OXO 10-Pc. Pop Container Set

Jk Adams 48 Spice Bottles, Caps, Sifters

Mini Spice Jar with Clamp Set

Related posts:

1. Kitchen organizers
2. Spice Racks
3. Thanksgiving Prep: Check Your Spices!

Recipe below from 101 cookbooks with suggestions by me:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt (try this Dean & Deluca Porcini Sea Salt for extra oomph!)
2 cups dried split green peas, picked over and rinsed
5 cups water
juice of 1/2 lemon (reserve the zest)

a few pinches of smoked paprika
more olive oil to drizzle

Add olive oil to a big pot over med-high heat. Stir in onions and salt and cook until the onions soften, just a minute or two. Add the split peas and water. Bring to a boil, dial down the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the peas are cooked through (but still a touch al dente). Using a large cup or mug ladle half of the soup into a bowl and set aside (Vollrath Wear-Ever 64 Oz. Aluminum Transfer Ladle).

Cuisinart® SmartStick® Hand Blender

Crate & Barrel

$49.95

Using a hand blender (or regular blender) puree the soup that is still remaining in the pot (Cuisinart® SmartStick® Hand Blender) . Stir the reserved (still chunky) soup back into the puree – you should have a soup that is nicely textured. If you need to thin the soup out with more water (or stock) do so a bit at a time. Stir in the lemon juice and taste. If the soup needs more salt, add more a bit at a time until the flavor of the soup really pops.

Ladle into bowls or cups, and serve each drizzled with olive oil and topped with a good pinch of smoked paprika and a touch of lemon zest.

Serves 4 to 6.

Related posts:

1. Pea Soup with Williams-Sonoma Olio Santo
2. Butternut Squash Soup
3. Loaded Baked Potato Soup

We had this for dinner last night at RCA, Los Angeles’ popular go-to for Thai food. I haven’t attempted this soup before, but with how much rain is coming down, we might just need to stay home and follow this recipe from blogger Going with my Gut. Find Going with my Gut’s recipe here.

Here are some tools that will be mighty helpful for me for Tom Yum Goong!

OXO Shrimp Cleaner from Sur La Table

Mushroom Slicer by Westmark

This table top bowl heater is similar to how tom yum goong is traditionally served at restaurants. It keeps the soup hot!

Stainless Steel Mongolian Hot Pot

Related posts:

1. Butternut Squash Soup
2. Loaded Baked Potato Soup
3. Split Pea Soup

Microplane ® Grater-Zester

Crate & Barrel

$15.95

Microplane Premium Spice Grater, 9

Sur La Table

$10.00

Microplane Rotary Grater

Target.com

$19.95

Related posts:

1. Ginger Cookies
2. The Little Red House: Butternut Squash Orzo
3. Mac & Cheese. And Pumpkin.

Lalique Dragonfly Decanter

De Vecchi Table Accessories – Sterling Silver Carafe

Rothschild Bird Green 10 Pc Tea Set

Related posts:

1. Rabbit Wine Shower Funnel
2. Pretty Candlesticks – Setting the Table

Brought to you by

hanging wire kitchen rack at Beso.com

Related posts:

1. Wine Racks for the Wine Aficionado
2. Spice Racks
3. Kitchen organizers

Here is Everybody Likes Sandwiches‘ recipe with kitchen recommendations by me!

apple & sour cherry pie with crumble topping

pie crust:
(crust adapted from Simply Recipes)
2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 t salt
2 T sugar
3/4 c unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes
1/2 c all-vegetable shortening
6-8 T ice water (Tovolo Perfect Cube Ice Cube Trays)

filling:
3 apples, peeled & sliced (Peel Away Apple Peeler)
2 c sour cherries
1 T rum
1/2 c sugar
2 T flour
2 t ground cinnamon
large pinch of ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves

crumble topping:
1/4 c flour
1/4 c oatmeal
1/4 c brown sugar
1 t cinnamon
3 T cold butter, cubed

1. Combine the flour, salt & sugar in a large bowl and give everything a good stir with a whisk. Add in the butter and use your fingers to break it down into a coarse oat-looking concoction – the largest butter lumps should be the size of small small peas. Add one tablespoon of water at a time, using a wooden spoon to start to gather the mixture into dough. Stop at 6 tablespoons (Williams-Sonoma Collapsible Measuring Cups and Spoons). Use your hands to create a ball. Too dry? Add one more tablespoon and try again. You don’t want the dough to be sticky or wet. It should be fairly dry but should hold together. Divide dough into 2 equal sized balls and wrap each ball of dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap. Flatten each dough ball with your palm into a 4 inch disc and refrigerate 2 hours. You’ll only need 1 pie dough circle for this recipe. You can use the other remaining pie dough to create another pie or freeze a well-wrapped dough for up to 3 months.

