Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

So last night I was talking to hubby about what to make for tonight. I was thinking Cheddar Broccoli Soup, but he wanted Bacon Cheeseburger Soup. He wins (I have to make him think he wins once in a while :) My son even liked it - he's 20, and would never touch soup as a young child unless it was tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich that he could dip into the soup. No spoon, just sandwich. I myself can't stand tomato soup, so you'll have to look elsewhere for that recipe, but have fun making this Bacon Cheeseburger Soup.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4lb bacon, diced
1lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1T Montreal Steak Seasoning
1tsp kosher salt
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 stick butter, divided
3C. chicken broth
1-1/2lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4C. flour
2C sharp shredded cheese
1-1/2C. milk
1/4C. sour cream

In a large pot, render the bacon

until crisp, about 8 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain;

set aside. Remove excess grease from pot. I just drain the oil then gently wipe with a paper towel so I leave the tasty stuck bacon on the bottom. Be careful you don't touch the hot oil with your fingers. You won't like it.
Melt 1T butter over medium heat in the same pot. Add the vegetables and ground beef

and cook until beef is brown, stirring frequently.

Remove beef and vegetables with a slotted spoon and drain oil from pot. Return bacon, beef and vegetables to pot.
Stir in Montreal steak seasoning, salt and parsley.
Add broth and potatoes

Bring to a boil, then simmer until potatoes are tender. This will take 8-12 minutes, depending on how big or small you cut your potatoes. Mine took 10 minutes.
While that is simmering, you have to make a roux. Now don't get scared, roux is just a fancy food word for thickener. This is what makes soups, chowders and sauces nice and think and yummy.
In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 3T butter

and then whisk in the flour for about 2 minutes. When it starts to smell nutty and not like flour, it's ready, and it will look like this.

Now add the milk, slowly, about 1/4C at a time, whisking after every addition, making sure you whisk all of the lumps out. You want a smooth roux with no lumpy flour, don't you?

Once all the milk is added and you have no lumps, gradually add the milk mixture to your soup, stirring constantly.

Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to simmer. Stir in the cheese (sorry about the glare!)

Once the cheese is melted, you should take a taste to test the seasoning. Add some salt or pepper, or a bit more Montreal steak seasoning. Once you're happy on the seasoning, stir in the sour cream. Heat through, but do not let it boil. Take my word for it, you won't like the taste of curdled sour cream.

Thank you for taking the time to read today's blog. I appreciate any comments you have.
Have a great day, and we'll cook again soon.

Double Crust Stuffed Pizza

It was a tough decision on what to make for dinner tonight. After my first official blog yesterday, I just couldn't decide what to follow it up with. My husband is very enthusiastic about the blog, since he will reaping the rewards from all the cooking.
So, decisions, decisions... pizza or stuffed peppers? Or, a dessert? No desserts yet. Let's do pizza.

INGREDIENTS:

Pizza Dough: I buy it at the grocery store, but if you want to make it yourself, the recipe is at the bottom of this blog.

1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2T brown sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2tsp. dried basil leaves
1 tsp. salt

3-4C shredded mozzarella or any combination of pizza cheese, divided
12oz bulk Italian sausage
6oz sliced pepperoni
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 medium onion
1/4C Parmesan cheese

Lightly oil a large bowl

place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil

Cover with a light, damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about one hour.
In the meantime, you can prepare the rest of the ingredients. Don't do like I've done and sit down and play video games thinking you've got an hour to kill. That will put you very far behind.

Combine crushed tomatoes, brown sugar, garlic powder, olive oil, granulated sugar, basil and salt in a saucepan.

Cover pan, and simmer over low heat about 30 minutes.
Here is where you can now prep your peppers and onions.

Preheat oven to 450°F. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces.

Roll one piece into a rectangle that will fit an ungreased 13x9 inch baking pan so that it hangs over the edges.

This is not an easy task because the dough doesn't stick to the edges of the pan. Just gently stretch the dough, being careful not to rip it.

Sprinkle the dough with 1 to 1-1/2C. shredded cheese. It's all about how much cheese you like.

Shape sausage into a rectangle that will fit into the pan on top of the cheese. The easiest way to do this is to spray a piece of aluminum foil with non-stick spray and shape the sausage on the foil.

Then you can just invert the foil onto the cheese in the pan and slowly peel back foil.

Now layer the pepperoni, peppers and onions

then remaining cheese on top of the sausage patty.
Oops... forgot to take that picture, oh well...

Roll out remaining dough to a 13x9 rectangle. Moisten the edges of the bottom dough layer and place just rolled out dough on top of cheese. Pinch and seal both layers of dough together, turning in any excess dough to form the crust.

Spread sauce evenly on the top crust within the side edges of the rolled crust. Sprinkle sauce with Parmesan cheese. Here you can also brush on some garlic butter to the crust edge using 1T melted butter and 1/4 tsp. garlic powder.

and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cover edges of crust with aluminum foil.

Return pizza to oven and bake for another 25 minutes.

Let rest 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

So if you'd like to make your own dough, here is a recipe.

PIZZA DOUGH:
1 1/2tsp. granulated sugar
1c. warm water (100°F)
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1T olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2c. all-purpose flour

Combine the white sugar and the warm water in a large bowl or in the work bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm sugar water and let stand for 5 minutes until the yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam. Stip in 1T olive oil into the yeast mixture.

Stir 1/2 tsp salt into the flour. Mix half of the flour mixture into the yeast water and stir until no dry spots remain. Stir in remaining flour, 1/2C. at a time, mixing well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (or mix with dough hook in stand mixer).

Keep in mind I buy my dough already made so I don't know how this turns out. Drop me a line if you tried it and let me know.

Thank you for reading. Have a great day!

Shrimp Scampi

I've probably been making this recipe since I got it from my Mom in about 1985. I have no idea where she got the recipe from. I've been changing it over the years, and now I call it my own. When we started dating back in 1997, my husband would every now and then order Shrimp Scampi at a restaurant, and always regret it afterwards, saying none of them competed with mine. You can vary the amounts of some of the ingredients, like the cayenne and garlic to suit your taste. That's what I've done here because we like spicy and garlic-y...Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

1lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 sticks of butter, unsalted
1/4c. white wine
2T lemon juice
2T. dried parsley
1tsp. cayenne pepper
2T minced garlic
1/2c Italian flavored bread crumbs

1. Place raw shrimp into a saucepan and cover with water, filling to about 2" over the shrimp.

Cover the pan and over high heat, cook the shrimp until pink. They will be done when there is foam in the pot and it's just about at a boil.

Drain and set aside.

In a 2 quart casserole dish, combine butter

wine - we don't drink wine, so we buy these for cooking

They are so cute and taste so much better in cooking than that nasty cooking wine you can find in the grocery store.

Anyway, back to the casserole dish...

You've got the butter and the wine in so far.

Add the lemon juice, parsley, cayenne and garlic

Then pop it into the oven and preheat to 350°F. Once the oven preheats, the butter should be melted. Take it out of the oven and it should look like this.

Add the shrimp to the casserole dish and stir gently to coat the shrimp in the butter mixture. Be careful! The dish is HOT!

Sprinkle bread crumbs over the shrimp

and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

Serve over angel hair pasta, or any pasta of your choosing. 

This make great leftovers for lunch the next day too. ENJOY!