We Got Rocked, Plus Making Candy for Son and Daughter-in-Law

We got rocked again. No, that's not a bad thing, but actually a very sweet thing. Someone left some Valentine painted rocks on our driveway Thursday afternoon. Here they are. now I need to get busy this weekend and paint a couple of rocks myself to leave on others' driveways.

Every year, I make some Valentine candy for my son and daughter-in-law. It's nothing fancy, but they really appreciate it. So easy-- this must be the easiest candy I make. It's simply melted chocolate chips/melting wafers-covered mini pretzel twists. Don't these even look like little hearts?

Anyway, I make red or pink ones, using colored Wilton melting wafers and dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate with basic chocolate chips. The Wilton melting wafers keep for years. I've had the same bag for at least 5 years, bought at Jo Ann Fabrics and Crafts on sale. I buy several bags at a time in different colors to use for different holidays. 

The bag has some melting instructions on the back of the package that I think work well. basically, you melt the wafers in a microwaveable bowl for 60 seconds at 50% power, stir, then melt again in 15 to 20-second intervals, stirring in between melting. Once fully melted, I add about 1 teaspoon of vegetable shortening (Crisco) for every 1 cup of wafers or chocolate chips. This just helps thin the melted chocolate enough for dipping or coating.

I made 3 different flavors/colors of coated pretzels on Thursday in about 1 hour of hands-on time. I use a couple of forks to turn the pretzels in the melted chocolate and to transfer to a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. I place the sheet in our "cold" room (it's about 55 degrees F in there) to firm up over a day or two.

I just wanted to mention these because even if you think you can't make candy, anyone can make chocolate-covered pretzels. You know, there's a commercial brand of chocolate-covered pretzels. Flipz is the brand name. They sell for about $7 for a 24-oz bag at Sam's Club. I can make about 24 ounces of chocolate-covered pretzels for about half that cost, using 1 1/2 bags of chocolate chips (under $2 a bag) and about a half-pound of mini pretzels ($1.52 for 16-oz bag) for a total cost to make around $3.50 to $3.70 (depending on whether I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate, or 60% cacao dark chocolate). Colored chocolate, such as the red Wilton Candy Melts, if bought on sale or with a higher value coupon from Jo Ann's, cost me about the same.

One other Valentine thing to mention -- since my Cooky-Jar Sugar Cookies recipe made so many cookies, (66 total, I rolled them thin), I was curious how much sugar, fat, and calories they each had. I don't normally count calories, but I do like to know if I'm eating something that is super high in fat, sugar or calories, so I don't overdo it and then feel sick later. Anyway, I plugged all of the ingredients and their quantities plus servings (cookie count) into an online recipe nutrition calculator (I used the calculator on this site). I was very pleasantly surprised to find that each cookie has about 42-47 calories. Compared to many other cookies, this makes a very light, sweet snack with a cup of coffee or tea in the afternoon.

Anyhoo, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Welcome to the Month of Soup-uary

I've had soup everyday of this month, everyday for lunches and several evenings for dinners. This began the week that my sinus infection was brewing. The day I went to urgent care, my daughter made a large batch of chicken, garlic, onion, and herb soup for our dinner. I was at the point of not wanting to move my mouth to chew or talk due to pain. So, she strained the liquid for me to slurp and set aside about a quart of this very flavorful broth for me to enjoy over the coming days.

To add variety and nutrients, I began adding some cooked veggies to a cup of the broth then pureed all in the smoothie blender, giving me an easy-to-make cream of veggie soup (minus the dairy, of course). This worked so well that when I'd finished my daughter's broth, I made another batch of chicken, garlic, onion, and herb thin soup for making additional pureed veggie soups this week.

I vary the soup each day by choosing a different cooked veggie. I try to use up leftover cooked vegetables from the previous night's dinner. For example, one evening I had leftover roasted onions, potatoes, and pumpkin cubes. I used these veggies the next day along with some frozen spinach, pureeing all with about a cup of the chicken broth. 

Another day, I had leftover buttered, steam carrots to use up. So I pureed those in more of the chicken liquid, thickening with some instant mashed potatoes.

The smoothie blender was from a free pile at my husband's office 2 years ago. We'd only used it for smoothies and pureeing fruit sauces. It never dawned on us that we could use it for pureeing savory foods. It works best with cold or room temp ingredients. Hot liquids cause expansion and for the seal to fail while processing. So I puree the veggies with cold broth, then pour the mixture into a microwaveable dish to heat. 

When I don't have leftover cooked veggies to use, I microwave-steam a custard cup of frozen veggies for about a minute and a half before processing with broth. I've used frozen broccoli and frozen spinach for cream o' green soups. I have some frozen mushrooms that I thought would make a great near instant cream of mushroom soup. And I'm thinking this will work with canned tomatoes, too. So far, I've been surprised by how delicious these quick soups have been. I especially loved the carrot soup. Yum! That was delicious! Broccoli has been amazing too. I stir in a bit of cheese to the broccoli soup after heating. The spinach soup was pretty good. But I think it would have been improved if I'd added seasonings like nutmeg.

So what's the point of all of this if I still have to make a large pot of chicken, herb, garlic, and onion soup? I get variety while making "soup for one". The rest of my family prefers their own style of lunch and doesn't always want soup. But I really enjoy soup in winter and want more variety than I'd get if I made a large pot of one recipe to use for the week.

Have you ever been forced by circumstance into trying something outside of your box and then discovered how beneficial this new process was? This is how I feel about my new way to make soup for one. The smoothie maker gets more use, I eat a larger variety of vegetables in my daily lunches, and I can have a hot, delicious, homemade lunch in about 5 minutes.