how do you make bacon popcorn with pasture butter even better? with cheddar!
it’s awesome.
i have to admit this powdered cheddar cheese is not organic. i couldn’t find any organic powder when i was out and about so i compromised with non-organic. you can be certain i’ll be ordering a pound of the fronteir organic white cheddar powder in the near future.
fall is here and the temperatures are dropping and sometimes you just want some good old fashioned warm comfort food like, say, cheeseburger soup. and, of course you could use something like cheddar cheese but if you really want to nail the nostalgic comfort in comfort food, you’re typically going to find a processed cheese like processed american cheesein the ingredients list.
for those of us who aren’t into the emulsified, extruded processed cheese world, the geniuses at organic valley ( *cough* my employer *cough* ) have come up with a 100% real, unprocessed american cheese! it has all the mild, melty american cheesyness you expect but it’s actually made from nothing but 100% real, organic cheese. imagine that!
so i thought i’d give it a try in this taste of home cheeseburger soup recipe, simply substituting the processed cheese with ov american singles. i also doubled the amount of ground beef, because, well, why not 🙂
and wowza. it’s really, really, really(!) good. definitely going to be in our regular soup rotation from now on.
slightly modified directions from the taste of home cheeseburger soup recipe:
ingredients
1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup diced celery
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
4 tablespoons butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups diced peeled potatoes (1-3/4 pounds)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 package ( 8 ounces ) ov american singles
1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
directions
in a largish saucepan, brown beef, drain and set aside. saute the onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 tablespoon butter until tender. add the broth, potatoes and beef; bring to a boil. reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. add flour; cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. add to soup; bring to a boil. cook and stir for 2 minutes. reduce heat to low. stir in the cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. remove from the heat; blend in sour cream.
and it came to pass that it was my night on dinner duty and i was under a clear directive to use leftovers in the fridge in whatever concoction i could concoct. an easy enough task since we had just had black beans and rice topped with cheese and a side of kale the night before. i thought, i’ll just mix them all together with a bit of garlic, fold into a tortilla shell, cover with cheese and heat in the oven for a bit for a quick and easy burrito!
as i quickly grabbed ingredients, i notice some leftover refried beans in a container, so gave it a quick smell test, noted that it didn’t smell rotten, but also didn’t really smell like refried beans either. it had a vaguely familiar smell. one that i couldn’t quite place. but i was on a mission to keep on the dinner making schedule and brushed aside any nagging thoughts that something might be amiss.
after 15 or 20 minutes in a 350°F oven the burritos emerged piping hot and covered in melted cheesy goodness and we started to eat them. straight away, odin refused to take more than one bite. too much garlic ( this is a common dinner issue. i keep thinking i can sneak it almost never works and i’m denial about possibly living without garlic for the next 10 years ).
kris ate half a burrito before declaring that they had too much garlic.
i, happily, devoured several ( with corn torillas in keeping with my mostly gluten free lifestyle ) while proclaiming they Most Certainly Did Not Contain Too Much Garlic. no sirree, they did not!
the next morning, while getting ready odin ready for school i noticed there was another container of refried beans in the fridge with just a small amount gone.
huh? someone just had to have a small bite of refried beans for breakfast? ever so slowly it dawned on me as i raced out the door to yell down to kris and odin as they walked down the street towards school.
“HEY, KRIS, SAY WHAT’S IN THAT CONTAINER IN THE FRIDGE THAT LOOKS LIKE REFRIED BEANS?”
if i only could have taken a picture of her face as she turned around and slowly registered the real meaning of my question.
“WHAT?! NOOOOOOOO! TELL ME YOU DIDN’T!”
and that’s when i remembered that, unusually, we have soft dog food in the house to smother in the antibiotics pushkin has to choke down to help treat his latest lyme disease flare up.
i don’t think odin is going to let me forget the Dog Food Burrito Incident. ever.
as soon as i saw this video for bacon wrapped eggs i knew i had to try it. i mean, how possibly could you go wrong with bacon, eggs and cheese? and it’s really simple, as it doesn’t really take much longer to make than regular ol’ bacon and eggs.
first, you brown some bacon ( pssst! organic prairie uncured bacon. ) – but don’t get it crispy! then you place a full strip around the wall of the cup of a muffin tin and a few more bits in the bottom. crack and egg in the cup, sprinkle with a titch of salt and pepper and add your favorite cheese ( today we used organic valley raw sharp cheddar ) on top.
of course, if you wanted to fancy it up you could add some sauteed garlic or chives or whatever strikes your whimsy.
then, place in it a preheated 400°F oven for about 10-15 minutes. how long depends on how thoroughly cooked you want the yolk. i like runnier yolks so i put it in for 10 minutes.
after a bit, they should come out like so. it might be hard to tell, but two of them don’t have cheese added because, weirdly, odin said he didn’t want any. i swear, sometimes, i wonder if he’s my kid at all.
part of a complete breakfast! or at least a breakfast complete with spelt bread in an attempt to sort-of abide by my gluten free lifestyle ( spelt gives me less “trouble” than wheat ).
bacon wrapped eggs with cheese makes a plate smile 🙂
since The Girls are always producing eggs and odin loves to help in the kitchen, we’re always looking for fun and simple egg recipes that he can help make. recently, i ran across this recipe for egg nests and thought i’d give it a try.
first, of course, you want some fresh eggs. we have those aplenty.
oh, and preheat the oven to 450°F.
grate some cheese, about a 1/4 cup for every 2 eggs. the recipe calls for gruyere, which i used, but there’s no reason you couldn’t substitute something else to your liking.
separate the egg yolks from the whites. put the whites in a mixing bowl and the yolks in individual bowls to help you later on when you have to place them carefully in their nest.
whip the egg white with a quarter teaspoon of salt until stiff. i might have overwhipped these whites, but whatever.
gently fold the cheese into the egg whites, being careful to not collapse the whipped goodness.
create little mounds of the egg white mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. you want the mounds shaped like nests so they can hold the yolk, so be sure to make indentations in the center.
put the egg white nests in the oven for about 3 minutes and then pull out the tray and carefully add an egg yolk to the center of each nest.
put the baking sheet back in the oven for about 3 more minutes and prepare yourself for eggy cheesy goodness! they are quite tasty but obviously only for going to be enjoyed by those who like “runny” yolks.
truth be told, i probably over browned these whites just a titch. be warned, they brown fast! but i don’t think it affected the flavor.
grilled tomatoes, basil, galic & parm – a perfect recipe for the symbolic end of summer that labor day has come to represent. and, well, i’ve got to find something to do with all that garden garlic ( and tomatoes and basil ).
1. heat the grill to a med/med-high temperature
2. peel and mince the garlic cloves and brown in a pan with olive oil
3. cut the tomatoes in half crosswise
4. put tomatoes cut-side down and grill 3-4 minutes
5. flip the tomatoes and apply liberal amount of garlic, basil and organic valley parmesan cheese
6. grill for another 2-3 minutes
7. enjoy!