Life...

Y'all will have to forgive me, this will be a short post, and probably lack my usual enthusiasm. It's been a long weekend, and not just because here in in Canada it is May Long Weekend (tomorrow is Victoria Day, as in Queen Victoria).

On Friday, our beloved Grinder passed on over to the other side and so while SS was joyful today, and we had lots of laughter and good food and wonderful friends, The Southerner, Miss Sophie, and I do have heavy hearts. Along with many other SS regulars who knew and loved Grinder too. You can read more about him here and here, if you're so inclined.

Briefly, the soup was Tomato Orange (as pictured to the left) and The Southerner made cornbread. We had some of the regulars, some who come occasionally, a friend here from Toronto who also brought a friend from the States and lots of sunshine. It was also probably the loveliest, warmest day of the year so far and we moved SS out onto the porch.

Anyway, more next week. In memory of our sweetie pie, I leave you with this picture.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom & Grandma, and all the other mothers of kids, cats, or others (?)!

Today's soup was a white bean puree with sundried tomatoes and kale (from The Southerner's garden plot). You can read more about the soup here because I did make a variation on it (spinach instead of kale) last December, if you want the recipe. Oh, and I also used some scalded heavy cream instead of soy milk today. New SS motto: Hardening your arteries one Sunday at a time!

It has been a great weekend. We spent a bunch of time doing weekendy type things, like picking kale and going to GIRO (the recycle centre/thrift store). If you want ANYTHING all you have to do is say aloud, "I really need some bamboo ski poles to use as walking sticks" and then if you are patient, they will show up at GIRO. This is what The Southerner has been saying aloud for some time now, and while we were standing around chatting (another big activity at GIRO), someone walked up with bamboo ski poles to drop off for donation. The Southerner was on them like a duck on a june bug because just because he asked for them, doesn't mean someone else might not be standing by to beat him out. I was thrilled (heavy sarcasm) to see that the GIRO gods had not only answered his prayer once, but twice. And now, I too am the proud owner of a pair of bamboo ski poles. Two pairs for $6! Such a deal. The Southerner had ulterior motive plans too. He is going to sharpen the metal ends so that we can pick up garbage on our walks. Oh, joy! Will the fun never end?

Two weeks ago, my request to the GIRO gods was a stack of dessert plates that matched and wern't too ugly. I am happy to say I got a set of 14 for $2. This week...I needed teacups because tea at SS has become almost as important as the soup. The first person to arrive gets to pick the tea for the big pot, and this has really encouraged some people to arrive early (yes, I'm talking about The Brits and The Neighbour. Tea is very important to Brits, but The Neighbour just likes to be the first one here!). Of course, I was rewarded again and got a great deal on some bone china cups and saucers - 8 for $4 plus six dessert plates thrown in).

While standing around the bike parts (Attention GIRO gods: we do not need any more bike parts!) we ran into a couple that we met at The Commons last year when they were visiting. They have a tiny trailer on a piece of land that they hope to retire on someday (probably not in the trailer!) and the woman informed me that the china I'd just bought was really great.

"You can drop it and it will just bounce," she said.

I decided just to take her word for it. She came to Sunday Soup today too and so I must "name" them. I think I will call them The Part-timers. Anyway, Mr. Part-timer had to go back to Vancouver, but Mrs. Part-timer brought lovely strawberries and made some new friends very quickly that way. It was nice to have her and we hope they both come back soon!

Just as we were closing up shop, The Musician came bounding up the stairs, "Am I too late?" He still had 22 minutes before seven o'clock, so we let him in. We would've let him in any time, of course! We had a nice long visit and many strawberries were eaten along with bread, The Fleece Lady's fantastic vegetable dip, and of course, soup.

All in all, a very nice weekend. I hope you had a great one too!

P.S. For those of you wondering how the cooking lessons with The Sisters are going, we are taking a short break while they get over their fevers/flu (?). And don't worry, they have not been over here since last Sunday, so you don't have to worry about their germs. Hopefully they will be well enough to make next week's soup. I sent lots of soup to their house this week, so I'm sure they will recover quickly! Get well soon, girls.

One Year Anniversary!

So I went to see the male half of The Brits today to get a shiatsu massage and let me tell you that if you've never had one, and you live here on the island, just stop what you're doing and call to make your appointment. Very cool. You can read more about it here. In addition to the treatment, he reminded me that I'd totally forgotten to update this blog!

I didn't actually forget last night. We went to a play and I was too tired and hungry to update when we got home. And then today, it just sort of got away from me. So here I am, ready to update.

First, if you're missing something in the above picture (the glasses, not The Southerner, who I'm keeping) then you left them here. Doesn't he look soooo cool? Whoever you are, you must have a small head because they fit The Anthony Pinhead. Not that The Southerner IS a pinhead, he just has one like all the Anthonys (one reason we were happy he took my last name when we got married - the more pinheads the better!).

Okay, back to the business at hand. I did my first author interview here (if you tried this link earlier, it was wrong, but is fixed now). Oh, wait, that's not what you came here for, is it? You want to know about the first Sunday Soup anniversary! Well, I was a little confused about whether we should celebrate the 52nd soup or the first anniversary and I seem to have told a few people different things!

Anyway, we had a great time, with a vegetable soup that included the first greens from the community gardens (kale and bok choy). I made Parmesan & black pepper crackers and Italian herb crackers and served them with cream cheese and homemade raspberry chipotle sauce (yumm!). We had about nine guests, including The Sisters who have not starved while their parents are away (because the whole island is feeding them). In fact, they brought some lovely scones that they baked themselves! Also, The Walker and her husband, Mr. Smiles finally came to SS! To be fair, they tried once during the winter, but it was dark and snowing and they never did find the house (although they helped dig someone's car out of the snow because that's just the kind of nice people they are!). We were glad to see everyone, and they all left before 6:30 so we were able to stick a note on the door that said, "Went to the play!" and go see some fun theatre at the Theatre Centre.

Stay tuned because I'm teaching The Sisters to cook (we made red beans and rice the other day and also pizza dough and homemade pizza) and they are going to make the soup! If not next weekend, then the following one. You won't want to miss that! I'm looking forward to just sitting in the chair and saying, "Now...chop that!" and "Stir the soup!"

Good eating, everyone!

Sundae Soup & a list of the First 52!

Today was the 52nd Sunday Soup and to celebrate, we had Virginia Peanut Sundae Soup. The soup recipe came from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Practically Everything Vegetarian. The "sundae" part was my own idea.

I reduced the amount of cream that the recipe called for and then I whipped up a quart of whipping cream. I personally dished up today's soup (it's usually a more casual serve-yourself event). First the soup, then I topped it with a dollop of whipped cream, then toasted coconut, chopped peanuts, a few green onions, and a dash of hot sauce.

The Southerner took the photos. Aren't they fun?


I was kind of surprised how creamy and lovely the whipped cream made the soup. I kind of thought it would just melt and be just like if you'd added regular cream to the soup, but while it did melt, it didn't lose its light texture and it made the soup really frothy and decadent.

We had more people than I can count...okay, I can count that high, but I'm not going to! Too tired! It was great. Lots of regulars, some we see occasionally, some newbies. Really a fun day. And we collected 18 cans of soup/food for the local food bank (plus The Librarian's who forgot to bring hers, but remembered to bring me chocolates. Priorities people! She's got them!).

I really wasn't sure how many people would be coming so The Southerner and I made 6 times the recipe. Yes. Six. That would be 24 servings. We have a lot of soup leftover, but it was really tasty, so that's okay. Also, we have friends whose parents are away and the poor starving waifs don't know how to cook. They may want some!

The bread was my standard no-knead, and so many people want to learn to make it that I'm planning a class. I'm not sure if I'll teach it here or at The Commons or ??? but I do think I'll do it soon. Maybe in May.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a list of all 52 Soups that I made over the last year. Many are original recipes (although I haven't marked them), and only about 2 were recipes I followed to the letter. Most I adapted or changed somehow. You should be able to find info about each of them in the blog by looking for its date, if you're interested.

I think, perhaps later in the week, after I've met my deadline for my book, I will write something about what this year has meant to us, but right now, I have to go eat the milk chocolates out of the box before The Southerner gets to them. Er...I mean, dinner. I have to go eat dinner.

Thanks for sharing Sunday Soup with us!
Anthony Sunday Soup List - May 4th, 2008 to April 26th, 2009
1. May 4th, 2008 – Chilli
2. May 11th, 2008 – Vegetable
3. May 18th, 2008 – Thai Coconut with Tofu
4. May 25th, 2008 – Potato Leek
5. June 1st, 2008 – Spaghetti Squash and Sweet Potato Puree
6. June 8th, 2008 – Lentil Vegetable
7. June 15th, 2008 – Corn Chowder
8. June 22nd, 2008 – Tomato Orange
9. June 29th, 2008 – Roasted Garlic, Potato, & Red Pepper
10. July 6th, 2008 – Carrot & Coriander
11. July 13th, 2008 – Green Goddess Vegetable
12. July 20th, 2008 – Egg Drop
13. July 27th, 2008 – Curried Zucchini
14. August 3rd, 2008 – Onion
15. August 10th, 2008 – White Bean & Garlic
16. August 17th, 2008 – Cheesy Potato Chowder
17. August 24th, 2008 – Black Bean with Roasted Vegetable Stock
18. August 31st, 2008 – Lebanese Lentil
19. September 7th, 2008 – Cream of Kale
20. September 14th, 2008 – Barley Vegetable (The Southerner made this)
21. September 21st, 2008 – Cream Cheese Broccoli
22. September 28th, 2008 – Red Beans & Rice
23. October 5th, 2008 – Yellow Broth
24. October 12th, 2008 – Spinach & Bok Choy
25. October 19th, 2008 – Harvest Vegetable (lots of root veggies & squash)
26. October 26th, 2008 – Pumpkin and Butternut Squash Puree
27. November 2nd, 2008 – Roasted Potato & Mushroom
28. November 9th, 2008 – Sweet Corn with Cream Cheese
29. November 16th, 2008 – Split Pea with Tofurky Sausage
30. November 23rd, 2008 – Seven Bean
31. November 30th – Squash & Rice with Apple (scrapped and replaced with emergency stand-by Potato Leek)
32. December 7th, 2008 – Minestrone
33. December 14th, 2008 – Red Lentil
34. December 21st, 2008 – White Bean, Sundried Tomato, and Spinach
35. December 28th, 2008 – Cream of Vegetable Puree
36. January 4th, 2009 – Broccoli and Toasted Almond
37. January 11th, 2009 – Baked Potato with Cheese
38. January 18th, 2009 – Cream of Spinach (at Mum & Dad’s)
39. January 25th, 2009 – Sweet Potato
40. February 1st, 2009 – Lentil Barley
41. February 8th, 2009 – Tortilla Soup
42. February 15th, 2009 – Burnt Quinoa, replaced with Cream of Cauliflower
43. February 22nd, 2009 – Red Pepper Orange with Ricotta Dumplings
44. March 1st, 2009 – Parsnip Potato
45. March 8th, 2009 – Yellow Split Pea
46. March 15th, 2009 – Carrot Turnip
47. March 22nd, 2009 – Mushroom Barley
48. March 29th, 2009 – Roasted Veggie Puree
49. April 5th, 2009 – Sundried Tomato Lentil
50. April 12th, 2009 – Black & White Bean
51. April 19th, 2009 – Pinto Bean
52. April 26th, 2009 – Virginia Peanut Sundae Soup

If you want to learn how to make this wonderful flourless chocolate cake that I made for The Fleece Lady for her birthday, drop by my website (and scroll down a bit).

Happy Sunday to you all. And thank you so much for being part of our lives. We are truly blessed. Eat well!

Missing: One Southern Gentleman

Today's Sunday Soup was super crowded, but everyone noticed right away that The Southerner was missing. They're a sharp crowd, our friends. He was feeling a bit under the weather, so at 4pm, we did a house swap and The Neighbour came over here and he went to her house and slept on her couch with her kitty (don't tell our cats). He was missed, but is feeling a bit better now, although I expect he'll be taking it easy for at least a few days.

The soup was a pinto bean Mexican type thing that I totally made up on Friday night. There were two main factors involved in choosing this week's soup. One: I could make it without having to go to the store. Two: All I had to do was open my cupboard. Okay, I know those are the same things, but two reasons sounds better than one. This is a very simple soup. I don't have any measurements, but if you want to make it, I'm sure you can figure it out.

Cooked pinto beans (don't use canned, you'll need too many cans and they taste gross) and their liquid.
Water
Canned tomatoes
Corn
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (actually, I just used the sauce)
Taco seasoning
Salt & Pepper

Cook the beans. Take 2/3 of them and put them in a big pot with some water and blend with an immersion blender. Add the canned tomatoes, some frozen corn, and the rest of the cooked beans and the cooking liquid and as much water as you want to make your soup the consistency you're hoping for. Add the seasonings and adobo sauce. Simmer. Best let it sit overnight for the flavours to meld.

The bread was even easier than the soup because we didn't have any! I just opened some corn tortilla chips. Oh, and I served cheese and chives with the soup.

If you're wondering why I took such an easy route this week, it's because I am on a very tight deadline for my book, I am running out of ideas for soup (thank goodness next week makes 52 and then I am free to make repeats since one year of new soups was my goal), and yesterday was my birthday and I didn't feel like spending it in the kitchen.

I did spend today in the kitchen though and made a lovely chocolate-rhubarb-raspberry cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and then offered it up as "leftover birthday cake". The Realtor brought two new-to-the-island people and a strawberry rhubarb pie (he knows what I like!) too, so there was a lot of dessert.

We had some guests we hadn't seen in a while, as well as a lot of the regular crowd. All in all, even without The Southerner, we had twelve people, plus me, and the cats so it was practically a party!

AND NOW FOR THIS VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
Next week is the 52 week of Sunday Soup. At one time, before I knew I'd be on a deadline, I had intended to do all kinds of cool things to celebrate, like have door prizes, and make three or four soups, and ask everyone to bring their own soups to swap with each other, and, and...

Well, anyway, that is not going to happen because I don't have time to organize anything except my book this week. However, you still want to come next week if you can. And I'll give you a hint why. Okay, ready? Here's your hint:

Sundae Soup

Yep, that's your hint. Now aren't you curious? I thought so. While the whole point of SS is for y'all to be able to drop in without saying whether you're coming or not, if you know you're coming, and you want to let us know this week, it would be appreciated. I want to make sure that I have enough soup for the masses! If you're not sure, no biggie. Feel free to drop in. I will make sure I have lots.

Also, to celebrate one year of SS, we will be collecting canned soup for the food bank, so here's your chance to "bring something" if you want. Totally optional.

Fifty Soups - Black & White Bean Soup

Today marked the fiftieth Sunday Soup. So the question becomes, do we "celebrate" one year the week we reach 52, or is the anniversary the first weekend in May since our first one was the first Sunday in May? I'm kind of voting for a celebration of sorts in May because I'm on a big deadline for my book. I have to turn in this round of edits by April 30th. We'll be lucky to get soup for Week 52 at all! Maybe The Southerner will make it.

Today, to help me out, The Southerner did make corn bread. The soup was Black & White Bean Soup. I made it up, so I think I'll include the recipe here so that I have a record of it. You might want to try it too. It's yummy. This makes close to 9 quarts, so make sure you have a lot of hungry people.

4 stalks of celery - diced small
4 carrots - diced small
1 onion - diced small
6 quarts of light coloured vegetable stock
3 cups dried white beans - around 6 cups cooked
2 cups dried black beans - around 4 cups cooked
Thyme
Rosemary
Butter
Olive oil
salt & pepper

To make a light vegetable stock, I just used carrot peelings, onions ends and peelings, and a bit of celery, water, salt. Bring to a boil, simmer 20 minutes or so. Strain.

In a large pan, saute for just a few minutes carrots, celery, and onion in some olive oil and a glob of butter. Season with rosemary and thyme, s&p. You want your vegetables to still be quite firm so they don't turn to mush in your soup. Set aside.

Add about half of the WHITE beans to the stock, puree with a hand blender. You can skip this step if you want, but it thickens it just a little bit, which is nice. Then add the rest of the WHITE beans and the veggies. Simmer until the veggies are cooked through.

Rinse the cooked black beans really well. The water should run clear. If you skip the rinse, your soup will turn blue-ish-purple-ish and your white beans will turn grey. Blech! Add them to the soup. Season with salt & pepper and yummm..you're done!

I made a lot of soup because of how we emptied the pot last week. We had eight people, including two new-to-the-island people. We made a pretty serious dent in it, but there's still some left. I think this might be one of my more favourite soups. I like how light it is, but the beans give it a bit of body.

The Fleece Lady brought my favourite raw vegetable dip AND she brought some just to put in my fridge for us for later! Yippee! Score! In fact, The Fleece Lady and The Fix-it Guy had us over for breakfast this morning, so we ate very well today. We did learn one important lesson though...if you're going to someone's house for breakfast on a Sunday, you should probably clean the house on Saturday. When we got home well after noon, we had to scurry. Thank goodness The Southerner could also go by the nickname, Cleans Fast Under Pressure. Of course, he's a guy...it's probably in his genes! I guess that means my alternate nickname is Lucky Girl.

