St. Lucian Pumpkin Soup

This recipe was shared by Abby. It's the perfect soup for a cold, winter night.

Ingredients:

1 lb. pumpkin, peeled and chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped (I used 2+ onions)
3 Tablespoons butter
1 cup cream (optional, but makes it more creamy)
1 cups of chicken broth
Salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes (careful, gets hotter as the days pass) to taste.
Nutmeg or mixed herbs to garnish.

Directions:

Sautee onion in 3 Tablespoons of butter until clear.
Add chopped pumpkin, chopped carrot, chicken broth, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat.
Cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until soft enough to blend.
Pour into belnder or food processor (blender makes it more smooth) and puree.
Allow to cool slightly, add cream and stir well.
Pour into bowls and garnish as wanted.

Approx. 4 servings

Stop Being Lazy

I am making a push to revitalize this blog!!! Our cooking club has been as active as ever and we have had many delicious recipes pass through in the past few months. I will make an effort to gather and update the blog from cooking clubs past!!!

Recipe: Key Lime Cheesecake Pie

I had this key lime cheesecake pie during my trip to Michigan over Labor Day weekend. Barbara Kallman (mom and baker extradordinaire) challenged my will power and strengthened my sweet tooth repeatedly for three glorious days! Barb generously gave me this recipe, which she obtained from a bakery in East Lansing, Michigan.

The recipe is really easy and takes minutes to make. The ingredients can be modified to cut down on the calories and fat. Try substituting low fast graham crackers and light cream cheese. I'm not sure if sweetened condensed milk comes in a light version but if this ingredient could be subbed out, that would cut down on a lot of the calories.



Ingredients:

1 pkg of graham crackers
1/4 cup granulated sugar
5 Tablespoons of butter
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup key lime juice (Nellie & Joe's) - can adjust amount for tartness

Instructions:

For the pie crust, crush the graham crackers in a baggie, add the sugar and shake. Add melted butter, pour into spring form pan or pie dish and press to the sides and bottom. Bake at 375F for 8 minutes (I put it in for 10 minutes because I love it when the crust is a little bit more caramelized and crispy)

For the filling, mix cheese with sweetened condensed milk, add key lime juice until blended. Pour into baked crust and chill in the fridge.

You can add anything to the top you think will taste good. Barb's version had fresh made whipped cream and sliced kiwi. I made this dessert for a dinner party this past Saturday and it was very well received. Mine had raspberries and blueberries.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

OUT: Sacramento Taco Truck Party!

My dear friends, Jineui and Joshua, got the most awesomest taco truck to park in their driveway and cater a joint birthday party on Saturday, August 8th! There were four kinds of tacos on the menu - Carne Asada, Pollo, Carnitas and Lengua. First, I tried the chicken and pork tacos, with cilantro, lime and guacamole. YUM! I was kind of full but my friend Sherry kept raving about the lengua. I'm not a huge fan of beef tongue but was willing to give it a try. It was pretty good once I got over the idea of chewing on tongue - it was very tender and had a nice flavor.

After the belly was full of three tacos...someone else started going on and on about how good the carne asada was. I had to draw the line - nothing else would fit in the container! Especially since there were cupcakes and these wonderful little pretzel/marshmellow/chocolate balls from Freeport Bakery...and I, ahem, had partaken in the temptation earlier.


Thanks to J+J for hosting a great party and feeding me taco delishousness!!


Here are some pics

OUT: On the Road to Sacramento

I have been fortunate enough to be invited to a joint birthday party in Sacramento tonight where there will be taco truck awesomeness parked outside the house at our disposal! I'm so excited! There will be much to report (and photos to post) when I return. Have a great weekend!

OUT: Vamos a Contigo Kitchen + Cava

This blog will now feature brief reviews of our food outings in San Francisco, hope you don't think they suck!

I am so happy that we decided to re-start our monthly supper club. On July 30th we ventured down to Contigo Kitchen + Cava located in Noe Valley. There were six of us so we were able to make a reservation, which was key to starting the evening off right. We all are impatient and get cranky when we have to wait and watch other people eat!! I've heard that Contigo is so popular that waits on a Friday night for a two top are over an hour. Unfortunately, they only accept reservations for 6+

As for ambiance, it was nice and comfortable inside. The decor is kind of modern industrial but not cold and dull in the slightest. As for food, we decided to eat the tapas family style. My favorites were the calamari dish and the octopus salad. They were both perfectly seasoned and very flavorful. I liked the less flavorful flatbread large plate (with manchego and sausage) as a balance to the other dishes. I also had the sardines and eggplant small plate, which I'd recommend skipping and ended with butter cake. The butter cake was great and reminded me of the ginger cake at Chow for some reason (even though they don't taste similar, maybe because I group any non-chocolate cakes all in the same category!).

We all had a great time - the service was good and attentive (wine list recs worked out great). The six of us ended up paying about $60 each for two bottles of wine and enough food to roll out of there full and happy. I'd defintely go back to Contigo, maybe with the boyfriend since the place has a good date night kind of feel to it.

Enjoy!

Contigo Kitchen + Cava
1320 Castro Street(between 24th St & Jersey St)
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 285-0250
www.contigosf.com

Thanks to Melissa for Hosting!

As you can see from this yummy looking
spread, Melissa did a great job hosting Cooking Club!! The halibut came out very moist and flavorful and everyone loved it. Thanks so much for having us over...and we were all very happy to have Kate join us for the night. We all had a great time. Can't wait to see what Lisa's going to cook us for dinner in August!

Here are some photos from Cooking Club hosted by Melissa: