NEW RECIPE - Low Carb Tuscan Kale Soup

This is adapted from a recipe I found for a soup with kale and white beans, which is a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, those white beans make it impossible for me to eat it.

To make it my own, I left out the beans, changed some proportions, added some hot pepper flakes, changed the method here and there, and came up with something that I hope is just as good, without the carb overload. Recipe called for grated Parmesan cheese, but I had some nice artisan cheese in the fridge. I grated it using the grater with large holes, needed only a tablespoon or so on the soup to add a real kick of flavor.

I didn't run this through my program, but eye-balling it, there shouldn't be more than six or seven grams of carbs in a BIG bowl of soup. It's a meal!

Tuscan Kale Soup

1 tbsp. EVOO
1 lb. pork sausage (I used mild Italian, not in casings)
½ pound sliced mushrooms
2 cloves peeled and minced garlic
4 cups (or 2 – 14 oz. cans) chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 or 2 bunches kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
Salt – depends on how salty the chicken broth is. Taste first!
Grated cheese – I used some good artisan cheese, grated through large holed grater

Brown the sausage and mushroom in olive oil until sausage is broken up and browned. Add the garlic, then stir and cook for three more minutes. Add broth, bay leaf and kale. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Discard bay leaf.

Serve in large bowls with grated cheese on top.

Serves 4

By Susan Siemers, from Devonshire House Low Carb Delights©

(If you want to reprint recipe, please ask me first. I'd be delighted to share!)

Soup's on!

Bread Baking Class

I offer a bread baking class for a service auction event at the First Unitarian Church of South Bend each fall, and the bidders who won were at my place this weekend learning to make a true French baguette.

So how do I know it's a "true French baguette?" Because I learned to make it last April, in Paris. And now the five people who attended know how to make one as well, without having to go across the pond. I refer to it as my $6,500 baguette - you know, round trip air fare, renting an apartment in Paris, museums, concerts and more -- much, much more. It was the vacation of a lifetime. I'm feeling a bit melancholy now, remembering that a year ago I was packing and anticipating. Now it is just a memory, but one I love to share with my friends.

Here are pics from my own bread baking class last Sunday. We had a wonderful time! I am pretty sure that at least two of the people in the class are very serious about baking bread in the future. We cut two loaves and had a repast of five-meat terrine, smoked salmon, sliced meats and French cheese. I am very much enjoying the leftovers.

The finished terrine, centerpiece of our lunch - see my blog Always read the bad reviews first!

The terrine, unwrapped and sliced

Andrea cutting and weighing

Chuck forming dough

Jim forming loaf

Joseph putting dough on sheet to rise

The spread

340 grams per loaf

Willow making poolish

I'm demonstrating first cut for loaf

What is French bread without meat?

French cheese disappearing

The students' loaves - GOOD JOB!

Students did a great job. Two loaves disappeared during our repast.

Here is a picture of my cousin Ruth and me, with our instructor Chef Alex, showing off the many breads we learned to bake last April in Paris.

Always read the bad reviews first!

When I am shopping on line or trying a new recipe, I gravitate to the least favorable reviews first. If there are any show stoppers there, why go any further? In the case of recipes, I am less concerned, because often the reviewers have some great suggestions, and the recipe ends up being quite tasty.

I am teaching a bread baking class this Sunday. As part of the class, my five students get to partake of a charcuterie board, quite elegant if I do say so myself, with slices of freshly baked baguette and glasses of wine in hand. The highlight of the repast is my three meat terrine.

When I was in Paris, I ate a terrine that made my knees shake. It was fantastic! I have searched recipes but haven't found anything like it. I found a pretty good one on Epicurious.com, and I make one each spring for my bread baking students.

Even though it isn't as good as that memorable terrine in Paris, it is still pretty impressive, and I have never had a complaint when I bring it out, surrounded by cornichons, homemade dill pickles, mustard and Cumberland sauce.

I start it several days in advance. It starts with a trip to the store for ingredients not on hand. After much chopping, weighing and mixing, I put the meat and spices into the bacon lined terrine (yes, the product and the pan are both called "terrine"), wrapped it and then read through the comments at the bottom of the page. One cook wrote that it was good, but not nearly as good as one she had in Paris, so she only gave it two forks. In fact, the reviewer said, she had a spice mix from a famous restaurant in Chicago called The Bakery and said she was going to try to kick up the flavor by adding some of Chef Szathmary's magic pâté spice the next time she made it.

I was excited! I had some of his spice on my shelf and thought, it's not too late to spoon out the meat and add some spice. What a great idea! Then I noticed that the reviewer was SusanVey from Indiana. That's me, folks. I was reading my own review. That was my laugh for the day!

