Jamie's The Real Mushroom Soup

Monday evening Mr. Weinberger and I had Jamie Oliver's "The Real Mushroom Soup" out of jamie's dinners. It was really tasty, relatively easy, and perfect for a chilly evening in San Antonio. We only had the budget for two variations of mushrooms, but I'm sure lots of different types would make this all the more flavorful.

Serves 6

You need:

a small handful of dried porcini

olive oil

2 lb mixed fresh wild mushrooms (chanterelles, black trumpets, shiitake, oyster), cleaned and sliced

2 cloves of garlic

1 red onion

TB of butter

a handful of fresh thyme leaves

sea salt and pepper

4.5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 lemon

1.Get a large casserole-type pan hot, then add a few lugs of olive oil and the fresh mushrooms.

2. Stir around, then add your garlic, onion, butter and thyme, and a small amount of seasoning. Cook for about 20 mins. until moist of the moisture disappears.

3. Season to taste, and add your stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for around 20 min.

4. Puree your soup. (We used our immersion blender)

5. Make sure you mix together a pinch of salt and pepper with the zest of one lemon and the juice of half of it, then spoon a little of this into the middle of the soup. When you eat it, stir it in and it will really brighten the flavor.

As you can see we also toasted slices of french bread, and garnished the soup with flat leaf parsley.

I hope to share our meal we enjoyed last night soon. We had a delightfully sinful fish fry. Nom Nom.

Joyeux Cuisson!

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes and Buttercream Icing

Well, this did not go as well as I hoped. I just wasn't happy with the icing, I'm sure it's me. I'm going to hunker down soon and perfect my buttercream. Here it goes, perhaps you will have more luck than me...

Cupcakes:

You need:

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Icing:

You need:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

All and all these are fine. I did adjust the icing recipe a bit. Tonight we are having Jamie Oliver's perfect mushroom soup, and I can't wait to share it with you. Until then-

Joyeux Cuisson,

Better Late than Never

Mr. Weinberger and I are pretty much settled into our new home in San Antonio. This week we are making all new recipes, and I hope to be sharing them with you soon. For now I'm going to share some of the Christmas goodies we enjoyed at our house. Yes it is January 23rd, but Christmas lives in the heart of each of us all year round. Right? Right.

Who doesn't love, Oreo Balls

These are really simple and most of you probably already know how to make them.

You need:

1 package of double stuff Oreos

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 package of white chocolate chips

1 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Dump cookies into food processor and chop until they are pretty fine.

2. Put "cookies" into a large mixing bowl along with the cream cheese and mix all together by hand.

3. Using a cookie scoop form the mixture into balls and place on a baking sheet.

4. Cool for about 15 mins. if you can.

5. Meanwhile make a double broiler and melt desired chocolate chips.

6. Take your Oreo balls and swirl them around in the chocolate until coated. Do this until all the balls are covered.

Joy of Cooking, Meringues

Preheat oven to 225 F

You need:

4 large egg whites

1 tp of vanilla

1/2 tp cream of tartar

1 c superfine sugar

1. Bean in a large bowl on medium speed until soft peaks form: the egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar.

2. Gradually one TB at a time add the sugar.

3. Beat until the meringue holds stiff peaks. I like to pipe mine, but you could use a spoon and dollop them onto the baking sheet.

4. Bake in oven for about 1.5 hours until hard and not sticky.

I hope to be back very soon. Until then-

Joyeux Cuisson,

I'll Be Back

I swear. I really love the idea of this blog and plan to write more regularly once our move to San Antonio is complete. I will not be a student, and Joe tells me I will feel like I have more free time. I hope so. I received lots of baking tools for Christmas and can not wait to try them out! I've already checked out the baking section of the nearest San Antonio library on the online catalog. Eek, it's going to be fun. Until then...

Joyeux Cuisson-