Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup

I need someone to explain to me what is the difference between these soups?

I've bought both with the intent of comparing them. But if someone can just tell me, it will save me the trouble!

Aunt Bee's Baked Artisan Goat Cheese

During the San Francisco trip, Raw and I headed down to the wharf. We had coupons for free appetizers at the Bistro Boudin, so we decided to lunch there.

We chose the Baked Artisan Goat Cheese for our free appetizer. When the server brought the dish, we almost laughed at the four tiny slivers of bread. Didn't he know how hungry we were?

Fortunately, the second dish he laid before us was a generous portion of a tasty warm tomato-ey sauce with a slice of goat cheese nestled in the middle. The goat cheese was nicely broiled and topped with a drizzle of pesto.

Raw and I were so delighted that we decided to try to recreate the magic at the dinner we all cooked on our last night there.

It turned out pretty delicious so when Jacque, Jill and I had a "Tapas Night" today, I made it again. Still delicious!

I like to kind of cheat when it comes to recipes. Totally homemade just takes too long! So this is how I mimic Bistro Boudin's tasty treat:

Aunt Bee's Baked Artisan Goat Cheese

One small hunk of goat cheese--The little packages all rolled in herbs works great!
One jar of tomato bruschetta in a variety of your choice

Dump the jar of bruschetta in a pie plate. Slice up the goat cheese and place the pieces evenly over the bruschetta.

Stick the pie plate in the oven and broil until the goat cheese is bubbly and nicely browned.

I serve this with sourdough, but any good bread would taste great.

And now that I think about it, this would probably be really good if you heated the bruschetta for awhile before putting the goat cheese on top. I'll try that next time and let you know how it works!

The best f*&%in' sh*t you can put in your mouth

There's a quaint little restaurant in Portland, Oregon, called Jam. It's on Hawthorne in Southeast. And it's great: nice waitpeople, a great brunch, good mimosas, a good crowd.

It's also home to the best f(*&in' sh&t you'll ever put in your mouth. It's called Ty's Big Breakfast.

I started making not infrequent trips up to the City of Roses in 2006 when my old buddy Emily moved up there. I had moved out to San Francisco and Portland is a just short* jaunt up I-5. So I started making trips back and forth. About the third time I was up there (sometime in the fall of 2006 or so) Emily and Josh took me to Jam.

It was great.

We started making it a tradition: Each time I was in town, we'd brunch at least once at Jam. The place is only about three blocks from Emily and Josh's house, so it was easy to roll our hungover selves out of bed and head down to Jam. It got even easier in the spring of 2007 when we discovered Ty's Big Breakfast.

I was especially hungover and especially hungry after a long night of partying and (badly) singing karaoke. So we went to Jam and on the menu I saw English muffins topped with eggs and veggie sausage patties, all covered in veggie gravy, with a side of hashbrowns. I hadn't really eaten many good veggie biscuit-and-gravy-type dishes in my day, but I seriously needed the grease and the heaviness in my stomach to keep the Greyhounds from the previous evening inside. So I thought I'd give it a try.

BEST. FOOD. ADVENTURE. EVER.

After one bite I was hooked. I sprang to life and almost started crying I was so happy. Ty's Big Breakfast was sooooo good! I ate the whole thing in about five minutes, my co-brunchers laughing at me all the while. And when I finished I tried to get the waitress's attention to let her know of the oral orgasm my mouth had just experienced.

"How was everything?" she asked.

"It was good."

"Great, thanks!"

And then, as she was about to walk away, I chimed in: "Holy sh%t! That was the best f#&^n' sh*t I've ever put in my mouth!"

And I meant it.

Laughter, of course, ensued among our party, along with many nods of agreement. I don't make it up to Portland as often anymore, but rest assured that when I'm there you'll definitely find me at Jam at least once. And yes, I'll be eating Ty's Big Breakfast.

*This is a lie. It's ostensibly a nine-hour drive, but it's always a bit longer than you expect.

Best. Pie. Crust. Ever.

So, as any culinary artist will tell you, THE most important part of any pie is the crust. Most busy folks nowadays go the easy route and buy a crust at the local market, but there are still a few of us diehard, make-it-yourself-every-time pie crust chefs out there. So here’s my recipe. It really is the best one if you like incredibly flaky, buttery, sweet crusts.

This recipe makes one single crust. Simply double the ingredients for a double-crust pie.

