Seriously Ugly Beef and Barley Soup and all things non-Thanksgiving related

So I like to cook.... obviously, but even someone who likes to cook can have too much of a good thing, and that usually hits around the holidays.  As I searched and flipped through blogs for the past week I have gotten pumpkin and pecan and turkey and stuffing overload.  It's two days until thanksgiving y'all and if you don't have a menu set yet you're probably not reading a food blog... so here is a quick and easy and super vegetable laden dish that is incredibly filling and has nothing to do with thanksgiving at all unless you're referring to giving oneself a break in order to rest up for the big marathon of cooking.  This was very, very, very hearty and we had some overly full people.  Being that it is soup you would think you could eat a big bowl with a salad and a slice of bread and cheese and you would be okay but seriously this stuff is serious. 

I made a few adaptations.  For one the original recipe calls for 1 cup turnips.  I'm not a fan... really, really, not a fan.  I was going to swap them for carrots but completely forgot.  Two, if I'm going to spend the money for filet mignon, I'm probably going to grill it not put it in soup so I used sirloin instead.  I tend to think of soup as a cheap and easy dish... even when it ends up being ridiculous such as often happens with soups like French Onion, or other such soups that might contain expensive or millions of ingredients, the stock if made from scratch being the kicker for the French Onion, or the lobster from the time I made my husband lobster bisque from scratch and it ended up costing about $70 for one bowl of soup as I hated it.  Ridiculous.  I did however take note from other reviewers of the recipe and kept the broccoli and cauliflower in despite what my instincts told me and they were great.  I also listened and added them at the end with the beef and let the whole thing go another 45 minutes.  The problem I did have was that I did the begining of the soup and then let it set and despite being reassured it wouldn't happen the barley became morbidly obese and broth logged.  That irks me to no end.  In the future I will probably add the barley at the very end as well or maybe cook it in a net bag and then remove it or something.  And I will probably use straight beef broth, and possibly homemade.  I'm not sure why it called for chicken stock but it made for the ugliest looking soup you've ever seen.  Almost anemic looking.  In the end it didn't matter because we all ate it and everyone loved it, even the teenager that was looking in the fridge for something else to eat when she discovered what was for dinner.  Happy Thanksgiving and may you have a bit of down time to relax this holiday.

Beef and Barley Soup
adapted from Bon Appetite

Ingredients

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup cauliflower florets
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup chopped peeled yams (red-skinned sweet potatoes)
1 cup chopped peeled potatoes
1 cup chopped celery
5 cups beef stock or canned beef broth
5 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
1 cup pearl barley
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
1 1/2 pounds filet mignon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Method

Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add vegetables; sauté 10 minutes. Add both stocks; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add barley, thyme and oregano. Simmer until barley is tender, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Return to simmer before continuing.)

Add beef to soup; simmer until just cooked, about 10 minutes. Mix in parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Red-Bean, Lentil, and Spinach Soup

No those aren't Red beans, lentils or spinach... in fact it's not even my picture.  I stole it from another blog a hundred years ago because I love it so much... and if I had any exposure at all I probably shouldn't even post it as I can't credit it, but I want to say it was from Gluten Free Girl (now... and The Chef), but I can't be positive so sorry, sorry, whosever photo this is.  I just wish that my photo for this dish was that gorgeous... no my photo looks like this...

There is no amount of help or editing that can fix that photo.  I attempted to cut the worse out of it... but don't let it scare you... maybe another photo stolen from the original blog would be good... or you could just go to Anja's Food 4 Thought and search for this recipe.  She actually set up her shot instead of taking a photo at her desk fresh from the microwave while searching Forensic Journals.  I think my photo reflects my mood quite well in a tortured artist kind of way... Okay I'm not an artistic but I am tortured... Why do you ask?  OHHHHH let me tell you why.

I am tortured (and I'm sure some people out there can relate) because there are a few things people do not like to hear.... women people in particular.  The two big ones are 1) you're old and 2) you're fat.  And my OB who so lovingly told me not too many months ago... "If you're planning on more children Eileen, you had better get moving.  Reproduction is a young person's game."  Told me yesterday "You need to slow down your weight gain."  Why do I keep this woman around?

I must say I was a little taken aback.  I have felt pretty good about my weight this pregnancy, and not 5 minutes before was told by a nurse that I was fine when I cringed at the scale.  I don't care if I'm pregnant or not there is nothing that makes me feel good about seeing a scale creep up.

After the inital freak out I realized that I am totally okay with how much weight I have gained with my pregnancy.  It's not excessive and I'm still within the normal guidelines.  In fact I still have 10 pounds to go before I hit how much I gained with my daughter and my son, and I happen to have 10 weeks left so I am thinking that I will probably gain the same for this pregnancy as I did for the last two. 

Also, I should not be angry at someone for pointing out what I had already known.  It wasn't my pregnancy weight that was a problem it was my PRE-pregnancy weight.  Even though I lost all pregnancy weight after both of my children I wasn't where I wanted to be before I got pregnant.  In fact I have already been basking in delusions of getting up to nurse a new baby and doing a hand off to the husband for a 5:45am hot yoga class.  Insane visions of early evening runs with a double stroller and double babies (my son will always be a baby to me) to get rid of the extra wedded bliss that has collected on my already curvy frame.  Even when in my best shape, I'm still very.... well shapely.

So after a little denial, followed by some soul/stomach searching I realized man I'm being lazy.  It's no secret that I have been feeling lazy.  I work full-time, go to school full-time, have two kids, and another on the way, a cat, a house, etc., etc., but to BE lazy well that's another thing all together.

There have been far too many bagels to cross my palate over the last seven and a half months.  The once, once-a-week treat, has become a daily stop because I am apparently too lazy to pour a bowl of cereal or heat up the oatmeal like I did before I was pregnant.  And since when did I decide it was okay to drink soda every day?  I never used to drink soda.

And then in the midst of the denial of how healthy I have been eating little thought bubbles of fried potstickers, take out pizzas and occasional Blizzards (a never when not pregnant), settled in and made me realize.... in the weight gain range I wanted to be in or not I am feeding this poor baby a lot of junk food. 

When I was first pregnant the thought of grease made me ill and I was bound to fresh veggies, fruit, rice, and lean proteins.  Which was great because I didn't need to think about eating healthy, it was all I could eat.  Some how that has slipped and must be rectified.  Step one: Bagel ban for the next few weeks.  I will be making  the best granola ever to eat with my low-fat Greek yogurt and berries. 

And for lunch to kill not one or two but THREE birds with one stone.  I  made Red-bean, lentil, and spinach soup last night.  This will help with healthier lunches, budgeting objectives, and last but certainly not least project DO NOT FREEZE to death while waddling your pregnant butt through the soup place line during the winter months. 

The only thing missing are the scones.  I've told you about the scones.  To round out soup as a meal you really need some kind of bread product.  So I am making scones tonight.... I figure since there was only 1 tablespoon of oil in the entire vat of soup the two can fight it out on the way to my stomach!  Maybe I can appease the guilt and calorie counting doctor by making mini-scones (update I did make some mini scones... of course I ate two so it was futile).

Red Bean and Spinach Soup
adapted ever so slightly from Anja's Food 4 Thought Blog
Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups cooked red kidney beans (I used a whole smallish sized can because I was in a hurry)
1/2 cup red lentils (I used a little more than 1/2 cup and split it between red lentils and brown lentils)
4 cups vegetable stock
1 lemon, juice of
1 teaspoon dried mint (I left this out)
2 cups fresh spinach, finely chopped (I used frozen, and used 2 cups while it was still frozen.  I would cut   
it back to 1 cup next time)

Method

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions, garlic and spices until onions are soft. Stir in the beans, lentils, lemon juice, mint and vegetable stock. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until lentils are tender, because I added the brown lentils they were not even close to tender at 20 mins.  If you choose to add extra lentils soak them for a few hours first at least.  I had to add extra water as well as it simmered so long I kept evaporating out my liquid.  Apparently although small those suckers are solid and need the soak.  Stir occasionally. Stir in spinach and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Ready to serve.

PS... click here for the scones.  Soooooo yummy.  I could only wish they were my recipe.  Of course no one cares whose they are while eating.  I used a biscuit cutter because they look cute as rounds instead of triangles but do whatever floats your boat.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup... No Oven Week 4....

Just the company you keep can alter your personal habits.  This can be both positive (people that work out together), and negative (people that do drugs together), a little on the worrisome side (people that play dungeons and dragons together), or perfectly harmless like my co-workers.  I am outing all of us for the soup sucking addicts that we are.

