June 1st, 2008

You might think that because it's June, I would make something light and summer-like for soup today. Like, oh, I don't know...strawberry soup, but nope. I had a spaghetti squash that has been staring at me from the fruit bowl (yes, I keep the veggies in the fruit bowl so the bananas don't get lonely) saying, "If you're gonna use me, you better get on it. I won't last forever, you know?"

So, today's soup is a made up one. I roasted the spaghetti squash in the oven with some olive oil for a while and I also roasted a bag of frozen pre-cut sweet potatoes with some oil and garlic. Now, if you're wondering, "Who buys frozen sweet potatoes...I mean, how lazy can you be?" you're not alone. It was an ACCIDENT! We don't even like sweet potatoes around here. Anyway, I figured this was a great opportunity to get rid of them too...I mean, serve them lovingly to friends. So, while the veggies were roasting, I made vegetable stock, using the recipe in the post below this one. And then I tossed in the sweet potatoes and the squash (after scraping it out, of course) in the stock with the white parts of green onions (chopped). I simmered that for an hour or so and then pureed it with my little hand blender, added some cream, and salt and pepper and decided that it was all right, but a little thin.

One thing I do is make the soup on Saturdays because soup always tastes better the next day. Today, I boiled three white potatoes in some salt, mashed them up, added them to the soup, blended it again, and then added a couple of tablespoons of fresh time, more salt and pepper and voila! A quite tasty, light, summery soup, if I do say so myself.

The bread this week is honey wheat. I've been looking for a sandwich bread and I think this might be it. It's only 1/3 whole wheat flour, so it's got that taste, but isn't totally hippie bread or anything that will break your teeth. It's rather nice. I think it's a keeper.

Oh, and as long as we're talking about bread, just for fun, I tried making challah earlier this week. It was really fun! You braid it and I have to say that while it was pretty easy, it looked really gourmet and fancy. I'm slowly losing my fear of yeast bread. For a long time I wouldn't try it because my few attempts ended up in loaves even my husband wouldn't eat, and he'll eat anything! However, after using the New York Times No-Knead bread recipe for seven or eight months, I began to think I might be able to pull it off. And it's working out fine.

Did you make soup or bread this week?