Until next week...Eat Well!

P.S. I finally moved the old live journal blog over to this blog, so the entire year is here for your entertainment. I will be posting a list of the entire year in soup pretty soon too.

Early Bird Gets the Soup!

We have a first!!!! This is the first time that we have officially run out of soup. And we didn't run out at a quarter seven. Nope! We ran out at 5:55pm. Yes, really! And considering no one came until about 4:30pm, that's pretty amazing. I didn't even get to set aside a container for my grandma (sorry, Grandma!) before it was gone!

It's true that my pot was not filled to the brim, but I had about 7 quarts, which is still quite a bit. And it was a Sundried Tomato and Lentil Soup that was much more like a hearty stew so I kind of expected it to go further, although the recipe did say "serves 10" and we had more than that.

The Librarian gave me a cookbooklet from Vancouver's Commercial Drive last week and the recipe came from that book. It's a specialty at Pane Vero Bakery and Cafe. This was an excellent recipe and I followed it almost to the letter. I used regular parsley instead of flat leaf and that's about the only change I made. It was extremely delicious!

We had a full house today too, and everyone brought hearty appetites because the weather was nice and so they'd all been working outside in their gardens all day. I think there were 11 guests plus myself and The Southerner. The bread was a nice Irish Soda Herb bread, which I've made before, but this time I left out the currants . We voted last time and thought that while it tasted fine with currants, it was an odd combination with soup.

Those who missed my homemade mozzarella cheese last week, were wowed and amazed by the butter I made this week! If you know how to make butter, shhhhh....don't tell...Everyone thinks I'm a whiz in the kitchen now. Although someone did ask, "Where do you keep the cow?" Alas, no cow, only deer, and while they like me enough to eat out of my hands, I've never heard of anyone milking a deer and I'm not going to be the first one to try that.

I guess with the nice weather we will start getting more people to Sunday Soup. Also, we know more people than we did nearly a year ago when we started it (thanks to SS!). I might have to invest in another pot for back-up soup for the summer. Luckily, The Southerner's cracked ribs are healing nicely and he's been back in the garden, so in a few months, he'll be bringing home produce for me to turn into soup.

So today's lesson is: If you are coming for "the hang" as The Southerner says, "fall by the house any Sunday between 4pm-7pm", but if you're coming for the soup, "Get here early!"

Here's the butter!

Whey Good!

So last week I went to a cheese making workshop. I learned to make paneer and mozzarella. Really. No kidding! And guess what? It's super easy and costs about half as much as buying it, but the really cool part is you get to say, "I made the cheese" and everyone goes, "Ooooh" and "Ahhhh!"

Of course, I'm no good at pretending that it was terribly difficult. I had to tell everyone the truth - it took 30 minutes to make the mozzarella and it's really simple. I really had no choice but to admit the truth anyway since over the last 3 months, approximately 75 people here on the island have taken the course and undoubtedly one of them would know someone from Sunday Soup and blow my story if I said I am now a master cheese artisan.

Anyway, the byproduct of making mozzarella is you have about 4.5 quarts of whey (yes, as in Little Miss Muffet eating her curds and whey). There are a lot of things you can do with whey and it's full of vitamins and minerals and such, so you definitely want to do something with it, even though it looks a little scary. Apparently, and I did not try any of these things, you can mix it with orange juice and a sweetener for a lovely beverage, you can make lemonade with it, you can mix it into your pig slop or chicken feed and give it to your pigs/chickens respectively, you can give it to your dog (but not at night because it makes the dog have to pee a lot and you'll be up all night letting the dog in and out), you can use it to water your roses or other plants, and you can add it to bread dough instead of water. But guess what I did with it? Yep. I used it in my soup.

I read on the internet that you can use it in place of stock, so yesterday I roasted up a big pile of veggies - onion...hmmm...I was going to start with onion and then I just remembered that I totally forgot the onion! Anyway, okay...here's the real list: red potatoes, yellow pepper, broccoli, parsnip, carrots, mushrooms, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and beets tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper and a few herbs. When they were done, I simply dumped them into the whey, mashed it all with a potato masher, and then I pureed it with my immersion blender.

By the way, it's really hard to chop up mushrooms with an immersion blender, so even though I attacked them individually, forcing them to the bottom of the pan, a few escaped and there were chunks of mushrooms in my roughly pureed soup. It added character. I seasoned it with French Thyme, Celery Salt, Cayenne, and a bit more salt and pepper.

And guess what? The verdict, after everyone got over their fascination with the fact that I made the mozzarella and it only takes thirty minutes, was that they loved the soup and that is why I'm calling it Whey Good Roasted Veggie Soup.

The bread was no-knead bread and kind of rolled it out flat and then added chunks of mozzarella (they just disappeared, so I don't recommend wasting good cheese this way - use a harder cheese) and sundried tomatoes and then rolled it up into a loaf. It was tasty enough that every scrap disappeared though, despite the vanishing mozz.

Attendance was good today and there were many people we don't see very often and a new guest. The only regular was The Neighbour. It was lots of fun, although we do hope the half of The Brits that isn't feeling well, gets better soon!

Oh, and I want to say that I am now on a major deadline and I seriously couldn't have made today's SS happen without my fabulous sous chef, The Southerner. I hereby promote him to Full Chef, at least until April 30th when I hand off the next draft of my book to my editor. As Full Chef, his duties include, but are not limited to: Tea, Coffee & Breakfast (which he does as a Sous Chef anyway), Morning Break Snack, Lunch, Afternoon Snack w/Tea & Dinner. Okay, stop laughing. It was worth a shot!

