This will probably be the last of the recipes from this year’s soup party. This month is flying by and I haven’t even talked about the cake for my son’s birthday party yet. I gotta keep this train moving.

In addition to the soups, I mentioned we had side dishes. There were my rolls, desserts and also a kale salad. My good friends at Pizza Your Face were kind enough to pass on this recipe after I first had the dish at their annual soup party some time back.

It’s a cross between having your kale and embracing the garlicky zip of a Caesar salad. While I imagined the hearty leaves of kale would be tough, the lemon in the dressing did nicely to soften them up a bit. And while taking on an entire bunch of kale from the supermarket seems like overkill, this salad can hold up in the refrigerator for up to a week without getting slimy. 

And my toddler loves it. So, you know, there’s that. Seriously, next time you see him say, “kale.” I would bet you dollars to donuts that he’ll smile.

Raw, but Tender, Kale Salad adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients

• 1 bunch Kale
• 1/2 cup coarse breadcrumbs (homemade is best, but not mandatory)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 cup of grated cheese (pecorino, parmesan)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/4 tsp plus a pinch of salt (coarse if you have it)
• black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Remove center stem from kale by folding leaves in half and ripping leaves away from stem, slice leaves into ribbons. Wash and dry thoroughly and place in large bowl.
2. Smash and mince garlic using a pinch of salt as an abrasive to help break it down. Move to jar or plastic food container that has a lid. Add oil, cheese, lemon juice and black pepper. Shake vigorously to emulsify dressing.
3. Toss dressing with kale. Top with breadcrumbs and additional cheese, if desired.

More from the soup party.

I promised more and I fell down on the job. I had a handful of writing deadlines and a little boy’s third birthday, all of which is awesome, but time-consuming. Now I’m back on track and although I didn’t have the chance to post this bread recipe, I did have the chance to make it. That should tell you how easy it is.

There’s something that makes you feel very accomplished when you make your own bread. And others are always so impressed by it. But I found this recipe (I love you, Pinterest), halved it and learned a few things along the way. Shaping loaves or rolls is something that comes with practice, I suppose. The second batch were certainly better shaped than the first. So far I’ve done Portugese-styled rolls for the soup party and a loaf of bread to accompany a spaghetti dinner. Make this recipe.

No-fuss no-muss bread

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees)
• 1 packet granulated yeast (I use rapid rise) 
• 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 3 1/4 cups unsifted, unbleached all purpose white flour

Directions

1. Throw ingredients in a stand mixer with paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, throw everything in a large vessel — plastic container, glass bowl, whichever — stir until combined)
2. If using a mixer, pour dough into a larger container to rise. Cover container, but not airtight — poke holes in plastic wrap or leave lid unsealed. Rise at room temperature for about two hours. Dough will begin to collapse or flatten on top. You can use some or all of the dough at this point, or store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
3. Sprinkle the surface of the dough and your hands with flour to prevent sticking. Cut pieces into the desired size (I made 12 rolls, or you can do two one-pound loaves). Watch the linked video above for a tutorial on shaping loaves, but in a nutshell, shape it in a ball and pull the top tight. Place on a piece of parchment or pizza peel and let rise 30-40 minutes (while the oven heats up).
4. Heat your pizza stone (or cookie sheet) in a 450-degree oven for at least 20 minutes. On the shelf underneath, place an empty baking dish. 
5. With a sharp knife or razor, slash the top of the roll or loaf with a cross, hash or parallel lines. Slide the bread onto the hot stone or sheet. Pour water into the empty baking pan. (The steam is going to give you a crusty shell on the bread.) Bake, with the oven closed (no peaking, keep that steam trapped!) for 30-35 minutes until the crust is a golden brown.
6. Allow the bread to cool before serving.

We recently had a soup party. We invited some of our closest friends, everyone contributed to the feast and there was a conga line of 13 soups on the counters of our kitchen. Homemade bread, desserts and a bonus smoked pork shoulder added to the embarrassment of riches.

I was inspired by this party, so a number of my upcoming posts will be soup party related and I hope you’ll enjoy them.

