Strawberry Slush

1-12 oz. can lemonade

1-12 oz. can orange juice

1-46 oz. can Hawaiian Punch

2 ½ quarts fresh or frozen strawberries

Mix and add 6 cups of water.  Freeze 1-2 days.  Add 7-up or any lemon-lime soda to taste.  Makes around 5 gallons.

*Note - We served this at Brittany & Brian's reception. 

French Onion Soup

I did it. I finally made French Onion Soup. It's my favorite soup to get at restaurants and I've been wanting to try making it for years. It was an all day affair. Er, at least half the day. Not that I stood in front of the stove all day. And it wasn't hard. Just a process (cooking the onions in the oven and waiting and then a lot of stirring). But it was definitely delicious and very comparable to what I've had in restaurants.

Soup

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
• 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices (Make sure you get Yellow)
• Table salt
• 2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (They recommend Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth )
• 2 cups beef broth (They recommend Pacific Beef Broth)
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme , tied with kitchen twine (yeah, I didn't do this part--just added a little dried thyme instead)
• 1 bay leaf
• Ground black pepper

Cheese Croutons

• 1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

Directions:
For the soup:

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
3. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)
4. Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.
6. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

For the croutons:

1. While the soup simmers, arrange the baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in a 400-degree oven until the bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

To serve:

1. Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Secret Code Buns

At Amy's request, here is the Boxcar Children's Secret Code Buns recipe. I'll spare you all having to translate the "secret code." :)

Tools needed: measuring cups, measuring spoons, plastic wrap, knife, 9x13 cake pan, large plastic bag and cookie sheet.

Ingredients

1 T flour
2 loaves frozen sweet roll dough (or make it easy on yourself and just buy the rolls)
1/2 cup raisins

"Secret Ingredients"

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional
2 t cinnamon
2 T sugar

Thaw roll dough. Sprinkle flour on the counter and put the dough and raisins on top of it. Work as many raisins and you can into the dough (I don't remember doing this part). Work the dough with your hands for 2-3 minutes.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest during the next step--about 20 minutes. The dough will rise.

Use the "secret" ingredients to prepare the baking pan. Melt margarine in the cake pan over low heat. Remove from heat. Add brown sugar and stir until well mixed. Sprinkle chopped nuts over the mixture. Set the pan aside until needed.

Remove plastic wrap and cut the dough into 30 small balls (unless they're already in balls).
Put cinnamon and sugar into the large plastic bag. Shake the balls (3 at a time) in the bag and put them into the prepared pan.

Let the buns rise in a warm place until doubled in size. About one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the buns for 15 minutes.

Now this is IMPORTANT, use oven mitts to remove the pan from the oven. Let the buns cool in the pan for 10 minutes.

Also IMPORTANT, ask an adult to do this step. Place a cookie sheet over the buns. Using oven mitts, carefully flip the pan so that the cake pan is upside down and the buns are on the cookie sheet covered with the topping. Serve the buns warm.

Super Easy Soup Bowls

SUPER EASY SOUP BOWLS
From the American Girl Magazine

Cheesy Pizza Soup

1 can refrigerated pizza dough

Butter or margarine

Parmesan Cheese

Italian seasoning

Mozzarella cheese, sliced

1 can condensed tomato soup

Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease baking sheet with butter or margarine.  Grease the outsides of 2 Pyrex bowls upside down on baking sheet.

Unroll pizza dough on cutting board.  Stretch until its 14” long.  Lift each circle and lay it over a bowl.  Press the dough down to make it even. 

Sprinkle leftover dough with Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.  Cut dough into small pizza shaped wedges for croutons and strips for breadsticks.  Place dough on baking sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until light brown.  Using a hot pad holder and a spatula, gently remove bread bowls from Pyrex bowls. 

Remove croutons & breadsticks from baking sheet and let cool.  Place 1 slice of mozzarella cheese inside each bread bowl.  Bake 5 minutes.    Pour in soup and serve.

American Girl Magazine, page. 24, no idea what month or year???

Borscht (Beet Soup)

BORSCHT

I had always wanted to taste this soup and it was really good.

Cook a couple of large beets with 1 large onion (cut up) until really soft.
Add 14 oz. chicken broth
1 - 2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt

Puree all the above together.  Add in 3/4 cup of light sour cream.  Swirl the sour cream into the beet broth.  This should be smooth.  The sour cream can be completely mixed into the beet puree or left swirled.

This has to be really healthy, right?

Wallenbergare



I heated my oil & butter too soon and the crumbs burned, so make sure yours look like these & turn the heat down!



Wallenbergare (Swedish Recipe)

1 lb. ground veal

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

4 egg yolks

1 c. heavy cream

Mix everything together adding one egg yolk at a time.  Shape into patties and chill at least ½ hour.  Heat 2 T. butter and 2 T. oil in an electric skillet.

Take chilled patties and pat with: 2 – 4 T. white bread crumbs

Cook until done (I used a meat thermometer and it took about 12 minutes to cook, turning once.)

This recipe made about 8 burgers so I froze some of the uncooked patties to cook later separating each burger with waxed paper.

Serve with mashed potatoes.  The Swedish recipes call for cream and butter to make your potatoes amazing!  I used 2% and had Dad mashed the potatoes the old fashion way.

Stuffed Zucchini

This is the kind of dish that dad would squirm over, if you made it for him.  But to me, (and I'm guessing every other girl in the family) it looks DELICIOUS!  I haven't tried it yet, but I will.  But if anyone else beats me to it, please let me know how it is:

For a step by step picture guide. Click here.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp sour cream
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/2 tomato
1 tsp thyme
2 zucchinis
1 onion
cheese
pepper

Optional: bacon (or I would imagine ground sausage would be good too)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400 (200C). 

Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise. Spoon out the guts of the zucchini. Now give the zucchini pulp a good chop, also chop a small onion and 1/2 a tomato while you’re at it. I’m only using half a tomato (more for color than flavor, really) otherwise things will become a teeny bit too fluid. Sautee the onions in one tbsp oil or butter. When the onions are almost done, add 1/4 tsp curry powder and cook everything for an additional 30 seconds. No longer or the curry powder will turn bitter. When they’re done, transfer them to a big bowl.


Now (in no particular order), add 1 tsp dried thyme, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt, 1 heaping tbsp sour cream, a good pinch of pepper, the zucchini pulp, the tomato and crumble the bacon (optional) in as well. Lightly butter a baking dish and put the zucchini boats in. Grab a spoon and fill the shells with the mix. Sprinkle some aged cheese on top.


Put them in a preheated oven, give them about 20 minutes and then turn on the grill until the top is golden brown. Sprinkle some coarsely chopped curly leaf parsley (the most underrated herb there is) on top and you’re done.