Corn Soup with Chicken and Poblano

We enjoy soup often during the winter. Yes, I'm one of those people who would rather have soup on a cold day than in the middle of summer. 

Summer in north central Montana has arrived. The grass is green, the garden is growing, the lilacs are blooming, and I'm wearing flip-flops. It's beautiful.

Having said that, today's high was only 56. Still beautiful... the sun is shining and there's a slight breeze and it's not too hot for a bowl of soup!

Coffee Flan with Cajeta

I chose Rick Bayless's Flan de Cafe with Cajeta for this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

Can you say time consuming? This was. I used whole milk in place of goat's milk for the cajeta and stood for a little over an hour at the stove, stirring. The cajeta is delicious. The recipe asks you to strain the cajeta after cooking and I just don't see how that would be possible. Maybe I made mine too thick? I don't think so, but there's no way I could have gotten that flan through a strainer!

Queso Fundido

It's Cinco de Mayo with Rick Bayless, our chef this go-round at I Heart Cooking Clubs. 

I wanted to make something a little over the top this week, and couldn't find anything better than Rick's Melted Mozzarella Casserole with Mushrooms and Smoky Chipotle Chile (Queso Fundido). 

Chicken with Capers

I Heart Cooking Clubs theme this week is from the earth and our Chef is Rick Bayless. I don't own any of Rick's cookbooks, so I went to our local library to check them out. Ahem. Our local library doesn't even have one of his books. So, I've been finding recipes on the internet and this one from Season 5, Mexico-One Plate at a Time sounded good. I thought about ordering one of his books, but really, the last thing I want to do is start collecting more of anything. 

Grilled Garlic and Pineapple Guacamole

Today is National Garlic Day!

Garlic. Is there anybody who doesn't like it? It's good for you and has been used medicinally for thousands of years. Eat it fresh and it has a distinct fiery taste... roast it and it becomes buttery and mellow. I use garlic in a lot of the meals that I cook.

Grilled Cornmeal Pound Cake

When I worked in an office, once a month we'd get a bakery-made cake and celebrate everyone who had birthdays that month. You know the cakes... the ones with tons of too-sweet frosting and big gloppy roses on the corners. There was always somebody who wanted the corners so they could have more frosting. Then there were the people who wanted a middle piece without too much frosting, and even then, they'd end up scraping it off.