Mushroom Moderate

I spent the entire weekend in the kitchen (nearly). Starting yesterday morning, I made, banana bread, oatmeal, the filling for samosas, two vegetarian moussaka casseroles, grilled cheese & soup for The Southerner's lunch, today's soup, and a loaf of bread. Today I finished the bread, the samosas (yum!), and taught The Southerner how to make 8 Grain Cereal. It was my choice to be in the kitchen so long, and it was fun, but I'm looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow!

On Saturday morning I still had not chosen a soup, so I got out an old library discard, The Low-fat Vegetarian Cookbook, that I picked up at the library book sale. What's hilarious about this book is that it says it's vegetarian, but when you open it up, there are all these recipes called "almost vegetarian" that have meat in them! No wonder the library discarded it.

Anyway, there are a few soups in it and one of them was Mushroom Barley. I had the ingredients (or so I thought, The Southerner ended up having to go to the store for barley right about the time I was ready to add it!). This soup is a brothy soup with a lot of mushrooms. And I mean a lot. I cut them really thinly because I once had a mushroom soup with them cut paper thin and it was really good. The soup was a big hit today, but it crossed a line for me and so I didn't have any.

You see, it wasn't until maybe five years I tentatively began to eat mushrooms. I learned how to cook them from Alton Brown and suddenly, they were pretty appealing. The more I have them, the more I like them. However, this soup, with a pound and a half of mushrooms, cooked in a vegetable broth that eventually became a deep, rich, brown, mushroomy broth really fell just across the line of "too many mushrooms in one dish". Luckily, The Southerner LOVED it, and judging by how our guests emptied the crockpot, I think overall it was a good soup. One guest even asked for the recipe. Which oddly enough, might be the very first recipe that I have followed exactly! Well, except that I used homemade vegetable stock instead of junk from a can.

Anyway, we had a very nice Sunday Soup. A few regulars, one guest we haven't seen since summer, some newbies...very nice. And we started it off with a Tea Party. We tested the mango tea (a previous SS favourite), vanilla jasmine, maple, and green. I think that the mango is still on top, although the vanilla jasmine was met with interest and smiles. I alone like the maple (I drink it every day).

And that's about it. And Grandma, I know you're reading this each week and are always hoping that I'm freezing you the soup to bring you when we come to visit. Don't worry, I am. But I also know not to save you any Mushroom Barley! Like Grandma, like Granddaughter, eh?

Eat well!

Fast SS Post

How fast can I type? We've had crazy weather here, almost to rival Tennessee, except there aren't those wild temp changes (oh, and those pesky tornadoes). It's blowing like crazy now though after a day of snow that didn't stick, snow that did stick, snow that melted off, snow and rain mixed, a burst of sunshine that lasted about 3 minutes, and more snow and lots and lots of wind. The reason I'm typing as fast as I can is because the power has already gone off once. I looked at the clock when it went out and said to the The Southerner, "Hmmm...6:49pm. I reckon we're out for the night unless it comes right back on this second." and POOF, the power came back on. Still, I'd be surprised if we made it through the night with power. And being that we're on an island, that means we won't get it back until tomorrow.

The soup was yummy. A concoction I made loosely based on a recipe from Canadian Living. I was looking at the March issue at the doctor office (while The Southerner had his ribs checked out - guess what? Yep. Still sore, still nothing to be done) and found a recipe from Quebec for carrot turnip soup. I didn't have anything to write with, and even though everyone I've told this story to has said, "Why didn't you just rip the recipe out of the magazine?" I simply read it twice, hoping I'd remember it. And then I came home and made up my own soup. It turned out fine, so no biggie! I also made cheese and green onion biscuits. Yummmm!

We had some of the regulars here today and a couple of guests. They're all wondering what the nicknames for the guests will be, and since I'm not feeling very creative (and I'm still typing as fast as I can), I'm going to go for the obvious ones. The Fix-it Guy's sister is going to be called, The Sister and the other guest is going to be called The Mudgekin because she is from Mudge Island and that's what we call them when we shoot potatoes at them from potato cannons on Canada Day (I can't type fast enough to explain this). I was informed by The Mudgekin that they have "real" guns on Mudge, so maybe shooting potatoes at them is not the smartest thing we could do, but whatever. I don't shoot potatoes anyway...I make them into soup.

Whew! I think I made it! Have a great week.

Daylight Sunday!

I love Daylight Savings Time. I don't even mind giving up the hour. It's not like I lost an hour of sleep or anything. I lost an hour of cleaning up the house before people came to SS. Who cares about losing an hour of cleaning? And now, SS is over and it's still lovely and light outside! I'm so excited.

What was so interesting is that people came around the same time as usual, but they stayed longer like they do in summer. Everyone changed their clocks except The Fix It Guy so we were all wondering where they were when 5:30 came and went and we hadn't seen them. Turns out he was lucky he even got to come at all because he was so busy fixing something that The Fleece Lady had to back the car out of the driveway to get him to run in and change his clothes and clean up so he could go along. She almost left without him, but you know...she might have needed something fixed, so it was smart to wait for him, just in case.

It was more of a party atmosphere too because everyone is happy about the light. Living this far north, winter days are soooooo short that we forget how lovely and long the summer evenings are and today we were all reminded of that. I think it made everyone quite cheerful.

The soup was a yummy yellow split pea soup. I started with a recipe, but soon abandoned it. I wanted to avoid the usual gloppy thick split pea, so I made this one rather thin by using lots of veggie stock. Once the peas were soft, I added thinly sliced onions and carrots that I had sauteed with thyme, marjoram, and ginger. The soup went fast, but I think there's still a bit left for me and The Gimpy Southerner (yes, he's still quite sore from his accident- see last week's post for details on his fall from grace, er, I mean bike).

