of Delray Beach in the historic section and I think there are about 800 families.  The school, Gulf Stream Day School IS the heart beat of the town.  It seems as if all the kids go there, dressed in their neat preppy uniforms in khaki, white and navy.  The line of cars dropping off and picking up was pretty impressive.  Then there’s The Ocean Club, where we went for a Friday night barbecue and it was deja vu all over again.  I wrote about that in a previous post; see Sun and Sand, Sangria and Surfing plus Salmon, It’s Saturday-DAY 6.  However the point of bringing that up is that by Friday I  had observed just how small this little town was and remarked to my daughter that, “This place has all the makings of a Peyton Place“.  I said this in front of her and about 4 of her friends.  They just looked at me!  Uh, what’s a Peyton Place?  You’ve got to be kidding me!  Forget the TV show, what about the movie?  Forget about it, they were clueless and I’m getting really old!

COLD TURKEY:  Did you think the phrase Cold Turkey could ever have had a meaning other than the rigors of drug withdrawal?  Yes of course it did or it wouldn’t be in this post, lol.  Turkeys loom large in American psyche and are the starring entrée at every Thanksgiving Day meal.  The phrase talking cold turkey means talking no nonsense and getting done to business.  In the early 20th century, the phrase evolved into talking turkey and also going cold turkey – just getting it done.

As I get older, the list of phrases and words lost to Generation X and Y just gets longer and longer.   But their day will come soon enough.  I’ve already noticed that what I thought was GREAT, they think is AWESOME and the Millennials think it’s SICK!  

Related articles

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Obscure Origins of Common and Not So Common Phrases | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Tuscan Baked Beans a/k/a Fagioli Al Uccelletto

November 12, 2013 by pbenjay

TUSCANY

TUSCANY

It’s Tasty Tidbits Tuesday!  You know I love to cook on the weekend, especially at the shore because the kitchen is bigger although the stove is smaller as is the oven.  The real reason I love cooking in New Jersey is the accessibility to several marvelous grocery stores and two magnificent fruit and vegetable stands.  Believe they don’t call New Jersey the Garden State for nothing! Unabashedly, Wegman’s is my favorite grocery store and I love making the recipes in their seasonal MENU magazine.  This recipe for Tuscan Baked Beans is in the latest edition.   I don’t know if it was meant to be a main dish but it certainly would satisfy a vegetarian or vegan.

1 pkg dry Great Northern Beans OR 4 cans of Great Northern Beans undrained.

9 cups of water* (only needed it you use the dry beans)

24 leaves of fresh sage OR 20 if you are NOT using dry beans

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, OR 1 if you are NOT using dry beans

1/2 cup of Extra Virgin olive oil, divided

1  1/2 pkgs of chopped onions.  (12 oz)

4 cloves of garlic, finely diced

8 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 TBS salt

1 tsp pepper

1/4 cup basting oil (olive oil with Italian herbs in it)

2 cups of Panko bread crumbs

You’ll need a stockpot* and a braising pan

** indicates usage with the dry beans

*Place sorted and rinsed beans in stockpot.  Cover with about 2 inches of water, tilt cover to vent and soak 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans.  Put the beans and 9 cups of fresh water in the stockpot. Heat on HIGH uncovered, until boiling.  Skim off as much foam as possible.  Add 4 leaves and 1 sprig of rosemary to the pot.  Reduce to MEDIUM.  Cover, tilting to allow steam to vent.  Cook one hour, do not stir.

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in braising pan on MEDIUM.  Add onions and garlic, cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.  Chop 20 sage leaves and sprig of rosemary, add to onion mixture.  Cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.

Check beans for tenderness. If not quite tender, cover completely and cook an additional 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Add beans and liquid to the onion mixture in braising pan.  Stir to combine. Drizzle remaining olive oil and bake for 60 minutes.  Beans will be done when liquid is syrupy and bubbly.  Carefully remove from oven, season with salt and pepper.

Mix basting oil and panko crumbs in small bowl.  Place mixture over beans and return to oven, bake 20-30 minutes until topping is brown and crisp.

This makes enough beans to feed 8 people. It tastes great, REALLY!!

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine 

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Throw Back Thursday

November 7, 2013 by pbenjay

TBT seems to be the rage on Instagram so I thought I would post a few “oldies” here.  Actually these pics have been posted before a couple of years ago.  But what the hey!

Kiki Berti

Little Chiara

Lori Press, Lyndhurst NJ

Little Me

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, Friends | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

SUNDAY SAUCE -Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

November 5, 2013 by pbenjay

Sunday sauce

Sunday sauce (Photo credit: letouj)

This past weekend, I decided to make Sunday Sauce.  It is so tasty, so delicious and even though it takes a long time to cook down, it is well worth it.  Pick an afternoon you’ll be home and soon your home will be filled with the aroma of simmering tomato sauce.  I thought I could make it in my crockpot BUT my crockpot was not big enough.  Using a crockpot would make the whole process easier since you could just let it simmer away for hours.

I started with a large stockpot but then thought, “Oh why not use the crock pot?”   I filled the crock pot and still had a lot of sauce in the braising pan so now I had to make a decision;  I took half of the meat out of the crock pot and put it in the braising pan and cooked the sauce in both.  I tell you all this so you won’t make the same mistakes I made which made a fairly simple recipe into a complicated process.  Mangia!

SUNDAY SAUCE

(but you can call it Gravy!)

