Roswell Adventures

Happy National Cheeseburger Day! I saw a recipe for cheeseburger soup last week and decided to do a little tweaking. OK...a lot of tweaking. I have fresh basil and parsley, so saw no reason to use dried. I had leftover mashed potatoes I needed to use up, so I went with that instead of the diced. Overall, this is a quick soup to throw together, and it tastes wonderful. Another beautiful thing about it is you can have a variety of toppings available. People do like their cheeseburgers differently, of course. I really wish I had some green chiles defrosted, because I definitely would have added those in. But is is great the way it is :) Cheeseburger Your Way Soup Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef (preferably grass fed) 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup shredded carrots 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil (sub 1 tsp dried basil) 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley (sub 1 tsp dried parsley flakes) 4 tablespoons butter 4 cups chicken broth (or 4 cups hot water and ...

I came home from work on Thursday with the knowledge I was coming down with something. I knew I would want chicken soup - but I also knew it wasn't going to happen that night.  After hunting around a bit, I found a recipe for chicken tortilla soup in a slow cooker ( http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/12/slow-cooker-chicken-tortilla-soup-2/ ) so I adapted it a bit - and here it is. BTW, I don't have any really cool pictures, so I will use one - and then I refer you to the awesome blog where I got the original recipe for the cool pictures (Difference between a  Blogger <the other person> and a person who write a few blog posts every now and again <me>.) Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup 5 teaspoons chicken Better Than Bouillon 5 cups boiling water (can substitute 5 cups chicken broth or stock) 6 large, frozen Roma tomatoes (can substitute a can of petite-diced tomatoes) 1 roughly chopped onion (I use sweet onions - they don't hurt my eyes when I cut the...

One of my all-time favorite green chile dishes. I used to make this with canned green chiles...but that was before I knew of the existence of roasted green chiles ;)  I also seldom use canned tomatoes, as I have tomatoes from last year in my freezer. I peel those, crush or dice them and add them to the stew. And sometimes, like today, I leave them out and add in carrots - plus I'll add in corn shortly before serving. Green Chile Pork Stew 1 onion chopped                          2-3 cloves garlic, crushed 1 - 1.5 lb pork, cubed 1 heaping Tbsp flour ~ 1 cup diced, roasted green chiles         1 14.5 oz can finely diced tomatoes 1/4 c water                             ...

Southwestern Chowder by Susan Moore Prep Time: 10-15 Minutes  | Cook Time: 35 Minutes  |  Serves 8 as a side or 4 as a meal 6 slices bacon, cut Into 1/2-inch pieces (or smaller) 1 onion, diced 2 tablespoons butter 1 package frozen corn 3 whole chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, very finely diced 4-6 peeled, diced green roasted chiles, seeds removed  (can substitute a 4-ounce can diced green chiles) 3 cans chicken broth 1 1/4 cup instant potato flakes 1/2 teaspoon salt Cook bacon over medium heat (large pot or Dutch oven is best). While that is cooking, pour corn into colander and run warm water over it to defrost. Drain well. When bacon is just shy of being crispy, add diced onion. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes and add butter. When butter melts, stir in corn. Add green and chipotle chilies and stir. Pour in chicken broth. Add salt. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Stir in potato flakes. Cover and cook...

After a glorious 4 weeks on the road, we returned last night. We were most excited about seeing our garden. We had our wonderful friend water for us while we were gone, and in spite of 100+ temperatures and us not being here to baby the little darlings, the garden looks great! Sure, there were a few losses, but that happens even when we're home. So, here's what we came home to...   Our pots of flowers and some of our tomatoes in bales closest to our porch. The main tomato garden in our side-front yard. We planted marigolds in the sides and some basil in between, but those aren't doing as well.  Our first harvest! They tasted great sauteed up with onions and garlic :) That's one of our sweet potato vines on the bottom. Tomatoes in bales and squash planted in a straw heap...something new we tried this year. The coffee canisters are there because our first squash were taken our by rampant pill bugs. We replaced them with these "collars."...

If you are looking for a tasty, low-calorie dish, this is wonderful! You can leave off the cheese for a lower-calorie option, but I enjoyed the extra flavor. It starts with small tomatoes tossed with olive oil and sprinkled with Herbs de Provence (or herbs of your choice)  Then you add the fish, brush it with olive oil and sprinkle it with more herbs. Yup - it's that tough to make ;) Use a white fish of your choice. The corvina we tried first was actually a white sea bass, but "corvina" is a name that can refer to a variety of fish. Corvina Baked with Tomatoes and Cheese Serves 2 2 cups Cherub (or similar small tomatoes) olive oil 1/4 tsp herbs de provence 8 oz Corvina, swai, tilapia, or other white fish 2 pieces part-skim mozzarella string cheese (optional) Place tomatoes in toaster-oven-size baking dish. Add about 1 tsp olive oil and stir in. Sprinkle with about 1/8 tsp crushed herbs de province. Bake at 400 degrees about 10 minutes...

I spent years wondering "What is the big deal about pesto?" I had tried some recipes using store-bought pesto, and my impression was "meh." The one day a couple of years back, I picked up my basket from Bountiful Baskets and discovered several large fennel bulbs. Not only had I never cooked fennel before, but I couldn't see just tossing those lovely fronds into the compost heap. So, I tracked down some recipes and made fennel frond pesto. Good-bye "meh", hello "YUM!" Since that first experiment, I have made pesto out of leek leaves (you have to par boil them first - more work, didn't like the flavor as much), kale (another huge YUM ), and eventually even basil (took me a while to get around to that because we kept using all of our basil making caprese salads with our fresh tomatoes). When I recently ended up with a ton of cilantro in my Basket, I decided to make - you guessed it - cilantro pesto. I used this recipe but added garlic (...