Cooking Show: Soup's On! Chicken Florentine w/Pasta, Loaded Potato and Egg Drop Soup

We recently filmed an episode of the cooking show featuring soup recipes.  

My friend, Lisa, joined me.  Lisa and I both agree that soup is one of our favorite things to make when the temperatures dip!

Chicken Florentine Soup with Pasta

Make this soup if you're looking for a change from traditional chicken noodle!  Comforting and creamy, thick and hearty.  Mmmmm.

(Click on the title to be taken to the recipe)

Slow Cooker Loaded Potato Soup

Minimal prep required!  Place chopped potatoes, scallions and chicken broth into your slow cooker and forget about it for 6 hours.  Puree it, stir in cream and cheddar and you're done!

All that's left to do is add a few toppings. Don't forget the toppings!

 Egg Drop Soup

I had never tasted egg drop soup before I decided to give it a go for this show.  I googled it and read a few reviews, trying to put together a recipe that kept the components of positive reviews and omitting things that I wasn't sure about (many recipes listed yellow food coloring as an ingredient...hmmm).

Since I've never had egg drop soup other than this one, I can't tell you how it compares to the egg drop soup that you may be used to!  But I will say that I think this soup is FABULOUS.  I wish the cameras had recorded when Lisa and I were taste-testing for seasoning.  She also had never tried egg drop soup, and when she tasted her first spoonful her eyes flew open and she exclaimed, "WOW! I was not expecting this to be so flavorful!"

If I haven't already swayed you into giving this soup a try, here's one more reason: it only takes 15 minutes to prepare.  

Yes, you read that correctly!  FIFTEEN minutes. From the time you stir your broth, ginger and soy sauce together on your stovetop to the moment you take your first spoonful.  Fifteen minutes is all it takes!

Cooking Show: Recipes to warm up the chill of Autumn! Apple Cobbler, Chicken Curry

Just like THAT (snap!), it seems like the daily temperature plunged from 90 to 70.  This timing was perfect for our recent cooking show, where we prepared recipes to keep you warm and comfort you as the temperatures dip! 

My friend, Gayle, joined me and we prepared a couple of Thai curry dishes as well as an apple cobbler.

Apple Cobbler

Now that apple-picking season is here, it may be time for you to add another apple recipe into your rotation!  This apple cobbler is so much quicker to prepare than a pie!  Just pour the batter over your sliced apples and bake.

 Thai Chicken Curry

I shared this recipe with Gayle several months ago.  Here's the text she sent me after she prepared it:

omg. insanely delicious?  what's it called again? where did u get this?  i'm def adding this one to the book. 

We decided it would be fun to make this recipe on the cooking show, and we've been trying to coordinate our schedules since June!  I'm glad we are finally able to share this with you!

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

There's lots of soup on the menu in my house when the cooler weather arrives.  

Gayle and I decided to stick with the Thai theme and came up with this soup.  It is killer.   Every year during the fall/winter seasons, there is one soup that I become obsessed with and I probably make it every week.  Considering that I've already made three batches of this soup in the past month, I'm going to declare that this recipe is going to be my go-to for the winter!

Our Latest Cooking Show: Soup's On!!

My summer cooking involves a lot of grilling!  I'll do anything to avoid spending time in the kitchen when it's hot outside.

However, now that the temperature is dropping, I've been making up for lost time by cooking all of the things I've been avoiding during the warmer weather.

Here's a dinner photo from earlier this month.  I was so excited when the temperature dipped and I was finally able to spend time in the kitchen without worrying about how hot and steamy it would get.  Three soups at once, I may have gone a little overboard...

But all that soup-making was the inspiration for our recent cooking show!

My friend, Lisa, cooked alongside me.  We started with a cocktail.  Why settle for an apple martini when you can add caramel vodka and turn it into a Caramel Apple-Tini?

Creamy Chicken Soup

This soup would be right at the top of my list of comfort foods.