The first will be my vegetarian offering — curried cauliflower soup. I love the recipe I have for aloo gobi, so I thought it would be a delicious way to get some different flavors into soup form and a meatless option at that. It was simple and easy and held up nicely in the slow cooker for hours.

When I added some spicy chili powder, I thought a garnish of cilantro and plain yogurt would be fitting. Yum!

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

• 1 head of cauliflower
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp hot curry powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup half and half

Directions

1. Heat oil in soup pot. Add spices to hot oil and fry until fragrance is released, about a minute. Add chopped cauliflower and mix with spiced oil. Add water, cover and steam until very tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Add vegetable stock and puree with immersion blender (You can also use a blender. Be careful with the hot ingredients and return soup to pot when finished.) Add salt.
3. Add butter, half and half to soup and stir until combined. Add additional liquids, if necessary, to reach desired consistency (water or half and half).

I’m not a practicing Catholic, we go to an Episcopal church where we had our son christened. And even there, unfortunately, I’m not very devout. However, I try to continue with one of the Catholic traditions, not eating meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays during Lent.

It’s not a cleanse or a religious observance, just a thoughtful moment to reflect as winter ends. I remember a lot of fish sticks and pizza on Lenten Fridays as kid. Although my boy would love fish sticks more than once a week, I’m trying to change things up.

Strata’s not just for brunch anymore! Any combination of your favorite vegetables or cheese gets this done and bread cubes bump up the volume, like a savory bread pudding. I like to saute the vegetables first; in this case browning the mushrooms and wilted the spinach because it gets rid of the extra water those veggies hold. With asparagus or broccoli, you can throw them in raw to save time.

Veggie Strata

Ingredients

• 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 6 oz spinach
• 12 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 shredded cheese (I used a mix of cheddars)
• 3 heaping cups of cubed bread (I used a small loaf of Italian bread from the grocery store bakery)
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 1 Tbsp Olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Saute mushrooms with butter and olive oil until mushrooms have released their water and are slightly brown. Remove and wilt spinach in the same pan. Remove and toss with bread cubes and cheese. Put this combination in a lightly greased casserole dish (I used a 2 1/2 quart Corningware).
2. Whisk eggs and milk with salt and pepper. Pour over bread mixture and allow bread to absorb the eggs for a couple of hours.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until center of the casserole is just set (it no long jiggles like crazy and looks wet). Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.

Coq au Vin sounds fancy. It’s French and stuff. But, really, it’s a one pot wonder of a chicken casserole. Make it - now.

Don’t tell your diners how easy it is, just watch their eyebrows raise when you say, “Coco Van.”

I will also use this opportunity to say everyone should have a Dutch oven. It opens up a world of braising you can’t even imagine. Do it - now.

And with that I’ll stop being a Miss Bossypants and share with you my recipe.

Coq au Vin

Ingredients

• 3 whole chicken legs (about 2 lbs)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz frozen pearl onions
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp flour (plus more to toss chicken with)
• 1 ½ cup dry red wine
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 1/2  tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Separate thighs from drumsticks (or not, up to you. Or buy them separated.) and toss in flour; season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in Dutch oven or stove-top safe casserole and brown chicken, starting skin down. Remove chicken and set aside.
2. In  remaining oil and chicken fat, sauté onions and mushrooms until golden brown. Add 2 Tbsp flour and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in wine and chicken stock and bring to simmer. Add chicken pieces, cover Dutch oven and braise in oven for about an hour. 
3. Remove chicken pieces, skim fat from the top of the sauce and return chicken to the sauce to reheat. Serve over egg noodles or mashed potatoes, or with a side of crusty bread.

I’m often intimidated by Alton Brown recipes. I love “Good Eats” — at least I did when we still had Food Network — but his science-backed cooking calls for everything from using a terracotta pot to drilling holes in a Tupperware container.

But this recipe for blueberry muffins seemed easy enough. Plus, I had blueberries and people happy to have a warm sweet treat for breakfast and brunch over a chilly weekend. I thought we’d have enough that I would be able to take a few down to my grandfather who was convalescing after some surgery, but that was not to be. They were gobbled up in a week’s time.

