While growing up Cream of ____ soups were always just something to make casseroles with — but not anymore! Wow, this was tasty! I tweaked it a little from the original by adding garlic, thyme, hot sauce and mushrooms and I was so pleased with the results. This is definitely what is going to happen to some of our leftover turkey and turkey stock next weekend. In fact, it’s a great recipe for that as I’ll probably have leftover cream, veggies and everything else. So will you, so you should definitely make this soup.

I cooked the mushrooms in a separate pan because I didn’t want them to soak up all the butter and I didn’t want to add more butter. I’m not sure you have to do that, but that’s the way I did it.

Cream of Chicken Soup
Adapted from a recipe by Food Network Kitchens
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 white Spanish onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 leeks, cleaned well, white part chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
12 cremini mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup AP flour
7 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
4 sprigs parsley
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 3/4 cups cooked, diced chicken
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
A few dashes of hot sauce
Parmesan Cheese
Optional: 1 cup cooked brown rice

Roasted Chicken with Rosemary-Orange Butter — leftovers of which, became this soup! I highly recommend the roast chicken recipe too.)

Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, leeks, garlic, dried thyme and carrots. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 12 minutes.

While those veggies cook, in a separate pan, heat the olive oil. Saute the mushrooms with a pinch of kosher salt for 10 minutes or so, over medium heat, until they give off some liquid. Set aside.

Add the flour to the larger pot of veggies and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 2 minutes more.

Pour in the broth and bring to a boil while whisking.

Tie the parsley sprigs and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the soup.

Add the mushrooms. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Stir in the chicken and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the heavy cream, sherry, and salt into the soup. Taste and adjust salt and season with pepper and hot sauce to taste. Remove and discard the herb bundle.

Add the cooked, brown rice if desired. Divide among soup bowls, sprinkle the top of each soup with the chopped parsley, Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

This was an experiment that I took to work for a Halloween party last week. It was an extra fun cake to make, as I had just bought myself a new bundt cake pan in honor of National Bundt Cake Day coming up on November 15!

Where did I learn that bit of trivia? Why here: Food Librarian’s ‘I Like Big Bundts’ extravaganza! Now that is an awesome task right there. While I am not delightfully crazy enough to make a bundt a day, I did make one — this Sour Cream Pumpkin Bundt with a Streusel-y inside.

The recipe is from Libby’s (the makers of canned pumpkin), although I used a can of Trader Joe’s Organic canned pumpkin. The cake turned out so well! I added orange zest, pecans and a few more spices to the streusel and I also used a chocolate ganache as a glaze, rather than a traditional powdered sugar icing.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Streusel
recipe adapted from Libby’s
Streusel
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp orange zest
2 tsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz dark chocolate chips
1/2 tsp orange zest
Optional: 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan.

For streusel: Combine brown sugar, spices and zest in small bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly. Add pecans.

For batter: Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat granulated sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add pumpkin, sour cream and vanilla extract; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

To assemble: Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Now, here after making this once, I think it would be easier if after you put half the batter in the pan, you take a spoon and make a little indentation around the middle of the batter for the streusel.

So, you can try that and then carefully sprinkle streusel over batter, not allowing streusel to touch sides of pan.

Top with remaining batter. Make sure batter layer touches edges of pan.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in cake comes out clean. Mine baked for 60 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes in pan on wire rack. Invert onto wire rack to cool completely.

Make Glaze:
Place chips and zest in a bowl. Heat the cream in a pot until it just comes to a boil. Remove from heat and pour oven chocolate and orange zest. Let sit for about 30 seconds then stir until, all the chocolate is melted. Let cool for a few minutes.

Set cooled cake over a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Drizzle glaze over cake and sprinkle pecans over top. Let glaze cool and harden.

Eat.

Okay, this is seriously the best thing I have done with a pork tenderloin in like, years. Oh my god. Make this now. It was so good in fact, that I didn’t even get a decent picture of it for the title shot here. I just took it to the table and that was the end of that. So, above is a shot of the wine that we had for dinner. A zinfandel. It was good too.

The original recipe used bone-in pork chops but I substituted a pork tenderloin. I also did this indoors as opposed to outside on the grill, mainly because I was lazy. No matter, jwa & I were still rewarded with a delicious pork meal! I don’t really know what else to say about this except, uh, use fresh sage in the vinaigrette and get a spoon. Because you will be tempted to slurp that all up before the pork is even done.

Roasted Fennel-Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette
Adapted from the cookbook, “Grilling for Life” by Bobby Flay
Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette
3 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 shallot, coarsely chopped
1 tsp honey
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Fennel-Spiced Pork Tenderloin
2 tbsp fennel seeds
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 pork tenderloin, about 1 pound
1 tsp olive oil

For Vinaigrette: Combine the sage, lemon juice, zest, shallot, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in oil and blend until emulsified. Set aside until needed.