Loaded with shredded veggies & chicken, a touch of cream and an assortment of herbs, I suggest making a double batch so that you have lots of leftovers.  This is one of those soups that is even better the next day!  Sitting in your fridge overnight gives the herbs (and fennel seed!) time to infuse even more flavor.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Roasting the tomatoes really deepens their flavor.  There's really not a lot of work involved with this recipe! After halving and roasting the tomatoes along with onions & garlic, you throw everything into your blender and then simmer it with herbs.

These Ham and Cheese Puff Pinwheels were a big hit.

The contrast between the flaky puff pastry, the crispy ham and melting cheese make them a perfect accompaniment for tomato soup!

Cooking Show: Copycat Recipes!

We whipped up a few copycat recipes on our most recent episode of the cooking show.

We started with an attempt at The Cheesecake Factory's Georgia Peach. 

What's not to love about a frozen, slushy peach concoction swirled with raspberry puree?

We then moved onto Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana.

I've been making this soup for 20+ years.  It's soooo good.  It's so good that it makes me forget my aversion to sausage!  To be taken directly to the printable recipe, click here.

If you're not in the mood for soup, we've got a another recipe for you!  Do you like the Sonoma Chicken Salad at Whole Foods?   Stuff it into a half pita like we did, or serve it over a bed of fresh greens.

Click here for the printable recipe!

And finally...

We whipped up a batch of our own version of MacDonald's Shamrock Shake.

Okay, we whipped up more than one batch.  The blender was going non-stop until we ran out of ice cream.  They were a big hit!

Cooking Show: Fall Recipes!

Last week, we filmed a cooking show featuring fall-inspired recipes.

If you've been searching for a recipe or two that will take the chill out of these crisp, autumn days then you need not look any further!

We started off with Pumpkin Martinis.  If ever there was a martini that qualifies as comfort food, this is it.

Dan the Awesome Camera Man proclaimed, "When you get to the bottom, the marshmallows are delightful!"

Here is the printable recipe.

 We then prepared Chicken Orzo Soup with Fennel & Kale.  Bonafide comfort food!  Click here for the printable.

Then we moved on to Oven-Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes.  This picture simply does not do them justice.

How's this picture?  

I had made a batch before we started taping the show, I also made a double batch on camera and guess what?

They all disappeared by the end of the night.  Yes, they are that good!! Just peel and dice a sweet potato, mix it with olive oil and spices, pop it into your oven and that's it.

Here's the printable recipe.

And finally, our tasty finale, Pumpkin Gingerbread!

Click here for the printable recipe.

Chicken Orzo Soup with Fennel & Kale

Soup's on!

One more reason to be happy that cooler fall weather has finally arrived.  It makes me so happy to finally be able to simmer a pot of soup on the stove and not turn my kitchen into a steam bath, so I took a break from all the pumpkin recipes I've been trying out lately and made this soup!

I switched out a few ingredients from my usual chicken soup recipe, but if you're not feeling adventurous, go the traditional route and switch out the orzo for traditional noodles and use celery instead of fennel.

Today's Playlist:

• "50 Ways To Say Goodbye"...Train
• "Hey There Delilah"...Plain White T's
• "Revolution"...The Beatles
• "In the Next Room"...Neon Trees
• "Paint It Black"...The Rolling Stones
• "Warning"...Green Day
• "Have Love Will Travel"...The Sonics
• "Got To Move"...Cake
• "Hate To Say I Told You So"...The Hives

Chicken Orzo Soup with Fennel & Kale

Printable Recipe

• 2 stalks fennel, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 large or 3 small carrots, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup uncooked orzo
• 3 cups chopped kale
• salt & pepper, to taste

Gather your ingredients.

Chop the carrots, onion and fennel.  I pulled off a few of the fennel fronds and set them aside to use a garnish when serving.

In a large (6 to 8 quart) pot, heat the olive oil over medium/high heat.  Add the fennel, carrots and onions.  Crush in the garlic.  Add salt and pepper.  Saute the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften and get a little bit of color on the bottom of the pan.

