veggie shooters

For the grad party Lisa was looking for a easy way to serve relishes with dip and this worked out great and couldn't have been easier.  While at the party store picking up paper plates and napkins she found these cute disposable square shot glasses and bamboo skewers.  A squirt of ranch dressing in the bottom of the glass was the dip and then we placed in the shot glass a carrot stick, a celery stick, a green bean and a skewer with two small cherry tomatoes.  Any long narrow vegetable would work.  Red, yellow, orange or green peppers cut into narrow strips would be colorful and tasty.  A pea pod would also work well or a stalk of asparagus.  We had the vegetables all prepped in the kitchen and filled the shooters a tray at a time and swapped out a full tray for the empty tray as needed.  The presentation was nice and they were very convenient for both the guests and the kitchen helpers.

Lisa used ranch dressing thinking that it would be familiar to most people but any favorite dip could be used.  The ranch worked out nicely as it had a squirt type top on the bottle.  Transferring your dip to a squirt bottle would make for filling the shooters neatly. Wouldn't these be good with fresh-from-the garden vegetables at their peak of flavor?

roasted parnesan green beans

My sister, Lisa, found this recipe and served it at her daughter's graduation party.  These green beans are quick and easy and will be great with fresh beans from the farmstand when in season.  The infused oil and the few seasonings provide a great flavor.  Using freshly grated cheese as they come out of the oven adds a great touch.  A microplane is a great way to grate the Parnesan from a block of cheese right onto the beans.  

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans:

24 oz fresh green beans cleaned and ends trimmed
4 tsp Tuscan Basil Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/4-1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 T shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 425°.
Lay beans on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Season with salt and garlic powder - toss to distribute spices.  Spread them on the pan and place in oven on the lower third section of the oven.  Bake 10 minutes - remove from oven and shake the pan to turn.  Return to the oven for an additional 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Lisa's kitchen helpers made these in batches and served them from the buffet server, swapping out an empty pan for a full one.  All of the beans were prepped ahead of time and in zippered storage bags.  

source of original recipe not known. 

a tale of two soups--soup two

Yesterday I made a soup using Nathan's venison bone broth, hamburger, vegetables and homemade pasta and it was really good.  Caitlin and I had it for lunch.  See here for soup one.  We talked about what else would be good in it and decided to add some stewed tomatoes, cabbage and barley for a different version. 

Since our vegetables and pasta were already cooked I felt that adding uncooked barley and cabbage and cooking the soup until those ingredients were thoroughly cooked would leave the vegetables and pasta overcooked and likely turn them to mush.  Adding cooked barley and cabbage seemed the way to go so I cooked the barley according to the package directions and roasted the cabbage and then added both to the soup along with a quart jar of stewed tomatoes that I canned from tomatoes that grew in the garden this summer.

This soup also  had good flavor.   The vegetables and pasta  retained good texture.  The tomato mixed with the broth was good.  The cabbage and barley I would do again. 

soup two in a handcrafted bowl made by Nikole on a potter's wheel

closer shot of the veggies, barley and cabbage

If I were to make this soup from the start I would probably cook the barley and cabbage in the broth and then add the frozen vegetables when the cabbage and barley were close to done.  I like that provides a little variety. 

I think that other additions could include wild rice, lentils, other beans, navy, pinto or black, potato, sweet potato, squash.

a tale of two soups--soup one

This year for Christmas one of my gifts were several pint jars of bone broth.  Nathan followed the instructions in this video to make bone broth from venison bones.  

After cooking the broth for several days he canned the broth. It was a rich brown color.

I used one of the jars to make a hamburger vegetable soup.  I browned the hamburger, added the pint jar of broth and then filled the pot with water until it was about 3/4 full.  I added an assortment of frozen vegetables--ours was carrots, peas, corn and green beans some from our garden and some from the store. When the soup came back to a boil I added homemade pasta and cooked it until the pasta was al dente.

Not ever having had venison stock before  we were unsure what the flavor would be like.  Caitlin and I discussed adding tomatoes to the soup and decided that we could add tomato when we reheated the leftovers and see which way we liked it best.   Soup number one turned out great.  The broth has a very good flavor.  I used very little seasoning--a little salt and pepper and I added some dried cilantro.

Soup number one

 Extra fun was eating it out of another Christmas present--my soup/pasta plates.

hamburger noodle vegetable soup

1 pound hamburger, browned
1 pint venison bone broth
water
frozen corn, peas, green beans and carrots
homemade fettuccine, broken into 2 inch pieces
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbsp dried cilantro

Brown the hamburger in a large stock pot.  Add the venison broth and water to about 3/4 full.  Add the frozen vegetables and the seasonings.  When the soup comes back to a boil add the fresh pasta and cook a couple minutes longer until the pasta is al dente,