Veggie Soup with Cheese-Basil-Garlic Pistou

After consuming too much cheesecake, I decided to move in the direction of savory cheese dishes. First up: a vegetable soup that uses a bit of cheese, garlic, and basil pistou to add flavor (the pistou is similar to pesto, and is added to the soup after it's finished cooking to give it a lot of flavor).

I recently learned that copying a list of ingredients does not constitute plagiarism. So here is my slightly modified list, from "Mediterranean The Beautiful Cookbook."

Ingredients for the soup:

• 1.5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 cup baby carrots, sliced
  
• 1 cup celery stalks, diced (about 2 stalks)
• 1 cup tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 8 cups broth
• 1 cup diced potatoes
• 1/2 cup navy beans, pre-soaked in water overnight and cooked until tender
• 1/4 lb. green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
  
• 2 zucchini, diced
• 2 cups Swiss chard, coarsely sliced
• 1.5 oz. small pasta shells
• salt and pepper, to taste

For the Pistou:

• 2 cloves minced garlic
• .75 oz. basil leaves
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan (or other strong) cheese
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
  

All of the vegetable ingredients. Top, left to right: green beans, Swiss chard, potatoes, zucchini, navy beans, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes.

Directions:
1.) Prepare all of the vegetables for cooking.
2.) In a large pot, heat the oil. Saute the onion until tender.
3.) Add the carrots and celery and saute for 5 minutes.
4.) Add the tomatoes and chicken broth and simmer for 10 minutes.
5.) Add the potatoes and shell beans and simmer for 5 minutes.
6.) Add the green beans, zucchini, Swiss chard, and pasta and simmer until all ingredients are tender (15-20 minutes).
7.) Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8.) To make the pistou, place the garlic, salt, basil, and cheese in a blender and blend until chopped. Add the olive oil and blend. Season with salt and pepper.
9.) Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the pistou. Enjoy!
(Cook beware: Once the pistou has been added, never heat the soup to boiling... it will turn an unattractive brown color.)

The soup, before the pistou was added.

The soup, after the pistou has been added.

Bon apetit, ready to eat!

Measuring it up:

This soup is a winner! It's full of veggies, and great as a light meal or starter. I also ate it from a bread bowl, which made it a more filling meal. The garlic-basil-cheese pistou adds a lot of flavor to what would otherwise be a bland soup. The only sources of fat or cholesterol are the olive oil and the small amount of cheese, making it quite healthy.

Cheesy, Tart, and Romantic

In honor of my 30-month (that's 2.5-year) anniversary, I wanted a romantic cheesecake. My hubby and I both like tart flavors, so raspberry seemed like the choice. Add white chocolate for luxurious flavor and texture, and the perfect idea evolved!

Now to transform it into reality. I based the cheesecake off of a recipe for White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. However, instead of using real raspberries (and buying a strainer to strain the seeds), I opted for seedless raspberry preserves, and followed the raspberry sauce directions in this recipe for White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake.

I had some difficulty with the crust - the amount of cookie crumbs the recipe called for was not enough. I had to double the recipe (I'm wondering if I need some work on my crust-making skills). I followed the first recipe in all of the steps except for the raspberry flavor, which I halved and only placed in the middle of the cake because I wanted to make a thicker raspberry sauce for the top. Even though the recipe calls for melting white chocolate over simmering water (and this is what most sites I visited recommended), I did it successfully in a non-stick saucepan. I first heated the half-and-half, then added the white chocolate and stirred over medium-low heat so the chocolate wouldn't burn. Take that, cynics!

I baked the cheesecake for the indicated time, then turned off the oven, opened the door, and let the cake cool in there. I had read somewhere that this would prevent cracking. I was excited that the cake didn't crack; it did, however, sink (is that normal?).

For the topping, I heated the rest of the raspberry preserves and added a bit of water and lemon juice. Once I spread it on the cake, there were some darker spots of sauce and some spots where it appeared more translucent. However, in the end these differences weren't visible.

I decorated the cheesecake with raspberries and white chocolate shavings. I had wanted white chocolate curls, but was only successful in creating a few actual curls :(

Measuring it up (maximum score of 4):

• Cheese Factor - 4. The sweet cream cheese mixture and smooth white chocolate worked together excellently!
  
• Melding of Ingredients -3. The white chocolate cream cheese and raspberry sauce were AWESOME together! However, the chocolate crust did not work well - the chocolate taste was overpowering. Vanilla cookies or graham crackers would work better.
  
• Doability of recipe - 3. I'm still confused how to make the small quantity of cookies that recipes call for work in making the crust.
  
