Tuesday, February 5, 2013

BLTA's & Mushroom Soup

Like many American's my family loves a good BLT. I mean, it's bacon, do I need to say more? The hubs and I have always liked our BLT's with tomato soup but my dear girl isn't much of a fan. When I found this recipe for Mushroom Soup I knew we had to try it - and what better to pair it with than a delicious BLT(A) - my way!

Mushroom Soup
Click on the link for the recipe I re-pinned. I only made super minor modifications

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of white button mushrooms, sliced thin
1 3/4 cups of baby portobello mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 c porcini mushrooms
1/2 c portobello mushrooms (gills removed) diced small
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 c vegetable stock
2 Tbsp flour dissolved in 2 Tbsp water
2 c half-n-half
Dash of nutmeg
Fresh cracked pepper
Wondra for thickening

1. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan. Add butter and lightly sauté garlic on medium heat.
2. Add in mushrooms, thyme, bay leaves and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over medium heat for 6 minutes.

 

3. Add in chicken broth. Stir occasionally until broth boils, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
4 Add diluted flour in, and stir constantly (while simmering) until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and nutmeg. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5. Finally, add half-n-half, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat off.
6. Serve hot in your soup bowl. Add freshly ground black pepper.

I specified the mushrooms I used and liked and also left out the choices of dried vs. fresh thyme (I aways prefer fresh herbs and I happen to have a ton of thyme growing outside). I also try not to use heavy whipping cream anytime I can avoid it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE vegetable broth and use it often in place of chicken broth. Usually I buy the Knorr brand vegetable broth cubes. They dissolve quickly and easily and have great flavor. Also, I generally totally shy away from the use of nutmeg - for some reason I can taste it in almost anything and, for me, it overpowers a lot of dishes, but I did use just a pinch and it really worked.

BLTA's
I know you probably know how to make a BLT. But I like to put a little twist on all of the sandwiches I make - just so you know I made it :)

Ingredients:

1 lb bacon
4 large leaves of iceberg lettuce
3 lg Roma tomatoes
1 lg avocado
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
mayonnaise
sea salt & pepper to taste
8 slices multi-grain bread

1. Cook the bacon. I don't know about you but I hate when I bite into a BLT and the bacon all falls out the back. I've seen this technique across the internet for weaving and baking bacon for burgers and so I tried it for our BLT's and it works amazingly well.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Separate bacon into 4 groups of 4 slices. With the four slices stacked on top of each other, cut one third of the bacon off.

Next, line a large aluminum pan (with a lip) with tin foil. Place each of the four bacon slices next to each other. Using the pieces you cut off weave the bacon through, starting by alternating one piece over, one piece under to make a woven piece of bacon the size of your bread. Repeat for each of the 4 bacon groups.


Put the pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

2. Slice tomatoes. Sprinkle with fresh sea salt and lemon pepper

3. Peel the avocado and place in a bowl. Mash with a fork until it looks something like a really chunky guacamole. (Simply slicing avocados and adding them to your sandwich will have the same "fall out the back" effect as the bacon and again, I hate that!) Add the lime juice, the garlic powder and salt & pepper to taste.

4. Toast bread.

5. Take the bacon out of the oven and drain on paper towels.

6. Assemble your sandwich by spreading some of the avocado spread on one side of the bread and mayonnaise on the other. Lightly sprinkle oregano on the mayonnaise. Add tomatoes to the avocado side, and lettuce on the mayonnaise side. Place bacon weave on the tomatoes, close the sandwich and cut at an angle (perfect for dipping).

Like I said, I know we can all throw together a BLT. I just like to give mine a little bit of flair!


Monday, February 4, 2013

Menu #3 of 2013

I can't tell you the elation I feel when I've gone through all of my Pinterest food boards, planned out my menu, looked through my cupboards, copied the recipes, made my grocery list and cut out all the coupons that I know I'm going to use before I go grocery shopping. Oh, and I usually clean out the fridge in the process too. But not this time.

I have been sick. I don't know about you but when I'm sick our whole schedule gets thrown off. The hubs, bless his heart, tries his best to pick up the slack but for whatever reason things still just don't go quite as planned.

Because of my being under the weather, our dinner plans changed a bit. Here's what our menu ended up looking like:

  • Corn Dogs & a can of Corn
  • French Dips & Mac-n-cheese
  • Tuna Melts & Salad
  • Shake-n-Bake pork chops & canned Green Beans
  • Chicken Pot Pie from IGA
  • Pizza
  • Lasagna Rolls & Caesar Salad (I found a homemade Caesar dressing that is delicious!)
  • Mushroom Soup & BLTA's
  • Leftover Lasagna Rolls
  • Baked seasoned Chicken, Roasted Green beans and Rice-a-Roni
  • Mississippi Roast (tweaked my way, of course)
  • Linguine with Clam Sauce
  • Appetizers for Dinner (we went to a friend's house)
  • Superbowl Sunday snacks and sandwiches


  • You know that I'm sick when Corn Dogs end up on the menu. I'm usually pretty against having any kind of processed foods for dinner. We get enough at lunch or other times. I like our dinners to be made from fresh ingredients. But when you feel like death-warmed-over I'm happy just getting something edible on the table.

    Saturday we were invited over to our friends house. We had a great time. I had a little too much vodka and, even though I brought my stuff, I never ended up getting my grocery list done. Luckily, because of the last two weeks I have plenty of dishes to carry over to this next menu. Here it is:

  • Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole
  • Greek Quesadillas & Greek Salad
  • Tofu Pad Thai
  • Flank Steak Rolls & Ratatouille
  • Turkey Melts & Baked Pickles
  • Enchiladas (see here's one of those favorites)
  • Shrimp Fried Rice
  • Crockpot Zuppa Toscana
  • Chicken Tiki Masala with Brown Rice and Naan
  • Ham Steak & Roasted Vegetables
  • Almond Chicken Pasta
  • Mexican Haystacks
  • Crockpot Honey Apple Port Roast & Crispy Brussel Sprouts with Garlic Aoili
  • Steak, Baked Tomatoes & Bacon-wrapped Green Beans


  • For the recipes I have tried I will post them on the blog, with my modifications of course. I try SO very hard to make a recipe exact at least the first time I try it but sometimes I just can't resist. I've considered posting all of the recipes with the menus on these posts but I think it will make them too long.

    Try anything new and exciting lately? I'm always looking for tried and true recipes that are not a part of our regular repertoire so send them to me!