Make your own soup!

It's cool here in the Netherlands quite often so I'm always whipping together soups! This soup was a play on a French Onion Soup with a thick slice of Beer Bread! I braised the onions in beer so the soup also had some beer flavor as well! Turned out quite tasty!  These make your own adventures usually start with me being hungry and then throwing together a bunch of random things I have already together.  Things I always have handy are Lemons, Limes (great for Asian style ramens), Garlic, Onions, Bouillon, Butter, and Bell Peppers! Pretty easy with sauces and spices to throw together something quick and delicious.

Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Have leftover baked potatoes from your summer barbecue? Turn them into a wonderful delicious soup!! This soup is amazing, I've made it several times and it's always a hit, really doesn't need side dishes or anything because it's very filling!  Here is the recipe: Fully Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Build Your Own Pasta!

This is a totally made up concoction I do to use up leftover spaghetti noodles when I make too much.

Heat a frying pan on medium high heat, add oil or butter, red pepper flakes, pancetta, onions, and garlic, and saute.  Then add capers and noodles, zest a lemon over it, add lemon juice! Done!  Occasionally I add cheese, or anchovy paste. Whatever I feel like really.

Thai Iced Tea

Right before I moved to the Netherlands I had this amazing concoction called Thai Iced Tea!  It's amazing, really sweet and spiced! It's a perfect summertime treat.

I use this recipe http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/thai-tea-recipe/ to make it from scratch, I add a vanilla bean to it, helps round it out flavorwise for me.  You can buy a mix, if you can find it, and it will be the traditional orange color.

Fried Olives

Not sure what to have at your next martini party? I have the answer! Fried olives naturally are the way to go! They are super simple easy to make and the worse  you can do is burn them.

1c Green Olives (you used stuffed ones if that's what you like)
1 egg Beaten
1/2c Bread Crumbs
Oil

Heat oil on high heat.  Pat olives dry,  Roll in egg and then roll in bread crumbs.  Fry until golden.  That's it! Enjoy!

Variations are adding different ground spices to the bread crumbs. Using Panko instead of regular bread crumbs. You can also make a dipping sauce if you feel so inclined!

CHEESE DIP!!!!

As you can tell I generally just use recipes as templates so I was ecstatic when this wondrous recipe came into my email from Epicuriuos: How to Make Baked Cheese Dip Without a Recipe   Here is one of my conncoctions and a list of what I used.  This recipe is really super duper easy and great for parties, you can serve it in a big container or even individual ramekins!

I always use cream cheese as my base then everything else is usually what I have on hand, to make it creamier I use sour cream or mayonnaise. To add flavor I use Frank's Wing Sauce or a Spicy BBQ Sauce, you can use regular Frank's or salsa, really however you want to flavor is great, there is no wrong way! Just make sure it's semi thick!  Then I added about 1 1/2 to 2 c cheese, a cheese that melts you can also add feta, goat cheese, or blue cheese if you want but they don't tend to melt to have the desired affect, depends on how liquidy the mixture is.  I grate in a small onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Salt and pepper, then mix it until combined and dish into whatever you'll be baking in.  Top with buttered bread crumbs if you so desire and bake about 30 minutes, let sit for a bit and right before serving put in for 5 minutes.  It will be really hot and it is cheese so be careful when taking your first bites.

Roasted Rainbow Carrots

Roasted Rainbow Carrots, they're also glazed! Rainbow carrots are great because they are a variety of colors so they really make for quite the astounding looking dish! There are orange ones, purple ones and yellow ones in this mix!

4 Bunches Rainbow Carrots
Olive Oil
Honey
Salt

Preheat oven to 450. Cut carrots into thick pieces.  Toss in Olive Oil,  Place on baking tray in a single layer, careful not to over crowd. Roast for 15 minutes, turning once.  I then glaze mine in a pan with some warmed honey. Sprinkle with salt and serve!

Panzanella

Summer is coming and here is the perfect recipe to take to all those summer get togethers you have coming up!  It's super easy to do prep, the most work you do is cut things up!

This panzanella picture here is one I made with fried basil and capers, those are both totally optional, I don't feel they actually added anything to the dish though.

