Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Rainy Day Potato and Ham Chowder

I'm soooooo in love with this soup.
And I'm sooooo in love with this pot.
Seriously, it's just the best thing and it's my yellow!
It combines all of my favorite things;
potatoes, ham, garlic, and rosemary!
Delicious.

My mom had cooked a ham,
and like me, when she cooks it's for a group, 
not just the one or two people that actually live in the home.
I'm going to apologize to my vegetarian and vegan friends,
because this is going to be one in a couple of ham related recipe posts.
To everyone else...
seriously, you need to make this!

There is nothing really healthy to this recipe,
except that it's all natural and made from scratch.
So there is that.
But on a drizzly day,
this is a perfect, hardy meal for a Chambers.
Rainy Day Potato and Ham Chowder
Recipe modified from Recipe Knead
I like my chowder to be filled with potato goodness,
so I've upped quite a few things in my modifications.

4 slices thick-cut bacon
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tsp of garlic powder)
1 onion, diced
2 cups frozen corn kernels
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary- chopped 
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 1/2- 5 cups milk, or more, as needed
4-5 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2-3 cups of cooked ham, diced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cooking Directions:
1) Heat a thick-bottom pot over or Dutch over medium high heat. Add diced bacon and cook until brown and super crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Remove crispy bacon onto a paper towel.  Drain the bacon grease. (Heck.  Save that goodness for something else.)

2) Use the same pot.  It has all of the  Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in corn and thyme until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
3) Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in potatoes.

4) Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes. Stir in ham, salt and pepper, to taste. If the chowder is too thick, add more milk as needed until desired consistency is reached.

5) Serve immediately, garnished with bacon, if desired.

Enjoy!
Believe me, you will.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Vegan Bourbon Apple Pie Cake

Apples and Bourbon.
Bourbon and Apples...
It's a match made in Heaven.
After using bourbon in so many of my desserts of the holidays,
I figure, why stop now?
People love bourbon!
And they also love when I add bourbon into anything that I bake.
So, what could be better than combining my apple pie cake with my bourbon apple pie.
Boom!
Delicious!

Vegan Bourbon Apple Pie Cake
*Prepare the apple marinade and soak apples overnight

Apple Marinade:
3-5 Granny Smith apples or other tart apple
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
3-4 Tablespoons of bourbon
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
1 cup non-dairy milk (soy, rice, coconut, almond- whichever you prefer)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Night Before:
1. Peel and slice apples.
2. Place apples in a medium bowl and add the marinade ingredients.
3. Cover bowl and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Next Day:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour cake pan.  The more design on the pan, the better it turns out since this cake just has a glaze.
3. Combine all of the dry cake ingredients and mix well.
4. Add non-dairy milk, oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar into the dry ingredients.
5. Place a layer of marinated apples in the bottom of the pan. (This will be the top of the cake)
6. Pour a layer of cake batter over the top of the apples.
7.  Now alternate layering apples and batter until you've used it all up.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.
Let it cool completely before adding a sugar glaze.
Share and enjoy with those you love!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

What's on TV anyway?

It's been quite a while since I've had cable.
Murphy too.
Years in fact.
This fact always sends my students for a loop.
They're shocked that I survived in the world without cable for so long.
It really wasn't that difficult.
I had high-speed cable and Netflix,
what more could I need?


Oh wait.
There's this channel called HGTV
and another one called The Food Network.



I could watch a marathon of Property Brothers,
Love it or List it,
and Chopped
any day and every day of the week.
Man, I totally forgot how awesome Chopped was
...that's a show that's not on Netflix.

One of the main problems with not having cable for so long,
is that I have literally NO IDEA what times or channel the shows are on.
No idea at all.
Now, sure.
I could look up each one and find out,
but who has time for that!
Thankfully there are people out there who do
and they have created plenty of show premier list to help me out.
To find out when my favorite shows are on and set my DVR accordingly,
I used two lists.
The first one is from a fabulous site, named and designed to distract, Distractify.
TV Show Premiere List 2015
The second site is one that I visit every day
                    ...It's really how I know that is happening in the world.
Sad, but true.
Buzzfeed.
There is a page for news and politics,
so it really does inform.
It's just fabulous and helps fill the section of my brain
dedicated to "useless" but useful information and "facts".
2015 TV Premiere Dates
So what will I be watching this season?
Well, I have set my DVR for these shows,
but if there is something that I'm really missing out on
please let me know.
I have a lot to catch up on!
Since the sun sets so early,
it's amazing how much time I have to binge watch shows.

Tonight- Sunday, January 4th
The Good Wife- 9pm CBS
Revenge- 10pm ABC

Monday, January 5th
2 Broke Girls- 8pm, CBS
State of Affairs- 10pm, NBC

Tuesday, January 6th
Pretty Little Liars- 8pm, ABC Family
MasterChef Junior- 8pm, FOX
New Girl 9pm, FOX

Wednesday, January 7th
Poperty Brothers, Season 7-9pm, HGTV
Top Chef: Boston- 10pm, Bravo
Wahlburgers- 10pm, A&E

Thursday, January 8th
The McCarthys- 9:30pm, CBS
Parenthood- 10pm, NBC
Portlandia- 10pm, IFC

Friday, January 9th
Hart of Dixie- 9pm, The CW

Saturday, January 10th
Nada



Sunday, January 11th
Shameless- 9pm, Showtime
Girls- 9pm, HBO
House of Lies- 10pm, Showtime

Geesh!  When I look at this list I look like I won't do anything ever again!
I'll be too busy watching TV.
Ha! Nah...don't start to worry.
I set my DVR so that I can watch them when I have time.
Usually it's a Sunday Marathon like it was today.

Who knew that January was when shows started?
Huh.
Probably everyone but me.
Oh well...see you all in the spring.
Just kidding...kind of.