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1.5 lb of boneless country spare ribs ( I used bone-in)

6 links of Hot Italian Pork Sausage (I used Hot Poultry Sausage)

2 cups (16 oz) chopped onions

8 TBSP of minced garlic (from jar) OR 20 cloves minced

2 cans of tomato paste

4 cups of water

6 cans of coarsely ground Italian tomatoes

4 TBSP dried basil (I used 2TBSP and basil from my yard)

16 meatballs (cooked)

Salt and Pepper to taste

You’ll need a large braising pan and a 16 Qt stockpot

Heat olive oil in large braising pan on MEDIUM HIGH; add ribs and sausage.  Cook, turning 2-5 min, until meats are browned on all sides.  Transfer meats to stockpot.

Reduce heat to LOW.  Add onions and garlic to braising pan; cook, stirring, 10 minutes, until veggies are translucent.

Raise heat to MEDIUM; add tomato paste.  Cook, stirring, 3-4 minutes, until paste just begins to brown.  Add water, stirring to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan.  Bring to simmer.

Transfer tomato paste/water mixture to stockpot. Stir in canned tomatoes and basil.  Bring to simmer on MEDIUM.  Reduce heat to LOW.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 hours.  Add cooked meatballs.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

Carefully transfer meats to serving platter; cut meats into manageable pieces. Transfer sauce to serving bowl.

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine

Congratulations to me! This is my 1000th blog post!  Wow, I’ve had so much fun doing this, I hope my readers/followers are enjoying  this journey too.  Thank you for all your support and comments.  

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Big and Little, Masks and Make-Up…Halloween Begins!

October 30, 2013 by pbenjay

Always a place where bigger is better and more is nicer, Manhattan extends Halloween far beyond the usual Cabbage Night or Mischief Night and the actual Eve of All Hallows.  Almost everyone I have ever mentioned Cabbage night to in New York City has not known what I was talking about.  Do you?  Traditionally the night before Halloween, parents stayed home and tried to keep older kids in the house because  that was night that mailboxes were filled with  shaving cream , trees were wrapped with toilet paper and soap was used to scrawl messages on car windows.  And here you thought the kids in suburbia were so good!

Anyway, in the City, Halloween fun began last weekend.  There was a “kids happening” in Central Park where kids of all ages and sizes were present to participate in the many events.  There was also that hot hot Halloween display at the Band Shell in the park; see previous post; “It Was A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight” OR Was It Central Park?

Murray was in the park taking photos of all and here are some of the Big and Little, Masks and Make-up

BIG Guy - Make-up

BIG Guy – Make-up

Little Guy - Make-up

Little Guy – Make-up

Big Pumpkin Man

BIG White Face Pumpkin 

Little White Face Zombie

Little White Face Zombie

Pumpkin Dog - No Mask No Make-up!

Pumpkin Dog – No Mask No Make-up!

Hot Dog-No Mask No Make-up

Hot Dog-No Mask No Make-up

BIG Zombie - Make-up?

BIG Zombie – Make-up?

Little Zombie - Mask!

Little Zombie – Mask!

Headless Horseman No Make-up No Mask

Headless Horseman
No Make-Up No Mask

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

So there you have a glimpse into the beginning of Halloween Week!

Related articles

 

Posted in New York Speaks, Only in New York | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

“It Was A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight” OR Was It Central Park?

October 29, 2013 by pbenjay

Wow things were really heating up in Central Park this week.  Look what was going on at the Band Shell in the park.  Costumed performers were really playing with fire!

HOT Javelin Thrower

HOT Javelin Thrower

Balancing The Burn

Balancing The Burn

One Hot Hula Hoop

One Hot Hula Hoop

Face Afire

Face Afire

Climbing The Walls

Climbing the Walls

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Meaning of “MEH”

October 29, 2013 by pbenjay

Photo by Jason Leonti

Photo by Jason Leonti

Sometimes I am so out of the loop on any new “thing” whether it be the latest fad fashion, TV show, gossip about some celebrity under the age of 30 (can they really be celebrities?) , who is hanging in there on AGT, The X Factor, who’s still in the Big Brother House and who is sent to Redemption Island?  I mean wow there is SO MUCH non-informative information out there and really who cares?  

Well that previous question can pretty much sum up the meaning of MEH!  Currently,  this is a popular term used to describe something  or someone or someplace that you don’t really give a damn about.  The official meaning as given in an online dictionary (really whoever uses the big book anymore), is as follows:  

exclamation:
expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm.
“Meh. I’m not impressed so far”
adjective:
uninspiring; unexceptional.
“a lot of his movies are … meh”

This morning I logged onto Facebook and saw that one of my friends, Grace Gotham, has posted her own personal “Meh” list and I thought what a great idea for a blog post.  Of course I was ashamed to read in her post that the NYT Times magazine has one each week.  As my husband will tell you, I don’t read the Times anymore because I’m too busy playing on my computer!  

Anyway, I thought I would post a blog about my own personal MEH list and ask you dear readers to send in some of your own. Let’s do it.

1.  The World Series (if the Yankees are not playing who cares)

2.  e-cigarettes

3. The Meatball Shop

4. hashtags

5. Donald Trump

6. Justin Beiber

7. Mylie Cyrus (omg, don’t go there)

8. cro-nuts

9. Starbucks Chocolate Chai Latte

10. Naomi Campbell

YOUR TURN !!

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »