Fluff's Cakes

FYI: Shabby is our celebrity couple name (Shane + Abby).  

This week I am going for comfort food, and also to go back and re-cook some of the recipes from my original Abby/Betty Project.

There is something really comforting to me about soup and a sandwich.  My mom makes it like it’s no big deal for lunches when I come home sometimes and it consists of amazing sandwiches and soups that would easily go for $12 and up.  She makes tuna salad that is soo good but I have never been ever to duplicate it exactly.  She also makes tomato soup that is easily better than the kind they sell in jars at Le Madeleine.  I am not at that level yet, but tonight we did a pretty good job!  

Shane made the tuna salad today and we did a mini knife skills lesson in the process.  If I could do anything in the whole wide world, sometimes I think it would be teaching people how to cook!  Here are two yummy comfort food recipes for you:

tuna salad from Betty Crocker

12 oz of tuna (4 packets of tuna in water or oil)

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1 red onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 apple, chopped

1/4 cup of relish

Beyond the tuna and mayo, you can add the following to taste— hard-boiled egg, grapes, chopped pickles instead of relish.

salt, pepper, and paprika to taste — you can also use mustard, Tabasco, or add a little chopped jalepeno 

juice of half a lemon

Break up the tuna into small pieces and drain any excess liquid.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix.  Tuna salad tastes better once you allow the ingredients to sit together in the refrigerator for a few hours (and leftovers are good up to three days).

broccoli cheese soup from Kate, one of Shane’s nursing school study group friends

olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 bags of frozen broccoli (1-2 pounds)—you could use fresh broccoli, but I am not that ambitious when I come home from work hungry and cook

3 cups vegetable broth

2 cups heavy cream

large handful of shredded cheese

salt and pepper to taste (don’t add much salt unless you are using low sodium broth-the broth is salty on its own!)

Coat the bottom of the pot with olive oil and heat over medium-high.  Cook the onions in the oil until they are translucent, then add the broccoli.  Stir the broccoli around until it’s mostly thawed, then add the broth.  Bring the mixture to a boil.  Add the heavy cream, then bring the mixture to a boil again.  Blend with an immersion blender (Careful!  Keep the immersion blender immersed or it will fling boiling hot liquid onto you!)  Stir in the cheese, season to taste, and keep warm as needed over the burner on low.