Chef Lisa

One of the things I love about the fall is comfort foods.  Big pots of soup and stew, things baked in the oven for a long, long time, spreading the warmth and wonderful smells into the rest of the house.  I wanted to make beer and cheese soup for supper tonight, so I got all the ingredients together and started.  Partway through, I decided I wanted to make a double batch.  I had enough of everything, except the stock.  Then I remembered the jug of apple cider in the fridge.  This soup has become the instant favorite, and will be the preferred cheese soup with my family for years to come.

You’ll notice that this soup uses beef stock rather than chicken stock, like most other cheese soup recipes do. We’ve found we prefer the depth of flavor that comes from the beef stock, and it holds up better to the stronger flavored beers we like to cook with.

Autumn Beer & Cheese Soup

8 oz maple smoked bacon, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
4 cups beef stock
4 cups apple cider
24 oz beer, pale ale preferred
4 cups shredded sharp cheddar

Put bacon into cold soup pot. Cook bacon over medium high heat until crispy. Add the butter, onions, celery and salt, and cook for five minutes, or until the onions and celery are soft. Sprinkle the flour over the onion mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for three minutes.

Add beef stock, apple cider and beer to the pot. Stir well, scraping up all the bits off the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cheese, 1 cup at a time, to the soup, stirring until melted.

Serve nice and hot. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and garlic croutons.

Makes 8 good-sized dinner servings.

We got this recipe from the Wednesday, October 1, 2008 Food section of the Ann Arbor News. It was an article about cooking with pumpkins by Susan Barnes. It makes a very dense, moist cake, but if it weren’t for the chocolate chips, the flavor would be completely unremarkable. Next time I make it (it’s going to be around for at least another day or two, as the recipe makes 2 loaves), I’m going to add more seasoning to it. Possibly pumpkin pie spice.

Now, the relative blandness of the bread could be because we used canned pumpkin, and not the oven roasted pumpkin puree from earlier in the article, but how often is the average person going to be able to get roasted pumpkin puree?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

1 cup vegetable oil
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the oil and sugar in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, pumpkin and water.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Whisk together until well blended. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until just mixed. Stir in vanilla, nuts and chocolate chips.

Spoon the batter into two lightly greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pans and bake for one hour or until a toothpick stuck into the center of the loaves comes out clean. Let the bread cool completely in the pans, then remove and wrap the loaves well in plastic wrap and put in the fridge overnight before serving.

Makes two loaves, about 16 slices each.

We didn’t wait the recommended amount of time before serving. When the first loaf was room temperature, we cut into it. At the time I’m writing this, we haven’t cut into the second loaf, so I don’t know if it does taste better after sitting for a while.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 243 Calories; 12g Fat (42.9% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 33g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 27mg Cholesterol; 197mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 2 1/2 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

This is based on a clone of the Cheesecake Factory’s pumpkin cheesecake. I made changes to it to suit our family’s tastes. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been asked for the recipe.

I use a 10″ springform pan. If you use a larger or smaller one, make sure to adjust the baking time (less for a larger pan, more for a smaller pan).

Lisa’s Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups cinnamon graham cracker or gingersnap crumbs
5 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
3 8 oz packages cream cheese, soften
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tsp Chinese Five Spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the graham cracker or gingersnap crumbs with the butter and 1 tbsp sugar in a medium bowl. Mix it together until it’s all combined – you don’t want to make it into a paste. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the springform pan. You want to make sure the bottom as a pretty good coating, and that it comes up the sides enough to cover the seam between the bottom and sides of the pan very well. If you don’t, the filling will leak out of the pan and made a huge mess.

Bake the crust for 5 minutes, then set aside until you’re ready to put the filling in. You can make the crust ahead of time, but it does not have to be completely cool to continue with the recipe.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla. Beat it together with an electric mixer until it’s smooth. Scrape the sides down and give it another little bit to make sure everything is mixed up well.

Add the pumpkin, eggs and Five Spice and mix until everything is smooth and creamy. Scrape the sides and bottom down then mix it again to make sure there aren’t any white shunks in the filling.