There is a vegetarian soup shop run in Lincoln called the Grateful Bread.  Multiple days a week you can hear the rounds... I'm going for soup do you want anything... oh and the scones!!!  MY GOD MAN THE SCONES!  They are fantastic, but since I have no oven still lets not dwell on the scones for now.

It is finally a little cooler, and I have been stockpiling some soup recipes to attempt to limit the amount of time I stand in that ridiculously long line at the Grateful Bread once I am even bigger than I am now, and the temperature begins to drop as we near Winter.  I suspect standing outside in line while nine months pregnant in December will not be enjoyable... but that's just a guess.

I often find myself staring at the soups for the day thinking... why don't they ever have broccoli-cheddar soup... maybe it doesn't lend itself well to a vegetarian version but I wouldn't see why not... and then I remember... hey I've made that before, and if memory serves me corectly it was pretty good.  So I dug out the recipe and here it is.... I can't for the life of me remember why I made it with evaporated milk when most people make it with cream and this time I used red potatoes when I used russet before and I think it made it a little more gritty than I would like so I will return to the russet, but really any kind of milk type product and any potato substance should work just fine.

Next up in the stockpot.... Red Bean and Spinach!!  However, the stove is suppose to finally arrive on Wednesday so I suspect I will want to cook things in there just for the novelty of baking in a working oven.

Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

from 25-year old Eileen's Kitchen

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1cup chopped onion
4 cups chopped fresh broccoli (about ¾ pound divided)
2 cups diced peeled red potato (about ¾ pound)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 minced garlic cloves
2 (10 ½-ounce) cans of low-salt chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
Dash of pepper

Method

Coat a large dutch oven with cooking spray; place over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes. Add 3 cups of broccoli, potato, garlic powder, broth, and bay leaf; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Discard bay leaf. Place half of broccoli mixture into blender; cover and process until smooth. Spoon into a bowl. Repeat with remaining broccoli mixture. Return broccoli puree to pan; add cheese, milk, pepper, and remaining cup of broccoli. Cook over medium heat 4 minutes, or until broccoli is just tender, stirring until cheese melts.

Serves 8

Beat the heat.... Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Yes, I do realize these are tomatoes and not peppers... keep your pants on they're coming

It's hot.... it's TOO HOT!  I know there are some people that make an honest effort about never complaining about the weather, because they wanted it to be hot all Winter.  I am not one of those people.  There are days (this year there are many days) that are just too stinking hot and no amount of frigid winter weather (that is long forgotten by July) will ever make me forget that a heat index of 115 and 1000% humidity is WAY TOO HOT!

Especially when you are faced with the task of feeding a few faces every night in said heat and humidity.  What to make when the mere thought of boiling water raises the temperature in your micro-kitchen a few degrees?

Step 1:  Forget everything you know about what should constitute a well rounded meal.  You feed your family normal meals approximately 328 days a year.  This number is completely pulled out of the air and has no statistical relevence whatesoever but I assume it gives enough room for two weeks of too hot to cook days in the summer, and the rest is filled with things out of desperation, like chicken nuggest, and fast food drive through.  Anyway.... a couple of days with some random food stuffs isn't going to cause malnutrition.

fruit salad sneaks in all the goodie phytochemicals in, when served with lemon-ricotta pancakes your youngest child will promise to never put you in a nursing home

Step 2:  Buy a pre-cooked roaster chicken from the grocery store, a block of good quality cheese (make sure it is pasturized, not a soft mold ripened cheese, or goat cheese if you're pregnant.  Hey it sucks but it's science, it could do some serious damage to your developing child.  NO that is not opinion.  Listeria is is a scientifically proven fact, want to be scared...do a google.  Stay away until after delivery.  Trust me that is easier said than done for me.  If you're doctor says it's okay I recommend getting a doctor that didn't fail Microbiology), a loaf of decent bread, a jar of pickles, a jar of olives, and a tomato and/or cucumber.  Take all the meat off a chicken, put the bones in a bag in the freezer for later stocks.  Throw everything else on a plate (maybe you help the ones under 4 with the knife) and voila.  Meal 1 accomplished.

Step 3:  Realize you cannot feed your family or yourself a bunch of cheese, pickled items, and cold chicken for the next two weeks.

Step 4:  PANIC.

Step 5:  Find other heat friendly meals that aren't just salad.

Step 6: Use this post as a way of sneaking in your mother-in-laws amazing Roasted Red Pepper Soup, and fulfill the request of one of your friends for the recipe at the same time... sneaky, sneaky.

