Clean Bowl Club

Today's the first Sunday that we've eaten all the soup. There wasn't a particularly large number of people, but the soup was yummy and I didn't make a lot. We had all the regulars plus two newbies. One of them, Steve, said he'd definitely be back because the food was good and the price was right!

The Soup - Vegetarian Corn Chowder. This one is based on a recipe but I left out the red peppers because I don't really like them and well...I'm the chef...so I'm only putting in things I like. Ideally you make this with fresh corn, but it's not in season yet, so I used frozen and it was pretty delish anyway, so I'm happy with the results. The main seasoning is thyme, which I cut from my herb pot and embellished a little with French Thyme from my seasonings drawer. I would've had to give the plant a buzz cut to get enough for this dish. Normally I make this soup using Morning Star Sausage Crumbles (fake meat) instead of bacon, but I can't get that here in Canada, so I used diced up Tofurky Sausage. Not quite as good, but no one complained, even the meat lovers.

The Bread - Being married to a Southerner has basically left me afraid of trying either cornbread or buttermilk biscuits. He makes the cornbread and until yesterday, I'd never tried making biscuits. Ummmm....guess what? They're really friggin' easy! And very yummy. They were a big hit. I did the practice ones yesterday and then today I made a couple of batches. My husband said it was like being back in his grandma's kitchen, so I guess I must've done just fine despite the fact that they were made with butter instead of lard or Crisco!

The Cats - Really, I don't HAVE to talk about the cats every week, but so far Carol is one of my only readers and she comes to Sunday Soup every Sunday and she likes to hear about the cats, so here's the update. Calvin and Tigre (yep...spelled it wrong in previous posts, sorry Tigre) came along to visit this week. Calvin discovered the catnip plant and basically it was all over for him. In a matter of seconds we were trying to disentangle him from it (and the poor plant had already suffered several attacks by our cats, including one by moonlight last night that left it in the yard with teeth marks all through it). We gave Calvin a leaf of his own and he rolled around, drooling happily and then he had to go home for a nap.

The Music - Alison brought her guitar and she and Victor played tunes for the second half of the night. It was really very lovely.

The Uninvited Guest - towards the end of the evening, we did have to go inside due to swarms of mosquitoes (the first of the year). Being that mosquitoes look at me as an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, I was the first one to give up and run screaming into the house, but the others followed!

And that's all for this Sunday. Eat well!