When the onion soup is gone, the bread is left

So the Onion Soup is over, and all that is left in our kitchen is stone hard half of french baguette. But for hungry students, ‘a rock hard throw at someone’s head to kill loaf’ hardly seems like an obstacle to a satisfied tummy. Let’s make garlic bread!

Ingredients: 1/2 French Baguette, 6-7 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan, 2 tablespoons softened butter, ground herbs (I use mixed French Herbs), salt and pepper to season.

Preheat the oven to 350. Sprinkle water on the baguette and throw in the microwave for a minute.

Spread softened (not melted) on the French Baguette.

Chop garlic cloves and add on top of the butter.

Add ground herbs, salt and pepper. Grate fresh parmesan and add to the bread.

Throw in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Very Easy Onion Soup

Would the French be offended? Probably. This soup is so far from the original Soupe a l’Oignon that the French would probably throw a bunch of phrases consisting of the words “debile”, “connard” and “sacre bleu” at me for dismembering their traditional recipe.

Nevertheless, this soup is absolutely delicious and so so so easy to make.

Ingredients: 32 oz beef stock, 2 medium onions,2 tablespoons of butter, french baguette slices to top each crock, shredded Gruyère cheese to top each bread slice.

Slice the onions into rings

Add 2 tablespoons of butter to a heavy bottom Dutch pan

Stir and cook the onions for 40 minutes until the onions are soft

Add the beef stock to the onions. Bring to simmer and cook, for  45 minutes to an hour.

Ladle the soup into ovenproof crocks. Top each crock with a slice of bread and cover with grated cheese.

Throw in the oven for 5 minutes and serve.

Chicken with White Beans and Thyme

After the whole chocolate filled Valentine’s Day week, I wanted to make something simple and hearty. This chicken is really simple and the fresh thyme and tomatoes give it the perfect  à la Provençal touch.

Ingredients: 1 lb boneless chicken breast,  2 large tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 1 can (19 oz) cannellini beans, 1 cup of chicken stock, 3 cloves of garlic, fresh thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper to season

Begin by cutting the chicken breasts into medium sized cubes.

Next finely chop the onions.

Finely chop the garlic next. Add olive oil to a pan on medium-high heat. Add fresh thyme and cook for a few minutes.

Add the chicken, onions and garlic to the pan with thyme.

Chop the two tomatoes with skin on into cubes. Add to the pan after the onions turn golden and the chicken browns.

Add 1 cup of chicken stock, salt and pepper and leave on the stove for 20 minutes. Add 1 can of white cannellini beans.

Cook for another 15 minutes and serve.

Absolutely no time, but hey what a cute website

Sorry for being so MIA this week. It is just one of those weeks where the never ending to-do lists just keep on getting longer and longer. After the falafel incident I have been too busy to cook so in the last 4 days I have been living off salads and sandwiches. Womp Womp.

I thought I would share this website that I came upon last week. Layer Cake Shop is the cutest baking supplies website. I have been eyeing the Scottie Cookie Cutter as well as the Shamrock Cutter (wouldn’t it be the cutest thing for St. Patty’s Day?).

Anyways I promise that in the next day or two, I am going to have the most amazing chicken and white bean recipe. Till then, dear god please make my list shorter!

Falafel Fail…and rest in peace dear blender

So today I tried to make falafel. Epic Fail! And I truly believe that it was of no fault of mine. It was the blender. I can hear your giggles. Yeah haha haha but no really it was the blender. We inherited this blender back in September after one of Anna’s (my roommate’s) friends gave it to us.

It has been acting pretty weird lately: the margaritas had lumpy chunks of ice, the cap sometimes used to fly off when it was in process of blending smoothies and soups, eventually the cap stopped fitting in at all and on valentine’s day the entire blender just exploded covering me and the kitchen in heavy whipping cream.

Even after all those looming signs, I was foolish enough to use it today make falafel. I first tried to chop some chickpeas which took a while but eventually half happened. When I lost my patience and started to ignore some obviously untouched chickpeas, I poured a big mix of parsley, cilantro, onions, garlic and chili into the doomed machine. With a big plop the blender feel over and released it’s final machine chop. The blender is officially dead and my falafel looks like moldy green crap. Below is the only good photo that I can share with the world.

A Red KitchenAid Blender is now added to my dream list.

Valentine’s Day Box

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone! Yesterday I spent 6 hours working on this goodie box for my boyfriend. It Has truffles, molten chocolate and raspberry, cupcakes and white chocolate cheesecake. Recipes all soon to come.

Strawberries Dipped in Chocolate Ganache(Valentine’s Day Style)

Like I said in my previous post, I am not very good at coming up with desserts and pastries. I got this recipe from one of my friends.Her blog is http://allthenewsthatsfittoeat.blogspot.com/ and it has really become my daily read. Emily has an associate degree from Johnson&Wales and I am absolutely fascinated by her desserts, pastry creations and mastery of the written word. Emily if this doesn’t look like it’s supposed to, don’t judge me. I am just learning.When I heard how easy ganache was to make, I was truly amazed. To me, ganache always seemed like something incredibly difficult and time consuming to make. This recipe is also just fun to make with people. Me and my boyfriend had an almost romantic pre-valentine’s night dipping the strawberries into the ganache.

Ingredients:1 cup of heavy cream, 1 cup of any chocolate chips(I used semi-sweet), large strawberries

Begin by pouring 1 cup of heavy cream into a saucepan (I used a Dutch pan but only cuz it looks oh so pretty in the photographs)

When the cream starts to boil, add 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Whisk from the center of the mixture until the chocolate and the cream have combined into one.Ganache is ready.

Now comes the fun part. Dip all the strawberries into the ganache…

…and they are ready. Eat some warm and the rest after refrigerating for a few hours. Make them for Valentine’s Day, celebrations or any day.So easy and so goooood.