Potato cheese soup
6 Cups peeled and cubed Potatoes
1/2 cup chopped carrots
3/4 cup chopped onions (we like the sweet onions)
3 cups chicken stock (not broth)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tablespoons Flour
3 Cups heavy cream
5 cups shredded cheddar cheese (we like to use 2 to 2-1/2 cups of gruyere and the remainder cheddar)
1-1/2 cups cooked chopped bacon
In a large stock pot , add potatoes, carrots, onion, chicken stock, salt and pepper . Simmer until veges become tender.
In a separate bowl mix the flour and heavy cream. Add to the soup mixture and cook until soup become thick. Stir in cheese and bacon. Simmer until cheese is well melted and soup is thick. If you feel soup needs to be thicker add more flour and cheese.

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

Overnight Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls

I have been looking for a good cinnamon roll recipe for a while and I think this is it! The dough part is the best I have ever made ! It is delicious, light and fluffy but still chewy enough for a good cinnamon roll. The filling is delicious too though there was not enough of it for mine and Tim's taste. I will probably double the filling next time.
Here is the link for the original recipe http://www.averiecooks.com/2013/02/overnight-buttermilk-soft-and-fluffy-cinnamon-rolls.html
I modified the recipe a bit since I only had active dry yeast and didn't want to run to the store for instant. If you have instant dry yeast you can use the recipe on the link, if you have active dry yeast you can follow my recipe :) Active dry yeast requires a short activation time before adding to the recipe.

Makes 12 cinnamon rolls

For the Dough

• Up to 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons melted butter
• 3 large eggs, lightly whisked
• 1/2 cup buttermilk

Filling

•  1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

 I will probably double this next time I make it since I love the brown sugar filling, but this is the original portions if you want to try it first or just go ahead and double it :)

Cream cheese frosting

•  1/2 pound (1 cup or 2 sticks) of  butter softened
• 1 pound (4 cups) powder sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 12 oz (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese
• 1-2 Tablespoons milk(optional)

This is my cream cheese recipe for cakes, but I added a little milk to the recipe to help it spread better on the cinnamon rolls. If you want the frosting to be thick don't add the milk.

Directions
For the Dough

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, pour the 1/4 cup of lukewarm water into the bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle the Tablespoon of yeast over the water mixture and let it sit for about 5 minutes. When the yeast mixture looks foamy on top then it's ready to go.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl and set aside. Gently whisk the eggs in another bowl to loosen.
3. Measure out your buttermilk in a glass measuring pitcher and warm in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds. The buttermilk should feel lukewarm when you stick your finger in. If it's too hot let it cool off. The buttermilk will probably separate when heated, don't worry this is normal, you can whisk it to bring it back together or just use as is.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together 4 cups of flour, the 1/3 cup of sugar and salt. Set aside.
5. Add the buttermilk, butter and eggs to the yeast mixture in the bowl.
6. Next add your flour mixture.
7. Mix on a low speed with your paddle for about 1 minute or until the dough comes together.
8. Switch to your dough hook(some dough will have stuck to the paddle so scrape off what you can and add back to the bowl). Using your dough hook knead the dough for 10-12 minutes. If after 5 minutes more flour is needed, add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour one tablespoon at a time, until the the dough clears the side of the bowl but sticks to the bottom. This is a very sticky and moist dough so don't be tempted to over flour it. The more flour you add now the less fluffy the rolls will be. Dough should clear the sides but it's ok if it sticks to the bottom. During rising your sticky dough will turn into a soft pillow.
9. After the dough has kneaded for 10-12 minutes remove dough from bowl and place in a large mixing bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray or rubbed with butter or oil. Cover dough with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free area for about 2-2 1/2 hours or until doubled in size. You can keep the bowl in inside your powered off oven and every 45 minutes or so, power the oven on to 400 F for 1 minute like your preheating then turn off after 1 minute. This should keep the environment inside the oven about 85 degrees to help the yeast rise. This is helpful if it's a cold day. 

Rolling out the dough
After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. With a rolling pin roll your dough out to a 16- by-12-inch rectangle approximately.

For the Filling
Spread the softened butter over the top of the dough, leaving a small border along one of the long sides of the dough (this is to help seal it). Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top of the butter, then sprinkle the cinnamon over the brown sugar.

Rolling and Slicing

1. Starting with your long edge roll the dough into a tight log. Roll from the sugar side to the side with the dough border. Pinch the seam closed then roll the dough over so the seam is on the bottom. If you need to gently stretch and shape your dough, patting the ends to even them up.
2. Using a sharp knife, a bench scraper or dental floss cut your log into 12 rolls. Arrange the rolls on a baking sheet that has been greased or covered with parchment paper. Cover with Plastic wrap.
3. Decide to make them straight through. Let the rolls rise in a warm, draft-free place until the rolls have nearly doubled in size, 1 -1 1/2 hours.

Overnight rolls
After the rolls have been sliced and covered in plastic wrap don't let them rise, place the pan in the refrigerator overnight or for up to 16 hours. Before Baking, let the rolls sit at room temperature until the have nearly doubled in size.