I will admit, I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter. I didn’t have cake flour, so I used all-purpose and corn starch. Here’s a site for substitutions and conversions. Also, I set the oven to 380 degrees which, admittedly, I thought was a strange temperature. I missed the part in the directions that said to kick the oven to 400 degrees when the muffins go in. I think I had to cook the muffins a little longer as a result, but they were still delicious.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

• 12 1/2 oz cake flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Heavy pinch salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• Vegetable spray, for the muffin tins

Directions

Sometimes I get an idea in my head for no reason and it takes hold. Friday, I decided on fish and chips. I never made this from scratch before, but I had a vision of crispy beer batter and sea salt. I wanted the drab army green peas. I heard the bubbling oil and felt the white fish under my knife.

No never-mind I had just SCRUBBED my kitchen within an inch of its life. Sheesh! Why don’t I ever think of these things the day BEFORE I go on a cleaning jag?

But there are two important secrets to frying in the kitchen and not making a mess. 1) Use a splash screen. It really makes a difference. 2) Use a deep pot. I shallow fry, so there’s no reason for a lot of splash out of the pot if it’s deep enough.

The third secret would be to fry out on the burner of your gas grill. But it’s too dang cold for that here.

So I set out to Hill’s Seafood, our favorite fishmonger, and picked up some haddock. It was more expensive than tilapia, which would have worked, but the haddock was fresh and plump and I couldn’t resist.

I got home, prepped the chips and made my first beer batter. I was so impressed at how easy it was and then how well it turned out. My husband declared it “epic.” Now, three days later, I want to make it again. The amounts in this recipe fed two adults well, with a lunch of leftovers to spare.

Fish and Chips

Ingredients

• 2 large Russet potatoes
• 1 lb firm white fish (haddock, tilapia)
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 12 oz beer
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• pinch of cayenne
• 2 cups oil (I used vegetable, but peanut is good for frying as well)

Directions

1. Wash potatoes and cut into large fries. Soak in ice water for 30 minutes to pull out some of the starch, drain and dry thoroughly.
2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Heat oil in a deep pot to 350 degrees (in case you don’t have a candy thermometer: when a drop of batter is placed in the oil, it should fry vigorously. Oil should not smoke.).
3. Pat fish dry, cut into pieces about 5 inches long. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, pepper and cayenne. Toss fish in dry mix and set fish aside. Whisk beer into dry mix. Batter should be smooth.
4. First, work on the fries (I double fry). Working in small batches (it will probably take three turns for all of the potatoes), gently place potatoes in oil, frying until just starting to brown. Remove from oil and set aside to drain excess oil and cool.
5. Once oil returns to temperature, dip fish pieces in beer batter and gently place them in the oil. To allow plenty of room between pieces, only fry a few at a time. When batter looks set on top, turn pieces, Both sides should be golden brown and fish should be flaky inside.
6. As the fish finishes, place pieces in the warm oven on a baking sheet. (I place a cooling rack on the baking sheet so the fish doesn’t sit in oil and get soggy on the bottom)
7. When oil is up to temperature again, re-fry potatoes in small batches until golden.
8. Salt fish and chips while hot and serve with lemon, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, ketchup and/or malt vinegar.

Growing up in ruralish Delaware, I never even saw an Indian restaurant. By now, having married into an English family, I think I’ve had more curries than hamburgers. And I love it. Curry is versatile, flavorful and, if you so choose, pretty healthy.

If you have an Indian grocery store nearby, all the flavors are at your fingertips. My favorite spice packets are Paramparaand make a curry as easy as making Kraft mac and cheese. After a few years, I started with a little experimentation and some side dishes from scratch, but decided to take the plunge into Chicken Tikka Masala when I found this recipe on the Food &Wine website. 

I adapted this recipe a bit to simplify it a little, but do plan ahead so you have plenty of time for your chicken to marinade. Don’t be intimidated by the list of ingredients. They’re just small amounts of spices and we bought them all in bulk pretty inexpensively.

The results were amazing. Even my toddler ate it, after I added a bit more yogurt to his helping to temper the spice (good tip for anyone who doesn’t like a lot of chile heat). And now I no longer fear curry from scratch. But I will keep my packets, too!

