Spinach Artichoke Soup

I may have jumped the gun making soup.  Just because the calendar says it's autumn and you really, really, really want it to be autumn, does not mean it actually feels like autumn.  Making soup when it's almost 80 degrees isn't ideal.  As the kitchen fills with even more heat and you are feeling a bit overheated and thinking of turning on your AC again even, you might even wonder what possessed you to make soup on an obviously non-autumn like day.  That is until you taste this spinach and artichoke soup.  Then you'll know you had to make it because well, it's spinach and artichoke and soup.  That's enough justification for making soup in the middle of summer. 

This soup couldn't be easier.  I made it over the weekend but it was so quick and easy to throw together, it could easily be a "drag your butt in the door after a long day at the office and still have the energy to cook soup" kind of recipe. Yep, that easy.  

The ingredient all come straight from the fridge or pantry and required enough effort to roughly dump or chop.  If you wanted to leave the spinach leaves and artichokes whole and you used frozen diced onions, you wouldn't have to chop at all.  I cooked some chicken for this, but this would be a great recipe for using a rotisserie chicken. 

Love artichokes but really who doesn't?  And why not?

Cooking the flour first helps get rid of that raw floury taste.  

Spinach always makes me nervous when I add it to recipes as I wonder if this will be the one time in spinach history that it will just refuse to cook down.  But alas, my worries were for naught...it all cooked right down and made perfect little bites of spinach in a soup that was reminiscent of the dip.  Definitely a keeper of a recipe. 

A little bonus Chipmunk cuteness. 

And a little puppy curiosity wondering how much we paid for Manning again?

The look of Tebow longing...

Spinach Artichoke Soup

adapted from Cuisine at Home

Ingredients:
1/2 c. diced onions
3 garlic cloves minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained and roughly chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup dry white wine
32oz chicken broth
1 12oz can evaporated milk
8oz fresh spinach, roughly chopped
2/3 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 block (4 oz) of cream cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Sauté onions and garlic in oil in a large soup pot over medium heat until onions are soft, about 3-4 minutes. 
2. Add artichokes; sauté 2 minutes
3. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring continually
4. Deglaze pot with wine and simmer until nearly evaporated, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot. 
5. Stir in broth and chicken and bring to a boil. 
6. Reduce heat to low, add the milk, spinach and Parmesan, and stir until spinach wilts taking care not to boil soup.  Add cream cheese and stir until fully melted...if you want a lighter soup, you can leave the cream cheese out.    
7. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Red juicy sweet fruits, crisp cinnamony topping and melty vanilla ice cream.  Sometimes you need one of those super fancy unique desserts you see on Pinterest, and sometimes you need something as old school as Laura Ingalls Wilder herself...like crisp.  

Did you know Barefoot Contessa has a new cookbook coming out soon?  Cookbook releases are thrilling enough as it is but another Ina one?  Woohoo.  Even though I wasn't entirely thrilled with the last one, you know I've pre-ordered the new one if for no other reason than she's created a rainbow with her book binding edges and I fear my rainbow will be incomplete.  I could seek help or I could just buy the book.  The cookbook is cheaper. 

This strawberry rhubarb crisp is from her How Easy Is That cookbook.  And of course, it's an aptly named cookbook.  This recipe is as simple as crisps come--dice, sweeten, cover and bake.  I loved the tartness of the rhubarb with the sweet strawberries and of course, the sweet cookie like topping.  No fancy techniques or twists here but just good old-fashioned fruit crisp goodness. Fo sho. 

Love the orange zest in this recipe.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

from Barefoot Contessa's How Easy is That?

Ingredients
4 cups fresh rhubarb, 1-inch diced (4 to 5 stalks)
4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved, if large
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup freshly squeezed OJ
1 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup quick-cooking (not instant) oatmeal, such as McCann's
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter,  diced
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. For the fruit, toss the rhubarb, strawberries, 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar and the orange zest together in a large bowl. 
3. In a measuring cup, dissolve the cornstarch in the orange juice and then mix it into the fruit. 
4. Pour the mixture into an 8-by-11-inch baking dish and place it on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
5. For the topping, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, salt and oatmeal. 
6. With the mixer on low speed, add the butter and mix until the dry ingredients are moist and the mixture is in crumbles. 
7. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit, covering it completely, and bake for 1 hour, until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is golden brown. 
8. Serve warm with ice cream.