And by the way, I brought it up from my basement fridge where it will marinate for a day before baking, spooned it out of the bacon lining, added the magic spices and put it back to rest. Then after a slow bake, it is weighted and left in fridge for a day or so. Tasting is still a good way off. 

We will see if the suggestion from "SusanVey, Indiana" gets it closer to the wonderful Parisian terrine of my memory.

Terrine marinating for a day before baking

Baked terrine, sitting with weights for a day

After weighting for a day

Wrapped and ready to chill - look for my bread baking class blog to see it sliced and served!

Tashi - what a scare!

Wherever I go, Tashi goes. I trip over her a hundred times a day! She seems to sense where I am going next and moves to a spot where I will run into her. When I go to the bathroom, she always comes along. No sense in shutting the door - she will scratch at it, and I like my woodwork almost as much as I like my pets.

I got up at 4 am yesterday and Tashi didn't follow me to the loo. When I went back to bed, she was in exactly the same spot. She was stretched out, not in her usual sleeping position. I called to her, and she didn't move. Her eyes were open and not moving. I couldn't see her chest rise and fall in a breathing pattern. I knelt on the floor beside her, ruffled her hair, called her name. There was no response. I felt for a heartbeat and felt nothing, but then, I don't really know exactly where to look for it. No evidence of breathing when I laid my hand on her side. Two phrases that ALWAYS get a response are, "Do you want to go for a walk?" and "Treats!" Nothing. Eyes open, motionless.

With a heavy heart, I went downstairs to email my family and close friends that Tashi had passed. Right before I hit the send button, I heard a noise upstairs. When I went around the corner, there she was, standing at the top of the stairs. She came down two flights of stairs to get outside and do her morning thing. I saw no evidence of limping. She was perfectly fine. She ate a good breakfast, minimal coaxing.

We had a big event at church, and I had to be there early. I was there by 8:30, and didn't get home until after 2:00. I was very nervous about what I would find when I got home. There she was at the door, greeting me with tail wagging and big grin on her face.

What was it? All I know is that I still have my girl. She is on the floor beside me, snoring gently. I rewarded her with the full mile walk yesterday, and she was still going strong when we got back. I am wondering if she had a small stroke. If that was it, there is certainly no lasting evidence that anything serious happened. I love that girl! Each dog I have, especially as they reach their end time, I think, "This is the best. This one is the very, very best." Yes, Tashi is the very, very best!

Tashi taking her morning nap

RECIPE - Deviled eggs

I cannot take credit for this recipe. I use it with one teeny tiny change (which certainly doesn't make it my recipe) from a recipe on allrecipes.com. I only include it here because I know I have some regular followers of my blog who do not follow me on Facebook. So use the link and be prepared to make this a favorite of yours as well.

There are a gazillion recipes for deviled eggs out there, and I have made a million of them (yes, I do exaggerate!); however, this is hands down my go-to recipe now. If I want to get really fancy, I use my stick blender to get the filling nice and smooth, then put in a plastic bag and cut a corner off to fill the whites, but it's not necessary when I'm making a batch for myself. And as a low carber, I make them often. A few lumps in the filling make them no less tasty!

Here is the link. Thanks, Jeff Sikes, for a wonderful recipe! Oh, I do make one small change - I use zero carb Pompeian white wine vinegar in place of the rice vinegar called for in the recipe, because that's what I have in my pantry.

Classic Savory Deviled Eggs, by Jeff Sikes

Bon appétit.

RECIPE - Hard boiled eggs

I hate it when it is nearly impossible to neatly peel a hard boiled egg. So every time I read an article with someone's magic recipe for how to have perfect hard boiled eggs that peel easily, I try it. I am always disappointed. That is because they don't tell you the most important thing - a very fresh egg will NOT peel easily no matter what method you use.

Eggs are one of nature's most perfect foods. And they are encased in great natural packaging. If an egg is not washed, you can safely leave it sit on your counter for a month. There is a natural film on the shell that creates a barrier to keep your eggs safe.

A commercial egg is washed, and that film / barrier has been removed. So you might want to refrigerate them. Mine are on the counter in this great little red ceramic egg carton that I bought. (Just for fun I keep my chicken salt and pepper shakers next to it - a gift from my daughter-in-law Julie, who always seemed to know what I would like.)

Eggs ready for action!

I know, they have been washed, and even if fresh from the farmer at the South Bend Farmers Market, by law they must be washed. But they are gone from my countertop quickly, and I'm still alive. They are never out there more than two weeks. And when the recipe calls for an "egg brought to room temperature," I'm good to go immediately. (One caveat -- if you need to separate whites from yolks, a cold egg separates more easily.)