I never got a chance to take a final pictures, you know with the heat and all, so that is another reason I am sneaking it into this post.  I'm not sure if hot soup sounds like a good idea to some of you when it's hot outside, but honestly I love soup any time, and as long as whatever it is I'm cooking doesn't make the inside temperature of my kitchen, match the outside temperature, it's all good!

Roasted Red Pepper and Potato Soup

The Mother-in-Law's Recipe
Ingredients

*5 large red bell peppers
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup butter
8 cups (2L) chicken broth  (can substitute veg. broth for a vegetarian version)
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1/3 cup finely chopped basil
Dash of Angustura bitters (find this with the alcohol drink mixers)
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Wash peppers and leave them whole. Place them on a hot barbecue grill or under the broiler and cook until the skin closest to the flame or element is charred and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Using tongs to turn the peppers, continue charring until skin is blackened on all sides. Remove from heat and put into a paper bag. Close tightly and let sit about 10 minutes or until the skin peels easily. Remove all the skin and seeds and dice flesh. Melt butter over medium-low heat and add the onion and garlic. Saute for 10 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Add the red peppers and chicken broth, cook for 10 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook an additional 15 minutes.

Puree the soup in the blender and return to the pot. Add the basil and Angostura bitters. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stir well. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

* Can substitute jarred roasted red peppers. Wash them well and remove any charred skin before chopping.  However which would you rather eat?  The right is a pile of sad, droopy jarred peppers that I keep on hand for those days that I don't have the extra 2 minutes to roast a fresh one, or say have used a couple of red peppers because I forgot they were marked for soup.  And the left is a freshly roasted pepper.  There is no comparison really.

Split Pea Soup

Yes I know soooo  many of you have an early Spring, with lots of sunshine and budding plants, and all the promise of things to come.  We however are not so I stick my tongue out at you in your general direction!

This soup is great if it's cold and dreary like it is here, or if it's Spring like it seems to be everywhere else.  Warm and sunny with early peas availabe, use the fresh peas (cooked) as a garnish.  Cold and gray like it is here?  Keep warm, and earthy like we did and curl up in your house leaving the cold outside and dream of warmer, brighter days.

Split Pea Soup
Adapted from Thomas Keller

Ingredients

3 tablespoons canola oil (I used vegetable oil)
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
2 cups coarsely chopped leeks
2 cups coarsely chopped onions
Kosher salt
1 smoked ham hock (I used ham shank)
3 quarts homemade chicken stock
1 pound split peas, small stones removed, rinsed
1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup Crème Fraîche
Mint leaves (optional)

Method

Heat canola oil in an 8-to 10-quart stockpot over medium heat. Add carrots, leeks, onions, and a generous pinch of salt. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a parchment lid (I used a bacon splatter screen), and cook very slowly, stirring occasionally, for 35 to 40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Remove and discard the parchment lid.

Add the ham hock and chicken stock, bring to a simmer, and simmer for 45 minutes. Prepare an ice bath (I used a sink of cold water). Strain the stock into a bowl, discard the vegetables, and reserve the ham hock. Place the bowl of stock over the ice bath to cool. (The split peas will cook more evenly when started in a cold liquid, mine was room temp ands fine.)

Return the cold stock and ham hock to the pot, add the split peas, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour, or until the split peas are completely soft (do not worry if they start to fall apart you will puree them later).

Remove the soup from the heat, and remove and reserve the ham hock. Season the soup with 1 tablespoon vinegar and salt to taste. Transfer some of the split peas and liquid to a blender. Blend on very low speed until pureed. Transfer to a bowl, repeat with batched until half the peas and liquid have been pureed. Add in the un-pureed portion and stir until thoroughly mixed. Taste for seasoning, adding additional vinegar, salt and or pepper to taste if necessary.

Pull away and discard skin and fat from ham. Trim the meat, and dice into ½-inch cubes (I cut mine into teeny tiny pieces). It will not be a lot of meat, which is perfect. I think I only had 1/8 of a cup or less.

To serve, reheat the soup adding a little water or stock as needed to thing. Place a dollop of crème Fraîche in the bottom of a bowl, top with hot soup. Garnish with mint leaves if desired.

Leftovers served with some spinach, red pepper swiss cheese bread, the remains of the batch of pickled eggs, and some AMAZING cheese.  It may not look pretty (my camera is about a big of fan of gray skies as I am) but it was the best lunch I've had all week!

