Vegetable Beef

Well I have been quite the negligent blogger - long nights at work, tons of good TV, time well spent with the boyfriend...all great excuses, trust me.  But now it is time to get down to business and I declare the first week of November, Soup Week.

Start with this one.  It's easy - so easy, I am not even going to include pictures.  Tomorrow, we can tackle a soup a teeny bit harder but only harder because it involves more than one step (Pea Soup).

Tonight, just throw this stuff in the crockpot and get excited you can eat delicious vegetable beef soup while cuddling up at watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice tomorrow.  Or your show of choice.

Vegetable Beef Soup
In a crockpot, combine the following:

28oz can crushed tomatoes
Beef stew meat (I got the prepackaged kind, not even sure how much it weighed)
1 or 2 potatoes, cut up into chunks
16oz frozen mixed vegetables
5 or 6 beef boullion cubes
pepper
dried basil - approximately 1 tablespoon, but can adjust to your liking
2 cups water - more or less depending on how thick you like it.  This is a good medium amount

If you are feeling extra crazy, this is delicious with a few carrots chopped up, the addition of a chopped onion, and a big juicy roll on the side.

Let your soup cook in the crockpot on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4 hours.

ENJOY and be thankful for the delicious foods of Fall.

Deviled Eggs

Well, eggs have been sitting in my fridge for awhile.

I hadn't realized how difficult it is for me to use a whole thing of eggs when I am not baking much.  I pretty much only use eggs to make a casserole or a dessert, and I haven't done much of either.  With the heat, casseroles aren't very appealing.  I might be using some of those eggs for a Fourth of July treat (tbd) but I wanted to get rid of some of them.

The perfect use? DEVILED EGGS! I love deviled eggs.  While I admit they do make a perfectly impractible lunch item, they are so delicious I couldn't pass it up.  However, if you have ever noticed, there are so many different deviled egg recipes out there.

I decided to go with the recipe from July 2011 Glamour, the one with Blake Lively on the front.  It is a feature of "The Ultimate Summer Comfort Food," prepard by the chefs from the new movie, The Help. The recipes together would make a pretty excellent dinner: fried chicken, deviled eggs, sweet tea, black eyed peas and spinach salad, with a pineapple upside down cake for dessert.  I do not like frying chicken, and I can't stomach putting two cups of sugar in a pitcher of tea, but I definitely want to try the salad and potentially make the cake, if the right event came along.

Anyway, the focus of this post: the deviled eggs.  This recipe makes twelve pieces and is by Lee Ann Flemming.

6 eggs
1/2 cup mayonaise
1 tsp mustard
2 tsp sweet pickle relish
paprika
pimento-stuff green olives, cut in half (I went without the olives; didn't feel like spending more money on something that fancy when normal eggs are just fine with me!)

1. Put the eggs in a single layer in a pot and add enough cold water to cover them.  Bring the water to a rapid boil over high heat (be careful if there are bits of food/liquid on your burner...high heat always makes mine smoke if the stuff doesn't have a chance to burn off slowly).  Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let stand fifteen minutes.  Drain the hot water and replace with cold water.  When the eggs are cool, peel, cut in half, and remove the yolks.  OBVIOUSLY save the egg whites!

2. Mash the yolks with a fork and add the mayo/relish/mustard.

3. Spoon the mixture into the egg whites and garnish with paprika and olives (again -- I didn't use olives).

So there you have it...a super simple recipe for a super delicious appetizer.  I didn't take pictures because I only did the dirty work tonight.  I hate peeling the eggs, so I did it tonight.  Tomorrow morning I'll put it together.

So now down to the nitty gritty.  What do you do to make your deviled eggs just right?

Tips around the internet include:

• Use eggs that are near their expiration date - easier to peel (I just tried this and didn't find it true...)
• Center the yolks in the egg by turning the eggs on their side in the refridgerator the night before you cook them
• Use room temperature eggs (they cook one minute faster)
• Cooking times that range from 15 to 20 minutes