Chicken enchilada soup for a snow day lunch

We've been getting a lot of snow around here lately, record breaking amounts in fact. Warnings have been issued to allow only emergency vehicles on the roads. My window and the street outside are covered by this thick fluffy blanket of pristine snow. So beautiful. Its the perfect weather for a bowl of piping hot and spicy chicken enchilada soup and a grilled cheese sandwich dunker.
Chicken enchilada soup

1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small yellow onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1/2 of a chicken breast (chopped to small bitesize cubes)
2 tbsp cumin powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp of salt
1 red pepper deseeded and cut into strips (or you can chop depending on your preference)
1 yellow pepper deseeded and cut into strips
2 cups of frozen roasted corn kernels (I used the Trader Joes brand, but can be substituted with regular corn kernels)
1 small can white lima beans (substitute with black beans or cannellini beans)
1 tbsp of tomato paste
4 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp sour cream (or more to taste, substitute with heavy cream or even whole milk yogurt)
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil

Add about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil to a medium to large sauce pan. Turn on heat to medium. Add cumin seeds to the oil. Let them fry for a few seconds, then add onions and garlic. Cook till the onions are soft making sure the garlic doesnt burn, turn down heat if necessary. Add the chicken, salt, cumin powder and chili powder. Fry till the chicken is cooked through. Add the tomato paste, peppers, corn and beans (you can add other veggies like zucchini if you prefer) . Stir fry for about a minute. Add the chicken broth. Bring the soup to a boil, cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust salt and seasoning accordingly (as in more chili powder). Mix in the cream just before serving. Garnish with cilantro if you like (I do, but ran out). Enjoy hot. Soup tastes even better the next day when the flavors have time to meld. Leftovers freeze nicely too.

Zucchini blossoms-who knew?!

Ahhh summer!! Lovely weather, zero humidity, vacation frame of mind, bright veggies and perfect fruit meaning my canning/jamming duties have to begin, like, right now!

I felt the sudden urgency of stocking up on berries. Yes, I know I'm a tad obsessive, but think of it though, what if blueberry season goes by and I've not made any mildly sweet, utterly delicious, purplish-blue jam?? So I rushed out to the nearest U-PICK by our home, a mammoth of a place called Larriland farms, which was a good 25 mile drive away. 2 hours and 6 lbs of blueberries later I stopped by their "Red barn" to get something to drink, an anise-y, old fashioned soda called sarsaparilla (sp?). Refreshingly delicious. But of course, something else catches my eye in a metallic cooler in their pre-picked veggie section...a lone plastic carton filled with 8 beautiful yellow zucchini flowers. I grabbed the carton before even being logical about it, you know those practical thoughts that I should have been thinking about like I've never really eaten or even seen these dainty beauties, what could I possibly do with them, but $3 ($2.99 to be exact) was not a bad investment for an experiment especially if it turned out well. And besides, I've been away from this blog for so long I wanted my next post (= this one) to be absolutely fabulous. I'd just gotten my fresh pasta rolling and shredding attachments a couple of days before, and hadnt tested it out yet. And just like that, the whole menu fell into place.

Appetizer: Stuffed and fried zucchini blossoms

Main course: Fresh egg pasta with Sicilian-styled eggplant

Dessert: Capuccino brownies

I don't really want to club too many recipes into one post so for starters I thought I'd go with the zucchini blossoms. A lot of googling didnt really help me find anything that I liked which really means that the fridge wasnt stocked up with those particular ingredients. I ended up just winging it, mish-mashing a bunch of different recipes. The result was delicious, light, crispy, faintly sweet coating with smooth, warm, herby, onion cheesy filling oozing out. I found that the spring onions really made the filling shine but feel free to use any combination of fresh herbs you like. So here goes:

Ingredients:

8 zucchini blossoms

For stuffing:

6 tbsps of cream cheese

A few sprigs of basil (chopped fine)

2 spring onions (chopped fine)

A pinch of salt and pepper

Mix all these ingredients together in a bowl. Reserve for later.

For batter:

2 tbsp of Coca-cola (yes the drink! It was great!)
3 tbsp of all-purpose flour

A pinch of salt

Add coke into the flour+salt and mix but dont let the effervescence (little bubbles) die out.

Assembly:

Heat about 3 generous glugs of vegetable oil in a shallow pan, temperature should be about medium-high. Remove the pistil from the flowers (its conical and orangish, move the petals over and you can see it in the middle). Add a little of the cheese stuffing, twist the edges of the petals to seal, dip it into the batter and fry. Make sure one side is pale-golden brown before flipping over.