This year some friends of mine asked if I'd like to split a CSA share that they had been interested in trying. Saying yes to that offer was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. Once a week we receive a box full of fresh, clean, organic goodies. Most offerings I've been familiar with, however, there were a few items that were relatively new to me like Pea Shoots, Kohlrabi and Delicata Squash. I look forward to receiving an ingredient foreign to me and figuring out what to do with it. I've come up with some delicious recipes for the odd items but my all time favorite recipe that I create from the CSA items was inspired by the noble tomato. I have to admit, at one point I did not know what I would do if I received one more tomato, my fridge was overflowing with the fruit. I made pasta sauce, salsa, put them in salads, topped tacos, placed them in sandwiches, and then one day I decided to make a soup. The soup I made is one of the best tomato soups I've ever had; it's creamy, spicy and full flavored. So if you find yourself inundated with the season's final tomato bounty give this recipe a try!

Velvet Tomato Soup

5 large tomatoes
2 medium bell peppers (any color you like)
1-4 Serano or Jalapeno chiles, depending on how spicy you like it
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
½ cup heavy cream
Salt and Pepper

Pierce the bell peppers and chiles just once and place them under a broiler until the skins are charred, turn the peppers a couple times while cooking to char all sides. Remove peppers and chiles from broiler and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a plate so that the steam is trapped in the bowl. After a few minutes remove from bowl and peel the skin from the flesh. Remove the seeds and stem and dice the peppers and chiles.

To remove the skin from the tomatoes, score an X on the bottom of each tomato and place them in a pot of boiling water for about 10-20 seconds, remove from the water and let cool slightly. Peel the skin from the tomatoes then de-seed and dice.

Saute the onions and carrots until translucent and tender. Add the garlic, tomatoes, peppers and chiles. Cook until all vegetables are very tender. Place vegetables in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Pass the puree through a large mesh seive back into the pot. Bring the puree to a simmer then reduce the heat. Add the vinegar, cream and salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

It's my art

After graduating college with a business degree I took a job that I enjoyed, but it didn't give me much opportunity to flex my artistic muscles. I was forever searching for that one thing that I could truly be passionate about. I started to realize that every time I had some free time I was stashed away in the kitchen either cooking or baking something; and one day it hit me, this was it, my true passion is food!

Julia Child said that the thing she truly enjoyed doing in life was eating. Me on the other hand......the thing I truly enjoy is cooking, baking, creating. People ask me all the time why I don't weigh 500 pounds, and the only thing I have to thank is that I really enjoy sharing my creation with others and seeing them truly enjoy it. I really enjoy both cooking and baking but somewhere along the line I started to gravitate more towards baking. I come from a long line of really good bakers and I learned a great deal about it from my Mom and Grandmother (although if you asked them they would modestly tell you that they're not that great. I beg to differ!) So one day I decided that my goal would be to one day open a cafe/bakery. I'm still working on the cafe but in the mean time I went back to school and completed a baking and pastry certification. I loved going to class every week, the new and exciting things we created really inspired me. After classes were over I ventured in to the world of specialty cakes, which has really become my art. And so I thought I'd share a little gallery of some of my art......enjoy!

This Elmo cake was the birthday cake I made for my nephew Kylyn's 1st Birthday

This monkey cake was the birthday cake I made for my nephew Searin's 1st birthday.

I've made this baby cake numerous times for friends and family's baby showers.

I got tired of making the baby cake for every shower so I changed it up for my friend Lucie's shower and made this pregnant belly cake.

Lets start with an Angel on our shoulder

OK, for my first post I thought I'd better let you know a little more about me and my boyfriend Joe. I've decided to start my first post on the side of good rather than evil by posting some healthy recipies. No worries though I have plenty of decadent recipes to share in the future. Here we go.....

Yesterday my boyfriend Joe proclaimed that he is going to start eating better. We both agree though, that it shouldn't be a difficult feat, he really just needs to eat more. Where I will sit at my desk at work and munch all day long, Joe takes the path of not eating much at all. Even though he admittedly describe his job as being so brain intensive that he burns through all available sugars in his body just by the amount of thinking that he does; he still doesn't make the time pack a healthy lunch or snacks.

This may be due to the fact that Joe perpetually goes to bed at about 4:00 a.m. fully knowing he needs to wake up around 6:00 a.m. in order to make it to work. The alarm goes off and he hits snooze about 10 times until he wakes up enough to look at the time and realize he's over slept. He then jumps out of bed in a frenzy, rushes downstairs to the bathroom, washes up, throws on some clothes, grabs his phone, wallet and laptop bag and races out the door. His whole morning ritual takes literally 10 minutes tops and definately leaves no time to pack a to-go lunch or prepare healthy snacks.

Me on the other hand, I wake up after hitting my snooze button (we both have separate alarm clocks) about 10 times, slowly make my way downstairs to feed the dogs (sometimes even they need extra time to wake up.....)

I turn on the local news to catch the weather forecast, go about the normal shower, hair and makeup ritual, catch a bit of Good Morning America and then head in to the kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee and fill a grocery bag full of lunch and snack goodies for the day. Although it's nice to be able to slowly meander my way in to work, this does prolong my day and forces me to stay later in order to complete at least some of the items on my forever lengthening to-do list.

So in an effort to help Joe "eat better" and improve my morning "turn around time", I have decided I will start making healthy lunches the night before. Even with me making lunches the night before and storing them in the fridge Joe most likely will forget to grab it on his way out the door. Maybe I'll conjure up my inner June Cleaver and stand by the door, bag in hand ready for him to grab on his way out....or better yet, I'll probably use this as a little experiment and keep track of how often he remember to grab it on his way out.......should be interesting : ).

Since tomorrow is dreaded Monday, the day with which I'll start this new endeavor, I decided I'd spend part of my day by writing and creating some new healthy recipes for our lunch bags.

The first recipe starts with the fact that I am completely obsessed with potatoes; normally the starchy white carb-loaded version, but today I had a couple of sweet potatoes in the vegetable bin and since those are generally a healthier option I decided to work with those. I also have some chiles and herbs growing in pots on my front porch that need to be used before the inevitable first midwestern frost hits so I created this delicious and healthy recipe.......enjoy!

Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon and Chiles

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons minced shallot or white onion

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 large sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 poblano pepper

2 serano chiles

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives or 3 tablespoons chopped green onions

2 or 3 strips of crispy Bacon, crumbled

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the potatoes clean then dice into 1 inch cubes. In a medium bowl toss the potatoes with the olive oil to coat. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast the potatoes in the oven for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes have passed add the whole poblano and serano chiles to the pan and continue to roast for 20 minutes more or until potatoes are tender and the chiles are soft.

Remove from oven and let the potatoes cool on the pan. Place the chiles in a bowl and cover with plastic for about 10 minutes so that the steam will cause the skin to separate from the flesh.

To make the dressing whisk the first five ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

When the chiles are cool enough to handle peel off the skin and discard. Slice the chiles open, discard the stem and then lightly scrape out the seeds. Dice the poblano and finely mince the seranos. Stir the chiles into the dressing.

Place potatoes back in the medium bowl, drizzle with dressing, sprinkle with bacon and chives or scallions and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper and enjoy!