2. Preheat oven to 400F.

3. Place one chilled dough disc onto a very lightly floured silpat mat or piece of parchment paper. Place another silpat mat or parchment over top and roll out your dough. No need to flour your rolling pin (Sur La Table Rolling Pin) since your pin won’t touch the dough. When the dough is about 1.5-2 inches wider than your 9″ pie plate, stop rolling. Remove the top layer of parchment/silpat and gently grab the bottom layer and place into pie plate so that the dough is roughly centered. Remove the remaining paper/silpat and tap the dough into place

4. Using the end of a butter knife (Charlemagne Butter Knife) , create a decorative edge using 2 fingers pointing inwards to the pie and the knife end pointing out in between your 2 fingers. This creates a scalloped edge. You may have to trim your edges and patch up any tears with the remaining scraps. Or you can crimp with a fork. Place pie dough in the fridge. Phew! That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now let’s get started with the filling!

5. In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients, giving everything a good stir. Set aside.

6. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour to the cinnamon. Cut in the butter cubes and use your hands to blend the butter into the dry mixture. Create nice sized crumbs. If the mixture is too greasy, add in more flour. If it’s too dry, cut in some more butter. Set aside.

7. Remove chilled pie crust from the fridge and add in the apple/sour cherry filling. Lightly pack topping over the filling and place pie on a baking sheet covered with silpat or parchment. Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 35 minutes – cover the crust edges with foil if necessary to prevent over-browning. Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly on the edges, about 25-35 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream or whipping cream.

Related posts:

1. Traditional Apple Pie
2. Old-Fashioned Apple Pie
3. Fresh Pears in Season!

No more smacking jar lids with the blunt edge of a knife? I’m sold!

Target One Touch Jar Opener

No more peeling apples so slowly that they brown before I finish? I’m sold!

Essential Apple Peeler

A perfectly poached egg every time? I’m sold!

Silicone Egg Poachers (Set of 6)

Does this make me lazy?

Related posts:

1. Oval Shaped Slow Cookers Easier
2. Silicone Bakeware: Non-Stick Wonder
3. Apple Cider Citrus Punch

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh green spinach
8 oz packet of paneer cut into cubes
1 cup red chopped onion
1 cup tomato pureed
3-4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 inch ginger
2-3 thai green chili
1 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 cloves
1/4 cup heavy cream or 2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
3 tbsp olive oil/cooking oil
Salt

Method:

Boil spinach in a big pot (Rachel Ray Cast Iron Casserole Dish) adding fennel seeds and cloves to it. Let it cool and then blend it in a blender (Cuisinart SmartPower Blender from Crate & Barrel). Save the water in which you boiled your spinach.
Grind onion, ginger, garlic and thai chili making a thick paste. Heat oil in a medium sized pot and add the ground paste of onion, garlic and the other ingredients. Cook everything until the paste starts changing color from light pink to darker pink and then slowly towards golden. Then add salt.
Stir for a minute and you’ll see onion loosing some oil that’s when you have to add coriander powder & curry powder.
Mix it all together and add pureed tomato.
Cook everything until the paste is thicker and all the liquid from the tomato is cooked. Then you have to add the pureed mixture of spinach, fennel seeds and cloves. Fennel seeds and cloves here are the secret ingredients that I add to my spinach. This gets rid of the spinachy (if there’s any word like that) smell of the greens.
Don’t forget to turn the heat to lowest because as soon as spinach hits the hot pot it would start bubbling and jumping. So continuously stir it on low heat for a minute or two and then cover it with a lid to let it cook. If you think the gravy is too thick for you add a ladle or two of the saved boiled water from the spinach and then cover it.
In a separate sauce pan boil salted water, turn off the heat and then add the paneer cubes. Let it stay in hot water for 2-3 mintes while your curry is being cooked. This helps drain all the excess fat from the cheese making it softer.
Then add cream or sour cream whatever you are using to the spinach curry. Mix well.
Drain our paneer cubes from the salt water and add it to the gravy.
Give it one quick boil and your Palak Paneer is ready. We ate it with some char grilled butter naan (grill with Sur La Table Stainless Steel Flexi Grill Basket).

Related posts:

1. Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore
2. Butternut Squash Soup
3. The Little Red House: Butternut Squash Orzo

Find the formidable recipe at Tracey’s Culinary Adventures!

Some things you’ll need:

Rolling Pin (J.K. Adams High Roller Gourmet Rolling Pin Individual Pieces Cookware)

Ruler (12-1/4″ long x 2″ Wide Aluminum Ruler)

Knife (Harold Import Company TBCL Cooking Knife 15 Centimeters)

Related posts:

1. Homemade Hostess Makes Me the Mostest!
2. Making Homemade Marshmallows!
3. Homemade Blueberry Syrup