St Patrick's Spinach Soup

Erin Go Bragh! In honour of St Patrick's Day, I made this green soup with plenty of spinach! It was delicious, very easy to make and a definite must try! YUM.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups of cooked spinach (I used frozen spinach) / This is basically half of a frozen spinach bag. 
• 1/3 cup of half and half
• 1/4 cup of milk (I used 1%)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1tsp salt
• 2tsp cayenne pepper

1. Cook your spinach and drain the water. 
2. Add the half and half, and milk. 
3. In your blender, put the mix and add the pepper, salt, and the garlic clove. Blend until smooth. 
4. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Finally! I am all settled in in our beautiful apartment and have gotten reacquainted with a kitchen! Feels good to be baking and cooking again - should I add eating homemade food again too? YUM! Anyhow I made this last night and it was really fun to make. The concept of the pull-apart bread is pretty cool! Charles really liked the bread. Mom and Dad not so much. You win some you lose some. I thought it was good but tasted exactly like a cinnamon bun which is something I was not entirely expecting. So if you want a yummy cinnamon bun with a twist, this should work! I took the recipe from Joy The Baker. Her blog has plenty of cool recipes. 

Ingredients for the dough:

• 2 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp of flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 envelope)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 ounces unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it did the trick)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside. 
2. Whisk together the eggs and set aside. 
3. In a saucepan, melt together milk and butter, until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add the water and vanilla extract. Let it cool down a bit - needs to be warm. 
4. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Ass in the eggs and stir the mixture until everything is well incorporated. 
5. Add in the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir well. The recipe says you should get a sticky dough. I got a dry dough and it worked fine too. 
6. Place the dough in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to double for an hour. 

Ingredients for the filling:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned

1. Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling and set aside.
2. Melt the butter until browned and set aside.
3. Grease your pan. Set aside. 
4. Once your dough has risen, deflate it and knead about 2tbsp of flour into the dough. Cover with with a kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. 
5. On a floured surface, roll out your dough as much as you can. Joy says the dough should be 12 inches tall and about 20 inches long. 
6. Using a brush, spread the melted butter across all of the dough. 
7. Sprinkle all of your sugar and cinnamon mixture. Be generous. 
8. Slice the dough vertically, into six equal sized strips.
9. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You will have six stacks of six squares. 
10. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan. Place a kitchen towel on top and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. 
11. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place the loaf in the oven and bake 30 minutes or until the top is very golden brown. 
12. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean plate. 
13. You can invert it back to its right side up.
14. Enjoy!

* I served this with ice cream. 

Will be back shortly

I will upload new recipes in the next two weeks. Currently dealing with a move to NYC! In the mean time, I urge you to try the Ladurée macarons if you have not yet! YUM.