Rachel Ray's Grilled Tomato Stoup with Prosciutto and Mozzarella Portobellos

Tonight's recipe adventure was randomly selected by my daughter from her Rachel Ray 30-Minute Get Real Meals cookbook (page 114). The title  -- Grilled Tomato Stoup with Prosciutto and Mozzarella Portobellos -- threw me at first, so I had to research what exactly a STOUP was. According to Rachel Ray, it's somewhere in between a soup and a stew. The main ingredients are onions, garlic, EVOO, plum tomatoes, bread, chicken stock, portobellos, prosciutto, mozzarella and pesto sauce. Salt, pepper, thyme and crushed red pepper flavor the stoup.

I was VERY apprehensive about this recipe. Grilled tomatoes, eww. Portobello mushrooms, eww. Well, I like mushrooms, but have never tried a portobello that wasn't chopped. It also seemed a little ambitious for a 30-minute ingredients-to-table meal.

I'm definitely getting more acquainted with my food processor with recipes like this. I was very easy to chop the onion and garlic so I could get it in the soup pot with the thyme and red pepper. Grilling the tomatoes and bread, although I hate grilled tomatoes, was a breeze. It was a bit of a challenge for me to manage the portobellos and the stoup (on top of trying to feed two 5-year-olds)but I think it was just the unfamiliar recipe. The food processor finished the job of pureeing the grilled tomatoes and the bread.

The texture of the stoup was thicker than a soup, but not as thick as a stew - just as Rachel Ray suggests. I have plenty of left overs, so I'll probably throw in crackers and cheese for a nice lunch. The portabellos were amazingly simple and quite tasty. I'll definitely make these again.

Overall, I think it took me a little over 30-minutes from start (pick up the onion) to finish (ladle the soup in the bowl). I give it a thumbs up but wouldn't necessarily add it to my list of dinners to repeat. You could easily vegan this recipe using veggie stock instead of chicken and skip the prosciutto. I would definitely skip the pesto sauce, too. I'm tickled to say this turned out to be a success! My hubby says no thank you, though, when I asked if the recipe was a keeper. He won't eat mushrooms and didn't care for the texture of the stoup.

Antique recipe? Pumpkin Cake

I forgot to make the trip to Publix to buy the ingredients for the randomly selected recipe we were going to test next.So, I grabbed an alternate from a group of recipes I've never tried.

In a shadow box in my kitchen, I have a collection of my grandmother's cake recipes. Before my time, my grandmother had a business making cakes for people. She also authored and published at least 10 cookbooks. Some of my most enduring memories of summers as a child were riding in my grandparents car as we traveled around the country to Cracker Barrel stores to sell the cookbooks. I have seen a few for auction on eBay, but I'm quite sure that family are the only who have complete sets. Her cake recipes, though, I've never touched beyond putting them on display in the shadow box. How perfect I thought it would be to try one of those and add it to the blog!

So tonight, we have Pumpkin Cake by Louise Henderson. Written on a 3x5 card and inserted into a plastic sleeve. It has to be over 40 years old. There was no temperature or time on the recipe - something I've seen as a trend on many that she collected. I guessed and tried 350 degrees for 25 or so minutes and used a bundt cake pan.

Results:
Surprisingly very good! The batter seemed heavy for a cake, so I was worried it would turn out more bread-like. It is a little crumbly. However, a cream cheese icing glaze drizzled over it would probably make up for any crumbs.  Definitely worth a try and could be used as a coffee cake substitute.

Pumpkin Cake
1 1/3 c sifted flour
1/2 c shortening
1 c sugar
1 egg beaten
1 1/2 c pumpkin (I used canned)
1 c raisins (the vote was 3-2 for no raisins)
1 c chopped nuts (I insisted)
1 t. soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves

If you try it out, let me know how you like it!
I was shocked to find some of her cookbooks for sale on Amazon:

Giada's Family Dinners: Pepperoncini Shrimp (with pasta)

For our first recipe roulette, I grabbed my husband's Giada's Family Dinners cookbook (see link below) and asked him to pick a number between 1 and 240. He picked 74. On page 74, we found a beautiful picture of grilled shrimp on a plate. Giada and grilled shrimp - you can't go wrong with that, can you?

The recipe was fairly simple: tossing shrimp in a sauce made of finely diced pepperoncini, minced garlic, salt and pepper sauted in olive oil. I chose to grill it on the stove top. Giada didn't specify what to serve the shrimp with, so we tossed the shrimp with spaghetti and olive oil after taking the shrimp off the grill.

Pros: this was very tasty - especially for those who like it a little on the spicy side. It makes a large batch so you'll have plenty for left overs or lots for a large crew.

Cons: The aroma of grilled, minced pepperoncini will clean out your sinuses!!! Definitely grill this OUTSIDE. Unless you have a stuffy head cold.

What I would change:  Stick to the measurements in the recipe. That means measuring the pepperoncini before throwing it into the oil.  Also, I think I'd reserve some of the pepperoncini oil to toss with the shrimp and pasta after grilling it instead of tossing it in the same bowl you tossed the raw shrimp as the recipe suggests. Definitely use deveined, shelled shrimp - but my taste testers wished there were no tails on the shrimp, too.

Overall, this was a big hit with the house. Definitely a keeper. I think it would make a great appetizer too with a sour cream or mayo based dip to go with the shrimp.

Next up - a pick from one of our Rachel Ray cookbooks.