WOOOO!!

While this post has no relevance to Silver Spoon, or any type of food for that matter, it does have a relevance that makes food seem like thumbtacks (or anything else with little to no importance).

Will you stop whatever you're doing right now and try to wrap your mind around God's love for you? Like, seriously? Let's think about God and His mightiness for just a second. God was here before time began (this is already hard to grasp). God created the world you are now living in by speaking it into existence. God literally breathes life because He is life. This entire universe and everything in it is His creation.
 

Do you realize that the birds you see in the sky are a result of God's creative imagination? One species of birds wasn't enough, so He created 10,000+ different kinds. And apples - there are 7,500+ types of apples to choose from. And why do we have onions AND shallots? Why do we have bananas AND plantains? You know, just because. 

God is sovereign over everything you see and can't see. Have you ever studied the complexity of pollination? God's idea. Or the intricacy of the human eye ball? God's idea. You know the soothing sound of music - major and minor sounds, sharps and flats, melody and harmony? God's idea.

God is the most creative, most powerful, most intelligent, most high God. Most of us have witnessed the beauty of mountains, oceans, waterfalls and sunsets. But do you know what God considers to be the pinnacle of his creation? It's you. You are more beautiful to Him than any other part of His awesome creation. You were created in His image. You were created by Him and for Him. You are His child. A child of the Most High God! 

You were created with a need that only He can fill. Since we live in a fallen world, we grasp for material things like money, fame and success. We strive for happiness. But God designed us in such a way that in order for us to fill that void, we must strive to seek His face above all else. 

God is the King of the universe. Did you read that? Like, seriously read it? He's the King of the universe! Our purpose in this life is not to have a good job after getting a good degree from a good college. It's not about finding your soul mate. It's not about marriage and family. While all those things are good, our purpose in life is to love and worship God. Our purpose is to glorify His name in everything we do. Then, and only then, will we find fulfillment on this side of eternity. There's no other way. Jesus fills our emptiness. No one else. 

I can hardly contain myself when I try to think about that. God, the King of the universe, the creator of everything, loves me with such a strong passion that He sent His only Son to pay the price for my sins. Jesus came down from His heavenly throne and became man. He was beaten, kicked, bruised, crucified and hung, paying a price so large you and I cannot even fathom it. Why did he do that? Because He loves you unconditionally. He wants to spend eternity with you. Can you fully understand that? I can't. I'm trying, but it's too much for me to handle.

Regardless of your circumstances, regardless of adversity, God is with you always. He is holding your hand as you walk through life, whispering gentle words of love and encouragement. He fully understands you and all your ways. He equips you to face everything that comes your way. He gives you wisdom and guidance during tough decisions. He loves you. You belong to Him. 

Doesn't God's unfathomable love make you want to.... I don't know.... SHOUT?!?!?! Jump? Sing? Dance? Run? Laugh? Do you realize that anything and everything you do, you can do it in the Presence of the Most High God who loves you more than anything? You can make your bed knowing that Jesus is with you and loving you and reading your thoughts and saturating you with grace. You can drive to work and have a conversation with the Creator of the universe, at the same time. You can cook dinner while contemplating the Lord's unchanging and unfailing love for you. He is with you always.

Go spend time with Him, get to know Him. Get to know the creator of all things visible. Hang out in His presence. Let Him shower you with unspeakable peace. Follow Him. He has better plans for you than you can dream of. Leave your old ways behind. Stop doing things that don't matter. Start embracing His everlasting love.

Let God invade every area of your life. He has plans that will blow your mind!



How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1).


But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies (Psalm 36:5).

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings (Psalm 36:7).

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love (Psalm 48:9).

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever (Psalm 52:8).

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15).

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever (Psalm 136:26).

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends John 15:13).

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love (John 15:9).

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2).

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-5).

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).

Minestrone & Monster Cookies!

Finally, my book has arrived!

It's very large!

The reasons I haven't written a new post in a week:

1) been waiting on the book. There are only so many SS recipes online
2) school started
3) my parents are great cooks, so it's tempting to go to their house every night for dinner
4) option 3 is cheaper

But I've really been missing these fun recipes! So I'm committing to cook more often.

Neither of these 2 recipes are from SS (didn't get the book until 5pm), but at least Minestrone is continuing in my Italian theme. Monster cookies are in a category of their own. We'll get to that later.

