Is it soup weather where you live? Or is it sunny and 75 degrees outside?  Well, it’s been snowing off and on all day here and the tempature is going to drop to below zero tonight. 
Soup weather!!! 
Tonight I made Baked Potato Soup topped with Cheese and crisp Capocollo.

Recipe Follows The Pictures:

Baked Potato Soup
4 large baking potatoes
5 slices bacon
1/2 cup butter
1 large onion, diced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups milk
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups (6-ounces) grated cheddar cheese, divided*
5 thinly sliced capocollo

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub potatoes well and prick several times with fork; bake approximately 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. Remove from oven and let cool. When cool, cut in half lengthwise and peel and dice into medium size cubes and set aside. Discard skins.

Cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving drippings, crumble, and set aside.

In a large soup pot over low heat, add reserved bacon dripping and butter. Add onion and saute approximately 4 to 5 minutes until soft. Stir in flour until well combined; cook for several minutes, but do not let brown. Gradually add milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add potato pulp, salt, pepper, crumbled bacon, and 1 cup cheese. Stir and cook until cheese is melted. Add extra milk, if necessary, for desired thickness.

To serve, use individual soup bowls garnished with a pinch of cheese and diced capocollo

Plated Halibut on Sweet Peppers

I once read never trust a “skinny chef.” Well, you can trust me by about forty extra pounds. Over the last year, I have been working on changing how this family eats.  With focused effort, I have lost 42lbs with about 44lbs to go.  When it comes to weightloss, for me , it’s all about proportion size of the food.  I grew-up with the parental dining rule that  ”there’s kids in other countries starving, so you better clean your plate.”

These days, I am a member of Weight Watchers and I go to my group meetings on Thursdays.  So I thought on Thursdays I would spotlight a meal that is very low in calories and fat, but also really delicious and simple to make. 
I hope you enjoy tonight’s meal: Roasted Halibut on a bed of Sweet Peppers with Avocado Sauce and Steamed Asparagus.

Recipes follow the pictures:

It must be pizza night

Nothing beats making your own pizza at home.  You can’t help feeling like the owner of a pizza ria. You’ll be singing Dean Martin’s That’s Amore and trying to spin pizza dough in the air. I know this because it’s what happens in my kitchen when it’s pizza night at our house, only I like to sing Volare by Dean Martin. 

We love to make our pizza New York style. Now there’s nothing wrong with Chicago style…we just prefer New York Style pizza.  So, here’s a little info on New York Style pizza (NYSP): NYSP is made over-sized, thin and bendable. It has a very thick outer crust and a thin middle.  New York pizza dough is traditionally hand-tossed and light on sauce.

NYSP is cooked in a very hot oven anywhere from 500 to 900 degrees, right on the oven shelf or on a baking stone for a crunchy outer crust.

Pizza is one of the fun family meals that everyone can get in on.  Give your kids a chunk of dough and show them how to roll it out with their hands or you can even use a rolling pin.  When it comes to spinning and throwing the dough into the air, it takes a lot of practice and it is really only done to get the excess flour off the dough. Kids love adding all their favorite toppings…they always make me think they approaching it like they are creating a work of art.

If making dough from scratch is too time consuming, there are several pre-made crusts available at your local supermarket.

The recipe is after the photos:

Ingredients

1/2 cups warm water (105F)

4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoons of olive oil

2 1/2 teaspoon of granulated sugar

2 1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of yeast

1/2 cup cornmeal

Procedure

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in water.
2. Add oil and flour and stir with heavy spoon or dough hook on your stand mixer for 1 minute.
3. Turn out to a lightly floured surface and press into a circle or leave in mixer and go to step 4.
4. Sprinkle yeast evenly over dough and knead for 12 minutes.
5. Divide in half for a 15 inch pizza
6. Roll each portion into a ball. You want a dough ball without visible seams except the bottom.
7. Place dough balls in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow proofing for 1−2 hours at room temperature to use the same day, or store in refrigerator to use the next day.
8. Place dough ball on lightly floured surface, and lightly flour the top. Use fingertips to evenly flatten out the dough ball. Work from the edges to the center press dough into a 12″ circle. Place both hands within the shell edge and stretch with fingertips and palms maintaining an even pressure. Or, use a lightly floured rolling pin to stretch to desired shape.
9. Sprinkle cornmeal or semolina on pizza peel (a wooden paddle with a handle to slide the pizza in the oven) or a cutting board. The cornmeal allows the pizza to slide onto the stone easily.
10. After topping the pizza, when you are ready to cook it. Shake the peel or cutting board to make sure none of the dough is sticking.
11. Carefully slide the pizza into the oven.
12. Bake in a 500 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, until crust is golden.