At 3pm I still didn't know what the bread was, but I'd bought buttermilk at the store because it seems like nine out of ten quickbread recipes call for it. I put "buttermilk muffin recipe" into Google and came up with these lovely buttermilk oatmeal muffins. I tripled the recipe but instead of tripling the whole wheat flour, I did one cup of whole wheat, one of spelt, and one of all-purpose. I think it made them lighter than they would've been and they are super yummy. It made 3 dozen and we have at least a dozen left. Can you say delish breakfast tomorrow? Yummm!

I think this was my 45th soup. Something like that. We're coming up on the big One Year SS Anniversary Souper Soup Swap (first weekend in May). More details to follow! Have a great week and eat well!

Four P Soup

Last year, when the Southerner proved that Black Thumb was a nickname from his past and he actually could grow food, I decided I better learn to cook all those veggies he was bringing home so I bought a cookbook called Perfect Vegetables (they didn't have a book called Perfect Squash). It turned out to be a fantastic cookbook and when I heard someone in the grocery store raving over parsnips (I always wondered what those white carrots were), I decided to buy some and give 'em a try since they were covered in the book. They were delicious and now I throw them in my roasted vegetables all the time.

Last week parsnips were on sale so I bought a bag of small, tender ones and this week, when it came time to pick a soup, I got online and did a Google search for "potato parsnip soup". It led me to this blog post by a woman named Annamaria, a Hungarian living in Texas. All I have to say is THANK YOU ANNAMARIA! This is a yummy soup and you should try it. She calls it Cream of Parsnip and Potato Soup, although I dubbed it Four P Soup because it has potatoes, parsnips, parsley, and I added (Hungarian) paprika for colour and also because I had some and it seemed like a good idea since it was a Hungarian soup.

If you look at this recipe and you think, "Oh, I'll use dried parsley and I don't have any lemon" I will say to you that your soup still will probably be pretty good, but it will be outstanding if you make the effort to get the fresh parsley, toss it with the fresh lemon juice, and olive oil and serve as suggested. Because there are a lot of people at SS, I don't really like to stand around giving directions about adding garnish, so I just dumped all the parsley/lemon/olive oil mixture right into the soup and that worked fine.

We had a lot of people today, ten in fact, plus us and it was sort of a madhouse of laughter and good food and good company. Very nice. The Southerner has a gimp in his giddy-up from a spill on his bike, so he got lots of attention, although I'm not sure it was the kind he really wanted! Much of it had to do with how he should take it easy (not in his nature), how ribs take weeks to heal (also not what he wanted to hear), and lots of advice about whether riding his bike home after his fall was really the best choice (too late now). He will recover eventually and in the meantime, he's volunteered to taste anything I care to cook. He's a keeper, that one. I'm glad I get to keep him.

Have a fun week and if you ride your bike, know that it's not necessary to take your hand off the handlebars to wave at the neighbour, thus hitting black ice, and going down. Your neighbour will understand...even if you are a southerner and it's the southern way to wave and be friendly!

Sleepy Sunday Soup

Soooooo tired...It's so warm in here, and I actually had a glass of wine, which I rarely do...so sleepy...must post something...must...stay awake...zkhax...Oh! I'm awake. I'm awake!

Can I get away with a quick recap and a recipe? Oh, good. Quick recap...breaking news!!! THE NEIGHBOUR MISSED SUNDAY SOUP. She almost made it to the one year mark with a perfect record! Even we don't have a perfect record, but rumour has it she not only missed SS, but left the island (not permanently, but for a short holiday or something). Anyway, that was a big surprise.

We did have a new guest and she will be referred to as The Hairdresser. This is because we met after I saw her picture on Facebook (another friend posted pictures of a party we were both at) and I messaged her to tell her I loved her haircut and I wanted to know who cut it. Turns out that while she's actually in construction, she cuts her own hair. I was so inspired that this week I cut off all my hair (think: more hair than a Marine, but not by much). Anyway, she had to see my haircut (and yes, even trim it up a bit in back and show me how to use some product to make it really stylin' - or it will be after the baldy bits over my ears grow in a little) and that's how we met. Anyway, The Hairdresser is lovely and we are so glad to have met her and we hope she'll come back again soon (and if she's reading this and wondering why I'm calling her that, it's because everyone has a nickname at Sunday Soup).

The Fix-it Guy and The Musician (brown as a berry from a month in Mexico) dropped in as well. And now, here's your recipe since I'm zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......................

Red Pepper Orange Soup with Ricotta Dumplings
(soup is original, based on a few others – dumplings are from The Ultimate Soup Cookbook)
This makes a lot of soup – about 7-8 quarts. You could easily halve it. Half would serve about 6.
3 carrots – peeled, sliced
3 medium red potatoes, diced
2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
6 red bell peppers
Water
Orange juice
Thyme
Salt & pepper
Olive Oil

Halve and seed red peppers, place face down on an oiled baking sheet or glass pan. Roast for 30 minutes at 400. Remove from oven, allow to cool some, and then peel the skins off carefully. Chop roughly. (the roasting step is optional, alternatively, you can just dice the peppers and add to onion mixture and sauté, but the roasting adds flavour).
In a large stockpot over medium heat, cook onions until translucent. Add garlic, potatoes, carrots. Cook 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Add Thyme, salt and pepper to taste (you’ll add more later, but it’s good to get a bit in from the beginning). Add roasted red pepper. Cover veggies with water, add canned tomatoes, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer until veggies are tender (around 20-30 minutes).
Remove from heat. Mashing the veggies with a potato masher at this point helps, but is optional. Puree with a handheld immersion blender. If you don’t have one, you can use a regular blender and do it in batches, but LET THE SOUP COOL FIRST!!! or it will blow off the top of your blender! Not pretty.
When the soup is pureed, add orange juice. I think I put in about 2 cups, but honestly, I just did it by taste. Also, adjust seasonings at this time. That’s it. Yumm!
The red pepper flavour is very mild. You could reduce the potatoes and add more peppers if you like it stronger.

