Carrot Ginger Soup

I'm not feeling too well this morning - cough, fever, stuffy nose - so I thought I'd make some homemade soup to try and clear my head. My mom had given me a ton of homemade turkey broth after Christmas, and my kitchen was stocked with about 4lbs of carrots... Natch, I decided to make some sort of carrot soup.

As usual, I googled for a recipe. I didn't find any one in particular that I liked, so I mixed and matched from a few. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 tbsp margarine

2lbs carrots, grated

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

6 cups turkey broth (you could use chicken or veggie)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat margarine over medium heat, add onions, and cook until onions are softened (but not browned).
2. Add carrots and ginger, and stir. Let cook for about 5 minutes, or until carrots are sort of "al dente".
3. Add broth and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes, until carrots are soft.
5. Puree with a hand blender or in a food processor.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe turned out really well, for the most part. Maybe it's just because I have a cold and I can't taste anything, but I thought the soup could use more ginger. So I added about a tsp of powdered ginger, and that seemed to do the trick.

Otherwise - this recipe will definitely become one of my go-tos!

Easy Corn Chowder

This recipe by Nigella Lawson was forwarded to me by my fellow foodie, Elijah. It was so easy and fast to make, and the chowder tasted so good!!

Ingredients:

750g bag of frozen corn niblets

3 green onions, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1/4 cup semolina flour

6 cups vegetable broth

salt and pepper

chili powder (optional)

hot sauce (optional)

Directions:

1. Soak corn in warm water to soften kernels. Drain.
2. In food processor, blend corn, garlic, green onion, and semolina flour until it reaches a desired texture.
3. Put corn mixture into a saucepan, and add broth. Stir thoroughly.
4. Simmer for 10 minutes, adding salt and pepper and other spices to taste.

This recipe was so easy to make, and turned out really well. It's very flexible as well - you could vary the spices that you add in order to alter the flavours.

Ginger Molasses Cookies

My favourite cookie is the Ginger Molasses cookie that Starbucks sells... It's so chewy and delicious (and expensive... and really high-calorie....). Nonetheless, I've wanted to find a recipe for these cookies forever!

I've tried a few out before, and by far this is the best one. It's lacking a some chewiness, but the taste was really nice.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ground cloves

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 extra large egg

1/4 cup regular unsulphured molasses

granulated sugar (to roll cookies in)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with the rack in the center. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves into a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in egg and molasses until well-mixed, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as you go.
5. Mix in the flour until well-mixed,
6. Place some sugar on a saucer. Using an ice cream scoop, measure dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheet, spacing evenly.
7. Flatten cookies a little using your fingers.
8. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through baking time.
9. Remove from oven and let cool.
10. Enjoy!

These were delicious, but much less chewy than I expected. I would definitely make these again!