Pour the filling into the pan and bake for 40 minutes. The top will be a bit darker than it was when you put it in the oven. You’ll see some cracking around the edges, but those will disappear as it cools. Remove it from the oven and let it cool. When it’s room temperature, put it in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

To serve, remove the sides of the springform pan and cut the cake into 8 equal slices. If you wish, garnish with a dollop of whipped cream. If you really want to get fancy, sprinkle the whipped cream with some crushed crystallized ginger.

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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 598 Calories; 41g Fat (60.8% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 49g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 192mg Cholesterol; 502mg Sodium.

Exchanges: 1 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 7 1/2 Fat; 3 Other Carbohydrates.

(Nutrition info added 11/24/09, doesn’t include whipped cream or crystallized ginger)

I’ve been making this chili for several years, and its our family’s favorite chili. It’s based on a recipe from Serve It Forth. I’ve made several changes from the original to suit our tastes. The most important thing about this recipe is that you need to put the ingredients in the pot in the order they’re listed in the directions. If you don’t, it won’t taste right. I have no idea why, but that’s just the way it is.

I’m also going to apologize now. A couple of the ingredients don’t have a measurement listed for them. That’s because I use the “that looks about right” measurement. If you like the taste of chili powder, put a bunch in. You’ll also see that there’s curry powder and ground cloves listed. Not things you’d usually see, but it gives the chili a taste no other I’ve had does.

Death Chili

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 lbs chuck or round roast/steak, cut into 1/4″ cubes
garlic powder
1 lb ground beef (chuck is preferred)
1 large onion, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 – 28 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 jar spaghetti sauce with peppers (we use Newman’s Own Sockarooni)
red wine, about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup
2 – 3 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp curry powder
dark chocolate syrup

In a medium to large frying pan, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable or canola oil over medium-high heat.

As you’re cutting up the steak, or just before you put it in the frying pan, give it a generous sprinkling of garlic powder. Brown the steak in small batches (about a handful at a time), then transfer to a large (5 quart or larger dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot). Add a little bit of oil if needed as you go.

Brown the ground beef in the same pan you did the steak in. Cook until there’s no pink left in the meat. Transfer to the pot with a slotted spoon and discard all but about a tablespoon of fat in the pan.

Put the onions in the frying pan, sprinkle with the salt and cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to the pot.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot, in the order they are listed. For the chocolate syrup, I usually do a zig-zag pattern across the pot in a single direction (i.e. left to right). At a guess, I use about a quarter cup or less.

Once the chocolate syrup is in, give the pot a careful stir to combine everything. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for at least half an hour, but an hour (or more) is best.

Serve with whatever you like – sour cream, cheese, sliced scallions, whatever floats your boat.

Note: the total amount of meat needed for the chili is 3 lbs, but it can be any combination of steak/roast and ground beef.

When my son was younger, I decided to make a meat pie for supper. Not a pot pie, with all the gravy and such, but a proper medieval style savory meat pie. He was at the age where he was starting to get interested in what I was doing in the kitchen, and asking all kinds of questions. He asked me what I was making for supper, and I answered meat pie. He asked me what kind of meat pie, and since I was making it up as I went along, I said it was a mystery. Thus was born Mystery Meat Pie. He loved it, but I haven’t made it since. I probably ought to change that.

If you don’t have dried cherries, you could probably substitute dried cranberries (the Craisin things).

Mystery Meat Pie

Unbaked pie shell and top
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
1 small potato, peeled and chopped
1 small apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 tbsp dried cherries
1 sundried tomato
3 tbsp flour
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring the pie dough to room temperature. If not already in a pie plate, but the crust for the bottom in a deep dish pie plate and set the dough for the top aside.

Brown the ground beef in a frying pan until all the pink is gone. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and discard the fat.

Brown the onion in the frying pan until the onion is tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper as the onion cooks.

Add the meat and the remaining ingredients to the frying pan and stir to combine.

Put into unbaked pie shell and cover with the dough for the top crust. Seal around the edges but do not cut vents in the dough.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until top crust is golden brown. Serve warm or room temperature.