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To give this carrot soup a little kick, try adding curry and a little cayenne pepper.  The original recipe does not include the added milk… but, I can’t imagine carrot soup without a little creaminess to it.  You can use fat free milk, if you want.

Carrots are used to thicken soups, sauces and can even be incorporated into baking instead of fat.  I won’t be trying that, but I thought you’d like to know.

Curried Carrot Soup

Adapted from Rachael Ray

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 pounds carrots
1 spring fresh thyme
5 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon mild curry paste or 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
Coarse salt
black pepper
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper*
(this is optional, because this pepper is very hot!)

Procedure:

1. Preheat medium pot over medium high heat. Add olive oil, butter, onions and carrots and saute 5 minutes.
2. Add 4 cups chicken stock, curry and cayenne, and about 1 teaspoon salt to the pot.
3. Bring to a boil, cover and cook until carrots are very tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Place pot on a trivet next to food processor. Process soup in 2 or 3 small batches until soup is smooth and carrots are fully pureed.
5. Transfer processed soup into a large bowl as you work to make room for more soup in the food processor.
6. Return completed soup to the soup pot and place back over low heat.
7. Add milk.  If the soup is too thick, add remaining stock, to achieve desired consistency. Adjust seasonings.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Sometimes we can’t cook for every occasion. So today, we are featuring the best Mardi Gras Recipes we found. Please visit all these sites, as they have amazing recipes and ideas all around!

Mardi Gras Mask Cookies by Sweetopia

Beignets by Our Best Bites

d’Anjou Poached Pear Almond Cakes and Mardi Gras Macarons by Sprinkle Bakes

King Cake by Artisan Bread in 5

Pastry Crowns filled with Cheesecake Mousse topped with Glazed Banana Bits by Hungry Happenings

Jambalaya by Spabettie

Hot & Smoky Red Beans and Rice by Sorta Chef – Woodfired Kitchen

Creole Seasoning – Munchin with Munchkin

Cajun Red Beans and Rice by The Bitten Word

Hurricane Cocktail by Rum Dood

Madness Punch by Food.com

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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We’re happy to share some news with you. We have been asked by Future Media Tech Network to collaborate by writing food and cooking related articles for one of their websites: Cocina & Gastronomía, this page focuses on bringing information about gastronomy to Spanish speaking countries. Personally, we have found that there is not a lot of reliable material out there when we are looking for recipes, or food information in Spanish, so we are excited to be a part of this.

Individually, Kitty is collaborating with NaviLoop to write about gadgets and tech lifestyle, and I am writing for Mundo de Mamá. This website focuses on all things related to pregnancy, babies, children and motherhood.  So, to all our Spanish speaking friends at The Foodies’ Kitchen, now you can also check out our bloggin on these pages… en Español.

(click on each site)

Here’s a peek to our first articles!

• 10 Consejos Básicos Para Hornear Postres
• Utensilios Básicos En La Cocina
• ¡Mi Hijo No Quiere Comer!
• Keychain En Mac OS X: Recuerda Tus Constraseñas y Notas Seguras

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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I had a couple of eggplants in my refrigerator’s vegetable drawer.  They had been there for week already, I didn’t want them to spoil, but I didn’t feel like making Eggplant Parmesan with them, which was the initial purpose of buying them.  I didn’t want to grill them either, because that meant cutting up other vegetables and taking out my griller, which is waaaaaaay at the back of one of my cabinets. I was too lazy.  I found this eggplant recipe which seemed like a tasty alternative.  Although it is time consuming (roasting the vegetables for about 50 minutes, then blend and then let it simmer for 45 min) you don’t have to do a lot of actual work.  I will definitely make this again, the flavor is great and it is filling.  Pair it with a nice salad and some toasted bread, and you’re set!