Chicken Tikka Masala (adapted from Food & Wine)

Ingredients

For the masala marinade:

• 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom (or 3 cardamom pods, bashed with the flat of a knife)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the sauce:

• 2 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs, fat trimmed
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 1/2 Tbsp garam masala
• 1 1/2 tsp pure chile powder
• 28 oz diced tomatoes
• Pinch of sugar
• 1 cup nonfat yogurt

Directions

1. In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, combine the yogurt, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cayenne and turmeric. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Using a sharp knife, make a few shallow slashes in each piece of chicken. Add the chicken to the marinade, turn to coat and refrigerate at least three hours, as long as overnight.
3. Preheat the broiler and position a rack about 8 inches from the heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade; scrape off as much of the marinade as possible. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and spread the pieces on a baking sheet. Broil the chicken, turning once or twice, until just cooked through and browned in spots, about 12 minutes. Let cool enough to handle, transfer to a cutting board and cut it into two-inch pieces.
4. In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garam masala, chile powder and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the tomatoes with their juices and the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cover partially and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 20 minutes. Add the yogurt and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes longer. Stir in the chicken; simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, and serve.

These brownies are decadent, dense, delicious. I feel like I need a small spider named Charlotte to come up with the best word to describe these brownies.

Better yet, they were so simple my little boy could help me and so quick he didn’t even have time to make a huge mess.

My entire family is chock full of chocoholics and I have made my fair share of brownies from a box. But when I go to my local coffeeshop, Regency Cafe, I indulge in the very dense, dark chocolaty brownie that has ruined me for the cakey ones. I decided I wanted to make my own. But I needed it to be easy and preferably not require me to head out to the store.

I had to bypass the high-browed recipes that called for instant espresso and high-grade chocolate and with a little internet searching I found this one from “Starters to Closers,” a charity cookbook put together in 2001 by the Seattle Mariners to help support pediatric oncology at a hospital in Washington. The only change I made was using 10 oz of chocolate chips instead of a 12-oz block style bittersweet chocolate.

I’m shocked to report they lasted an entire week at my house.

Double Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

• 10 oz bag of dark chocolate chips
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 1/2 Tbsp water
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine 6 oz chocolate chips with butter, sugar and water. Cook over low heat, stirring, until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Stir the remaining chips into melted chocolate mixture. Whisk in eggs, flour and salt. Batter will be thick and lumpy.
4. Spray a 9-inch square pan with non-stick spray and scrape batter into pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Set on rack to cool.

More than a year ago I came across A Feast for the Eyesfood blog while looking for Swiss chard recipes. I was so taken by the recipes there, I spent a good long while scrolling through the entries. I found “Eggs in A Basket” and have wanted to make it ever since.

I woke first this morning and decided to make breakfast for the Hubby and me. Last night we went to a party, so our son was still over at his grandparents. Life is so hectic I thought a quiet breakfast together over coffee and NPR was just what we needed to start the day and the new week.

My love gave me ramekins for Christmas that were the perfect size for this dish and I set to making it, with a couple of shortcuts so we wouldn’t have to rush before heading out to pick up our boy. There is something so comforting about a yoke-y egg nestled in potatoes. Crunchy, salty-sweet bacon and a hit of gooey cheese almost gild the lily — almost.

If you don’t have ramekins, you can use a muffin tin which would also be helpful if you wanted to make this recipe for a larger crowd. I’ll admit this version only serves two — we each had two baskets, but it can certainly be doubled, tripled, etc., without suffering in flavor.

Ever-evolving Eggs in Baskets

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups frozen hash browns
• 4 Tbsp shredded cheese (I used a cheddar mix)
• 2 slices bacon
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray ramekins (or muffin tin) with non-stick spray. Toss hash browns with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and press them into the ramekins with a well in the center (this is where you’re making your basket). Bake potatoes for about 35 minutes. They will shrink significantly.
2. While potatoes are cooking, microwave bacon (on a plate, sandwiched by paper towels) for four minutes on high. It should be fully-cooked and crisp. When cool enough to handle, chop bacon and toss with maple syrup.
3. When potatoes finish, top them with one egg in each ramekin. Return to the oven for 6-8 minutes, until white is just set. Top eggs with even amounts of bacon and cheese and melt cheese to finish, about 3 minutes.