Microwave Broccoli Cheese Soup

Why open a can, when you can have homemade soup, with fresh ingredients, in less than 20 minutes? This is a good way to use up a little bit of leftover meat, and these veggies are at their best right now. Add a slice of rustic garlic bread, toasted and buttered, and we have a favorite autumn dinner. Tonight, I added a glass of Chardonnay; Aries had a glass of home-brewed dark beer. Hot food, warm tummies.

Microwave Broccoli Cheese Soup (serves 2)

1 cup thinly sliced carrot
1 cup chopped fresh broccoli (or a 10-oz pkg frozen broccoli; or substitute fresh or frozen cauliflower)
1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules (optional)
1 cup milk
½ cup shredded cheese (I like cheddar or swiss)
½ cup finely chopped cooked meat (I like chicken, ham, or turkey ham)
2 tablespoons flour

In a 1-quart glass casserole dish, stir together the carrots and broccoli with ½ cup water and chicken granules if using (instead of the little bouillon jars in the soup section of my market, I buy the bigger, cheaper jars from the Mexican food section; if you happen to have some stock in the fridge, instead of the water, even better!). Microwave, covered, 5-7 minutes or until the veggies are tender, stirring once. Stir in the milk, cheese, and meat. Mix the flour into ½ cup cold water until smooth, and stir that in also. Season with a bit of black pepper. Microwave, uncovered, 5-6 minutes, stirring every minute or so, until thickened and bubbly. It's soup!

I just had to post a sunrise photo Aries took this morning, too.

Chinese Pea Pods and Carrots

Friday evening, 6 p.m. We're both tired, and we're hungry. Aries brought home some fish fillets, so I put them over a bed of chopped shallots and mushroom stems, splash on a bit of dry sherry, salt & pepper, and get them into a 350º oven to bake for 15 minutes. Toss the mushroom caps, with a bit of butter, into the skillet for a sauce for the fish. Now for a quick veg side dish.

Shading the pea roots with lettuce plants alongside (and the netting over the entire bed) has worked very well. My pea plants are still going strong into the middle of July. Peas and carrots sounds good. But this ain't yo' mama's little cubes of boiled-to-death veggies. Adapted for the microwave, this is a fast, healthy version of that old staple side dish (and makes for a great lunch, all by itself).

So I stir up the soy sauce glaze, and sprinkle some flour over the mushrooms in the skillet. The carrot slices cooking, I string the pea pods (picked this morning). Add some milk, salt & pepper, and a dash of paprika powder to the mushroom skillet; add peas to the carrots. The fish cooked, I dump the base of chopped shallots and 'shrooms and fish juices into the simmering skillet and give it a few more stirs. Toss the veggies with the glaze, and dish up the plates. A loaf of bread, and a bottle of wine (from Murphys California, just the other side of scenic Ebbetts Pass to the south) - gourmet dinner, on the table, in less than half an hour!


Chinese Pea Pods and Carrots (serves two)
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 carrot, thinly sliced on the bias
1 cup of flat Chinese pea pods (fresh or frozen)
2 tablespoons walnut pieces
1 teaspoon butter or margarine

Stir together water, soy sauce and cornstarch in a small microwave-safe bowl. Micro-cook in 3 30-second increments, stirring after each time. It should be thickened, clear, and bubbly. Set aside.

Place carrots with a splash of water in covered casserole dish and micro-cook 2 minutes. Drain. Add pea pods, walnuts, and butter or margarine, cover and micro-cook another minute or two, until veggies are crisp-tender. Toss with the soy sauce mixture.

Fish and Sweet Pepper Hash

I made one of my favorite planned-leftovers dishes for dinner tonight. We're trying to eat less red meat and more fish nowadays. This time of year, I watch for any kind of white-fleshed fish on sale, and bake it or cook it outside on the grill. I often plan to have enough leftover for another night's meal (this recipe is also a favorite way to use the doggy-bagged half of my entree from eating out, and would probably be good even with canned tuna). In the summer it's even easier. We have a couple of fishing friends that don't eat fish, and they know we'll trade eggs or veggies for fresh-caught trout. Often, those lake trout are huge, and we find one will be enough for both of us plus leftovers (photo is from last summer - one of our nearby high-mountain lakes).

Fish and Sweet Pepper Hash (serves 2)

½ pound cooked fish (more or less)
1 pound thin-skinned potatoes (red-skinned or yellow-fleshed, or a combination - I had Yukon Golds in the cellar)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
large pinch of red pepper flakes
⅓ cup sliced green onions (I quartered and sliced a yellow onion from the pantry - added same time as red pepper flakes)
2 tablespoons water (or stock or fish juices)
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 large red or yellow peppers, roasted and peeled, with juices (I used ones from the freezer, prepped last fall the same way I do chile peppers)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley (I used dried from last summer, added same time as red pepper flakes)

Remove fish from refrigerator to allow it to warm slightly. Scrub, but do not peel potatoes, cut into ¾" pieces.