• Attractiveness - 3. The cheesecake collapsed, so I wished I had whipped cream to decorate the elevated sides! Also, the raspberry layer in the middle was barely visible... I needed more raspberry sauce in the middle. And I wanted chocolate curls, not just shavings. But even though it didn't turn out just the way I wanted it, I thought it was pretty attractive.

Overall - 3.25. Raspberries and white chocolate: a perfect combo! And one is definitely more attracted to attractive food.

Tips for another undertaking:

If I make this cheesecake again, I will make the middle raspberry layer thicker. And definitely use vanilla cookies or graham crackers for the crust instead of chocolate! I need to look into how to avoid sinkage and, if it occurs, have whipped cream on hand to decorate/disguise the sides.

Crushing the cookies

Raspberry sauce and raspberries

White chocolate "curls" (more like shavings)

Ready to dig in!

Red, White, and Blue

For a fourth of July theme, I used leftovers from the Strawberry Swirl cheesecake. This gave me the red and white. For the blue, I made a Blueberry Sauce. I didn't have any vanilla sugar, so I used plain sugar and added a couple drops of vanilla extract (side note: vanilla sugar-making is on mt horizon. It just calls for combining a bag of sugar and 1-2 vanilla beans - halved, with seeds removed - and leaving it for at least a week. The vanilla flavor/aroma will be absorbed by the sugar). Also, the blueberry sauce did not thicken as much as I wanted (maybe in the future I'll add less water?) so I dissolved some cornstarch in a little water and added it to the simmering blueberry syrup. It thickened in a couple seconds.

I also saw a couple recipes make reference to using blueberry filling as a topping... simple choice, but the homemade version is more flavorful!

Cheesy July - Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

It so happens that I decided to make my first cheesecake when Hurricane Alex was nearing South Texas, resulting in empty grocery store shelves as people stocked up. So for the first cheesecake of July, I looked for a recipe that called for as few ingredients as possible. Thankfully, I found the two ingredients I was missing for one of the simplest fruity cheesecake I could find: a strawberry swirl cheesecake (to access the recipe, first click on the link and then on the photo of the cheesecake bars).

Measuring it up (maximum score of 4):

• Cheese Factor - 4. There were very few ingredients in the cheese mixture, yet the lemony taste and smooth texture were fantastic! (I used regular cream cheese instead of the reduced fat the recipe calls for.)
  
• Melding of Ingredients -3. The strawberry topping and citrusy cheese filling make an excellent combination! The strawberry jam also created a semi-gooey crust on top, which worked well with the smoothness of the cheese and the crunchier crust as I bit into the cheesecake. However, the graham cracker crust was a bit crumbly (more butter? Since posting this, I've also found that most cheesecakes call for baking the crust for 10 min. before putting in the filling... the solution is to be discovered!).
  
• Doability - 3. It's pretty simple, but I needed more butter and probably should have covered the cheesecake during baking (or maybe placed it on a lower shelf)?
  
• Attractiveness - 2. I probably should have covered the cheesecake during baking. It looked pretty before I baked it. Afterward, my husband commented that the top looked like caramelized onions.

Overall - 3. A yummy, inexpensive, and relatively simple cheesecake to make.

Tips for another undertaking:
I'll need more butter for the graham cracker crust than the recipe calls for.... at least one stick. Also, 40 min. was not enough baking time - after finding the cheesecake was still jello-y in the center, I ended up baking it for 10 more minutes at 350 F. Lastly, my cheesecake browned in the oven - I need to bake it on a lower rack or cover it with foil. If you try it, me know how it goes! Next time I'll swirl less... I like the way it turned out in the original photo!

As another afterthought, I'm thinking this recipe is so simple to make, it would be fun to try it with different flavors of jam (or combine more than one flavor!). If I make it again, I'd add lime juice instead of lemon juice to the cheese filling, and use an orange or guava jam on top.

Gettin' ready...

Lookin' pretty before the baking

Cheesecake... or caramelized onions?

Ready, set, yum!

Hello Food Lovers!

Baking desserts and cooking had always been a passion of mine. Yet after graduating from college and submerging myself in three years of workoholism, I realize that no one around me knows that I love to cook! I have taken too much time off from enjoying the process of cooking, from licking the cookie dough bowl clean to my multitude of crucial taste-tests while making an alfredo sauce. And, once in a while, sharing the deliciousness with others.

So I am reassuming control of my life through this mission, in which I seek to discover the best recipes out there for different kinds of foods. The conditions:.

• Recipes must stick to the theme of the month.
  
• All required supplies must be commonly found in a standard U.S. kitchen.
  
• All ingredients and final products must pass as "natural" (at least at first sight!).

I'll pursue one theme per month, starting with cheesecake in July. I hope you enjoy the delicious journey as much as I do, and keep me up to date with any of your scrumptious recipes!