1 baugette cut into cubes about 1/2inch
1/2c Olive Oil
8tbsp butter
3 cloves of garlic sliced
16oz of mozzarella (I buy the packages where it's in small balls and I always buy extra just in case)
6lb vine ripened Tomatoes
1 sm onion (pictured is a purple one but you can use any variety)
Balsamic vinegar
Handful of Basil

Preheat oven 350.   Heat olive oil, garlic and butter over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat. Mix Olive Oil mixture and bread cubes together until bread is evenly coated.  Put bread on a baking sheet in a single layer, Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Cut tomatoes in sizes approximate to the bread cubes. Dice onion, and place onion in balsamic vinegar, they will soak it up and add a little bit of extra pop. Cut basil into strips and add to tomatoes.  Add the mozzarella. When ready to serve mix in a bit of Olive Oil into the vinegar and onions to make a dressing, add this to the tomatoes mixture. Then add bread, mix together and serve immediately.

If you  would like to make the fried Basil and Capers you'll need a small pan with oil, heated on medium heat.  Put about 1/4c of capers on a paper towel and kind of pat dry so the don't spatter. Line another plate with a dry paper towel.  Then you simply fry the basil and capers, they cook pretty fast so be ready!

Muffin Frittatas!

This is not an exact recipe thing I make (as is most things, I will however include the link I referenced to begin with.  The great things about frittatas are they're versatile, high protein, and you can make them ahead and freeze them! If you use silicone muffin cups clean up is a breeze which is always awesome.

Here's a basic example of what I do as I said they are very easy to modify and I'll try and include some examples of what I've used.  This is the recipe I used as a template: http://www.incredibleegg.org/recipe/muffin-frittatas/

Preheat oven to 350F

7eggs
1/4c milk
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
1c shredded cheese
1lb ground meat
Anything else you want to add (spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes, potatoes etc)

All of mine have sauteed onions and garlic in them, 1 small onion and 1 clove of garlic.  1lb of ground meat (beef, chicken, turkey, occasionally pancetta).  I season the meat with salt, pepper, garlic powder and either chilli powder or cayenne, depending on what other things I'm adding with it I'll add other dried herbs such as thyme, dill, rosemary etc.  I also season the meat with things like taco seasoning.  Bell pepper is a good addition for a little bit of crunch, it'll get cooked while everything is baking but will still be firmer then if sauteed with the onions and garlic.  Spinach is also something that frequently goes in the frittatas.  The first thing I do is cut up everything, then I saute the onion and garlic while I cook the meat.  These both need to cool before you can mix in with the eggs.  After those I have cooled I whisk about 7 eggs with about 1/4c milk seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and any other seasonings you want.  I add 1c of shredded cheese (anything you want mozzarella, cheddar, gouda, etc) mix and then add everything else and mix it all together. I then fill all my muffin cups to the top with the mixture. Bake for 20 min, they will puff up a little bit.

Bruschetta Board!

Here in the Netherlands bruschetta is usually called toasts and very rarely is it actually like the traditional tomato based bruschetta you're thinking of, even if that's how it's listed on the menu, I've learned this the "hard" way, they're always still very delicious.  Before I moved to the Netherlands in Arizona there is a restaurant called Postinos which I fell in love with because of their bruschetta board and it's absolute perfection in the balancing of flavors, so I decided to make a Bruschetta Board of my own as the bread, vegetables and meat here are absolutely fantastic!

Ok here we have 6 different kinds, I'm going to start from the left top corner, which is the one that kicked off this whole thing when I found the recipe!

Top Left the topping is Leeks, and blue cheese over a spread of Goat Cheese.  The topping recipe can be found on Smitten Kitchen's site here: leek toasts with blue cheese

Second one is Roasted Red Paper with capers over cream cheese

Third is Truffle Salami over pesto

Fourth is traditional bruschetta with tomato, onions, and basil tossed in balsalmiv vinegar over a smear of roasted garlic

Second Row

First one is Serrano ham over Fig Jam and Mascarapone

Second one is Shaved Asparagus, almonds, and parmesan over cream cheese

Ribboned Asparagus Salad

It's Spring!! That means asparagus is now in season, so I've been trying to use as much of it as I can!  I've roasted it, I plan on smoking it, and in my search, I found this awesome recipe on Smitten Kitchen's website!  I'll include the link and the directions!

Ribboned Asparagus Salad

The whole recipe is to taste so heres what I did"

1 bunch of Asparagus
1/4c Sliced Almonds
Parmesan Cheese
Lemon

To ribbon the asparagus take a vegetable peeler and slide it down the stalk of asparagus, there's no need to break of the ends like you usually would because the strips will be super thin. Place your ribbons on a platter, zest a lemon then squeeze the lemon (I like mine really lemony so I use a whole lemon) over it, add salt and pepper.  Add nuts then with your handy dandy vegetable peeler shave some parmesan over the top!  Eat immediately!


To toast the nuts (try not to burn them like I did) preheat an oven to 350F for about 7 minutes, stay nearby and shake them occasionally so they get roasted all over and don't burn.