White Cheddar Ale Soup

I have had a craving for North Peak Brewery's White Cheddar Ale Soup with mustard pretzel croutons lately.  However, that's a 2 hour drive for me, so I thought, "well how hard can it be.  It's ale, it's white cheddar, you can't really go wrong..."  As usual, I searched the net high and low for recipes.  One called for leeks, one for Worcestershire sauce, another for heavy cream.  I had none of these items on hand.  What I did have was a lovely winter ale and some white cheddar.  My blog is all about using what I have on hand to make delicious food at home because we live quite a drive from the grocery store and it is an even farther drive to find a great restaurant.  Below is what I came up with:

5 TBL Butter
2 carrots
1-2 stalks of celery
1 small onion
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk (2% is what I used)
12 oz bottle of ale
spicy brown mustard
8-10 oz grated sharp white cheddar cheese
salt, pepper
chicken stock

Halve the carrots lengthwise and thinly slice.  Dice the celery and onion finely. Saute veggies in butter, season with salt and pepper, simmer for 10 minutes. Add flour and whisk until bubbly, 1 or 2 minutes. Slowly pour in milk, whisking constantly. Add beer and mustard. I didn't measure the mustard, a couple squirts, perhaps it was a couple of teaspoons--you won't want too much.  Increase heat to medium high, bring to boil while whisking constantly.  Boil one minute, reduce to low and simmer 10 minutes.  The soup should be creamy at this point.  Mine was a little heavier than I wanted it, so I added a cup of chicken stock made with chicken base. I would recommend adding a teaspoon of the base to the soup even if you don't add the water to make stock. Once all this is incorporated and looking creamy, add the grated cheese a little at a time until it is combined.  Someone* (*the huz) got into my white cheddar, so I added a few crumbled slices of regular cheddar as well, and that was fine. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed, even a pinch of crushed red pepper if you like.  Serve with popcorn or croutons.

I was quite pleased with the results, if only I had the mustard pretzel croutons on hand.  But some popcorn popped on the stove top was a nice addition and a traditional accompaniment to "beer cheese" soup.

For dessert, I whipped up a batch of Banana Oat Cookies, a nice ending to a very comforting meal.

Vegan Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

There are a few vegans in our family.  I only dabble in it occasionally, after all it never hurts to eat more vegetables!  So I have scoured the web for a few good recipes in order to more easily break bread (heheh) with the family.  I had pumpkins.  I had cranberries.  And I ran across a pumpkin cranberry bread recipe here at What Would Cathy Eat?  I've tweaked it for muffins, which I prefer to quick bread loaf.  I just love this recipe, number one, the muffins are delicious.  Number two, you almost can't hurt it.  Sometimes I put in a little extra flax seed, maybe a heaping cup of pumpkin puree.  I'm not big into measuring so I eyeball the seasonings.  And as a matter of fact, the pictured muffins were made with roasted butternut squash puree.  I discovered this thanksgiving that Libby's canned pumpkin is actually a variety called the Dickinson pumpkin which is more closely related to butternut squash than your friendly neighborhood jack o'lantern.  Knowledge is power!

2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
6 tablespoons orange juice
a bit of orange zest if you have it
1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup cranberries, roughly chopped or whole your preference

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix pumpkin, sugar, flax, orange juice & zest, vanilla and oil.  In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices, then mix into the wet ingredients. Fold in the walnuts and cranberries.

Fill 12 muffin cups, bake about 20 minutes.  Ovens are different so keep an eye on them the first time you make them.  Sometimes it seems I have a little too much for 12 muffins so I put the rest in a mini muffin pan (12).