Foodie Wednesday: For the Love of Soup

Soup is on my list of favorite foods. There's an endless amount of flavors to choose from and it's usually a lot easier to make than you'd think. The idea of making soup always intimidated me until I gave a try one day and since then I've been hooked. I love making my own soup and watching it come together in my favorite soup pot. It makes the house smell amazing and always seems to impress my husband, so it's a win-win. 

This whole week has been dark and rainy with this storm that's passing through. A few tornadoes hit my neighborhood last night leaving trees down and some houses damaged. Tomorrow a cold front is supposed to be coming through too! With all this crazy weather, a comforting bowl of soup seems to be exactly what we need. 

Here are a few of my go-to soup recipes. Since I'm not one to tackle complicated recipes after a long day at work, I usually tend to go for soups with simple ingredients. These are my favorites and they each have a little something to give them a kick...

Gina's Split Pea Soup with Ham Hock

Behold the magic of the ham hock. This soup has a two hour cooking time allowing the flavors of the ham hock to infuse the whole soup with amazing flavor and the peas get so soft that you don't have to blend at all.  Best of all, it's a healthy, low fat soup...so good!

Lottie + Doof's Best Tomato Soup

I'm very picky when it comes to tomato soups. Without the right seasonings it can taste flat and sometimes just look like runny ketchup to me. Lottie + Doof have come up with one of the best tomato soup recipes out there. It requires a little bit more elbow grease than the split pea soup because the tomatoes are roasted with brown sugar (!) before you begin the soup, but this step makes it so worth it. Plus with the addition of all-spice, cayenne, and heavy cream, this soup is beyond flavorful.

Giada's Tuscan White Bean and Garlic Soup

I found this recipe in the latest issue of Rue Magazine and tried it the following weekend. The idea of the white bean sounded really good and I had never tried it before, plus it had garlic in the title...sold! It takes about 20-30 minutes from start to finish to make this soup, but the combination of flavors makes it taste like you were cooking it for hours. It has sage and whole cloves of garlic in there! The recipe says to divide it up and blend it in a blender, but I just used my hand blender and it worked great. 

Next soup I want to try...

Tartelette's Acorn Squash and Sweet Potato Soup

I'm usually a butternut squash gal, but the combination of acorn squash with sweet potato sounds so yummy! The recipe calls for things like maple syrup, curry, and fresh thyme. That little dollop of cream on the top there is spiked with dark rum and lemon zest. In other words, get in my belly!

Foodie Wednesday: Always with Butter

There's something about unexpected flavor combinations that intrigue me. Separately they are good, but together, they are amazing! Like peanut butter and jelly, bananas and brown sugar, Wendy's frosties and french fries...is that just me?

One of my favorite food blogs when it comes flavor combinations is Always with Butter written by Julie Marie, fellow foodie and an awesome photographer. Take a look at these beauties...

Banana, Nutella, and Cream Cheese Cake

Chocolate Blackberry Cake

Baked Apples and Molasses

Almond Honey Cake

 Spicy Hummus

Cannoli Cheesecake

Mini Jam Tarts

Amazing isn't it? There are so many recipes I want to try, so little time!

All images by Julie Marie Craig via Always with Butter

Foodie Wednesday: Sprinkle Bakes

Food blogs make me happy and last night I stumbled upon one that put a huge smile on my face called Sprinkle Bakes written by the brilliant Heather Baird.

Her food is so colorful and inviting, I haven't seen one thing on the blog yet that I doesn't make we want to reach into my monitor with a fork and take a bite out of it. I love her styling and photography too, swoon!

This weekend I can't wait to give her bread pudding recipe a try. Cinnamon, raisins, and salted caramel? Sign me up!

All images by Sprinkle Bakes

Foodie Wednesdays *Interview*

I'm so excited to introduce Foodie Wednesdays as a new feature to the blog!

On Foodie Wednesdays I will feature all things food related including some of my favorite recipes cooked by moi (pause for effect) and something I'm most excited about, an interview with an amazing food blogger!

If it weren't for food blogs I would be lost in the kitchen. They are an amazing source of inspiration for those days that you have no idea what to make for dinner and I they are full of great tips and tricks.

For the first Foodie Wednesday post, it's my pleasure to introduce Gina from Gina's Skinny Recipes!