Ricotta Dumplings
This recipe is from the Ultimate Soup Cookbook, but I’ve altered it just a tiny bit.
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 egg
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
3 TBS fresh parsley
Mix all the ingredients together. Bring a large pot of water to boil and then reduce it to simmer. Drop spoonfuls of dough into the water, cover, cook 10 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon to a plate to drain a little. Do in several batches unless you have a very wide pot because they’ll fuse together if they’re crowded into it. Place a couple of dumplings in each soup bowl and top with soup. You could put them into the pot, but they break apart some and so I think putting them in each bowl works best.

New Soup - Take 2

The Southerner was able to get my pan clean, he did go to the store with me, and he chopped mounds of cauliflower for the new soup. He is a Star! No, I mean a Double Star! No...wait...a Super Star! Yep, that's it!

During the summer, we had a lot of people at Sunday Soup. It dropped off in the fall, and I began to make less soup. However, about a month ago, attendance started to pick up again, so today I made a triple batch of Rachel Ray's Cauliflower Soup. I think the only change I made was that I used plain, unsweetened Silk (soymilk) instead of milk or cream. I made garlic and herb foccacia and roasted red pepper foccacia for the bread.

Another thing that changed over the winter is that instead of people starting to show up around 4:30pm, more and more people have been showing up at 4pm straight up. When no one was here, not even The Neighbour, by 4:35, we were looking at that triple batch of soup and hoping it was really delicious! But then The Neighbour did arrive. And so did The Fix-it Guy & The Fleece Lady, followed by The Real Estate Agent. It was a small group, but a wonderful thing happened. I think that when the crowd is bigger, everyone has one bowl of soup and maybe after a while they'll have a bit more, but most people are cautious about having too much in case there's not enough. Today, however, it was clear that there was a lot of soup, and not many people, and everyone had several bowls! It was great to see the guests choosing the biggest Ugly Mugs and filling them to the top, and then going back for seconds, and even thirds. It made me very happy.

And there's still a lot of soup left, which makes The Southerner happy!

Eat well.

The Southerner hearts me

For Valentine's Day The Southerner gave me:

• Numerous hugs & kisses of consolation after I burned the soup beyond recognition.
• Then he disposed of said soup, so that I wouldn't have to be sad (it was nine quarts of pretty spendy soup).
• After his nap, he's going to scour the soup pot - no small feat. According to the internet, all you have to do is boil water, vinegar, baking soda, and a tiny bit of soap in the pot for fifteen minutes and the grunge will practically wipe away. After half an hour of boiling, I could barely make a dent in the charred remains. After an hour, The Southerner showed his muscle and scrubbed part of it clean. I have faith he'll be able to get it clean for me after his restorative nap.
• Once he's done that, he's going to go to the store with me and buy ingredients for a new soup.
• And then he's going to help me make it.

I have to admit, I was feeling pretty badly about the ruined soup, but The Southerner made me feel better by reminding me that everyone burns things once in a while. And my record's pretty darn good considering that tomorrow is our 42nd Sunday Soup and not only have I made a new soup every week, but only one other time have I had to toss the soup and make an emergency pot of something else (and that was a recipe issue, not a mistake).

Soup is usually very forgiving. You can forget about a lot of soups (except the thick or creamy ones) and it's not likely you'll burn it if you come back relatively soon, but this one tricked me. It called for quinoa (a rice like grain, but way yummier and a lot more dear). I added the quinoa and while a little of it floated, the rest of sunk to the bottom. So while my soup was barely simmering, and I was busy making The Southerner a heart shaped pizza for lunch, it was quietly turning the bottom inch of my soup to coal. Maybe I should've left it on the burner and waited to see if I got diamonds!

Even with disasters, you learn something. Next time a soup calls for quinoa, I will cook it separately and add it later, just like rice. And tonight, I will meet my sweetie pie in the kitchen, and we'll steam up the windows (making a new pot of soup).
Happy Valentine's Day!

Tortillas & Tortilla Soup

A friend of mine suggested that I make her Vegetarian Tortilla Soup for SS today, so I did. It's a fairly simple recipe involving canned tomatoes, sauce, green chiles, seasonings and a few other things. Some of the optional things she suggested are faux chicken and black beans. I do sometimes cook faux meat, but not usually for Sunday Soup. For one thing, it's expensive, but for another thing, some people really don't like it. I think I've used it once for SS, but that's it.

I did add some frozen pinto beans that I had on hand, and when I realized that they weren't enough (I'd doubled the soup recipe), I ended up tossing in a can of drained black beans, and a can of drained white beans. You serve this soup over tortilla chips, top it with cheese and diced avocado. I was concerned about the avos sitting out for three hours, even with lemon juice, so I mashed them up and made guacamole instead (which worked well).

Rather than stand around telling people to put the chips in their Ugly Mugs (that would be what I call the mug collection I got from the recycle centre, not their faces), I just put a handful of chips in each mug before everyone arrived. The soup was so popular that half way through, I added a large can of crushed tomatoes, a can of black beans, and some water and seasonings - just in case. Of course, we now have lots left over, but it looked questionable there for a bit! I put some in the freezer already, and I'm really not worried about the rest as The Southerner thought this was a most excellent soup.

So...now you're wondering about bread, aren't you? Well... Last night I got out my recipe for homemade flour tortillas. Simple! Easy Peasy! Uh-hunh. Guess what tortillas turn into if you don't get them thin enough? Pita bread. Actually, they were quite delicious, but after struggling (for various reasons) with the first batch of 12, I let my dreams of whipping out forty or fifty hot tortillas while everyone stood around marveling, fall by the wayside. I have not given up entirely. I will try again! And The Fleece Lady said she has a tortilla press that she doesn't use because she can't eat wheat anymore. If she can find it, she's going to lend it to me! Yay. Luckily The Southerner came to the rescue by making his famous corn bread. I swear that man will do anything to ride his bike. First he rode to the store for buttermilk and then AFTER he got back he checked to see if we had enough cornmeal.