1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter (must be cold!)
1/4 cup shortening (must be cold!)
1 large egg
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup ice water

Mix flour, sugar, and salt. Cut the shortening and butter into the flour until the flour-fat mixture is in crumbly, pea-sized chunks. NOTE: Because of the cold, solid nature of the butter and shortening this may be difficult. Power through! Do it as quickly as possible to avoid heating up the fats. Or better yet: use a food processor to cut the fat into the flour.

In a separate bowl, beat together egg, vinegar, and water. Add the liquids SLOWLY to the flour-fat mixture until it just forms a ball. NOTE: You should not use all of the liquids. If you use too much of the liquid mixture, add a bit more flour to dry out the dough.

Pat the crust into a one-inch-thick disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. NOTE: DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Working with cold ingredients is key to a flaky crust!

After an hour or more, lightly dust a countertop, the dough, and a rolling pin with flour. Roll out the crust, working from the center of the disc and rolling outward. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH. This will also take away from its flakiness.

Once it’s rolled out, transfer the crust to a pie pan. Do this without stretching the dough. Depending on what kind of pie you’re making, you may want to prick the crust with a fork and bake it for 12 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Most pies don’t require a pre-baked crust, however, so feel free to skip this step.

If you’re making a top crust for a sweet pie, once the crust is in place lightly brush it with the remaining egg-water-vinegar mixture and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, or whatever the pie recipe calls for.

If you're coming to San Francisco...

You should probably 1) call me for a place to stay and 2) eat at Lime. It's not the best place to eat--that would be A16 or Quince or Chez Panisse--but it is the best place to start a Saturday. Or continue a Friday...

Picture a place that's blaring dance music at 10:30 a.m. Picture a bunch of hipsters and queers who've been dancing all night and haven't quite yet, um, come down. Picture mod seats and rose tinted windows. That's Lime.

What's more, Lime serves $6 all-you-can-drink mimosas all day, every Saturday. On Sunday, it's $7. And, if you're like me, you can drink a lot of mimosas. A lot. So it's well worth it.

The food's decent enough, but you probably won't care after a half-dozen orange juice and champagne cocktails. I like the vegetarian Eggs Benedict, but some of their omelets are pretty good, too. The fruit's generally pretty fresh if you're into lighter fare.

But who are we kidding? I don't go there for the food. I go there for the booze. And the drinks really are bottomless (unlike some of the sweet boys in there--zing!). They may kick you out of a booth and over to the bar, but they won't quit serving you. Believe me: I've been there from 11 a.m. until nearly 4 p.m. before.

Which is just how I like to start off my weekend...

Reba's

Reba's is awesome!

It really does seem a bit out of place when compared to the other restaurants I've been to in Newton. But doesn't every town need a semi-fancy place to hang out?

I've enjoyed all the food I've had at Reba's. I think the spinach salad with the citrus vinaigrette is awesome! I like my dressings to have some pow! so I guess I could understand why others might enjoy a more subtle taste.

We always enjoy the hummus. The secret is that it's not actually chick peas. I'll leave the rest of the secret to the chef.

The music is always good. Where else do you get to listen to Beck and Elliott Smith and maybe even some Cake if you're lucky?

Honestly, though, we rarely make it in time for dinner. We usually go to hang out with Joel and Nick. They're great bartenders. They have some creative drinks up their sleeves, but are quite comfortable with the standards. They're very friendly and might even come hang out with you after close!

Reba's is definitely worth the trip to Newton!

Black Bean and Chickpea Curry

As some of you may know, I'm a little obsessed with hash browns. I bought some last week and felt like having them for dinner. But what to eat with them?

Curry, of course!

I know. That sounds weird. But it sounded tasty at the time. So I just kinda threw some stuff together to make a weird curry. It was missing something. Any ideas?

Black Bean and Chickpea Curry

One can Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce
One can chickpeas
One can black beans
Patak's vindaloo paste, to taste

Dump pizza sauce into a pot. Drain beans and chickpeas and stir them into sauce. Add vindaloo paste. Cook 'til hot.

I think I should write recipes for a living. People respond well to the direction "dump."

Chicken en Papillote

I found a recipe for this in Real Simple a long time ago. Michael and I decided to try it out once when he was visiting. Since he's vegetarian, we used Morningstar Chick'n Strips. I don't remember a lot about the recipe other than you cook it at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. It's really all about eyeballing and throwing in a bunch of stuff. This is the combination we had. It turned out colorful and delicious!