For Pork: Heat your grill to medium-high. You can also sear this in a pan and then finish cooking in the oven. If you are going to do that, then preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the fennel seeds, salt, and peppercorns in a spice mill and process until finely ground. Alternatively, combine the spices on a cutting board and crush them with the bottom of a heavy pot.

Brush pork with oil and season on both sides with fennel mixture. I used about 3/4 of the mixture, next time I will probably just rub it all on.

Grill the pork until slightly charred on both sides and cooked to medium-well, 4-5 min per side. If using a stovetop/oven approach, sear the pork on all sides (about 5-6 minutes total), then finish cooking in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. You are looking to pull the pork out of the oven with an internal temperature of about 150 degrees F. Transfer pork to a place, tent with foil and let rest about 10 minutes.

To serve: slice pork on a bias and drizzle with some of the sage-lemon vinaigrette, serving the remaining vinaigrette on the side. We had this with some goat cheese polenta and roasted carrots, fennel and garlic.

I can imagine drizzling this Sage-Lemon Vinaigrette on all manner of things — chicken, fish, pasta, yourself. Anything really.

The idea for this meal came from here — a recipe from Bon Appétit magazine in which a turkey is slathered (under & out!) with the butter mix of the title. It has been decided — this will also be our Thanksgiving turkey this year. So, of course we had to try (well, of course we did!) the butter mix on a chicken to make sure it was good.

The verdict: yes, it’s good. If you can’t wait for Thanksgiving, do yourself a favor and make a half recipe and apply it to a chicken.

Pancetta Sage Roast Chicken
1 3.5 - 4.5 whole chicken
olive oil
1 sprig rosemary + a few sage leaves
1/2 a lemon
Assorted root vegetables (we used potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and about 30 minutes before the chicken was done, I threw in some garlic cloves and a handful of walnuts)
Optional: your favorite brine recipe (mine is 1 gallon water + 1 cup kosher salt, with a few garlic cloves, a sprig of rosemary and a few peppercorns thrown in) if not bringing, salt & pepper

Pancetta, Parmesan, Sage Butter
double this if you are using on a turkey!
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 ounces thinly sliced pancetta (Italian bacon), chopped
2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small minced shallot
1/2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tbspn chopped fresh sage
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

If you are brining, do that for about 4-6 hours.

Make Pancetta Butter: With machine running, drop garlic down feed tube of processor and chop. Add pancetta.

Pulse to chop finely. Add all remaining ingredients. Pulse blending to coarse paste. Transfer to small bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

Roast the Chicken: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

If you brined, rinse the chicken, pat it dry and hoist it up on an oiled v-rack.

I used an upside-down bowl to keep my chicken under the brine while in the refrigerator.

If you did not brine, salt & pepper your chicken liberally. Scatter your root vegetables around the bottom of the pan.

Spread with a little pancetta-sage butter inside the chicken cavity. Then, starting at neck end, slide hand between skin and meat of breast, thighs, and upper drumsticks to loosen skin. Spread remaining butter over thighs, drumsticks, and breast meat under skin. Fill main cavity with herb sprigs and the lemon half. Drizzle with a little olive oil.

Turn chicken on its side and roast for 15 minutes. Turn chicken on other side and roast for 15 more minutes. Turn oven up to 425 degrees F and turn chicken breast-side up and drizzle with some olive oil. Add garlic cloves and walnuts to the vegetable area of the roasting pan. Continue to roast in this position until golden and temperature of the breast meat is 160 - 165 degrees, about 20 - 30 more minutes. This will depend on the size of your chicken.

I made a quick gravy by sauteing half an onion in 2 tablespoons of butter (over low heat) until brown and caramelized. Then I added 2 tablespoons of flour, cooked for a minute or two and added 1/2 cup of white wine and 3/4 cup chicken broth. I brought it to a boil and then turned off the heta and let it hang out until the chicken was done.

Remove chicken to a cutting board and tent with foil. Let rest 15-20 minutes. Transfer veggies, garlic and walnuts to a bowl and cover with foil to keep warm. If you’ve got gravy going, rewarm it and add some chopped herbs to it (I used rosemary, parsley, sage & thyme) and any non-oily pan drippings you can find. Before you carve the chicken, add any accumulated juices from the resting chicken, to the gravy. taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Eat the Chicken: Do you really need instructions for this part?

Thanksgiving! Okay, so while we’re on the subject of Thanksgiving — I think I have this year’s menu! It’s an Italian theme.

Appetizers & Snacks:
Rosemary cashews
Marinated mozzarella balls/olives/cherry tomatoes on skewers
Pumpkin seed pesto & veggies

Meal:
Pancetta-Sage Turkey with herb-wine gravy
Artichoke, Sausage, and Parmesan Cheese dressing
Roasted root veggies (shallots, fennel, carrots, red potatoes, and parsnips)
Delicata squash polenta w/ rosemary & goat cheese
Pan-Roasted Baby Brussels Sprouts with Buttered Pecans
Cranberry & fig sauce w/ port

Dessert:
Pumpkin Tart with Anise-Seed Crust, whipped cream

The main recipe here is originally from the Portland restaurant Meat Cheese Bread. It was in our local paper, in the weekly food section. I saw it, made Homer Simpson type sounds as I thought about how good it must be, and promptly decided to give it a try.

