Potato Soup

Super easy recipe and VERY tasty.

• 6-8 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
  
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1-2 stalks of celery (chopped)
• 1 medium onion (chopped)
• 1 can vegetable broth
• salt,pepper
• shredded cheese
  
• spices: garlic powder, basil, oregano, parsley, crushed red pepper, cilantro, etc

Put all the potatoes in a pot and fill with water. Boil in water or broth until potatoes are cooked while adding celery, onion, and spices in whatever proportion you like (depending on what flavors you prefer). Once potatoes are cooked and water has slowly evaporated, add the cream of mushroom soup, wait until soup reaches a thick, creamy consistency. Add a handful of cheese and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I've made it so many times and don't get tired of it. I've tried variations, with and without nuts, little and a lot of chocolate chips. This time I tried making them into cookie bars rather than regular round cookies. When making the round ones, they turn out looking exactly like the picture in the Cookie Madness blog. (I love that blog.)

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars

I modified this recipe and made something different. I had an entire box of plain, generic, rice krispies. I had cheerios on me too, but I thought I'd try a makeshift rice krispie bar instead.

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3 cups rice krispies cereal

Line a pan with wax paper or foil. In a small pan with a tiny bit of butter or nonstick cooking spray, boil the honey and sugar together over medium heat. Remove from heat as soon as the sugar is dissolved and add in the peanut butter. Mix until smooth/creamy and pour mixture over the cereal. Mix until cereal is well coated and spread coated mixture into the pan.

Lemon Bars

I tried this recipe and it looks amazing.

The only differences: I used salted butter because, unfortunately, that's all I had -- so I didn't add any of the optional salt listed in the ingredients. I didn't have fresh lemons to grate the lemon zest, so instead I added an extra tablespoon of lemon juice to makeup for it (not sure if that's the best substitution, but it turned out good).

Shrimp Teriyaki

This turned out yummy. My cat liked this one, too...he stole some shrimp before I put it away. I found teriyaki sauce/marinade at the grocery store that had no wine in it. I tried chicken teriyaki with it too, and it tasted good.

• 1 lb shrimp
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 cup carrot
• 2 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

Marinate shrimp in teriyaki sauce for a half hour to an hour (can add in a Tbsp of lemon juice with the marinade). Strain the shrimp, but save the leftover marinade. Cook shrimp with oil until pink, then remove shrimp to a plate. Sautee onions, carrots, and mushrooms until onions are caramelized. Add the shrimp back in along with the leftover marinade and cook on high heat until the teriyaki sauce looks like it glazes the shrimp. Add cilantro and toss. Serve with fried rice or white rice. =)

Cauliflower Fritters

These turned out so good! They pretty much taste like realllly good vegetable pakoras. So if you're in a Indo-Pak-Bengali mood, you can eat this with some kind of chutney (coriander, green chili, or mint chutney mixed with some yogurt) and if you're in an Oriental mood, you can eat this with some soy sauce mixed with wasabi.

• 1 head cauliflower (4 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup hot water
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Steam cauliflower, then chop into small pieces. In a large bowl, combine cauliflower, flour, garlic, eggs, grated cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Add water so that batter becomes slightly more dense than pancake batter. On medium-low heat, add 1 tbsp of oil in a 10 inch skillet coating bottom of the pan. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to form fritters. You can fit 4 fritters at a time. Cook until golden brown, turn and cook another few minutes. Add a little more oil to the pan, and repeat with the remaining batter.

I used garlic powder instead of whole garlic (1/8 tsp powder = 1 clove), regular all-purpose flour instead of wheat flour, cilantro instead of parsley, and a mix of parmesan and romano instead of JUST romano.

Brown Sugar Cookie Bars

I got this recipe off the back of a bag of brown sugar that I have.

• 1/4 C butter
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 C flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 C chocolate chips or chopped nuts (optional)

Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add brown sugar. Stir until smooth then mix in the egg. Stir together the flour and baking powder and then add to the brown sugar mixture. Mix in vanilla. Add chocolate chips or nuts. Spread into a greased baking pan and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

I made this using margarine instead of butter and used about 2 fistfuls of chocolate chips (add more or less depending on how much you like them). I also baked them for exactly 20 minutes and took them out of the oven immediately. If you like cake-y cookies, you could try leaving them in the extra five minutes. These came out looking a lot like blondies. Next time I might try adding oats for a thicker texture. The batch is small and makes about 12 bars so I'd multiply the recipe for a lot of people.