Roasted Red Pepper and Pumpkin Curry Soup with Farfalle, so nice on a cold day.

If you cook everything ahead it’s very quick and easy to make.

 

 

cook and drain the farfalle.

 

 

 

In the pot with the noodle water add the vegetables (a little cooked sweet potatoes also found their way into the pot)

 

 

now take to stove, the light is bad at the stove so I had to take photos here.

Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.

 

blend with a hand blender. These things are pretty cool.

 

 

till smooth

 

 

about like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

add coconut milk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and curry paste

 

 

and water or the saved noodle water.

 

 

sauté chicken while the rest heats

 

 

for a couple of minutes.

 

 

Add the farfalle and the chicken to the pot

 

 

Serve warm and garnish with cilantro.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Curry soup

ingredients

 

• 1/2 13 oz package mini vegetable farfalle, (carrot is particularly  pretty)
• 1and 1/2 cup water
• 2/3 cup sautéed onions
• 1/2 cup cooked sliced carrots
• 1 15oz can pumpkin, or 2 cups cooked pumpkin cubes
• 1 12oz jar roasted red peppers, or 1and 1/2 cups of your own  roasted reds
• 1 quart chicken broth or water1 13oz can coconut milk, regular or light
• 2 Tbsp red curry paste
• 1-2 tsp salt, or to taste
• a few turns of fresh pepper, (white if you have it, otherwise black will do
• 2 cups chicken cut into small pieces, sautéed
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, snipped  (optional) to garnish
• More water, as desired

 

DIRECTIONS;
Cook the farfalle in the water for barely 4 minutes in a large pot;  remove the farfalle to a bowl, and return the noodle water to the pot

Add next 5 ingredients (up to and including chicken broth)

Bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes

Blend with stick blender or regular blender until smooth

**** At this point you can save out about 1 to 1/2 cups into another pot, for your non-spicy eater, if you have one) and about 2 Tbsp coconut milk, heat, add about 1/4 cup farfalle and about 2-3 Tbsp chicken, and water depending on how thick you like your soup.

Now add the curry paste and the rest of the coconut milk  to the big pot and heat and stir gently.

Add the farfalle and the rest of the chicken to the big pot; warm, adding more water if desired, and serve; sprinkle with cilantro.

 

 

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Proctor-Silex 59738 Hand Blender

Basil, Feta and Roasted red pepper muffins. As long as you’re not thinking desert these are very nice.

 

I did get some sort of sideways complaint from an anonymous muffin moocher that seeing bright red “goobers” in the muffins led him to believe that they would taste like cherries. I suppose you could make these with cherries and cream cheese. But that's not what I made and that’s a recipe for another time. 

 

I first got the basil so it would have time to dry after washing it.

 

Chopped it up.

 

drained and chopped the peppers.

 

In a bowl add flour, 

 

salt,

 

baking soda and baking powder.

 

In another bowl add olive oil,

 

oh, an egg quick run to the fridge and see of there are any eggs. I guess we aren’t running out of eggs.

 

anyway, crack one egg into the bowl.

 

pour in butter milk but if you don’t have any you could do like I did, just add a little vinegar to milk. And if somebody drank up the milk you could mix up some powdered milk. I was not going to let the lack of a few ingredients stop me from making these muffins!

 

 

Mix and pour into the dry ingredients. Just a little mixing. You do not need to stir and stir and stir. I got into stirring and stirring and watching the gluten strings form. They turned out fine but they might’ve been fluffier if I’d just combined the ingredients. 

 

toss the basil in,

 

the feta and roasted red peppers.

 

just fold in. Fill greased muffin pans about 3/4 so there’s room for them to puff.

 

Bake at 375° for 16-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

 

Serve warm.

 

 

Basil, Feta & Roasted Pepper Muffins
Ingredients

from Taste of Home

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped roasted sweet red peppers
• 1/2 cup minced fresh basil

    In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, combine egg, buttermilk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened, don’t stir and stir like I did watching the gluten form with fascination. Fold in the cheese, peppers and basil.
    Fill greased muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 375° for 16-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm and ok cold too.

 

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Jalapeno poppers are a great way to have a little pepper with your cheese. Quick easy and tasty.

 

Did I mention these are real easy to eat?

To make these you need some jalapeños but if you only have three a bell pepper will work as a lame substitute. 

In a bowl a little bit larger than this one beat an egg. This bowl was a challenge to dip the peppers in and get them all covered in egg.

Cut some slices of cream cheese and Monterey jack for each pepper. If your peppers are small like mine a half slice will fit better.

Spray a baking sheet lightly with olive oil spray and set aside.

 

Place a slice of cream cheese and a slice of Monterey in each pepper half. Dip each stuffed pepper in the beaten egg then dip in crumbs. Sprinkle more on if it’s not sticking too well.

Spray olive oil lightly over the top of the breaded peppers and bake for about 30 minutes.

Serve warm while the cheese is still soft and oozing out.

 

Jalapeño Poppers

ingredients

• 3-6 jalapeños
• 1-2 cups corn chip crumbs or cracker crumbs or what ever kind of crumbs you have a lot of
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 4 oz Monterey jack cheese
• one egg
• olive oil spray

Lightly spray baking sheet with olive oil.

Cut jalapeños in half scrape out seeds and pulp.

In a bowl bowl beat and egg.

Place a slice of cream cheese and a slice of Monterey in each half. Dip each stuffed pepper in beaten egg then dip in crumbs. Sprinkle more on if it’s not sticking too well.

Place on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Serve immediately.

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