Cooking with Wine Blog

"I cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food." W.C. Fields

About This Site

Welcome to the Cooking with Wine Blog! We are Angela and Mark, and food is our passion. We want to share this passion with you! Here we will share our favorite recipes, places to eat, cookbooks, markets, tips and tricks, and so much more! So, pop that cork and dive right in!

Angela and Mark

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Pumpkin and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Pumpkin and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Pumpkin and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Hello Fall and all things pumpkin, I missed you!!!

If you are like us at all, we crave the first chill of Fall, the blankets and hoodies, the crisp air and unpredictable weather (here in Texas anyway), and of course PUMPKIN PUMPKIN AND MORE PUMPKIN! Well, let me help you dive right into Fall with this irresistible Pumpkin and Roasted Red Pepper Soup.

So, maybe you are like Mark and me and you are saying, “Bring it on!” Or maybe you are like my sister who says “Ew, no thanks! I’ll pass on the pumpkin. I don’t like pumpkin.” I found that people either love pumpkin or hate pumpkin. But this soup is surprisingly subtle on the pumpkin, and definitely doesn’t have that pumpkin spice pie type of taste that is the quintessential flavoring for almost everything in October (call me basic if you want, but I love those pumpkin spice lattes!). Anyway, this soup is NOT that. It is deep and rustic, warm and slightly spicy, rich and decadent. It is everything I have ever wanted in a pumpkin soup. So, for all of you I-don’t-like-pumpkin people, give it a shot! For all of you pumpkin lovers like Mark and me, make it NOW! Seriously, tonight. Because you will want leftovers for lunch tomorrow, I promise you that!

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Pumpkin and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

The best pumpkin soup you will ever eat!

Course Soup
Keyword Fall Recipes, Pumpkin and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Pumpkin Gazpacho, Pumpkin Recipes, Pumpkin Soup
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 2 people
Calories 271 kcal
Author Cooking with Wine Blog

Ingredients

  • 3 cups Pumpkin Puree
  • 1 medium Red Bell Pepper Roasted
  • 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
  • 1 tsp Salt to taste
  • 1 tsp White Pepper (or black) to taste
  • 2 tsp Fresh Thyme fine chopped leaves
  • Chicken or Vegetable Stock As needed for consistency
  • 2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil best quality EVOO
  • 6 tsp Goat Cheese 3 per serving

Instructions

  1. In a food processor, process pumpkin puree and roasted (peeled and seeded) red bell pepper together until smooth

  2. In saucepan on medium heat, add pumpkin/pepper mixture and cinnamon, paprika, salt, pepper and thyme


  3. 3. If consistency is too thick add stock to thin

  4. 4. Simmer for 10 minutes and season as needed to taste

    Optional: For cold soup/gazpacho, let soup cool and refrigerate before serving

  5. 5. Serve in bowls with a teaspoon per bowl of good quality olive oil and crumbled goat cheese (or feta if you want) on top

 

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Recipes

Banana Nut Bread Muffins

Growing up my mom would frequently make banana nut bread using the over-ripe bananas that we refused to eat. And soon we learned to avoid eating the last 4 bananas to ensure that mom would make the bread for us! But bread is sometimes a challenge to manage if you don’t have enough people to eat it up, and especially if you need to eat it in the car. Although, we do freeze it and plan to create a banana bread french toast soon… stay tuned! So the muffins were born! So much easier to eat on the go, and they get that yummy edge crust that I LOVE! I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

 

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Banana Nut Muffins

Course Breakfast, Snack
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 12 muffins
Author Angela and Mark

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter – room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 ripe bananas – mashed add a touch of honey for sweetness
  • 3 Tbsp sour cream
  • 1 tsp baking soda mix with sour cream
  • 2 cups flour bread flour preferred
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts pecans or walnuts
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Mini dark chocolate chips optional

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350° and place rack in center
  2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, beat sugar and eggs at high speed until fluffy (about 5-10 min)
  4. Slowly add butter and mashed bananas to sugar mixture and continue to mix at low speed
  5. Add sour cream and baking soda mixture, vanilla, flour mixture, cinnamon, nuts and chocolate chips (optional) and continue to mix until combined.
  6. Lightly grease a muffin pan and fill each slot with mixture about 3/4 full.
  7. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of each muffin.
  8. Bake for 30-40 min (depending on size of muffins). Use a wooden skewer to check for doneness. Skewer should come out dry.

 

 

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Our Journey

The Cooking with Wine Blog: The Beginnings

Here we go! We finally decided to start a blog, somewhat reluctantly to be honest. I feel like most people have a blog first, then turn to social media, but that was not our journey. Our method was quite the opposite and started as a hobby, or more a way for our friends to avoid our Instagram pics of what we were cooking and eating for those who were not interested in seeing another plate of food.  But the foodie part of our souls existed long before our Instagram posts. So, here’s how it all began…

I, Angela, hated cooking. Fact. But I enjoyed everything about food aside from having to cook it. Mark on the other hand has always been interested in cooking. So, when I met him, and we began cooking together, it became so much more to me! And I realized that it wasn’t the act of cooking that I didn’t enjoy, it was not having someone who shared the same passion and interests to do it with! Early on in our relationship, we began cooking together… well… let’s be real, I didn’t do much cooking at first, but I would help get ingredients, chop veggies, stir sauces, and plate the food. Oh, and most importantly, I would document through Instagram stories and posts. At the time we were in a long-distance relationship – I was in LA, and Mark in Dallas – and we decided it would be fun to cook the same meal at the same time and make it feel like we were actually together when we couldn’t be. So we would video call each other and cook, then eat virtually face-to-face. People would chuckle when I shared this with them, although I’m thinking they found it endearing in some way.

Fast forward a year and a half and I decided to pick up and move to Dallas. This flipped my world upside down! My daily life was significantly different once I moved. No full-time job working crazy hours, no traveling every other week for work, and so much more free time to devote to the things I never had time for. But the biggest change was that we got to be together, doing everyday things, which is what I always longed for! I craved those everyday, mundane things that most people don’t think twice about! So, cooking together became a huge part of our lives. And I started finding new recipes and getting weird looking vegetables from the store to try out. Slowly, I became very passionate about cooking too!

In January 2018, a friend replied to one of my Instagram stories saying, “You guys should start a food Instagram!” And, at first I thought, Nah, who would want to see that?! But, I decided to give it a try and see if I liked it. That’s where Cooking with Wine began. And this blog evolved in the exact same way – a friend saying, “You should start a blog!”

I don’t know the exact goal or mission of this site yet, but something I have learned is that you don’t always need to know the end goal as long as you are moving in the direction of your values. And this blog is another step down that path. Maybe no one will care, and maybe they will, but the point is to share our passion and hopefully inspire a few more people who hate to cook like I once did.

(Picture taken at Castello di Casole in Tuscany during a cooking class with Chef Francesco – May 2017)

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