Roasted Eggplant Soup

Serves 4
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

3 medium tomatoes, halved
1 large eggplant (about 1 1/2 pounds), halved lengthwise (I used 2 smaller ones)
1 medium onion, halved
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
Parmesan Cheese, for sprinkling

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Arrange tomatoes, eggplant, onion and garlic on a large baking sheet, or two smaller ones.
3. Brush or drizzle vegetables with oil then roast them for 20 minutes, pausing only to remove the garlic cloves (otherwise they will burn) and returning the pans to the oven for another 25 minutes, until the remaining vegetables are tender and brown in spots.
4. Remove from oven and scoop eggplant from skin (or peel the skin, off with your fingers, which I found to be easier) into a heavy, large saucepan or soup pot. Add the rest of the vegetables, the thyme and the chicken or vegetable stock and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook until onion is very tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.
5. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until it is as smooth as you’d like it to be. (Or, if you have an immersion blender, you can do this in the pot.) Back in the pot, add the cream and bring the soup back to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkled with cheese.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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As much as we love to cook savory dishes and bake desserts, we can’t ignore the fact that we need to stay healthy while we are at it. So, what’s the best choice to have it both ways? Hide vegetables in plain sight! I have been looking at the Chocolate Beet Cake recipe for quite a while now… I always wondered if the beet (that is sweet but has a bitterish after flavor to it) would be good for baking. Then I found a recipe by  Straight From The Farm. Later on I would see Beet Chocolate Cakes pop on my feeds and decided it was the universe telling me I should bake it. I decided to try the recipe by Pastry Affair, since it calls for cocoa powder instead of chocolate since it’s what I had handy.

This cake will not disappoint, I am telling you, my dad is a chocolate lover.  He likes the Chocolate Cake recipe that I learned to make in 5th grade  and there is no recipe that can compare to that one… Until this one came along! The only thing I would leave out is the cinnamon. It was what gave it away! We had dinner that night, then time for dessert and after he went through his slice, turned to me and the conversation went something like this:

– “The cake is good, but there’s something different in it”
– ”Yes, keep going”
– “Chocolate, did you use the same?”
– “Yes”
– “Fruit, something fruity… and Cinnamon. Why Cinnamon?”

And that’s where he broke me. Told him that he was right, the cinnamon was one of the ingredients but I could’ve done without it and that the fruity something that he was mentioning was beets. He instantly smiled in surprise, said that it was good and walked away. For me, that’s mission accomplished.

Chocolate Beet Cake

Recipe by Pastry Affair
Yield: 2 9-inch or 1 10-inch cake

Ingredients:

5 medium beets (or enough for 2 cups pureed beets)
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Trim stems and roots from beets. Quarter and place in a large saucepan filled with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 50 minutes, or until beets are tender. Drain liquid and remove skin. Place beets in a food processor and process until beets are pureed. Reserve 2 cups puree.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour baking pan(s).
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Beat in vanilla and beet puree.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
7. Stir into the beet batter until well combined.
8. Pour batter into prepared baking pan(s) and bake for 40-50 minutes (longer for the 10-inch cake) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Cool in pan before removing to cool completely on a cooling rack. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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There are a few recipes I’ve been wanting to make, some of them for years.  One of them in particular, which has even become an inside joke with Kitty. I’ve been wanting to make a croquembouche for at least 3 years now, I always plan to make it for the Holidays, but never get around to do it.  As God is my witness, I will make a croquembouche!

This year, Christmas came and went… No croquemboche. As a consolation prize, I made cream puffs.  I figured I could at least try to make part of a croquembouche and see how that goes.

With much fear, I followed Martha Stewart’s directions on how to make choux pastry. I had already made cream puffs before, but the last time I tried was probably 12 years ago. The recipe is a success! I am a Martha Stewart believer again. (You know I’ve had my disappointments with her baking recipes).

You can fill your choux pastry puffs with whipped cream, as a variation use pastry cream or ice cream. You can dust them with confectioner’s sugar, drizzle with melted chocolate or… my favorite, but I was too lazy to do it, with caramel.

