Apparently "An American Place" is a renown restaurant in New York, did you know??? This is another Recipe from Anna:
For Savannah’s birthday she wanted Strawberry Shortcake. I like the stuff, but I’m not a huge fan. But, this recipe was so good! It’s a more sweet and less dense cake. It would also be an excellent biscuit sans the sugar. I found this on Epicurious.
An American Place Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 mashed hard-cooked large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Filling:
3 pints strawberries, cleaned and halved (quartered, if large)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly butter a baking sheet.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and 4 tablespoons sugar into a bowl. Add the butter, using fingers to work it quickly into the flour until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the cream and yolks; stir with a fork until the dough just holds together.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is just smooth. Do not overwork. Roll the dough out 3/4-inch thick. Using a floured 2 1/2- or 3-inch cookie cutter, cut out 4 rounds. Gather the scraps, reroll; cut 2 more rounds.
4. Put the 6 rounds on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake in the center of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and firm to the touch.
5. For the filling, mix berries and sugar in a bowl. Chill.
6. Cool the biscuits on a rack; carefully split them in half. Heap the bottoms with strawberries. Dollop with the whipped cream, then replace the biscuit tops. Serve immediately with remaining whipped cream on the side.
This soup is from the blog on the link below. It’s not an amazingly clever soup, it’s so simple, but it’s really delish! Especially, with avocado, or sour cream, cilantro, and tortilla chips. It’s great for a quick dinner. I omitted one can of beans, one can of tomatoes, and one cup of water and it was nice and chunky. The link has pictures:
(picture shown is the picture from the following blog)
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 roasted red pepper, chopped (you can use jarred)
• 2 cans low sodium vegetable broth (15 oz. size)
• 2 cups water
• 3 cans low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 T chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• Dash of red pepper flakes
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste
1. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add in the onion and cook until tender. Add in the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the sweet potato and roasted red pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add in the broth, water, black beans, and tomatoes. Stir well.
4. Add the chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Stir and toss in the cilantro. Stir again. Let the soup simmer on medium low for 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft.
5. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot.
**You can garnish the soup with cilantro, avocado slices, cheese, tortilla strips, and/or sour cream. To freeze-cool completely and put the soup in freezer safe containers. **
That's right, I'm posting the first recipe, in fact this is one of those recipes that I tried (just last week actually) and I wanted to tell everyone about, because it was just that good. You could say it was a recipe that you would eat 3/4 of it in one day, if you could. (but you just can't, Norm! - sorry, SNL reference) I tried this soup because I wanted something easy and healthy. It’s basically a vegan recipe depending on the couscous (which could be left out). I was so pleasantly surprised at how good this soup was! What really made it for me was the sweet potato! I loved the sweetness so much I even garnished it with a spoonful of brown sugar. Yum! The book also recommends garnishing with shredded cheese. I personally just don’t like how cheese acts in hot broth. Anyways, this recipe came from a book called The Art of the Slow Cooker (By Andrew Schloss). I love this book. Corn Bread would get along very well with this soup, and I'm a sucker for good cornbread.
Roasted Vegetable Soup
6 servings
·2 onions, cut into 1-inch dice
·2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch sticks
·2 celery ribs, cut into ½ -inch-thick slices
·1 medium turnip, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
·½ red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
·1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
·8 white mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
·4 large cloves garlic, whole and unpeeled
·2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
·6 cups vegetable broth, divided
·1 can (about 15 ounces) diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted, with their juices
·1 tsp kosher salt
·½ tsp ground black pepper
·½ tsp dried rosemary, crushed
·½ tsp dried thyme
·2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian (flat leaf) parsley
·3 tbsp couscous, preferably whole-wheat (I couldn’t find anything but whole wheat, however if you can find a gluten free couscous then well done, try it. I personally doubled the couscous in my soup because I wanted more substance, which of course made it more hearty with less broth)
PREHEAT oven to 425°. Toss the onions, carrots, celery, turnip, bell pepper, sweet potato, mushrooms, and garlic with the olive oil on a large rimmed sheet pan. Spread out into an even layer and roast for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned at the edges.
SCRAPE the vegetables into a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Pour 1 cup of the vegetable broth onto the sheet pan and scrape up any browned bits clinging to it; scrape into the cooker. Add the remaining 5 cups of broth, the diced tomatoes and their juice, the salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme. Cover the cooker and cook for 2 to 3 hours on high, or 4 to 6 hours on low, until the flavors are blended.
STIR in parsley and couscous and cook for 5 more minutes.
*Though I love this soup as is I also thought this soup could be delicious with some beef chuck cut into cubes (for the meat lovers out there) I haven’t tried it yet, but next time I make this soup (which I definitely will), I’ll do it with beef. If you want to cook it with beef you have to cook for the maximum cook time (that is at least 3 hours on high and at least 6 hours on low). Before putting the beef into the slow cooker cut it into 1 ½ inch cubes, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Then you can begin to brown the beef in a skillet with about 2 tbsp of olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes (do this in batches if you need to so that all the meat is evenly browned). However if you are adding beef you want to maybe reduce the amount of vegetables you put in just to keep the volume of solids (if you will) about the same. You could even alter the selection of vegetables used, just be sure to keep that volume about the same. This soup is one of those soups that is even better the next day!
So this is a picture of a picture, but I like pictures, and like I said, I made this last week, before the blog. You can at least see the heartiness of this soup. And its quite beautiful, no?
For that moment when you try a new recipe that is so good that you cannot contain yourself from telling everyone you know about it! Now you don't have to email it to everyone, you can simply post the recipe (pictures!!) and tips right on this blog! Its our new family recipe book! Just email me your recipe (pictures if you have, and any other information) and I'll post them as soon as I can for all to enjoy! I'm excited, I hope we all use this because, c'mon, you know we all love good food :)