Add the cooked chicken, bay leaf, rosemary and chicken broth.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Allow the soup to simmer for 15 minutes.  Add the orzo and simmer for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until the orzo is cooked.  Finally, remove the bay leaf, add the chopped kale and simmer for 10 more minutes.

Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.

Enjoy.

Chicken Farro Soup

Now that spring is arriving, I'm finally getting around to posting the recipe for my family's favorite soup from this past winter!

Better late than never, I suppose.

I make a lot of soup during the winter, usually two or three different types at a time.  My girls prefer Broccoli Cheddar, Mr. Terrific's favorite is French Onion, my son likes chicken noodle.  Typically, the winter ends and there's one soup that had been the go-to soup for the season.  Last winter, it was Southwestern Chicken Soup.  

This winter, Chicken & Farro soup was the favorite!  It's not much different from chicken noodle soup...instead of celery I use fennel and instead of noodles I substitute farro.  Farro is a grain, often used in Italian cooking, and if I had to describe it I would say that it's fluffy...yet chewy.  

Make sense, much?

Just give it a try!  It's yummy, I promise.

Today's Playlist

• "The Way You Look Tonight"...Frank Sinatra
• "Bella Notte"...Lou Monte
• "Everybody Loves Somebody"...Dean Martin
• "Everything"...Michael Buble
• "Runaround Sue"...Dion

Chicken Farro Soup

Printable Recipe

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 stalks fennel, sliced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 1/2 cup farro
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 large (or 2 small) bay leaves
• 8 cups chicken broth

Gather your ingredients.  Missing from this picture:  the chicken!

It was sitting in the fridge.  Leave it to me to forget to grab the main ingredient when I'm getting everything together.

Prep your veggies: slice & dice the fennel, carrots & onion.  Use two forks to shred your chicken.

I also put aside a few of the wispy fronds from the tops of the fennel stalks.  I will chop them and use them as a garnish when I serve the soup.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium-large (6 to 8-quart) pot.

Add the fennel, carrots and onion.  Crush the garlic directly into the pan.  Saute the veggies for about 5 to 6 minutes, until they are softened and you start to see a bit of color on the bottom of the pan.

Add the chicken...

...the sprigs of thyme and the bay leave(s).

Add the farro as well.

Pour in the chicken broth and stir.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Allow the soup to simmer (uncovered) at a low simmer for about 40 minutes, until the farro is cooked.  Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper.

Remember to remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaves before serving!

Enjoy.

2015 Top 3 Most-Viewed Recipes

Today is going to be a soup day.

It's 38 degrees out as I am typing this.  The Patriots game is at 1 p.m. so we are going to light a big fire in the fireplace, hunker down, slurp some soup and watch our favorite team (hopefully) pull off a win and get themselves home-field advantage for the playoffs.  What team will you be rooting for?

Although there are five of us, I'm lucky that Broccoli Cheddar is the favorite soup of both my girls, because I only have four burners on my stove and all of those burners will be fired up as I prepare all of our favorites!

I scrolled through my blogposts to check the recipes and make sure I had all of the ingredients on hand, and as usual I got sidetracked.  I thought it would be fun to see which recipes from 2015 were the most popular!

Third Most-Popular:

Slow-Cooker Baby Back Ribs.  I admit, when I saw this it gave me pause and I momentarily rethought today's soup agenda!

I decided that I'll make these for the divisional playoff game instead.

Second Most-Popular:

Southwestern Chicken Soup  This is my favorite soup!  I'll be making it today!

Most Popular Recipe, 2015:

Cashew Chicken!  We made this during our "Cooking With Kids" show and it was a big hit.  It tastes fresher and better than any takeout chicken!

The best part: since it only takes about fifteen minutes to prep, cook and serve, it's at the top of my go-to list for those nights when I don't have a lot of time to spend preparing dinner.


Happy 2016!