Her food blog is an amazing resource for healthy recipes and they all taste amazing. For those on Weight Watchers, this is a great place to find cooking inspiration and she lists the points per serving to make it a no-brainer. I have tried so many of her recipes and love them all, especially her split pea soup on chilly days and no-bake pumpkin cheesecake.

Name: Gina Homolka
Occupation: Food Blogger (Day Job: Digital Photo Retoucher/Graphic Designer)
City Where I Blog From: Oceanside, NY

1. What sparked your interest in cooking?
I've always loved cooking, even as a child. Both of my parents enjoyed cooking together so I guess that rubs off on you. I used to cook crepes when I was very young for my parents almost every night. They always encouraged me to cook, even if the results weren't always great.
2. What inspired you to begin a blog?
Having a background in design I've always had an interest in learning web design, but never the time to go back to school to learn. Blogging is easy enough for anyone to do, without having to learn all the complicated codes, so it was more of a challenge at first. Seeing beautiful food blogs and the photos on sites like Tastespotting and Foodgawker made me want to start a food blog. I've always been addicted to food magazines and cookbooks.

3. Your blog is full of a wide variety of healthy recipes featuring points for those on the Weight Watchers diet. Why did you choose to feature Weight Watchers points?
I was getting married at the time, and wanted to lose weight to look perfect for my day. Weight Watchers was easy, let me still eat a variety of food and the weight came off fast. The websites at the time that offered recipes for Weight Watchers were just not appealing to me, or not the type of food I would normally cook, so I guess I saw a need for it. But I never dreamed how many people would like my recipes and all the emails I would get encouraging me to continue. It's the emails and comments I get everyday that keep me going because I know people are counting on me.

 

4. What do you love most about cooking?
I've always felt relaxed in the kitchen, it's my way of zoning the world out. I love food, so eating great tasting meals you've prepared yourself is also very gratifying. Cooking your own meals gives you control of what goes into your body, I know when I am eating my food, I am using real ingredients, and I know how much fat I'm cooking with.

5. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of it?
The most challenging aspect of blogging is time. I work full time, have a baby and a teenager who both require my time, so I have very little free time left for other things these days.

6. How would you describe your food?
Great tasting, healthy, easy, low fat recipes. My family is not on a diet, and they are very critical. If they don't like something they'll say so, and ask me not to make it again, so I have to please them because cooking separate meals is out of the question.

7. What’s the best piece of cooking advice you have ever received?
A slurry is a wonderful method to thicken sauces, gravies and soups. You combine flour or cornstarch (I prefer flour) with cold water, then whisk it into your boiling soup or sauce towards the end.

8. What is your favorite dish to cook and why?
I like making my family happy so I would have to say making their favorite dishes are my favorite to cook. Cuban Picadillo is my quick go-to recipe when I have no idea what to make. My family loves it.

9. Your blog has shown readers how to take their favorite recipes and make them healthier. What are your top three ways to make a recipe healthier?
- Choose leaner cuts of meat and trim all fat off.

- Make creamed soups by pureeing the vegetables, no need to add cream.

- Adding vegetables to a recipe like meatballs or burgers are great ways to make them healthier.

10. What is your advice for all the Foodies out there?
You should do it because you love it. Be unique and stay true to yourself and blog in your own voice.

Gina's Favorite Things

Spice: Bay leaves
Meal: This answer will differ everyday! Baby Lamb Chops
Drink: Coffee
Season to cook: Fall
Recipe to make for your family: Pasta Bolognese
City to eat in: New York
Restaurant: Cabanas in Forest Hills

Kitchen Smell: Roasted Garlic
Vegetables or Fruits: Broccoli Rabe
Cake or Pie: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Chocolate or Vanilla Ice Cream: Both
Kitchen Utensil: Wooden Spoon
Piece of Cookware: La Chamba Pottery
Piece of Kitchen Equipment: Can't live with out my Mini Chopper
Cookbook: Food and Wines, Quick from Scratch cookbooks

Top 3 items in your grocery cart: Extra virgin olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano, Garlic
Ingredient that seems to make everything taste better: Garlic
Foodie TV show: Lidia's Italy
Top 3 Food blogs you love to read:  The Kitchn, Oh She Glows, Bakerella

Thank you so much Gina for joining us today!

Images from Gina's Skinny Recipes