Minestrone is my very favorite soup, especially on a cold rainy night. But I was a little disappointed in the quality of my pictures tonight. It's challenging to take a decent picture of soup. But I promise it's sooooo good! And easy!

First I sauteed 1/4 cup chopped celery, 1/2 cup chopped carrots & 3/4 cups chopped onions and some olive oil in a large pot for almost 10 minutes.

Then I added about 8 cups of chicken broth, 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce, 2 peeled and diced potatoes, 1 can Italian stewed tomatoes (I blended them first), 1 can navy beans, 1 can Italian cut green beans, 3 handfuls of fresh spinach, 2 bay leaves, some basil, salt, pepper. I covered it and let it simmer for an hour. Then I added half a cup uncooked macaroni pasta and let it cook for another 30 minutes. Another really good thing to add if you have it is a fresh Parmesan rind. It really adds some great flavor.

Yum. This soup is delicious and comforting. I separated mine in a few quart sized zip lock bags to freeze and eat later!












MONSTER COOKIES!!

Katherine Sandifer introduced me to these years ago, and I am forever grateful! Seriously, these cookies transcend all others. Your life will change when you take your first bite.

First I mixed a stick of softened butter in my mixer, then gradually added 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup plus 2 tbsp of brown sugar. It's important to make sure the butter is softened just right before mixing. I know from experience that if the butter gets too melted, the texture of the cookies won't be the same. While the mixer was on medium speed, I added 3 eggs, 2 cups of peanut butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp baking soda, pinch of salt & 4 1/2 cups uncooked oats. Then I took the bowl out of my mixer and added almost a whole bag of M&Ms and almost a whole bag of chocolate chips. Mix it with a spoon. Here it is!

I baked them in a 350 degree preheated oven for 7 minutes. Let them cool a couple minutes when they get out. They should be undercooked and require a fork to eat! At least that's how I like them. I didn't get a picture of a cooked cookie because I scarfed them down too fast when they came out of the oven.

Sorry this isn't a great post. I need to go study! I will start my SS recipes again in a few days!

PS - does anyone know where to buy rabbit meat??

Spaghetti con il Tonno (Spaghetti with Tuna) & Chocolate Souffle!

I didn't think I was going to cook after work today, but I did. And I'm glad I did! Tonight's meal was delightful, and VERY easy to cook. The dessert was... well.... I'll get to that later.

But first, I have good news. My sweet mother bought me 8 small ramekins today!!!!!

compared to my larger ones

Woohoo!! When she gave them to me, I detected a smidgen of ulterior motive. The look in her eyes was saying, "Now you can make me chocolate souffle!" :-) This gift brightened up my day. Thanks mom!

Ok back to the tuna spaghetti.

2 cans of tuna (in water)
1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic
pasta of your choice (I used rotini)

 It's silly how easy this is. First I sauteed the olive oil and garlic in a large pan. Then I added the tuna and tomatoes (I put the tomatoes in a blender first). Seasoned with some salt and pepper and cooked for 10 minutes. Voila! Pour it over some cooked pasta and it's ready to eat. This took maybe 20 minutes to prepare and cook. Most of that time was spent waiting on the water to boil for the pasta. I added some chopped parsley on top because I had some left over from last night. With a well-stocked pantry, this dish doesn't require a trip to the grocery store. I will classify this dish as 'comfort food.' Warm and tasty. I was humming while eating it, which is usually a sign that I'm happy.

Taste factor: A
Ease of preparation: A++
Modifications: Used tuna in water instead of tuna in oil, but that hardly counts.


Okay, I have a confession. Tonight's dessert was an epic fail. I was thinking about not even posting pictures, but I decided not to let my pride get in the way of showing you how NOT to make chocolate souffle! By the way, this isn't a SS recipe. So I might not even count this as a true failure :-) I found this in one of my mom's french cookbooks.

1/4 cup melted butter
2 tbsp plus 1/2 cup sugar
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
3 egg yolks
5 egg whites


I'm not even going to document all my steps because what I did was obviously wrong. But I'll show my pictures and briefly commentate.

Here's my melted chocolate. So far so good.

This is what it looked like after I whipped in my egg yolks and sugar. It's supposed to be completely smooth, which is the exact opposite of this picture. I knew everything would be wrong after this, but I decided to press on til the end anyway!

