Rich and Creamy Mushroom Soup

I was never much of a soup maker in my early days of cooking.  I just always thought that to make good soup (really good soup) you needed to spend a lot of time working on it.  Hours and hours of back breaking time spent over the hot stove, stirring, tasting, stirring and adding more and more items until SOUP was born.

Remember the Creamy Leek and Potato Soup I made?  Didn't take forever, did it!!

Well, in my never ending creep towards the big 4-0, I'm beginning to learn something ....

.... not all things that taste good GREAT take a lot of time to prepare.  Like soup.  And I love me a good bowl of soup!!  And since I started blogging, I've tried to add 'making soup' into my non-structional routine a bit more.

Braised Fennel with White Wine & Cream

About a year ago, I had the pleasure of attending a function hosted by Kendra - who owns a great deli downtown here.  She's a terrific cook with great knowledge, new ideas and a wonderful attitude to home cooked meals.

The dinner she made while I was there included a side dish of braised fennel.  Now, I had never had fennel before, so I tasted this dish with wonder and amazement!  I mean - something so simple yet so tasty!  I was hooked, and have recreated her dish many times over and over again.

For those that don't know - fennel is a bulb (like celery) that smells remarkable like black licorice.  There are a number of ways you can use it (I've heard grilled in big slabs on the BBQ is quite tasty) so give other methods a try, once you enjoy this savory version!

So, grab yourself a few steaks, fire up the grill and go ahead and have this delicious dish along side!

Creamy Leek and Potato Soup

I've often walked by the leeks at the grocery store and thought "Hmm.  Now what could I do with those?"  Well, I finally bought some and decided that I'd give a go at making soup.

I love leek soup.  Leek soup, as far as I've ever had, is a subtle soup with a rich broth.  It can be a clear broth, a creamy soup or a more rustic soup with creamy and pieces of potato.  There is not 'right' way for leek soup to exist.

I like cream soups.  And creamy leek soup.  My hips don't love creamy soups though.  But hey, what's the fun in cooking if you can't enjoy what you make!  That's not to say that cream soups have to be fully loaded with calories.  Certainly there are ways to make it more calorie-wise, but I'm going to start with the full-blown creamy soup that makes the mouth water and the heart warm.

So, here is one of my first trips into the soup world.  Probably should have started in the fall, but heck - it's still cold around here and with Mr. Hungry looking to head back to work - a few containers into the freezer could be nice!

Tomato Cream Sauce

When I have pasta either in our out, I tend to lean towards the cream sauces.  I adore a good, rich cream sauce.  It makes my mouth happy!

So, when I attempted the homemade pasta and ravioli, the best thing that came to mind was CREAM SAUCE!  But no just any cream sauce.  A nice tomato flavoured creamy sauce that just holds onto the pasta is glorious layers.

So, I adapted my regular cream sauce recipe a bit and made it a bit different, because different is good!  Got to keep them guessing, you know!  And Mr. Hungry - he eats almost anything (remember the mashed potatoes) so it was a fun experiment!

This is a quick and super easy recipe that will WOW you and anyone else you choose to feed!  Probably 15 minutes from start to finish!  Just enough time to cook your pasta and toast some bread for garlic bread! 

Prawn and Cream Cheese Ravioli with White Wine Cream Sauce

I have, over the years, nearly made myself crazy thinking, dreaming, drooling over stuffed pasta recipes.  I've seen thousands and in my sleep - ate thousands!  Do you see colour when you dream??  I sure do!  And surprising enough, I can taste things in my sleep too (go ahead, call me strange).

Did you know that once you mix up the fillings you can put INTO pasta with the sauces you can put ONTO pasta - you'll probably have as many options as there are stars in the sky!  The possibilities are endless!!

So yes, I've been dreaming of making my own filled pasta.  Now, I'm not yet ready to tackle the pasta itself (my beautiful blue Kitchen Aide can work with an attachment that lets me roll pasta and I'd rather use that than do it all by hand beause I'm afraid of a pastry fiasco like I've experienced before) just yet.  Mr. Hungry and I decided that we'd attempt some over the weekend and (let's be honest here, right) it went well but ONLY after I changed my plan of attack!




Prawn and Cream Cheese Ravioli with
White Wine Cream Sauce


I first tried this recipe using fresh Olivieri Lasagna Sheets, which to my brain meant it was pasta and pasta would STICK to pasta.  Did not work.  At all.  I tried the right out of the package, soaked for a few minutes and soaked for a few more minutes.  Nothing I tried would make them darn things STICK together.  *sigh* 


Thankfully Mr. Hungry was hungry enough (yet still interested enough) to run to the store and make an emergency purchase so we could make our meal (we had these the same night as the Roasted Garlic and Peppers with Goat Cheese Baguette) with as little screaming as possible.  Me screaming.  He saved the day, but don't tell him that!!


So here it goes!