Easy Chicken Stock

If you spend enough time looking through recipes and trying to re-create something you had, eventually you will break down and make your own stock instead of using canned stock.  All you hear is the difference it makes in your finished product.  I believed that it would make a better soup, but never bothered because well lets face it... I'm busy, and I spend enough time in the kitchen even if I do love it (most of the time).

However, my mother's birthday is tomorrow, she came this weekend to visit and celebrate with us.  Being the mother of a teenage daughter I learn to appreciate my mother more on a daily basis.  Especially for putting up with me during  my teen years and not banishing me to an attic somewhere.

I decided to make one of her favorite soups, split pea, so there would be something to eat when she arrived after a long day of driving.  I also decided that if I was going to make it for the first time I was going to do it right.  And let me now jump on the band wagon and tell you.... yes it made a huge difference in the final product. Being able to control the amount of salt and preservatives was also a HUGE bonus.

The chicken's I used to make the stock were the leftovers from our family meals of things like Thomas Keller's  Simple Roast Chicken as seen above.  I just put the bones and left over meat in a freezer bag until I had three.  I also based my recipe on a Thomas Keller recipe since he's my new boyfriend if you've been paying attention.  Well my new kitchen obsession is more like it as I am happily married, and believe he probably is too, although to be honest I'm solely interested in his food so I really know very little else about him.:)  Well this broth and the pea soup recipe that I will post next are both mostly based on his recipes, but I made a few minor changes based on what was in my kitchen and how detailed I was willing to get... which wasn't very.

Chicken Stock

Adapted loosely from Thomas Keller

Ingredients

5 pounds chicken bones (I used the leftover carcass of three roaster chickens)
4 quarts of cold water (I didn’t measure just covered the birds with enough water to submerge
them)
1 ½ cups carrots cut into 1-inch cubes
2 heaping cups leeks cut into 1-inch pieces (white and light green parts only)
1 ½ cups Spanish onions cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bay leaf

Method

Place bones in the bottom of a large stock pot. Add enough water to cover the bones. Slowly bring the liquid to a simmer, beginning to skim as soon as any impurities rise to the top, continue to do this throughout the cooking process. Add the remaining ingredients; simmer for 40 minutes continuing to skim. Strain the broth into a secondary container (I used a second stock pot). Discard vegetables, and bones. Place in fridge overnight. The next day skim the fat that has risen the top and discard. Ladle through fine mesh strainer lined with cheese cloth into another container large enough to hold entire batch of broth. I however was out of cheesecloth and decided a wet bounty paper towel would work nicely, and it did. I have no idea how much lint may have been transferred by this method but it worked in a pinch.

Voila… see what did that take you…. Like an hour? Not bad.

Lentil Soup that was suppose to be Lentils which was suppose to be Lentil Soup

When you read blogs you think everyone is highly creative and individual. When you start blogging you quickly realize anything you want to blog has been done before, and possibly better. I used to think I stole all of my blogging ideas from Smitten Kitchen's blog but now I realize the woman has just cooked EVERYTHING... even recipes I do not get from her are still on her site from year's before I even thought of making it.

There also tends to be trends for what kinds of foods are cooked.  I recently made corneal-blueberry pancakes and found at least three other blogs featuring them.  This is probably why blogs that feature original recipes do so well.  I have a few up my sleeve, I just need time to make them since they are from my pre-baby, pre-Master, pre-no time days.  The latest trend has been lentils, lentils, everywhere....

So this recipe is semi-mine and came about from a desire for lentils, and a desire to use my new slow cooker.  I've told you all about the slow cooker of course... No?  Well pull up a seat li' darling and have a listen.

Until recently I had a horrible reaction to slow cookers.  Sure they are fine for chili or to melt a big vat of cheese for a dip or something along those lines, but for the past few years I have had a love-hate relationship, and by that I always say I hate that my slow cooker loves to burn my food!

I consider myself to have ample cooking skills.  I may not be ready to take on a restaurant or even a cook book of my own, but I am willing to bet that I cook more diverse things than the average person, not the average blogger mind you but the average person.

However, I have not cooked a successful slow cooker meal in years, and I finally know why!  It was the horrid slow cooker I had.  After burning one too many meals I decided to do an experiment.  I found a recipe that had great reviews.  I put it all together, and I came home two hours early to the smell of char.  It wasn't good.  I got on-line the next day and found hundreds of reviews complaining about the brand of slow cooker I had and that was it.  Out with the old in with the new.  And I now love my little slow cooker and want to try it out as much as possible.  Enter the lentil recipe.

