White Bean and Leftover-Easter-Ham Soup

Amy's mom had us over for Easter and served one of the best hams the family's ever had. With a gorgeous fat cap, it was moist, tender and full of flavor. But that side of the family is pretty small, and with one picky first grader and her super-picky mom, we had plenty of leftovers. While the first thing that comes to mind for most New Englanders is the traditional split-pea soup, Amy was inspired by this recipe to make a white bean soup. With a few modifications, it was a light and easy post-holiday meal.

White Bean and Leftover-Easter-Ham Soup

adapted from this recipe by Grace Parisi

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed

5 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

4 cups low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth

3 14-ounce cans cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

fat cap from ham

3/4-1 pound ham leftovers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

In a large soup pot, melt the butter. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, thyme sprigs and coriander and cook the vegetables over moderately high heat, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the stock, beans and fat cap and bring to a boil. Cover partially and cook over moderate heat for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and remove the fat cap and thyme sprigs from the soup and discard. Using an immersion blender, blend the soup to desired consistency. Return soup to heat and add ham pieces. Season with salt and pepper to taste and cook over low heat until ham is heated through. Serve with crusty bread!

Candy Popcorn for Easter (Taste and Create)

This month we were invited to join Taste and Create, a group of food bloggers who are partnered up to cook recipes from each other's blogs. We were partnered up with No Reason Needed. If you are looking for a great variety of interesting recipes, you should definitely check it out - you can see all of them listed on the bottom right of the homepage. At first we were going to bake - perhaps some "Big Soft Ginger Cookies," or a "Lemon Drizzle Cake," but with the stress of work lately, we've been indulgent, and didn't want to have more baked goods around the house waiting to be gobbled up. 

Then Amy spotted this recipe for Candy Popcorn and immediately remembered this storefront at the Fairfield Mall in Chicopee where she grew up. It was called Kandy Korn or something similar and was a bright yellow place with containers of popcorn of every color and flavor - cherry, lime, strawberry. Oh, it was amazing, especially to a kid in the late 70's with a sweet tooth. That place made the mall smell like heaven, and when she saw this recipe, it all flooded back. This was the one.

We decided on grape flavor, in honor of nostalgia. We also used one of Amy's favorite appliances, The Whirley Popper. It is simple to make, festive for the Easter holiday, and tastes just like Amy remembered. Thanks for the memories!!!

To read more about, or to join Taste and Create, go here.

Candy Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 3-ounce package flavored gelatin mix

9 cups popped popcorn

Combine honey and margarine in a microwave safe bowl and cook until melted, about 1 minute on high. Stir in sugar and gelatin powder. Microwave on high until it comes to a boil and turns foamy, doubling in size, about 2 minutes. Pour mixture over popcorn in a large bowl and stir to coat. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and turn coated popcorn onto the sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 1/2 hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

Easter Treats

Easter dinner at Chris's family's started in the late afternoon, leaving us plenty of time during the day to make our Easter treats. For the first two, we utilized our new favorite ingredient bought during a recent trip to Boston (more on Beantown coming this week): Boyajian pure citrus oils (they are amazing).

First, with our newly-gained eclair-making skills and lemon oil for flavoring, we made "Easter Eclairs" with lemon pastry cream and glaze. They look small because they are; we needed plenty to feed the crowd, and got 45 out of one recipe batch! They were a hit!

Next, since the pastry cream for eclairs calls for egg yolks, we used the remaining egg whites to whip up a batch of meringues using Grandma's recipe but substituting lime oil for the vanilla extract and leaving out the chocolate chips. Tangy, light and tasty!

Finally, because we just had to make Easter eggs, we made the cover recipe from the cookbook Culinary Tea in which you soak hard-boiled eggs in a liquid made with brown sugar, soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon, and of course tea. Alas, as usual, we lacked patience and ours did not come out quite as pretty as theirs, but next time we will crack a little harder and soak a little longer.

Happy Easter and happy spring, everyone!