Heat the oil in skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes, garlic, and pepper flakes. Cook, turning occasionally until potatoes start to brown a bit - about 5 minutes. Add green onions, water, and salt, cover the pan, and cook until the potatoes are almost done - about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, pull fish apart into flakes (remove any bones) and cut or tear sweet peppers into bite-size pieces. When potatoes are almost done, remove cover and stir in fish, peppers, and parsley. Cook until the liquid is gone and the potatoes nicely browned (turn hash gently to brown evenly, but try not to break up the fish or potatoes any more than necessary).

Sausage-Stuffed Squash

Winter squash is great - in the garden and in the kitchen. During the growing season, I just put the seeds in the ground, and then don't do anything until just before our first frost. Nothing will bother a squash plant here, except for squash bugs, and I've found that planting a big storage radish like the heirloom chinese Watermelon Radish in between the plants gives season-long protection plus a tasty treat in the fall (and into the winter) as well.

After cutting and curing the squash in the fall, I store them in a crate in the corner of my somewhat cool bedroom. My Pink Banana squash are still in fine shape, and will easily last until June. The remaining Butternuts will be used next, but right now I'm using up the last of the Carnival (or Festival) acorn-type winter squash. Following is one of our favorite winter squash recipes. It originally was supposed to be made in a pumpkin, served at the table by dishing out scoops of filling and squash flesh to all, and still could be made that way for a family by doubling the amount of the filling.

But I like to make individual servings by using smaller squash, like those in the acorn family. Those type of squash have a rounded stem end and a pointy blossom end containing most of the seed cavity. I've found there's more squash and they'll stand better if I knock the stem off and then cut off the blossom end to hollow them out for the filling. Use whatever you have though - you can even make squash canoes out of the Delicata types.

Sausage-Stuffed Squash (stuffing enough for 2-3 acorn-sized squash)

winter squash, any type, one end cut off and seeds removed
½ pound bulk sausage (I used a couple of hot Italian sausage links)
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup sliced mushrooms
1 egg
1 6-oz carton of plain non-fat yogurt (original recipe called for sour cream)
¼ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese (I grate the entire piece at one time, then store it in the freezer to use as needed)

Place squash cavity-side down in a baking pan with 1 inch of water, bake 375º one hour or until tender. Meanwhile break up and fry sausage, then remove from pan and drain off grease. Saute veggies in same pan. When veggies are done, remove from heat, add cooked sausage. Mix egg and cheese into yogurt, then add to sausage/veggie mixture. When squash is tender, turn them cavity-side up in pan, fill with sausage mixture (can mound it up above the edge a bit) and pour in any extra yogurt liquid (if you have extra stuffing, place it in an oven-proof bowl and bake it too). Put stuffed squash back into oven for additional 25 minutes. When served, split open the squash and eat it with a spoon to scrape out every bit of the wonderful squash.

Quick and Healthy Shrimp Creole

The magazine I was flipping through while waiting to leave the blood bank had shrimp recipes. I have some shrimp in the freezer, so decide to make my healthy version of Shrimp Creole for dinner. I start the rice: 2 1/2 cups water, 1 cup brown rice, some dried parsley (if I had any fresh, I'd add it just before serving), simmer 45 minutes; and put 1 Cup shrimp in cold water to thaw. Half hour later, I start the

Quick and Healthy Shrimp Creole (serves 3, 2 tonight and 1 lunch later)
8 ounces shrimp (can substitute cooked chicken or cubes of firm tofu)
1 cup chopped onion (from the pantry)
1 cup chopped bell pepper (from last summer's garden, chopped and frozen on a cookie sheet, then dumped into a gallon freezer bag - easy to grab just what is needed)
1 cup chopped celery (ok, this one I buy from the store down the street)
1 pint tomatoes (canned last summer, cut up inside the jar just before adding)
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
½ teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon thyme (cut from the herb garden last fall, hung and dried, and stored in a jar)
several dashes hot pepper sauce (green jalapeno sauce, from the garden, made last summer)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Cook raw shrimp in boiling water 1 - 3 minutes (my 8 oz. frozen shrimp are already cooked, so all I do is remove the tails and cut each in half)

Place onions, celery, and bell peppers in skillet with 1/4 cup water. Cover and simmer 3 -4 minutes, until veggies are crisp-tender.

Add tomatoes, bouillon granules, sugar, and thyme. Simmer together, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup cold water, and add to skillet. Cook and stir a couple of minutes, until thickened and bubbly. Add shrimp and cook a couple minutes more. Serve over parsley rice.