Soups On!

First off, please forgive me I am once again a day late in gettng my post online. Yesterday was a busy Sunday--a day that started out with walking to mass, coming home to dirty bathrooms and lots of laundry and cooking dinner(darn, 3 new recipes last night and no photos....) Anyhow the recipe I would like to share with you today is a recipe from for french onion soup.


This recipe comes from one of Rachel Rays Cookbooks. My friend Kirstina gave it to me years ago. This was a simple, quick recipe and very good. (well at least I am pretty sure...I sort of had a pepper accident, so my husband had more a pepper soup than onion soup!)

See my Valentines DAy Potholder? Got that from my sister Heidi

Ingredients.:

• 6 medium onions
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cups beef stock (32 ounces)
• 1 baguette, ends trimmed, sliced into 16 rounds about 1-inch thick
• 1/2 pound Gruyère cheese, shredded ( I just used whatever cheese that I had in the fridge)
• 4 tablespoons good quality dry sherry 

Heat a heavy soup pot over medium heat while thinly slicing the onions. Add the butter to the pot and melt. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper and gently caramelize, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes. If the onions begin to brown too quickly at the edges before they caramelize, turn the heat down a bit. Deglaze the pan with the sherry, then let reduce for 1 minute while stirring. Add the stock and simmer for 15 minutes more.

Meanwhile, place an oven rack in middle of the oven and heat the oven to 250˚F.

Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and top with a piece of bread and some cheese. Place in the oven, so that the cheese can melt.

Enjoy.


Come and share a recipe that you have tried out latey!

Spring greens and blues.......

I wish I could say this is my living room table....but it´s not. This table was set up in one of my favorite stores...Strauss Inovation.  This one just grabbed me, made me stop and want to sit down to dinner!

Wishing you all a happy week.


I am posting to The Tablescaper, Tablescape Thursday

Now is this not the coolest thing you have ever seen? Germans have a many traditions, one of them is to celebrate milestones birthdays. The 18th Birthday is one of the big ones here, as you are then officially and adult and more importantly.....you can drive a car. So, when my girlfriends daughter turned 18 and wished for a pick up truck, her friends got busy! Now, remember these are young adults just starting out in life and cash is short. The cash shortage, though did not stop them....as you can see below....  

Happy Pink Saturday Everyone!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for New Recipe Sunday.


I am sharing this post with everyone at "How Sweet the Sound"

Chinese Terracotta Figures

Many, many moons ago my mother traveled to China and brought back a set of chinese terracotta soldier.... This past year I got to take the soldiers back to Germany with me. YEA for me....as of course I had a tablescape already in mind!

 I love my red stemware.....just have 4 left.

Treat Boxes....thanks to my niece who found a template to make the takeout boxes!

I am posting to the following blog parties this week:

The Tablescaper, Tablescape Thursday,

Chicken Wings!

This "New Recipe Sunday" is being brought to you from the comforts of my living room couch! Yes, this evening I have decided that the house work will just have to wait....time to relax and watch a doris day movie and of course share with all of you a new recipe I tried out this week. On Saturday friends of ours came over and together the four us cooked a chinese feast. Today I will share with the first recipe.....

 Red Cooked Chicken Wings 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds chicken wings
1 tablespoon peanut oil(we used walnut oil)
1 tablespoon coarsley chopped and peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp chili bean paste
2/3 cup water

Directions:

Cut the wings in half a the joint. Heat the wok, then add the oil, ginger, garlic, and salt. Stir fry the mixture for 10 seconds, then add the rest of the ingredients(NOT the Wings).  Simmer for about one minute. Put in the wings and cover the wok. Cook till the wings are done. The recipe said about 15 minutes...ours needed about 30 minutes. erve at  once or cool and serve at room temp.

The wings were a hit! Remember to save some for the next day. The chicken wings were even better the next day.

Happy Sunday Everyone! See  you all next week

a twist on the american favorite PB&J

Happy "New Recipe Sunday" Everyone! 

        While my husband is busy in the kitchen, putting in the new sink, I have decided it is the right time to share with all of you a new recipe I have recently tried out. One of my new years resolutions was to get fit and start a healthy diet. I came accross the book "The Body Reset" by Harley Pasternak. Awesome book that I can highly recommend. I am throughly enjoying all the smoothie recipes and today I would like to share with you the

 "PB&J Smoothie"

2 cups chopped strawberries( I used 2 cups mixed frozen berries)

1 frozen banana, chopped

2 tsp peanut butter( I used my own, homemade peanut butter)

4 oz fat free plain greek yogurt ( I used regular plain yogurt)

1/2 cup ice cubes


In your blender, blend all the ingredients until you have the desired consistency you want.



Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2014 Everyone! Here´s hoping this will be the best year ever! 

This years "New Years Eve" Tabelscape came together shortly after I decided that cleaning out my tablescape closet the night before New Years Eve was something I needed to do! Well, proved to be a very good idea, as my closet is now super organized and I found this gold paper that I used for the runner. As they say the rest is history........

Thanks to my Cricut, I was able to make the 2014 numbers for the table.

I am linking up to following Blog Parties: Tablescape Thursday,
and Inspire me Tuesday