Zucchini Soup and Homemade Croutons

I love zucchini! My grandmother and I once made a zucchini chocolate cake, which was delicious and my grandfather didn't know the mystery ingredient until after he told us how much he loved it! For the wintertime, zucchini soup can't be beat on a cold day. It's fast and easy and if you want to make it vegan, just omit the cream and make it with veggie broth!

Ingredients-
4 zucchinis trimmed and sliced thin
2 shallots chopped
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon thyme
6-7 fresh sage leaves
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
Salt & Pepper to taste
3-4 cups of broth-either vegetable or chicken
1/3 cup heavy cream
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Milk to thin the soup if desired

In a dutch oven, heat up the olive oil and get the onions and shallots sweating! In a food processor, slice up the zucchinis extra thin ( if you don't have one, you can slice by hand, just prep before you start the onions. After about 5-7 minutes of letting the onions sweat, add in the zucchinis and let them saute for another 5-7 minutes.

In the meantime, mince the garlic and get your herbs together. You can add the sage leaves in whole because they will be blended or you can coarsely chop them before adding to the soup.
Once the zucchini is nice and soft put in the garlic and herbs, plus some salt and pepper. Let it saute again for another two minutes.
Add in the broth and simmer for 20 minutes.

After the zucchini has been simmering in the broth, remove from the heart and blend in batches. You can use a food processor or blender, but make sure it is nice and pureed before putting back in to the pot.
Add the cream and a little milk if you want to thin out the soup some more. *To make this vegan, just omit the cream and use vegetable broth and you are good to go*

Allow another 10 minutes of simmering and then you can serve the soup nice and hot with a some homemade croutons. It's great to throw in the thermos for lunch at school or on the go!

Homemade Croutons:

Ingredients:
Some old baguettes
Olive Oil
1/3 Parmesan cheese
Red Chili Flakes
Cracked pepper

Get your oven going at 375 and begin to cut up the old bread into cubes. You can toss the bread cubes onto the cookie sheet and heat them up for about 5-7 minutes.

In a bowl toss in the cheese, pepper and chili flakes, mixing them up . You can omit the pepper and chili flakes but I like a little spice on my croutons.

When the bread has been toasted, throw in another bowl with some olive oil to coat. Don't overdue the olive oil, you just want to get the croutons a quick coat.
Then transfer the bread to the bowl with the cheese mixture and toss together.

Return the bread cubes to the cookie sheet, laying down some foil to keep the clean up easy and pop back into the oven for another 5-7 minutes.

You can serve them fresh with the soup and they will last for the week!

Applesauce Cake

My grandmother would make this delicious cake for me and I thought I would share it. I added dried figs and cherries because they looked so amazing in the store and that's the beauty of this cake, it's wonderful for the fall and winter because any dried fruit will be tasty!

Ingredients:
Cake-
2 cups chunky applesauce
2 cups brown sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 dried figs
1/4 golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons Amarula (or Bailey's or any cream liquor)

Glaze-
2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup of butter
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla (or maple extract)
2-3 tablespoons water

To start off preheat the oven to 350. Cream the butter and add the sugar. Mix in one egg at a time and the vanilla until fluffy. In another bowl sift the flour, baking soda, and salt.It's important to sift not only because it mixes the dry ingredients, it also refines the flour making your cake silky soft.

I like to add in the spices when the wet and dry ingredients have been mixed, but if you want you can mix them in the sifted flour mixture. Then add the applesauce one cup a time to the creamed butter sugar, alternating between the dry mix and applesauce. The applesauce makes this cake extra moist and the chunks of apples in the cake are just so sweet!

Now you will need to fold in the dried fruit and nuts. I like to add Amarula, a sweet liquor made from Elephant fruit to the mix, but if that is unavailable, Bailey's or any cream liquor will do.

Use an 11 inch bundt pan that has been greased and floured, This is especially important because when you let the cake cool, you want it to easily slide out of the pan! Pop it in the oven for 40-45 minutes, Be sure not to over bake! When the top is firm but still puffs back up after touching, the cake is ready!

Let it cool for at least an hour. About a couple minutes before sliding the cake out of the pan, get your glaze going. Melt the butter in a medium sized pot and then add the sugar, one cup at a time, whisking them together, add the vanilla and a table spoon of water at a time until you reach a glaze consistency that you like, I prefer a little heavier glaze but the more water you add the lighter the glaze will be. You can also use maple extract if you want that fall flavor to you cake, but I would only put a teaspoon in and taste before adding the other 1/4 teaspoon! Now you just have to slide the cake out of the bundt pan, drizzle your glaze over the cake, garnish with some chopped nuts and whole dried figs and you have a delicious, moist, fall and winter cake!

Homemade Tomato Soup

I seem to be on a soup kick and loving it! Here's my homemade tomato soup recipe. I love to dip a crusty delicious truffle grilled cheese with this soup!

Ingredients:
3 lbs. of Roma tomatoes par boiled, peeled and seeded
4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 medium onion chopped
14-16 basil leaves coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese
1/4 stick of butter
1/3 cup of whole milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive oil for sauteing

To start off with, this soup has a bit of prep work but it is worth it. Firstly, time to get those tomatoes going. In a large saucepan fill it 3/4 full of water and bring to a boil. Score the bottoms of the tomatoes so that after par boiling the tomatoes the skins will peel off quickly and easily.

Once the water begins to boil, put the tomatoes into the saucepan in batches, not overcrowding. Make sure to turn them over in the water so all sides get boiled.

Let them boil for about a minute or so and when the skins begin to shrivel take them out with a slotted spoon. Allow the tomatoes to cool before peeling them. While you are letting the tomatoes cool down, chop 1 medium onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic. After the tomatoes are cool, peel the skins off and cut them in half, taking out all the seeds. Set the tomatoes to the side and get the oil heated in your soup pot on medium heat. Once it's heated toss in the onions and let them saute for 5-7 minutes.

Then drop in the minced garlic for about half a minute, letting it heat up a bit before adding the peeled and seeded tomatoes. Give the tomatoes a little time in the pot with the onions and garlic, about 2 minutes and then add in the broth, simmering for 30 minutes.

Coarsely chop the basil and pull out your food processor or blender. Once the 30 minutes are up, transfer over in batches the soup and blend, tossing in the fresh basil leaves. You can puree the soup or pulse to have a coarser consistency. Then it goes back in the pot, keeping the heat low. Add a quarter of a stick of butter , the two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and about 1/3 a cup whole milk. Salt & Pepper to taste, then let it simmer for another ten minutes.

I like to get my grilled cheese going while the last simmering is happening, and I love to use Italian truffle cheese on a crusty sourdough bread. Top the soup off with a sprinkle of Parmesan and some shredded cheese (again, I used the truffle cheese). Dip that sandwich and enjoy!