So back to that egg's natural packaging. In spite of it, an egg begins to shrink inside that shell from day #1. And that shrinkage will be the difference between an egg that gets mutilated when trying to peel it and one from which the shell is easily removed. After just one week of aging on the counter, eggs will peel better because the albumin is shrinking away from the interior of the shell. When refrigerating, give them two weeks. When I was bringing in fresh eggs from the chickens on the farm, I would set a bowl of eggs into the back of the fridge for at least two weeks just for hard boiling. Once your eggs are at least two weeks old, some of those egg peeling pointers may actually make a difference. And three weeks should be guaranteed success, no matter what method you use.

I love Ina Garten's show, the Barefoot Contessa. And I love her method of hard boiling eggs. It is a little different from any I have seen, and I do recommend it. Most supermarket eggs will be well over a week or two old by the time you get them home. If you want guaranteed success, try keeping them for at least another week before hard boiling. If they are straight from the farm, don't use them for hard boiling until they have aged at least two weeks. So here goes, this is Ina's recipe with a couple of small tweaks:

1. Put your eggs into a deep pan and cover completely with cold water.
2. Bring to a full rolling boil. Immediately turn off heat. (If electric stove, remove from burner. On my gas stove, I just let them sit there in the pan of hot water on the turned-off burner.)
3. Here's where Ina's recipe is different. Leave them sit in the water for only FIVE MINUTES!
4. Remove the eggs from the water. Don't rinse with cold water. Just let the warm eggs sit on the counter on a paper towel.
5. Here's where Ina and I differ. She says to wait only two minutes before peeling. I recommend waiting about five minutes. The first egg I tried to peel at two minutes didn't do too well. At five minutes, they peeled beautifully.
6. Now roll the eggs on the counter top with the palm of your hand. The shells will crack into a myriad of small bits.
7. CAREFULLY peel. They should come off pretty well.
8. If you are still having trouble, hold the egg under running water while you peel, my second tweak to Ina's wonderful method.

Great thing about this is that the yolks are still a beautiful yellow color, no green around the edges. They are on the very edge of still being soft in the middle, but they aren't.  They are just perfect!

Thanks, Ina.

Now I'm going to have another deviled egg for breakfast. Recipe for my favorite deviled eggs coming soon.

NEW RECIPE - Chicken soup that's low carb, easy and delicious!

I came down with the flu on New Year's Eve - fever for four days, joints and muscles hurt, couldn't stand to have my skin touched. That was the worst of it, but it was another week or 10 days before I felt well again.

There was no gastro-intestinal distress, but nevertheless, I lost 10 pounds in eight days. I think it is because the only thing that tasted good was turkey broth from the freezer. I managed to wipe out my whole store of it. Darn!

Anyway, even though I'm feeling almost 100% again, I got in the habit of having broth. Canned broth - not so good. So last night I devised this quick soup with lots of broth, lots of flavor and some big chunks of chicken.

QUICK AND EASY CHICKEN BROTH

I started with Swanson's chicken stock, rated best by American Test Kitchen. But let's face it, it's not like that turkey broth I was enjoying. I "souped up" my soup this way.

Mise en place:
Dice the onion and celery and set aside.
In your spice prep dish, put your bay leaves, salt, pepper of choice and star anise (if using).
Wipe and slice the mushrooms. I like them in pretty thin slices. Put in bowl and set aside.

1 - 2 lb. box of Swanson's chicken stock
3 - chicken legs with skin and bone (you need both for flavor and for gelatin)
1 - slice of onion from a medium onion, chopped fine
2 - stalks of celery, chopped fine
2 whole bay leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes
If you have them on hand, one whole star anise
7 or 8  white button or cremini mushrooms

Put stock and chicken legs into a medium pot over high heat just until the stock begins to boil. Then add spices turn heat to lowest setting, put lid on pot and set timer for 35 minutes. Don't overcook. An occasional bubble should rise to the top as it simmers. If you let it continue to boil or leave it over heat too long, the chicken will be dry.

At 35 minutes, add the prepared mushrooms to the pot. Put the lid back on and set timer for 10 minutes. No need to bring back to boil. There should be plenty of residual heat to cook the mushrooms.

Remove the star anise and the bay leaves. Remove chicken legs with tongs and put on plate to cool slightly. Throw away skin and bone and put large chunks of meat back into the pot. Serve immediately.

That's about three meals for me. If you reheat, don't boil, just bring to eating temperature. It is a common mistake to overcook chicken. What makes this so good is that the chicken still remains very juicy, even when reheated.

Enjoy!

Oh, for low carbers, a third of the recipe is 3 carbs. :)

This was in the fridge - see the jelled stock. Good stuff!