Valentine’s Day idea:
Use a little red food coloring to give your whipped cream a pinkish color.  Try using just one drop, you can always add more.

Cream Puffs (Choux Pastry)

Recipe by Martha Stewart

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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Our friends Iveth and Mario (her husband) just moved to Colombia, so we have been keeping in touch through Facebook. While checking my news feed one night, I saw Iveth had posted a photo of what she had made for dinner. It was this Croque Monsieur, and I had to have it.

I asked her for the recipe so she could be our next Guest Foodie.  We really enjoy our friends collaborating on our blog by sharing their recipes and experiences in the kitchen!

She told me she got the idea to make this dish from the movie It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin (which she recommends, by the way).  On a scene from the movie Meryl prepares a Croque Monsieur, so Iveth searched for a recipe and now we have it for you!

I can’t wait to try it myself… with a little white wine. (I’ll try to get my hands on that movie as well.)

Croque Monsieur

Recipe by Iveth Bodensteiner de Villanueva
Serves 2

Ingredients
4 sliced of bread (they have to be thick slices)
4 slices of Turkey Pastrami
enough gruyere cheese to cover the bread area
1 cup of Bechamel Sauce*
Butter, for spreading

*Note: you can find the recipe for Bechamel Sauce in our Roasted Vegetable Lasagna post, here. Divide the ingredients by half to use in this recipe

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven at 200 F
2. Prepare your béchamel sauce, you will only need about 1 cup.
3. Spread your bread slices with a little butter, on both sides.  On one slice, place turkey pastrami and gruyere cheese and cover with a bit of béchamel sauce.  Place the second bread slice on top.
4. Spread more béchamel sauce on top of the sandwich you have made (on that second bread slice) and top with enough gruyere cheese to cover the whole thing.  Repeat this process to make a second croquet monsieur.
5. Place them on a cookie sheet or pyrex, and bake for about 10 min.  At 10 minutes, turn your oven to BROIL. This is the part where you have to keep an eye on them.  Broil until the cheese develops a nice brown crust.
6. Remove from the oven and enjoy!

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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This is the best chocolate dessert I have tried in a while. Really. I had already tried to make brownie balls before, which are extremely delicious and chocolatey.  But this… This is just too much. You sink your teeth into the hard chocolate covering to find a rich, moist and decadent chocolate cake filling.

I need to make more of these, with variations like… boozing them up.

If you want to give these out as Valentine’s Day gifts, remember you have to store them in a cool place so the chocolate covering doesn’t melt.  Use mini cupcake liners to set them up and placing them in a nice box would be the best wrapping choice.   Or, make them for yourself and enjoy them with a nice glass of Zinfandel.

Chocolate  Cake Balls

Makes about 45-50
Recipe from Bakerella

1 box chocolate cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can chocolate frosting (16 oz.)
8 oz semisweet chocolate for baking (such as Baker’s, Ghirardelli baking chips)
wax paper

Procedure:

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can chocolate frosting. I used a spoon to mix it all in.
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate by placing a pot over (not on) hot simmering water.  Stir until it is completely melted and smooth.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

Tips:

• To successfully dip the chocolate balls, just drop them into the melted chocolate. Then use a spoon to cover the top of the ball with chocolate to get it evenly coated.  Don’t double dip, or you might get crumbles into your chocolate.
• Once it is well coated, lift with your spoon and tap off the extra chocolate against the border of the pot.
• With a firm move, let it slide off the spoon into the wax paper.
• Keep the chocolate balls in the refrigerator, and dip them by batches. Remove 4-5 at a time from the fridge to cover them in chocolate, that will make them easier to handle.
• If you think your chocolate is starting to get a little hard, but it back on your double boiler for a few minutes to keep it completely melted and smooth.
• When you finish coating all of them, you can use leftover chocolate to drizzle on top as decoration. (put it inside a sandwich bag and open a small hole to let the chocolate out)
• If you want to use sprinkles as decoration, use them as soon as you have dipped so the chocolate doesn’t set.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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It can take months, or even years for messy kitchen cabinets to form before one day, you get hit in the head by a box of chicken consomme while you’re reaching for the pasta, and you decide that you can’t take it anymore.  Take it from me, I know.

As someone who spends most of her time in the kitchen, you’d think my cabinets are organized. They weren’t.

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen… partly because it’s not only where I cook but where I decided to set up my – and I put this very loosely- work desk.  Yup, I set my laptop on my kitchen breakfast counter.  Is that what you call it?

That is my operational headquarters.  It’s where I write my The Foodies’ Kitchen posts, where I do my research, chat with my friends and, while Kristen is at school, it is also where I carry out my part time job responsibilities. (We’re in the import-export business, so that’s my day job).

Anyway, back to messy cabinets. If you have a small kitchen, like I do, you need to get organized, which is what I decided to do a few weeks ago. I started to go through each cabinet, one at a time… I couldn’t go crazy, I have a lot of other things to do during my day, and also that way the task didn’t seem so daunting.  I started to throw out things that were past their expiration date (when you have messy cabinets, you tend to buy things you thought you were out of… but weren’t, so things end up piling up and spoiling.)

When I was done with that, I went out to buy whatever I could find to help me organize all my ingredients, spices and sauces. I ended up with these cute little red baskets. It has made a world of difference, not only visually but it has made it easier to know what I have and what I don’t have, so it’s a money saver when it’s shopping time.

Speaking of the visual point of view, it is extremely important for me to keep my surroundings as neat and eye pleasing as I possibly can, not only around the kitchen but the rest of my apartment as well, I like to keep everything in its place, no toys or personal items lying around the living room (it’s hard!), I keep vanilla plug-ins on and if possible, have fresh flowers around. (Which are even better if my husband brings them for me… hint, hint).

This is where I cook, where I work, where I live and raise a child. Who wants to spend all their time in a place that looks like a sty? Someone once told me that keeping the clutter out of your surroundings is the first step to keeping the clutter out of your head. It is so true!

My closet is next… sigh. That one won’t be so easy.

Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Take everything out.  Dust and clean the cabinet shelves. If you’re up for it, use contact paper to make your shelves pretty.
• Throw out everything that is past its expiration date or that you think you won’t use anymore. Declutter!
• Assess your space and try to set up a permanent place for each type of item.  Spices, canned goods, grains, etc.
• Buy baskets, portable shelves, a lazy susan (rotating organizer for spices), containers for your grains, etc.  You know best… it’s your kitchen.
• Try to go through everything at least once a month, that way you’ll keep your cabinets organized.

Before

After

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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When you plan a romantic dinner for you and your Valentine (boyfriend, husband, girlfriend, best friend, etc.) you want the whole works: Appetizer, maybe a salad, a main dish and some dessert. Usually you don’t bake a big dessert for Valentines since most recipes give you at least 8 cupcakes or one small cake. Look no further, this is the perfect recipe to share for Valentines!

When I bumped into the recipe on Pinterest (you can follow Helga and myself), I knew I had to do it for our Valentine’s Day recipe collection.

The cupcakes are perfect. They have a subtle Vanilla flavor, so you can top them with your favorite buttercream or frosting. I happened to have some Chocolate Frosting around, so it came together beautifully.

So now you know, you can bake just two cupcakes, for Valentine’s Day, an Anniversary, or that special occasion when you are craving a sweet but not feel like baking a cake!

Valentine Cupcakes for Two

Recipe By: The Comfort of Cooking
Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.
3. In a bowl, add egg white and sugar and whisk until combined. Add in vanilla and melted butter and stir until mixed.
4. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk. Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.
5. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, or until cake is set.
6. Let cool completely, then frost as desired. I used some chocolate frosting that had left over from another recipe and decorated with heart and red lips sprinkles for Valentine’s.

© 2012, The Foodies' Kitchen. All rights reserved.

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