Sweet Potato Soup

I keep a stock of this in my freezer at all times. And it’s one of those recipes that has a lot of leeway as far as the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

3 large sweet potatoes	Black pepper to taste
*3 (14-oz) cans chicken broth (just over 5 cups)	Orange zest to taste (opt--changes the texture a bit)
1/4 cup brown sugar, or more to taste	Cayenne pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)	**1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

*I prefer to use about 1½ C chicken or turkey broth with the rest as milk, and maybe some orange juice.

**I don’t usually have heavy cream on hand (because if I did, I’d put it in everything!). So you can substitute half and half, whole milk, or 2 Tbsp or so of butter. It will taste different, but still very good. As I said, the ingredients are really here just to make it taste good. So you can add or subtract whatever suits you, as long as you end up with the consistency of soup you like.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Bake sweet potatoes in preheated oven until soft, about 1 1/2 hours (you can also use a microwave). Remove and let cool slightly.

3. Peel sweet potatoes, and puree with chicken broth in batches, using enough chicken broth so that it purees smoothly. Bring puree to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in the sugar, salt, nutmeg, black pepper, orange zest, and cayenne pepper; cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in cream.

Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is really rich and delicious.

10 ½ ounces (just under 2 C) dark or semi-sweet chocolate

1 ¼ sticks unsalted butter

1 ½ cups sugar

Pinch of salt

5 large eggs

Confectioners’ sugar (opt)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8- or 9-inch springform pan very well.

In a double boiler set over barely simmering water, melt the butter first, then add the chocolate and melt, and then add the sugar and salt, stirring frequently the whole time. (You can put them all in at the same time, but this order makes it easier to mix). In a medium bowl, beat the eggs for several minutes while the other ingredients melt. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate and stir until thickened, several minutes. I use my KitchenAid mixer to beat the eggs and stir it all together.

Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Bake 45 minutes, or until the top is set and begins to crack. You can always do the toothpick test on it. By the way, it’s better to overcook this a little than to undercook it. Overcooked, the edges are a tiny bit crispy. Undercooked, it falls apart when you take off the sides of the pan (or so I’ve heard).

Remove the side of the pan and let the cake cool completely.

Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired. It’s also delicious with fresh strawberries.

PER SERVING: 435 calories; 5 g protein; 48 g carbohydrates; 2 g fiber; 26 g fat (15 g saturated); 143 mg cholesterol; 29 mg sodium