This is what it looked like after I whipped in the egg whites and separated it into the ramekins. Again, this is wrong!

This is what it looked like after it baked. Kind of pretty I guess, but not souffle-ish.

This is what it looked like on the inside. More like chocolate cake than souffle.

I decided to make the best of it. I can't eat chocolate cake without ice cream, so I whipped out the Blue Bell!

So basically, I only got the first step right. I successfully melted some chocolate. Everything else went downhill from there. I actually threw out the chocolate mixture and started over, but the same thing happened again. I will retry this recipe later after some heavy duty research!


Taste factor: B-
Ease of preparation: C
Modifications: yes, but unintentionally!

Petti Farciti al Mascarpone - Chicken Stuffed with Mascarpone

Don't worry - the pink is the ham, not uncooked chicken!

I realize that I've posted twice today, but like I said, a day off of work = a full day of cooking!

I have been extremely successful in my SS recipes. Haven't been disappointed with anything. This stuffed chicken was very very tasty!

After cutting the chicken breasts in half lengthwise and pounding them flat, I sprinkled them with a little salt, pepper and oregano. Then I lined each piece with a thin slice of cooked ham, a large dab of mascarpone and cooked mushrooms (sauteed them with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and chopped parsley). Then I put one half breast on top of the other. On top, I put some halved cherry tomatoes and chopped parsley.

chicken without the top half

I put these in an oven-proof dish in a preheated oven at 400º covered for 15 minutes then uncovered for an additional 12 minutes. Make sure they're not in a very flat dish because there will be lots-o-juices left in the pan!

While that was cooking, I diced a coupe potatoes and sauteed them in some olive oil and garlic. Seasoned them with a little salt and pepper and let them cook for about 25 minutes. You have to continually stir them because the potatoes like to stick and form a thick crust on the pan, making the cleaning process more difficult than it should be!

I also sauteed some spinach with garlic (I overdosed on garlic tonight...) for another side dish.

Here's the finished meal (before & after pics)! I cut the chicken breasts in half because they were so large.

YUMMMMM!!!!!!!!! I sprinkled some more chopped parsley on the potatoes and added a dab of butter. The spinach was delicious. The chicken was sooooo good!

Overall, this was a great dish that I will be adding to my regular cooking repertoire. The preparation was somewhat of a hassle. There was a lot of slicing and dicing. And I typically don't like messing with raw chicken, but who does? The potatoes were a little burdensome because of their constant need to be stirred, but totally worth it. They were tasty.

Taste factor: A
Ease of preparation: B- (cutting and pounding raw chicken, slicing mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, etc)
Modifications: I'm not even sure what the exact SS recipe is because I got this online and it wasn't thorough.

Zucchine Capricciose al Salmone e Porri - Zucchini Capricciose with Salmon and Leeks

I'm off work today due to icy weather which means more cooking time for me!
I decided to continue on in my love affair with leeks. So when I came across this recipe I was immediately sold. This was delectable!

2 zucchinis
3-4 oz smoked salmon
2 leeks
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper
3 tbsp freshly grated parm
1/2 cup half & half

I love love love zucchini, but I always cook it the same way. Slice it and saute it with butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, Worcestershire & parmesan. Don't get me wrong, that's a delicious way to cook zucchini but it's kind of boring. This dish was far from boring - it's almost... perky? (I'm ashamed I can't think of a better word). But my point is that it was tasteful to the eyes as well as the mouth! Green and pink are a match.

Sadly to say, my book still hasn't come in yet. I ordered it late last week so it should be here soon. This SS recipe is online.

First I put the zucchinis in a salted bot of boiling water for 11 minutes (it's recommended to do 15 minutes, but I think 11 is ample). While that was cooking, I melted the butter in a pan and sauteed the 2 chopped leeks (only used the white and light green part, and saved the dark green). I seasoned it with a little salt and pepper and let that cook for about 5 minutes. Then I added the chopped smoked salmon, seasoned it with just a pinch more salt and pepper.

Make sure to taste it to get the right amount of seasoning.

When the zucchinis got done, I sliced them in half lengthwise and scooped out the flesh. Next I added the salmon/leek mixture, put it in a greased oven-proof dish, added the parmesan and drizzled the cream over the top. Baked them in a preheated oven at 350º for 10 minutes.