Chicken en Papillote

Parchment Paper
Chicken Breasts (optional)
One can butter beans
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Carrots, julienned
Baby spinach
Yellow squash, sliced
Green onions, chopped
Olive oil, to drizzle
Lots of garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut parchment paper to size you wish to serve. Leave plenty of room to fold paper to seal. We used two pieces for each packet, like a sandwich, then folded the edges. I've also done it where I folded over one large piece.

Stir all ingredients, except the chicken, together until evenly dispersed. Drizzle in olive oil and add salt and pepper.

Spoon vegetables onto one layer of parchment paper. Place chicken on top. Seal by folding in edges.

Place sealed packets onto baking sheet and cook 30 to 40 minutes.

To serve, either place packets on plate, or open packet and dump onto plate. We opened them and ate with rice.

Banana Bread

This banana bread was much better than the healthy recipe. But to tell you the truth, I don't know what makes that recipe more healthy than this one. The original recipe called for all-purpose flour but I used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour.

2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed, overripe bananas

Prehat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with wheat flour. I had some overripe bananas and thought I'd try a wheat banana bread.

Apparently, I don't like healthy banana bread.

Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread
From King Arthur

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium to large bananas)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups King Arthur 100% Organic Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add the bananas, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour, then the walnuts, stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Bake the bread for 50 minutes then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the oven; a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean. Allow the loaf to cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan, and cooling it completely on a rack.

Apple Crisp

I have a bit of an obsession with anything that ends with "crisp."

Apple crisp, peach crisp, sweet potato crisp; I want it. This is my favorite crisp recipe. I've adapted it from a bunch of different recipes.

I like to use wheat flour and have a few other secret ingredients that I don't really want to divulge here. I think the wheat makes it a bit heavier, though.

Jacque made an apple crisp awhile back that tasted quite different and lighter. If you like it better that way, use regular ol' flour instead of wheat.

Apple Crisp

6 cups sliced Granny Smith apples* (approximately 6 apples)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup wheat flour
3/4 cups quick oats
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9x11 baking dish.

Place the sliced apples in the bottom of the baking dish and spread out evenly.

Combine all the remaining ingredients together in another bowl and mix until well blended. The mixture should have a crumbly texture.

Sprinkle mixture over the apples. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

*Really, you can use any fruit. Or vegetable. Or I guess you could try some kind of meat. Just kind of eyeball it. One of my favorites is Cranberry Apple.

Chickpea and Mint Crostini

Raw has been on a detox diet. While there's a big list of things she's allowed to eat, there's also a long list of things she can't. I'm hoping this recipe is full of things she can eat and she'll make it for me to try!

This is another recipe from the January 2008 Real Simple.

Chickpea and Mint Crostini

1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas
2 scallions (white and light green parts), chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds from 1 small pomegranate (optional)
1 16-ounce bag store-bought crostini

Drain, rinse, and coarsely chop chickpeas. In a medium bowl, combine them with scallions, mint, olive oil, salt, pepper, and pomegranate seeds. Serve with crostini.

Orange Chicken with Potatoes

Do you get the feeling that I might like chicken?

I found this recipe in a slow-cooker article in Real Simple. There were recipes for things from beer braised beef to lemon poppy seed cake. This recipe, though, was one I really would like to try.

Orange Chicken with Potatoes

8 skinless chicken thighs
Kosher salt and pepper
2 onions, quartered
1 pound small red potatoes
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1 orange, cut into 1/4-inch rings
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon honey
8 sprigs thyme

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In the bowl of a slow cooker, combine the chicken, onions, potatoes, squash, garlic, orange, broth, honey, and thyme. Set the slow cooker to high and cook, covered, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 2 1/2 hours. Divide the chicken mixture into individual bowls.

If You Don't Have a Slow Cooker: Heat oven to 325° F. Follow the recipe above using a Dutch oven or large casserole. Bake, covered, until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Serves Six

Skillet Lasagne

I found this one in a Woman's Day magazine. I think it looks really easy and I love lasagne. But I have no idea where to find meat loaf mix.

Skillet Lasagna

1 lb meat loaf mix
8 curly lasagna noodles, broken into 2-in. pieces
1 jar (26 oz) marinara sauce
2 cups water
1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta

1. Cook meat loaf mix in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often to break up meat, 4 to 5 minutes, or until browned. Drain off fat. Stir in noodles, sauce and water; bring to a boil. Cover; reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, 18 minutes or until noodles are tender.

2. Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Spoon ricotta on top; add remaining shredded cheese.Cover 3 minutes to melt cheese.

*Six Servings

Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes

I made this back in November while on a sweet potato kick.

I had a basic recipe from Martha Stewart's magazine, Everyday Food. I really just used it as a guide and added in some other secret ingredients, which I won't reveal.

Okay, I'll reveal one secret. I added apples to the mix!

I made it pretty spicy and it was delicious over couscous!

Moroccan Chicken Stew with Sweet Potatoes

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
* Coarse salt and ground pepper
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 medium onion, diced
* 1 piece fresh ginger (2 inches long), peeled
* 1 cinnamon stick
* 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
* 2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 pound total), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
* Pinch of saffron (optional)
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 cup couscous
* Cilantro sprigs, for garnish (optional)

1. Place flour in a wide, shallow bowl. Season chicken with salt and pepper; dredge in flour, shaking off excess. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add chicken, and cook until browned, 4 to 6 minutes per side; transfer to a plate.

2. Add onion, ginger, and cinnamon to pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Return chicken to pot. Add broth, sweet potatoes, and, if using, saffron. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and sweet potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Discard ginger and cinnamon. Stir in lemon juice, and season stew with salt and pepper.

3. While stew is simmering, prepare couscous according to package instructions. Serve chicken stew with couscous, garnished with cilantro, if desired.

Chili Chicken

I found the recipe for Chili Chicken at My Feasts.

It looks yummy and I want someone to cook it for me!

Chili Chicken

3 chicken breasts - medium sized
14 dried chilies - cut into thirds
1 heaping Tb minced ginger
1 shallot - minced
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn starch
2 Tb vegetable/ peanut oil
1/2 Tb light soy sauce
1/4 cup water

Wash and cut chicken breast into bite size. Season chicken with soy sauce, corn starch , salt, sugar and sesame oil. Break off or cut dried chili into thirds or halves and set aside ( the variety that I use are the ones typically used in Malaysia, it is skinny and long and I have a whole lot of them in my pantry!).

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saute pan or a wok on medium high heat. Quickly fry the dried chili until it turn reddish brown ( 2 minutes) and remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add seasoned and diced chicken to the wok or pan and stir fry it for 3 minutes. Add ginger and water and cook for another 7 minutes or until the chicken pieces are cooked. Stir occasionally. Adjust seasonings and add fried chilies to the chicken. Stir well and serve with steamed rice.

Momma Fed

Momma Fed has the largest private collection of cookbooks in the world.*

See her contributions by clicking here.

*unconfirmed

Michael

Michael grew up with Aunt Bee in small-town Kansas. Mr. Michael is a firm believer in the Triple Crown of mayo-sour cream-cream of mushroom soup. He'd also like to add ranch dressing to the trifecta of culinary goodness. If it's not a casserole or a salad or sandwich, chances are that Mr. Michael probably ain't puttin' it into his yapper.

He also is a firm believer in the booze.

Mr. Michael's first major culinary award came at the tender age of 11, when he won the Kansas State Fair's food championship for his strawberry pie. That included gelatin and 7-UP(R). Really.

He currently lives in the Foodie Capital of the World, the (in)famous City by the Bay and serves as Executive Chef of the Vulcan Stairway. When he's not stirring together various munchies, he's likely exploring San Francisco's plethora of imbibing establishments.

Contact Michael by email:
michael AT heartauntbee.com

Aunt Bee

Aunt Bee started the culinary adventure called life in a small town in the middle of America's heartland where any real cuisine includes at least one of three ingredients: mayonaise, sour cream, and/or cream of mushroom soup. Unless, of course, it's dessert, in which case it includes at least a stick of butter or a cup of sugar (both is better), Paula Deen style.

There should also be booze--lots of it--served alongside any good meal.

Today, Aunt Bee cooks up her culinary delights along the banks of the Arkansas River in the Aviation Capital of the World. When she's not creating decadent adventures for the tongue, she's helping to solve the world's banking crises, talking on her fancy-pants Sprint phone with Internet capabilities or surfing the 'net and sharing her world famous recipes with her legions of fans.

Aunt Bee is the founding contributor to this site and runs the rest of Heart, Aunt Bee. You can find her contributions to this site by clicking here.

You can also find Aunt Bee's reviews on Yelp!

Click here to contact Aunt Bee.