That said, I tweaked it a bit. Not so much for taste or anything, more due to what ingredients I had and the level of time on a Wednesday that I had to devote to this. Mainly, I crock-potted it while working, so that when I came home, the house would smell so good that I would almost fall over after stepping through the doorway.

One Saturday or Sunday, I will try this in the oven but it did work pretty well for me to turn it on low in the AM before leaving for work (7:00 AM) and return around 5:00 PM to a crock pot full of fragrant, porky goodness.

That said, this isn’t a complete ‘pop it in the crock pot and forget it’ kind of thing. Well, okay, actually it is, but you need to do stuff before you get everything in the crock pot. Stuff like: sear the pork and briefly saute the onions and peppers. Then you pop it all in the crock pot and set it to low.

I’ve got both conventional oven and crock pot directions below. Pick your heat source and give it a try!

Cuban Pulled Pork in Orange Mojo
Adapted from a Recipe from Meat Cheese Bread, via Oregonian Food Day, September 22, 2009
2 pounds pork shoulder
Vegetable oil
1 orange (original recipe said to use one and a quarter oranges)
1 small onion (sweet, yellow or white), quartered
1 red bell pepper, stems and seeds removed, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 medium tomato
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
6 garlic cloves
3/4 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup white wine
8 6-inch hoagie rolls (or ciabatta rolls, which is what I used)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, unless you are doing this in a crock pot.

Remove excess fat from the pork shoulder and cut crosswise into 2-inch thick pieces. When I was doing this, I read it wrong and cut it into 2-inch cubes. So, I’m here to tell you that if you accidentally do that, it will still work. Anyway, heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and coat bottom of pan lightly with vegetable oil. Sear the pork until browned on all sides.

While searing the pork, use a vegetable peeler to remove zest from the oranges. Reserve the zest and cut pith from the orange, exposing the orange pulp. I quartered my orange, although the original recipe said to leave it whole.

Oven: After pork has seared, add the orange quarters and orange zest, onion, red pepper, brown sugar, salt and pepper, orange juice, chicken broth, tomato, lime juice, garlic, cumin, coriander and white wine to the roasting pan. Stir well and cook uncovered at 375 degrees for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Check the braise occasionally to make sure it does not get too dark. If meat starts to darken, turn pieces over and push below liquid level. Remove from oven when pork pierces easily with a fork.

Crockpot: After pork has seared, remove it with tongs and add to the crock pot. Turn it on low. Return to the hot pan and add the onions, garlic and bell pepper. Saute for 3-5 minutes over medium until they start to get a little color. Add to the crock pot. You will notice all manner of tasty things on the bottom of the pan. Deglaze!

Add the wine and orange juice to the pan and use a wooden spoon to get up any brown bits.

Add all the pan contents to your crock pot. Next, add the orange zest, brown sugar, salt and pepper, chicken broth, tomato, lime juice, garlic, cumin, and coriander to the crock pot.

Put a lid on it and leave it alone for about 8-9 hours.

Oven & Crockpot, after cooking time:

Using tongs, carefully remove pork from the braise liquid and put on a carving board, allowing meat to rest for 10 minutes. Using two forks, pull apart the meat, removing any excess fat you come across. Place in a large bowl.

Purée the braising liquid (original recipe said “including the solids”, I opted to not use the whole orange pieces. After tasting the liquid, it seemed orangey enough to me), in a blender or food processor and adjust the flavor to taste.

When blending hot liquids, leave the lid insert off and cover the rimmed lid with a towel!

Add enough puréed braising liquid to moisten the meat well.

To assemble sandwiches, cut hoagie roll in half horizontally. Using tongs or a slotted spoon to allow some of the juice to drain, top bottom piece with roughly 1 cup of the pulled pork mixture. Repeat with remaining rolls. I added spinach leaves, tomato and sliced, smoked fontina cheese.

Leftovers

If you are not making 8 sandwiches, you will have leftovers. Here’s what I did — pork enchiladas!

I added some onion, yellow bell pepper, a diced jalapeno and some diced yam and sweet potatoes (all sauteed up for a few minutes in a pan with some olive oil), to the pulled pork and about 1 - 2 tsp of chili powder to the Mojo sauce.

I used the pork as a filling (added a little Queso fresco in there as well, along with about a teaspoon of sauce). The I wrapped the filling up in corn tortillas and covered with the sauce.

A little more cheese (okay, a medium-sized amount) on top and about 40 minutes in the oven on 375 degrees F.

Delicious with some diced avocado and some sour cream!