Green Chile Hummus

How exactly do you begin sorting through hundreds of vacation photos?  I think procrastination has it's place sometimes...so instead of looking those photos full on in the face, I got back into my humble little kitchen after a week away.  Green chiles are still my great love affair of the moment.  Paired with hummus, it's a perfect blend of smooth lemony hummus and a bit of green chile kick. 

Does hummus really need a recipe?  You just throw one 15 ounce can of drained garbanzos into a food processor along with juice of one lemon, 1/4 cup olive oil, one heaping spoonful of tahini(some say this is optional but I think tahini is essential)  and 2 garlic gloves and puree like CRAZY.   To make it green chile hummus I threw in 2 freshly roasted chiles peeled and chopped and 1/2 tsp cumin before pureeing. 

Easy peasy.

I love buying those fancy schmancy sandwiches for lunch that have hummus in them.  Throw them on a sandwich or wrap at home and you'll think you have a pretty schmance sandwich too. 

Hummus is much easier than sorting through vacation photos. 

Green Chile Hummus

1 15oz can garbanzos rinsed and drained
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
juice of one lemon
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 freshly roasted and peeled green chiles, roughly chopped
1 heaping tbsp tahini
1/2 tsp cumin

Add all ingredients to food processor and blend thoroughly

Bears in the Alaskan Wild

This may be my heaviest photo post yet but when you go on a once-in-a-lifetime Alaska Bear Adventure and take hundreds of photos, how do you choose your favorites?

We've had some pretty rainy cold weather my entire stay here which has put a bit of a damper on planned activities like hiking and glacier cruises and sea life viewing.  Since the Bear Adventure was already locked in and paid for, we made the 4 hour drive to Homer in the rain.  We awoke early the next day for our 7:30 start time only to see the rain was still coming steadily down.  Sad. When we arrived though we were a bit encouraged to hear that it was supposed to be much nicer in Katmai where we were headed.

    

First we had to gear up.  Hip waders are more fun than you'd imagine.  You can walk right through mud and across streams without worry.  

We had a 1.5 hour flight out to Katmai National Park in a Cessna.  Once we were above the clouds and  past the rainy peninsula, the views were outstanding. 

Homer Spit

Initial views of the mountains and glaciers of Katmai National Park.

First bear viewing from the plane

Landing at Katmai 

Our guide Michael walked us right up to within 20 yards of this mama bear and cubs.  I kept expecting him to stop but he didn't until we were seated right across the stream from them.  While there were moments of initial hesitation on my part, none of the bears really even seemed to take notice of us.  This mama bear even came within 20 feet of us when she was chasing a salmon and still pretty much ignored us.  

Michael was thorough in explaining bear behavior and instructing us on when to remain single file, when to kneel and when to tighten up as a group and why it was important.

Mama's baby cubs--I named them Lucy and Linus.  They were absolutely darling of course and watching them interact with each other and mama bear in their natural environment was truly one of those experiences you don't forget.  Linus was assertive and grabbed the salmon while poor Lucy chased after him whining and begging for some.  I'm pretty sure she even told on him at one point. 

Mama bear found a salmon.  We watched all of these bears dawdle and mosey along slower than molasses so it truly is a surprising thing when one suddenly charges across the stream at lightening speed...seemingly at you.  After a quick skip of a heartbeat, we saw she was actually fishing.  

She was so fast she caught two...one in her mouth and one under her front paws. 

We were close enough to hear the surprisingly loud cracking and crunching of salmon bones (who knew they had such loud ones) and see what appears to be guts flying out of the fish.  It was kind of cool to see the full size photo and realize they are actually salmon eggs.

Salmon sushi

We saw these two huge guys playing together later on in the morning.  Mama bear kept far away from them.  

This was such an unbelievable experience--we ended up seeing 7 bears altogether.  We absolutely felt safe surrounded by these giants and the pictures don't truly do justice to the experience of watching bears living and interacting in the wild.  I'd plan another entire trip here just to do it again.