I make a stove top Indian lentil recipe from my dear friend Dharini that I assumed I could make in the slow cooker.  Easy, high portein, low fat.  Yes!  I took the ingredients I put into that recipe and then searched for a slow cooker lentil recipe that I found on-line.  She had said she wanted lentil soup, put all this stuff into her slow cooker and ended up with lentils.  I thought perfect I merged it with my Indian recipe, dialed down the spice a little since I was told flavors intesify in a slow cooker, and when I was done... viola.  The lentil soup (minus any hint of Indian spice) the woman was going for.  It was simple, it was fast, it required only a mixing step so it was perfect, but it was not what I was hoping for, I also forgot to add the cilantro which makes something taste more Indian to me, since it ended up being just regular soup I suggest you leave it out too.

My husband, having no preconceived notions loved it, although it was a little salty so I deleted the salt from the recipe.  I also recommend using low-sodium broth, or what I've done here is 1 cup of better than bullion (super salty) made from the paste and the rest water.

Crock Pot Lentils

Ingredients

2 cup(s) dry lentils
1 small onion(s)
2 tsp McCormick Ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
3 clove(s) garlic clove(s)
4 oz Ortega Diced Green Chiles
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon of Amchur powder
1 cup(s) vegetable broth
7 cup(s) water

Method

Rinse lentils with cold water until they run clear.  Mix everything together in a pot.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 6 hours.

My first 4 week experiment in budgeting and lowering my carbon footprint has come to a close. Here are the results (averaged to the best of my memory because I am being oh so official in my tracking... really who has time).

Excuse the mess... I can't get a table in here yet. Must figure out how to use crazy things called computers one of these days.

Food Budget:

Never used to track but this month I was $150 over.  Just imagine how bad it was!  I can do better.


Going Green:

Non-biodegradable garbage bags:  From 34 to 18 much better
Biodegrable garbage bags: N/A  to still 0 (I forgot to pick them up)
Recycling pick ups: From 0 to 2
Disposable cups: 56 to 3 (YES! That's a good improvement)
Plastic grocery bags: From 60 to 4 (also a huge improvement)

Look at the impact one family can make in 4 months with minimal effort!

Vegetarian Potato Leek Soup (or not)

I have a secret.  I wish I had the willpower to be a vegetarian.  I LOVE most vegetarian food, and when I go out to restaurants I try to order vegetarian food because it always tastes so good, and I didn't have to cook it, or listen to complaints from the teenager for daring to serving something vegetable based. 

When I lived in Vermont there was a vegetarian restaurant called The Horn of the Moon Cafe in Montpelier.  The restaurant is gone now but the cookbook lives on.  This was one of my first cook books that I purchased while in college, and living as a vegetarian (it was short lived).  I used to make this soup once a week in huge batches and freeze it.  It tastes the same out of the freezer as it does fresh.  I will admit to you up front that when I went to make the soup I was still getting over the flu and when I opened the pantry I found beef stock and no vegetable stock so mine isn't vegetarian but I almost think it taste better with vegetable stock.  Either way, it's warm and filling and fantastic with fresh bread to clean the bottom of your bowl when you're done, it's so much more refined than licking it clean.

                              

Potato Leek Soup

Horn of the Moon

Ingredients

6 cups of water or stock
6 cups diced potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups thinly sliced leeks (washed well and just the white part)
1 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons unbleached white flour (leave out for gluten-free it will still be thick)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Method

Bring water or stock to a boil in a soup pot.  Add potatoes.  Cover and cook until tender (20 to 25 minutes).  Turn off heat.

In a 10-inch fry pan, melt 2 tablespoons butter and sauté the leeks, celery, thyme, and dill weed until the leeks are well coated with butter.  Cover and cook on low heat until the leeks are tender (10 to 15 minutes).  Add to the potatoes and broth.  Blend in a blender, if you want lumpy soup only puree about 2/3rds of the vegetables.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

In the same pan in which the leeks were sautéed, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, then add the flour.  Brown for 1 minute on low heat.  Whisk in cream and turn off heat.  Add to the soup, then add parsley.  Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, uncovered. 

If you're leftover soup gets too thick add a little more water or stock to thin it out as you reheat it.