Parmesan Tomato Soup

I made soup for the very first time tonight! My mother-in-law gave us her blender, so I'm going to be putting it to good use- starting with this soup! It has a very mild flavor, thanks to the cheese and half and half, so it's less acidic (and therefore much nicer for me to eat) than store-bought tomato soup!

Parmesan Tomato Soup (serves 6-8)


What You'll Need: 

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I like Muir Glen)
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 finely diced onion
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 cups broth (we prefer using vegetable, but chicken would also be a good choice)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup grated or shaved Parmesan
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 tsp salt
Fresh ground black pepper

How to Make It: 

Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, tomato paste, broth, and herbs to a slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 5-6 hours. When there are about 30 minutes of cook time left, melt the butter in a saucepan. Slowly add the flour, and whisk constantly about 10 minutes to make a roux. Very slowly and carefully, add 1 cup of the soup to the roux and whisk- it will make a paste, but it will also let off a lot of steam, so watch your hands! After the soup is incorporated and a thick paste has formed, add another three cups of warm soup to the mixture, and whisk to combine. Return this thickened soup mixture to the slow cooker, and stir it in. Add the half and half, Parmesan, salt ,and pepper to taste, and stir everything to combine it well. Before serving, blend the soup with an immersion blender or a standing blender (you may have to do this in batches if you're using a regular blender) and blend until smooth. Return the soup to the slow cooker and set on "warm" until you're ready to serve it!

Pineapple Chicken

I know that a lot of people are always looking for something new to do with chicken. It's a family favorite in just about everyone's family. So here's a new chicken recipe for you. We tried it last night, and it was pretty good. Brandon liked it, which is a plus, and I think it was decent and needs some tweaking. Give it a try and see what you think!

What You'll Need: 

Chicken for six (I used four large chicken breasts, cut up)
Olive oil
2 8 oz cans crushed pineapple in juice
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup brown mustard
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp melted butter
Paprika
White rice, for serving


How to Make It: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Get the chicken ready for cooking by trimming any fat and cutting it up if you'd like. Brush a little olive oil in a 9x13 pan, and place the chicken inside. In a bowl, whisk together the broth, mustard, and honey, and stir in the pineapple. Pour over the chicken, and drizzle the melted butter over that. Sprinkle with some paprika, and throw it in the oven for 40 minutes or until the chicken is done. Serve it with rice, and put out some Polynesian sauce or Hawaiian barbecue sauce if you have it (I thought the taste was really mild so I had mine with a little barbecue sauce!) I think that it would also taste really good served with egg rolls, but we didn't have any on hand. : )

Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken

I made this last night, and it was really yummy! I'm looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch. 

What You'll Need: 

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or 2 packages chicken breast tenderloins
1 bottle honey barbecue sauce
Scant 1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder

How to Make It: 

Place the chicken in a large slow cooker. In a bowl, whisk together the barbecue sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, red pepper and garlic powder. Pour over chicken. Place lid on slow cooker and cook on Low setting for 4-6 hours. Fair warning: the longer you leave the chicken in the slow cooker, the more dried it will taste (especially if using thinly prepared chicken, like the tenderloins.) So for smaller pieces of chicken, aim for about 4 to 5 hours before serving.

White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe pairs well with the Cranberry-White Chocolate Blondies, but I imagine it would also go well with white or dark chocolate cupcakes, dark chocolate brownies, and any number of other dishes. It's also really good just eaten straight out of the bowl. : )

What You'll Need:

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3 oz white chocolate (chips or chopped baking chocolate), melted

How to Make It:

Beat the cream cheese and confectioner's sugar until blended. Slowly drizzle in the white chocolate, and beat until completely incorporated.

Cranberry-White Chocolate Blondies

These turned out to be so pretty! I think they'd make a nice Christmas dessert, since they are red and white.

What You'll Need: 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 oz white chocolate, chopped, or an equal amount of white chocolate chips
One recipe White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
About 3 oz melted white chocolate (chips or chopped baking chocolate)


How to Make It: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in the microwave. Stir in the brown sugar. Transfer this mixture to a large bowl, and set it aside to cool. Meanwhile, Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. When the brown sugar-butter mixture has cooled to room temperature, beat in the eggs and the vanilla until everything is well combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until everything is combined. Stir in the chocolate and cranberries. The batter will be very thick- almost like cookie dough.

Spread the batter in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake the blondies for about 18-23 minutes, until the center passes the toothpick test. The blondies are very pale in color- be careful not to overbake them! Let the blondies cool in the pan on a wire rack. When the blondies are cool, frost them with the White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting, sprinkle them with the chopped cranberries, and drizzle them with the melted white chocolate. Refrigerate the blondies a little while before serving, so the frosting can firm up.

Raspberry-Frosted Brownies

I like chocolate, and I like raspberries. They go together so well. It doesn't hurt that cream cheese is involved, either. This is adapted very slightly from the back of a box of brownie mix. 

What You'll Need: 

1 9x13 pan or 2 8x8 pans of your favorite brownies, homemade or from a mix
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
Scant 1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 oz square unsweetened or semisweet baking chocolate
1 tbsp unsalted butter

How to Make It: 

Prepare your brownies and let them cool slightly in their pan on a wire rack. In a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese, jam, and confectioner's sugar until everything is pink, fluffy, and well-combined. Spread this frosting over the brownies in the pan. In a small glass bowl or measuring cup, melt the chocolate with the butter in the microwave (don't burn it!) Whisk it with a fork so the chocolate and butter are completely combined. Using the fork, drizzle this chocolate mixture over the brownies in the pan. I went with a nice, diagonal zigzag pattern. You should have plenty of chocolate to fling over the brownies- if you feel like getting fancy and making a marbleized pattern, go for it! After you've drizzled every last drop of chocolate over the brownies, stick them in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shortbread

This cookies are magical. They really do melt in your mouth. I told my friend they are made of fairy dust and moonbeams because of this purely magical quality. So. Good. I could eat a whole batch of them. Also, these cookies are the slice-and-bake kind, so they turn out pretty perfectly round. This worked to my disadvantage when serving them to friends, because everyone thought they were store-bought and they weren't eating them at first! But they seriously are good- and don't taste store-bought. : )

What You'll Need: 

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup peanut butter (natural works fine in this recipe)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Healthy pinch of sea salt
Handful of chocolate chips (mini, regular size, or even chocolate chunks)

How to Make It: 

Cream the butter and peanut butter together in a large bowl. Beat in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, powdered sugar, and the sea salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips. Turn the cookie dough out onto a piece of waxed paper and roll it into a log (about the size of a tube of store-bought cookie dough.) Roll the dough up into the waxed paper and twist the ends to seal it up. Put the cookie dough in the fridge for a few hours (you can freeze it for about an hour, too.)

When you're ready to make the cookies, preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and slice the cookie dough into disks, between a third of an inch to a half inch thick. You should get about 20 small cookies from this roll of dough. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes until browned the very slightest. They may look a bit raw still, but they're not! If you overbake them, they won't have the same amazing texture. Cool the cookies in a wire rack for a few minutes or bring to room temperature before serving.