Sunday, August 22, 2010

Drop that egg!

Today we had egg drop soup with New Zealand spinach that I picked out of the garden this morning. It's best freshly made, so I had hot stock on hand and then had all the other ingredients ready and I made four bowls at a time as people wanted them. It's quite easy and fun to make. You can find the recipe here. Obviously, I used vegetable stock, not chicken stock because this is a vegetarian house.

The Southerner was away for ten days, but got here just a few minutes past four o'clock, so he was in time to visit with everyone and tell us about his trip to bicycle mechanic school in Ashland, Oregon. He's now passed out on the couch, resting up for bedtime (after riding over to the garden to make sure I didn't kill it while he was gone...I mean, to check on its progress).

All in all, a very nice Sunday Soup today. Although, we do have an unusual number of wasps (or yellow jackets, depending on where you're from) on the sunny porch, and it was too cold to sit on the shady porch, so we did have to stay inside. It wasn't that warm though anyway. Fall is already in the air.

By the way, if you're wondering why there wasn't a post last week, it's because only The Neighbour showed up and while our conversation was scintillating, and we actually had a seven course meal, starting with fresh vegetable soup and ending with raspberry mousse in chocolate cups, I was too full to write about it. I'm sorry y'all missed it though. That'll teach you to skip Sunday Soup just because it's 34 degrees outside (that's 93.2 for you Yanks).

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Zucchini coming out of our ears...

Last summer was a great year for zucchini (what summer isn't?). We had one plant and this year, as I defrosted the last of it in June, I begged The Southerner, "Can't you just plant half a plant?" He laughed and then planted TWO! One yellow, one green.

As fast as I can figure out things to do with them, he brings me more. But abundance is a good thing, so I just try to be creative instead of whining. And it turns out, yesterday, he saved my tofu bacon.

We had rain yesterday for the first time since June and because of it, laziness ensued. I slipped on my raingear over my pajamas and went to the farmer's market for breakfast essentials - doughnuts and egg sammiches- and before The Southerner had realized I'd even left the house, I was back and in my pajamas again. I spent the day drinking tea and reading, and then took a nap and when I woke up, The Sous Chef was on her way to cook. Egads! Cook what? I had no idea. At least until I looked around the kitchen and saw the pile of yellow zucchini overflowing in the fruit bowl.

I quickly ran to to my computer and typed in Spicy Zucchini Potato Soup and this recipe popped up. And yes, I did just make up the name of the kind of soup I hoped to make and a recipe did exist online. Magnificent thing, the internet! By the time The Sous Chef had arrived, I had showered and actually looked like I knew what the big cooking plan was. I was back in my pajamas though, so she was a little suspicious.

I've made a lot of zucchini soups. In fact, you may remember last year The Fix-it Guy challenged me to make a zucchini soup every week for the month of August and I did it. And people still came to SS. But this was by far the best one. I think it was the addition of red potatoes. It was also probably the easiest one.

I wasn't quite so quick on the "What are we making for dinner tonight?" question from The Sous Chef though, and we ended up getting The Southerner to make a salad while we "ran an errand." In other words, went to the coffee shop for take-out panini sandwiches - is panini sandwiches redundant? Maybe it should just be panini or sandwiches...either way, it was a lovely day and a nice evening with good food, and today's Sunday Soup was full of friends and frivolity. I hope you have an excellent week and I'll see you here next Sunday.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

We're Back!

Happy August, Everyone!
Boy, July just flew by and Sunday Soup is on again. We've decided to take July and January off each year. We did miss you all, and we're surprisingly low on island gossip, considering I never really thought of Sunday Soup as a gossip hub. I think it's more like we just don't know what our friends are up to these days, what trips they're taking or what concerts they've been to, that sort of thing, not actual gossip.

Today was a fairly quiet, ease-back-into it Sunday Soup. The Pastry Chef and The Sous Chef showed up at the beginning and stayed for a few hours and The Fix-it Guy came alone and held court at the table. It was really nice and relaxing. So relaxing in fact, The Southerner had to make some vanilla black (caffeinated) tea and we had to break out the chocolate in order to keep The Sous Chef awake. After the chefs left, The Neighbour showed up, bearing gifts of our favourite kind...a bag of organic vegetables! While it's true The Southerner is growing us tons of great food, we're always happy to take more organic veggies off anyone's hands! Yay.

The soup today was a special one because it was entirely out of The Southerner's garden (except the celery which came from The Farmers, but don't tell him). It was a lovely and light soup, made with veggie stock, yellow and green zucchini, onions, carrots, potatoes, and the aforementioned celery. I made it this afternoon so it would be really, really fresh and it turned out quite delish.

Because we went to a potluck last night, I totally forgot to make any bread. Since I had the time this morning, I made the more challenging kind, you know...the kind that takes some muscle to stir up and then you have to knead. I used a recipe for herb walnut bread with lemon zest. It's really yummy! And even though we ate tons, there is one whole loaf left! Fabulous.

Before everyone arrived, I toasted a slice of the bread (just to make sure it wasn't poison - I'm thoughtful that way) and added oven roasted tomatoes and olive oil and it was sooooo good! There is definitely more of that in our future. Like, probably for dinner. Oh, guess what we're having? Roasted vegetables from The Southerner's garden and red quinoa. We're pretty much eating some variation on onions, potatoes, carrots, and greens for the rest of the summer and beyond!

I just read a great memoir on learning to cook at le Cordon Bleu in Paris, assuming you eat meat or you aren't too queasy about the details (I am, but I toughed it out) called THE SHARPER YOUR KNIFE, THE LESS YOU CRY. I highly recommend it to any of you foodies out there.

And that's about it for this week. I do want to say that during the hiatus, The Sous Chef had her birthday. While we didn't celebrate it at SS, I did make her a cake and have her over for dinner and she did wear the Birthday Princess banner. Anyway, Happy Birthday a bit late to The Sous Chef!

I'll leave you with this picture. The Neighbour's cat, Tigre is not a favourite of our cat, Miss Marley, so when he followed The Neighbour over to our house, Marley took refuge on top of The Fix-It Guy's truck! So cute, if you ask me.