"Guess I'll have to ride again!" he said cheerfully, shaking the mostly empty container.

Oh, and I know this is a long post, but I do want to quickly say that we had a HOUSE FULL today and it was great fun. We also had three new visitors that I hope to have back again. Wild Iris doesn't get a nickname because she already has such a cool real name. And the other two...well, I shall call them The Farmers, as they are, and they do, and we all enjoy their bounty each summer. One of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning is ride my bike to the farmgate and stock up on whatever wonderful things The Farmers have that day. Much of their produce has found its way into Sunday Soup and it was so nice to finally have them here! And Wild Iris too. And all you Regulars...gosh, I'm feeling a bit sappy tonight...I often look around my house at Sunday Soup, bubbling over with conversation and food and friendship and I wonder how in the world I ended up so blessed. I hope you are equally blessed. Okay...I'll get off my sappy (but blessed) soap box...or is that soup box? No...no boxed soup here! Until next week...Eat well!

P.S. I may have lost my hat a few weeks ago, but I gained a scarf tonight. If it's yours, I reckon you'll have to come back next week for it!

All's Well That Ends Well

Ahhhh...another Sunday Soup, come and gone. The Southerner did a few tunes at a benefit for the Gaza victims this afternoon, so we found ourselves racing back to the house from the Theatre Center at the other end of the island at 4pm straight up. We arrived about fifteen after to find The (wonderful) Neighbour in the house, stoking the fire. Soon after, the guests started to arrive and we had a very relaxed and lovely afternoon.

The soup was Lentil Barley and quite delicious. Unlike so many lentil soups, the spices were not curry or cumin, but rosemary and oregano. A simple soup, but I'm too lazy to type up the recipe word for word, so go for it using these minimal directions:
Sautee onion, carrots, celery in a little butter. Add equal parts barley, lentils (around 3/4 cup each), a 28oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained and 6 cups of veggie stock. Season with oregano and rosemary. Add the salt at the very end. That's it, more or less.

The bread was very popular, although there is plenty left for toast, which makes me excited. I might even have to make breakfast for supper (toast, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes) just so I don't have to wait until tomorrow morning to try it that way.

I hope you had a lovely weekend. And just for the record, I'm still really hoping someone will find my hat!!! I did get a new, very hip black one at Artworks, but I'm still really missing that grey one and they don't appear to make it in grey anymore. I know...get out the world's smallest violin and play me a tune.

Eat well!

P.S. The Shakespeare reference is because first of all, I was afraid we wouldn't make it back in time for SS, but we did - pretty much anyway. And the other reason is because at the benefit this afternoon we had the pleasure of seeing two fine actors do some bits and pieces of Shakespeare. Really good stuff. Garry Davies did a variety of monologues including two where he played women - Helena and Juliet, and Antony Holland did a wonderful piece from Merchant of Venice that had everyone sitting on the edge of their seats.

Recipes, experience & a calm mind

I have lately started using recipes. Sunday Soup has forced me to. By lately, I mean for the last six months or so. When I first learned to cook I studied techniques and then applied them to improve the things I "thought" I knew how to cook. The quality of our food improved quite a bit. Then I started experimenting and discovered I have a knack for combos and creating recipes. I cooked like that for several years.

When we moved to the island and The Southerner started bringing home foods I didn't know what to do with (beets, zucchini), I got the cookbook Perfect Vegetables (which I highly recommend). Sunday Soup forced my hand though...after just a few weeks I realized I needed help with both bread and soup. I am now ADDICTED to cookbooks. While I usually swap some ingredients out, or change something because it sounds odd, I still love using recipes. I think the big change in my thinking is because when I first started to cook, if I didn't have two or three ingredients on hand, then the recipe was useless to me. Now I just sub confidently because I know a lot more about cooking.

For example, this week I chose to make brown bread from The Zen Monastery Cookbook (which is one of the coolest cookbooks EVER!). I thought I had all the ingredients, but when I was adding the molasses, I realized I was a bit short of one cup (I was doubling it), so I topped it off with honey and just a bit of water because honey is thicker than molasses.

Interestingly enough, the recipe says to "pour" the batter into a loaf pan. Well, let me just tell you that I think those monks might've had a little too much of their home brew* when they wrote this recipe because the "batter" was somewhere between a thick muffin batter and cookie dough. I double, and then triple checked the recipe. All good. I scooped the batter/dough into the pans and it turned out fantastic. I did have to turn the oven down a bit after half an hour and the bread was done after 45 minutes instead of an hour.

The thing is, this is how experience helps you use recipes. Five years ago I would've panicked at the density of the batter, wouldn't have known to turn the oven down, would've cooked it for the whole hour, and been rewarded with bricks. But on the positive side, that's also how I learned what to do in this case. It's all about trial and error. Thank goodness The Southerner will eat anything! It makes the failures that much easier to stomach!

Try this recipe. It's delish:
Brown Bread from The Zen Monestary Cookbook
(adapted from The Peaceful Palate)
2 cups wholewheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or soymilk)
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup raisisn

Preheat oven to 350. Sift dry ingredients into large mixing bowl, stir to combine.
Mix milk with molasses in separate bowl.
Add raisins and wet to dry. Stir well to combine.
"Pour" into a buttered loaf pan and bake 50 minutes to an hour

Makes one loaf



*Some monks do brew beer, although I don't think these monks do. I think they're at high altitude and I'm at practically no altitude, so that could've made a difference.