So so good! The only thing I would have done differently was add some salt and pepper to the hollow zucchinis before adding the salmon mixture. The zucchini itself was pretty bland. Other than that, this was truly delicious (and filling). I didn't serve anything with it. Not to mention it's healthy! After counting the calories, I came up with an estimated 150 calories per zucchini boat. And one is plenty!

Taste factor: A
Ease of preparation: A
Modifications: none

1: Uova in Cocotte ai Porri - Eggs en Cocotte with Leeks & 2: Broccoli Fantasia - Fabulous Broccoli

Tonight starts my exciting and possibly weary jaunt through the Silver Spoon cookbook! My hope is that this cookbook will expand my culinary scope. Actually, my book hasn't even come in yet but I couldn't wait any longer so I found these two SS recipes online :-) 

Each post will include the recipe, a summary of my experience with it, pictures and an overall rating. I hope you will enjoy reading it!

The kickoff night was a huge success, and it gave 'eggs for dinner' a new twist!

Eggs en Cocotte with Leeks:

3 eggs
3 leeks
3 tbsp butter
salt
pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp water

WHOA. This dish was incredible, and the fact that it's served in a cute little ramekin makes it a beautifully presented dish that will impress just about anyone. First I cut the leeks in half lengthwise and thinly sliced them.

By the way, here's a couple leeks in case you've never cooked with them before. They're like giant green onions. The spoon is for size comparison.

I melted 2 tbsps of butter in a large pan, threw the leeks in and sauteed for about 5 minutes until it gets a nice caramelized look.

I added 2 tbsps of water, salt and pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and combined well. Then I let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes covered. Here comes the fun part! Seperate leeks into 3 small ramekins and break an egg over each. I made the mistake of using too large a ramekin, so the egg didn't cover the whole dish, but I didn't have any smaller ones. So number 1 on my to-do list tomorrow: invest in smaller ramekins.

I put them in the preheated oven at 350˚ for about 12 minutes. This is about the time I lost my patience. The recipe says to cook it for 4 minutes, but unless you like your egg whites to be completely translucent, cook them longer! But in SS's defense, 12 minutes was too long because my yoke was completely done by then. So if you want the egg whites cooked and the yoke runny, I would think 8-9 minutes should do the job. Keep in mind that it continues to cook a couple minutes when you take it out of the oven.

Here's the finished product. Like I said, it would be prettier with a smaller ramekin. The egg should fill the whole dish. But still equally as tasty! The egg combines perfectly with the soft, caramelized leeks. The two were meant to be!

Taste factor: A+
Ease of preparation: A
Modifications: longer cooking time for eggs


Fantasia Broccoli - Fabulous Broccoli
The side dish I served with this was Fabulous Broccoli... and that's exactly what it is -- fabulous! This was, hands down, the most delicious broccoli I have ever put in my mouth. It was so creamy and rich and yummy.

1 head of broccoli
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic (I doubled this)
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used fat free half & half)
1/2 cup white wine
4 tbsp freshly grated parmesan
1 tbsp butter

First I cut the broccoli into bite size pieces and cooked them in the microwave for 7-9 minutes (until tender) in a dish covered with plastic wrap. Actually, my sous chef did this part for me. Thanks mom :-)

While she was doing that, I put the olive oil and minced garlic in a large pan and sauteed for a few minutes. Next I stirred in the flour and cooked the for another minute until lightly brown. Then I added the half & half and seasoned with salt and pepper. Lastly, I added the cooked broccoli and white wine and allowed it to simmer a few minutes. This sauce is to die for!

I transfered this to an oven-proof dish and added the parmesan and butter and set it in the preheated oven at 400˚ until bubbly (about 6-8 minutes).

If anyone is wondering how to take a healthy vegetable like broccoli and transform it into a creamy, rich, delicious delicacy, wonder no more!! But I like to tell myself that it's not too unhealthy. After all, I did substitute fat free half & half for heavy cream.

Taste factor: A+
Ease of preparation: A
Modifications: substituted half & half for heavy cream and doubled the garlic

But seriously, this was a very tasty meal. And I'm generally not a fan of meatless meals. I will definitely be making both of these again.

Hooray for my first Silver Spoon meal!