Spring Equinox Moving!

Happy Spring!! The Spring Equinox has occurred. I apologize, Michael and I made a last minute move to another part of town, and helped my family move to their house in Sequoia National Forest. We have been chickens with our heads cut off, but we do promise to get back with the ball rolling.

We hope that all is well with you!

XX
F+M

Valentines Day Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!!  I try to spend every day like it is Valentine’s Day, telling Michael how much I love him, loving my family, my friends, my dogs, and always being kind to others. What are your Valentine’s Day plans this year?

When I think of what makes me happy when it comes to food, it isn’t something incredibly fancy or highly intricate, it is the simple comfort food that melts in your mouth and makes you feel good. We have created an elevated grilled cheese and tomato soup combo for you, a more decadent version of a loved classic. So enjoy our heirloom creamed tomato soup with a Swiss Gruyere Emmentaler grilled cheese sandwich!

*It helps to have a blender, sieve, and food brush handy, and if you cannot find a bag of grated cheese, just buy blocks and grate equal amounts.

Ingredients: serves 4

Soup:

6 large heirloom tomatoes
1 large can whole peeled tomatoes
¼ cup heavy cream
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Yellow onion
1 Tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
Parmesan rind
3 sprigs fresh thyme
Pinch of salt

Grilled Cheese Sandwich:
Block of soft baby Swiss cheese
Grated bag of Emmentaler and Gruyere cheese (they will be under fondue cheeses)
Sliced sourdough bread
1 Tablespoon melted butter

Start by assembling your mise en place by dicing the onion and garlic and setting aside, and then chopping the heirloom tomatoes and canned tomatoes. In a large sauce pan heat oil, then add onion and garlic and cook about 5 minutes until translucent.

Add tomatoes, then parmesan rind, thyme sprigs. When you add the rind make sure that there is no paper stuck to it. Put to medium heat and let cook 25 minutes. Remove the rind and the thyme.  

In small batches (if it is too large you may burn yourself), puree the tomato soup. Pour the mix into a sieve over a bowl, and using a spoon push through the sieve until you are only left with the fiber and no liquid. Discard of the fiber. Do this until all of the soup has been strained.

Pour the soup back into the sauce pan, turn to medium heat. Add butter, pinch of salt, and cream. Stir. Return to medium low to keep warm.

To make the sandwich melt a Tablespoon of butter in a bowl, then brush both sides of bread with butter, not so much that the bread will be soggy. Heat a pan to medium high heat.

Place first piece of bread in the pan. Let heat for 3 minutes, then add Emmentaler and Gruyere, then Baby Swiss. Let cook for 2 more minutes. Add next slice of bread then flip, cooking the next side for about 3-4 minutes. You just want the bread to brown and crisp, but not burn.

To serve, slice sandwiches in half, and serve with small bowl of soup and a kiss!

Posh Super Bowl Poppers

Though Michael and I will never turn down a good old fashion dog in a bun with some ketchup, we want to elevate one of our fave finger food snacks. There are a few things in life that scream Super Bowl, nachos, chili, beer, hot dogs….and jalapeno poppers. To make the popper posh, we have stuffed the jalapeno with goat cheese and portabello mushrooms, and wrapped it in serrano ham. Maybe we can toss the beer aside and have some bubbly instead!!!

Happy Super Bowl!!!

Ingredients: makes 5

5 large jalapenos

1 oz goat cheese

1 large portabello mushroom

5 slices serrano ham

1 teaspoon olive oil

Toothpicks



Start by preheating oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the jalapenos by cutting the stem off, and slicing one side pen all the way to the tip. Using a spoon scrape out all the seeds and everything inside. Set aside.

Pull stem off of mushroom, and using a spoon scrape the gills off the bottom, and then clean with water, then dice into small pieces. Heat the oil in a small sauté pan, and sweat the mushroom until they are cooked.

In a small mixing bowl, mix together goat cheese and mushroom. Stuff the jalapenos so that they are completely filled with the cheese/ mushroom mix. Don’t overstuff though, because it will seep out in the oven.

Next to wrap the jalapenos take one serrano slice, and pull in half. Take one piece of serrano and wrap it from end to end, then the other piece around the body. Secure with a tooth pick.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

Tada!!! We hope your team wins!

 

Korean- Italian Chili!

Super bowl is right around the corner, it finally drizzled for 2 seconds, and there was a chili cook-off! Do we need more reasons for a delicious chili? Not just chili, but a Korean Italian chili? I will say no more!!!

*PS Kochucara is a wonderful  Korean powdered chili, and Gochujang is an equally wonderful Korean chili paste!

Ingredients: serves 10

5 lbs ground beef
3 lbs ground pork
5 large spicy Italian sausages
3 yellow onions
1 ½ bunches scallions
5 cloves garlic
1 cup Hoisin
¾ cup Gochujang
1/3 cup Kochucara
2 cups orange juice
2 cups tomato sauce
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3 cans kidney beans
4 Tablespoons olive oil
4 jalapenos
2 Serrano chilies
¼ cup red wine

To start it all off create your mise en place by cubing the yellow onions, slicing the scallions, macerating the garlic, and dicing the peppers (be careful to not touch your face and wash hands after touching pepper!) Also set aside two large sauce pans, and one spaghetti pot.

In a large bowl take sausage out of the casings, and mix together with ground pork, ground beef, garlic, and scallions.

In both sauce pan heat equal amounts of olive oil. When oil is heated sauté equal amounts of yellow onion in each until becoming translucent.  Add the meat mix and mash it up into smaller pieces. Let cook about 15 minutes, turning over to let cook all the way through.

Transfer to spaghetti pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and let cook for about 1 hour on medium low heat, stirring every 15 minutes so that the bottom doesn’t burn.

While it cooks over the hour test the flavor, it will change over time. You may want to add more spice, or cool it out with more orange juice. Be the master of your own chili!