Lamb & Barley Stoup

Stoup - somewhere between a Stew & a Soup…

In honor of a special day for my husband Jeff & I we're having Stoup… This is the variation we're having tonight…

Ingredients:
  1 lb Lamb Leg Meat, trimmed & cubed
  1 cup cut carrots
  2 medium parsnips, cut
  1/2 medium onion cut chunky
  1-2 stalks of celery, sliced thin
  1 cup sliced mushrooms
  2 small yellow squash (crook neck) sliced
  1/4 cup barley
  4-5 cups water
      (enough to cover meats/vegetables)
Spices:
  2 tsp coarse Sea Salt
  1/4+ tsp whole Peppercorns
  1 Bay Leaf (broken up)
  1/2 tsp dried Thyme
  1/2 tsp dried Parsley
  1 tsp dried Sage
      (leaf variety, if ground use 1/2 tsp)
  1 1/2 tsp whole Rosemary

Grind up spices in a mortar & pestle.  Throw all ingredients in a crock pot, stir, and set to High (6 hours) or Low (10 hours)…

Of course I have to encourage you to play with the ingredients… change out rice for barley, switch up the meats (beef, chicken, etc), change the vegetables (potatoes instead of parsnips, etc), spice it how it suits you… and enjoy!!

This is really good paired with a couple slices of good artisan bread...

Pumpkin, Butternut & Sweet Potato Pancakes

These are my more daring Pancakes, and probably the last I will post for a while (I've kinda done a lot with Pancakes lately).  The following 3 recipes came from playing around starting with the Sour Cream Pancake recipe & replacing ingredients… I encourage you to also play around with your recipes & change them up from time to time, it keeps things interesting… at the very worst you might get some odd results, otherwise what's it going to hurt to try?

Pumpkin Spice topped with cooked Pears & Bananas

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

Ingredients:
  2 cups cooked/mashed pumpkin
  1 cup Egg Beaters
  3/4 tsp salt
  1 tsp baking soda
  1 Tbl sugar
  1 cup all-purpose flour
  2 tsp cinnamon (suggest Penzeys Vietnamese)
  1 tsp ginger
  1/4 tsp cloves
  1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg)

Panclouds

This is something new… I had been making meringues and it got me thinking about creating a pancake-like item using whipped egg whites… just one of those "I wonder what would happen if…?" moments (I get those)… the result, something new & fun & tasty & light…


This recipe makes 1 Pancloud, 1 is enough for my breakfast but you may want more… adjust quantities as you need.

Blueberry & Banana Panclouds

Ingredients:
  2 egg whites
  2 tsp honey, divided
  2 Tbl all purpose flour


Whip egg whites on medium until soft peaks form. Stop mixer*, drop 1 tsp honey into middle of whites, restart mixer and continue to whip on medium until honey is incorporated and medium peaks form. Gently fold in flour, transfer to small skillet that has been very lightly sprayed with a spray oil (I used Hazelnut). Cook on Med-Lo heat, flip when exposed edges start to turn beige (bottom should be medium brown). Top with remaining honey. 


Variations - push soft fresh fruit gently into cake before turning heat on skillet. Try adding spices to make it more interesting.


Jeff & my favorite variation has a little bit of cinnamon & bananas pushed in… Yum!!


* If you don't stop the mixer you'll be sorry… the honey will end up on the sides of the bowl instead of incorporated into the whites (guess who tried it and found out the hard way).

Jambalaya

This is one of many possible variations of Jambalaya, spiced with my Cajun Spice.  This variation happens to have Shrimp & Ground Chicken (spiced with my Sausage Spice).


This serves 8, serve over cooked rice (or cooked squash if trying to lighten even more).


Ingredients:
  1 pound uncooked peeled & cleaned shrimp
  1 pound 99% fat free ground chicken (Smart Chicken is the brand available at my store)
  2 cups chopped onion
  2 cups chopped bell pepper
  1 cup chopped celery
  1 cup sliced carrots
  2 cups diced portobello mushrooms
  12 medium fresh tomatoes, diced
  1 1/2 Tbl Cajun Spice
  2 tsp Sausage Spice

Use a single large non-stick pot, sprayed with Olive Oil.  Cook the ground chicken together with the Sausage Spice.  Once the chicken is cooked add remaining ingredients, except tomatoes, cook until onions are translucent.  Add tomatoes, bring to a light boil, turn down heat and let simmer at least 1/2 hour (can simmer much longer)… if you'd like to at this point you can transfer to a crock pot that is set to Low.


Now have a bit of fun… change up the ingredients… mix up the meats… try different vegetables...

Sourdough Pancakes

Topped with Fresh Strawberries & Cool Whip Free

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm….


I wrote about experimenting with Sourdough pancakes a couple days ago, and here is the recipe.


These pancakes are a little lighter in texture than some of my others, I'm guessing this is due to how the baking soda interacts with the Sourdough starter.


I had the pictured pancake for breakfast this morning, and it sure was tasty!!


This recipe makes approximately 3 large (8.5"), 4 medium (7"), or 8 small (4") pancakes.