Cream of Asparagus Soup

Yet another comfort dish for these cold winter days in Kansas.  Our local grocery store had asparagus on sale so of course I bought some.  Micheal Simon from Iron Chef and the Chew recommends that you save all your stems and such for making soups and stocks.  Well when I made the pork chop I also had asparagus and took the bottoms that I snapped off and made this wonderful soup.  Great for a cold day.  It's super easy and quick to make and I'm sure you'll have all the ingredients in your pantry.  So the next time you have asparagus, broccoli or other veggies remember not to toss the parts you cut off.  If you don't make something right away put them in freezer bags for future use.

Ingredients:
bottom from aparagus
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic minced
1 carrot sliced or diced
1-2 stalks celery, tops and all
2-3 TBL flour
1/4 - 1/3 cp white wine
1/4 cup sour cream
salt and pepper
2 TBL parsley
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 cup water (may need more)
1 packet chicken stock
1/2 - 3/4  half n half
1-2 TBL butter
1-2 TBL bacon fat

In a sauce pan  heat and then add the bacon fat and butter, when melted added 1/2 the onion, saute until clear add a pinch of salt, add the garlic cook about 30 seconds or so.  Add the flour and stir til you have a sand color, add the wine and cook for a minute or two.  Add 1/2 cut of water and  the asparagus, 1/2 the carrot and 1/2 the celery, cook for about 3-5 minutes.  With an emulsion blender cream the ingredients in the pot.  When smooth add the rest of carrots, onion, and celery.  Add the chicken stock more water and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the half n half and sour cream  and simmer for approximately 15-20 minutes.  Add parsley, rosemary and salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy
Thanks for taking time to stop by and Always Remember to Find the Time to DO all the Things You L♥ve.
Donna

Ham, Cheese and Aspargus Rolls

I adapted this from here and did her suggestion of replacing the chicory with asparagus. I will try it though her way, just not sure when. :) I also found some smoked pork chops so I will try it with those also, again not sure when, but will post it when I do.
Printable

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. asparagus
2-4 lbs potatoes
2/3 cup of milk
1 - 2 TBL of butter
1 1/2- 3 tbsp coarse mustard
6-12 cheese slices (I used Swiss)
6-12 ham slices
pepper
nutmeg
salt

Directions:

This will make enough for 3 or 5 just adjust your ingredients so you have enough. Peel, wash and dice the potatoes, add some salt, boil for about 20 minutes until tender. Preheat the oven to 400. Drain and mash using the milk and butter then add 1 TBL coarse mustard and some nutmeg. Taste, you don't want the nutmeg and mustard to overpower the potatoes. Parboil the asparagus for about 3-4 minutes, do not over cook because they will cook more while baking. Using a 9x13 pan spread the potatoes on the bottom of the pan. Roll the ham and asparagus in the cheese slices, place on top of the potatoes. Bake for about 25 minutes until the cheese is golden brown. Serve

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to DO all the things YOU Love.
Donna

Herbed Chicken w/ cream sauce and Asparagus

Chicken before the cream sauce. Picture below plated.

This is something I made the other night and all I can say is YUM, YUM, YUM.
It's quick, simple and delicious.  Hope you'll try it.

Ingredients:
2 - skinless boneless Chicken breasts (butterflied and pounded thin)
2 strings of fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh sage
2 fresh basil leaves
1 clove of garlic minced
1/4 onion, minced
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 lb.fresh asparagus
grated Parmesan cheese
2-3 TBL white wine
olive oil
1/2 stick of unsalted butter (you can use salted but cut back on salt)
1/4 cup of flour 
salt and pepper

Cook asparagus in water with some chicken bullion granules for about 5 minutes until tender.  Set aside.

Butterfly the  chicken breasts and then place between plastic wrap and pound with a rolling pin.  Hit it in an outward motion and don't beat it to death just make it thin.  You can get two servings from one breast after the pounding is done, unless you're extremely hungry then eat both.  :)  Put flour on wax paper(you could use a plate or bowl by why dirty another dish?)  and then salt and pepper the flour, pat chicken breast into flour until coated.  When ready to fry shake off excess flour.
 Chop all your herb, onion and garlic.
Heat a skillet with 3 TBL butter and some olive oil, when pan is hot add chicken.  Cook about 5-6 minutes on each side until golden.  Just before I turned the chicken I added a few herbs and pressed them in.  You can see them in this picture.

Place on plate and put in warmed oven til ready to serve and plate.
With dripping from meat add the last TBL of butter and a bit more oil then add the onion and garlic and cook for about 1 minute, add a small amount of the herbs and cook for about 30 seconds, stir in wine cook for 2-3 minutes, add the cream and stir, add cheese and rest of herbs, cook until it starts to thicken.  I added about 1 tsp of flour just before the cream to help it thicken (be careful not to overdo with flour or you'll have a thick mess with no flavor)  Stir to get all the goodies from the bottom of the pan.  Taste and then pour over asparagus and chicken.  I put some of the asparagus on top of my chicken.  (a tip, if the sauce gets to thick add some of the water from cooking your asparagus.)
Enjoy

This is the chicken before the sauce added.

 

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful day and Remember to Find the Time to Do ALL the things YOU love.

Donna

Stuffed Chicken

Here's a tasty chicken recipe that only takes about 45 minutes.

I must apologize because I forgot to take pictures of the meat before and after it was pounded and rolled.  Geesh some days I wonder where my head is.  So the next time I make this I will get those photo's and put them on this post.  I do have the finished product so hopefully that will count for something.  I used boneless skinless chicken breast.  I butterflied them and then pounded them so they were fairly thin.  I placed with inbetween waxed paper and then in a plastic bag and used a meat mallet.  I then seasoned them with some salt and pepper and placed 4 or 5 cleaned asparagus spears in the middle and then topped it with mozzarella cheese, starting at one end I rolled them up and placed them seam side down on a baking sheet and then spread a little mayonnaise on the top and then sprinkled Italian bread crumbs on top.  I adapted this recipe from this one .  The next time I make this I will also make a cheese asparagus sauce to go over the top.  The dish was good but could have used a cream sauce to make it even better.  This is the chicken I made when I made the Hasselback potatoes.

Here is a picture of  it coated ready for the oven





Bake in  a preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes until juices run clear.  You can use a thermometer test and that should read 165 F or 74c.

See the piece of cheese oozing out??



Thanks for coming by, hope you try this one, I'm sure your family would really enjoy it.
Donna