Baking
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden on top. Don't let the rolls get overly brown.
Spread the cream cheese frosting over the hot rolls and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment beat the butter until soft.
2. Add the powder sugar to the butter one cup at a time and beat well in-between each additon.
3. Add the vanilla and mix.
4. Cut the cream cheese into chunks then with the mixer running on a medium speed add the cream cheese chunks one at a time, making sure each chunk gets incorporated. Beat on a medium high speed for a minute to make the frosting smooth.
5. if adding in the milk, add after all the cream cheese chunks have been added then beat for a minute.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Indian Butter Chicken Curry

This recipe came about as a way to satisfy my craving for Indian Curry. The local market where I usually get my curry paste from went out of business and so without any curry paste I decided why not try making curry from scratch. My sister Tabitha had mentioned that she and her family were really enjoying butter chicken curry lately and after having some at the LA Times book festival, I decided to give it a try.
The recipe is actually my combination of two recipes.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/chicken-in-creamy-tomato-curry-chicken-tikka-masala-recipe2/index.html
and
http://www.ecurry.com/blog/indian/curries/gravies/murgh-makhani-butter-chicken/

I really liked the idea of using fresh tomatoes in the sauce like Aarti Sequeira's recipe, but loved all the spices and the chicken marinade of the second recipe. I think both recipes are probably very good on their own.

The recipe itself is not that hard, it just takes a little bit of preplanning.

A quick word on spices. The recipe calls for a lot of spices that are hard to find in the grocery store. I found my spices at Penzey's Spice Store. They have a location in Santa Monica off the promenade, and one in Torrance, you can also order all their products online. I think it would probably be ok to substitute ground spices; which are easier to find in the store for some of the whole spices. I'll add the conversions to the recipe.
Here is the cast of spices

So without further ado here is the recipe for Butter Chicken

Garlic-Ginger Paste (from Aarti Sequeira of the Food Network)
About 1/2 cup whole garlic cloves peeled
About 1/2 cup fresh ginger peeled and cut into smaller bits
1/4 cup Canola oil
 Blend all ingredients in a small food processor or blender until it resembles a paste, there will still be tiny pieces but overall should resemble a paste. Store in a small glass container.

Chicken Marinade
2 lbs chicken, cut into about 1 inch cubes. (approximately 3 breast or 4 thighs or a combination of breast and thighs )
1 teaspoon Red Chili powder
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1 teaspoon Ground Fenugreek
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
2 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste

Mix all the ingredients together and add to the chopped chicken in a Ziploc bag and seal. Massage the ingredients around until the chicken looks coated. Place in the refrigerator and let marinate for 4-6 hours, or overnight.

The Sauce
4 Tablespoons Butter
3 Tablespoons Ginger-Garlic paste
1-2 green serrano peppers (seeds removed and minced; I used just one pepper and thought it had plenty of kick, however if you like it spicy use 2)
4 green cardamom pods (or use 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom, it's just the seeds from the pod ground fine)
2 inch stick of cinnamon
 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground Fenugreek
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
2 teaspoons Paprika
8 Roma Tomatoes diced
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1 cup Water or Chicken Stock
2 teaspoons Sugar
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream (seriously use the heavy whipping cream)
Minced Fresh Cilantro for garnish

Heat butter in a heavy bottom pan (4-5 qt.) Gently saute the minced peppers, ginger-garlic paste, cardamom pods(if using ground add later) and cinnamon stick until fragrant.
Add the Tomato paste to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the ground spices (this is where you would add the ground cardamom) and saute for a minute to pull out the flavors.
Add the diced tomatoes, salt and 1 cup of water or stock to the pan and bring to a boil, Once at a boil reduce to a simmer and let simmer for 20-30 minutes and the sauce has thickened a bit.

While the tomato mixture is simmering. Heat up your oven to 400 degrees or the broiler. I used my broiler. Place the chicken pieces on a broiler pan covered in foil if doing in the broiler or place on a baking sheet if making in the oven. Cook chicken about 10 minutes turning over half way. The broiler gave them a nice slightly charred look similar to a grill. Don't worry if the chicken isn't completely cooked all the way through as it will cook more in the sauce. Set aside.

Once the sauce has finished simmering, fish out the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods and put the sauce in a blender, food processor; or use a hand immersion blender to blend right in the pot. Blend until smooth. Bring the sauce back up to a boil and add the chicken to the sauce, reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add the cream and stir until combined, simmer for 5 more minutes, then garnish with fresh cilantro.

Serve over rice with Naan bread (I cheat and get my Naan bread at Trader Joes from the frozen section, their Garlic Naan bread is really good) and there you have it!
Tim is not a big Indian curry fan and he said this is the best Indian curry I have made so far. Hope you enjoy it.

Garlic Shrimp Burritos

I had this a restaurant and fell in loved with the dish. It seemed simple to recreate, so I made an attempt. It came out great. 

Ingredients 

1package of  Flour Tortillas

2 Avocados

1 package of yellow rice

1lbs of shrimp. (I used cooked shrimp for this but you can use frozen.)

Cheddar Cheese shredded.

Cook the yellow rice as it says  on the package. Cut the avocado into slices and warm the tortillas.
If you are using pre-cooked shrimp make sure the tails are off and stored in a cold place. If you are using raw shrimp, cooked how you would normally cook it. 

Creamy Garlic Sauce
2 tbsp, butter blend

1tbsp of mince garlic ( you may use garlics powder)

1tbsp of all purpose flour

3/4c of Heavy whipping cream or haft & haft

1/3c of Parmesan cheese (Good if fresh, but the bag version is fine)

1/4 c of Parsley (I used from the jar, but if you can use fresh.)

In large saucepan, melt butter. Saute garlic over medium heat for 1 minute (until garlic tender). Remove from heat. Stir in flour, blend until smooth. Return to heat and gradually add half and half. Stir in cheese and parsley. Heat until sauce thickened and smooth.

Combine all to make your burritos.