Creamy Chicken Soup

It's almost too warm for soup, but if you haven't tried Allyn's Creamy Chicken Soup from the second Sisters' Cookbook, do it. DO IT. It has cream cheese in it, so you probably thought I was the one who contributed it, but it was Allyn. :) The parsley adds a nice pepper-y flavor (bonus that our parsley is already growing in the garden). We had rolls with it, which you should also make. Get to work, will ya!

1 small onion, chopped

1 T. butter

3 c. chicken broth (or two 14.5 oz. cans)

3 medium carrots, peeled and diced

2 medium to large potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 c. chicken, cooked and cubed (as usual, I used a Costco rotisserie chicken)

2 T. fresh parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 1/2 c. milk

1/3 c. flour

1 8-oz. pkg cream cheese, cut into eight pieces

Saute onion in butter until translucent, add carrots and potatoes and stir. Immediately add broth to the vegetables. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer until the veggies are soft. Add chicken, parsley, salt and pepper.

Whisk together milk and flour until smooth. Add to the soup while stirring. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes, stirring often. Add cream cheese and stir until it's melted.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

This recipe was no where to be found, until I looked on the back of the Hershey's Kiss bag. Voila!

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 T milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 salt

Hershey Kisses

additional granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 375.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended. Add white and brown sugars; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. 

3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. 

4. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press an  unwrapped chocolate into the center of each cookie.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My friends and I just finished making a cookbook.  It's so pretty!  I love having new recipes to try.  This one is from my friend, Emily.  I'm always on the lookout for non-cereal breakfast items.  Muffins are my son's favorite food and when he saw that these had chocolate chips in them, he was pretty blown away.  I think he likes them because, as Jim Gaffigan put it: "There is no difference between a muffin and cake.  A muffin is a bald cupcake."

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 C all purpose flour (or 3/4 C white, 3/4 C wheat)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 large bananas, mashed

3/4 C sugar

1 egg

1/4 C butter, melted

1/2 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pans with non-stick spray or use paper liners.  Sift together dry ingredients. Set aside.  Combine bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter in a large bowl.  Fold in flour mixture. Add chocolate chips. Scoop into muffin pans. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Sunday Roast Beast

Sometimes you just need roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy on Sunday. I think I put a recipe for it in the first Sisters Cookbook, but we have improved it. (I just thought about Rob asking how many rolls per person at a family dinner we had at our house a few years ago. Old habits die hard, eh? I hadn't even done the math! Hahahaha!) Once again, I couldn't nail Brian down with a gravy recipe. I even watched him and took note of the stuff he was getting out. "Do we have beef broth? It doesn't matter, I can do it without." What?!! No specific ingredients? So, yeah. I have no idea.

Ingredients:

 

1 beef roast (chuck is the best, then cross-rib)

kosher salt

TWO INGREDIENTS, YOU GUYS! The key is to first, get the right cut of beef.

Then the biggest thing is to salt the roast at least 12 hours before you cook it. I shake kosher salt all over the roast, then cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. (The roast has to be thawed, btw.)

Put the roast in a crock pot on high for four to six hours. That's why it's such a great Sunday dish. The house always smells amazing when you get home from church when there's a roast beef in the crock pot.

Meat is not photogenic. Anyway. Take the roast out of the crock pot and put it on a cutting board, then tent it with tin foil (the foil is over the meat, but not touching it). Empty the juices into a gravy separator, then put the juices (sans grease) into a saucepan to make gravy with ingredients. (I'm so sorry! There was bouillon and cornstarch involved. I think it's like a white sauce.)

Once the meat has rested, slice it up and serve it. My fork cut through that roast beef very easily. It's the day-ahead-salting, I'm telling you! Works every time.