Good to be home...

The menu was back to soup this week, although I'm quite impressed with my cooking students innovative approach to Sunday Soup last week - making it Sunday Salad instead. I heard that everyone who came kept asking them, "What went wrong with your soup?" and they had to keep explaining nothing went wrong, they hadn't even tried to make any.

Just so you know, they are both very capable of making soup, so I think it's great they tried something new. And The Southerner and I appreciate them covering for us too.

The Southerner and I have mostly given up dairy. If a restaurant salad comes with Parmesan, we'll lick the plates 'cause that's what we miss most, but dairy just isn't good for me and The Southerner is a good husband, so he's given it up too. Anyway, the reason I'm explaining this is because one of the favourite Sunday Soups is corn chowder. I can still make it with Silk (soy milk), but I wanted to try and make a clear corn soup like I'd had in a restaurant recently, so this is what I did.

I made a very light vegetable stock and then I added diced potatoes, sliced leek, red peppers, orange peppers, celery, onion, and a big bag of frozen corn. For seasoning, I used salt, pepper, and thyme. It turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. Very light and fresh. I just realized I meant to add carrots, but I forgot. They would've been nice, especially for colour, but it was still bright and cheerful without them. This soup was really fast to make too, which was nice. This week The Southerner played the role of sous chef because we had guests coming all day Saturday and so we had to whip it up while we made dinner Friday night.

Today's SS was fun, with lots of people and a fire because it's cold and rainy, which made it cozy. And yesterday we had quite the bash here on our island, with music, food, a reading and presentation, and book signing to celebrate the Canadian launch of my new book. Wish you could have been there (or maybe you were, and in that case, thanks for coming!).For those of you interested in my book tour, The Southerner put together this very fun slide show of my U.S. events from last week.

See y'all next week!

S.S. - Sunday Salad!

Hello world! Pastry Chef Here!
First off I would like to say that if I get your nicknames wrong-I'm sorry.
Second you may be wondering why I'm here. Well, the blogger is off on a little road trip! She is traveling the coast with the Southerner to do book signings! How existing! I'm sure we'll hear lots about there trip when they come back.
But for the time that there gone, you get ME! Lucky you!
So back to what happened at SS this weekend. Well, instead of soup, Sous Chef and I mixed it up and made salad for everyone. (and no, nothing happened to our soup) We thought it would be a nice change, there was a fresh green salad with lettuce from,-I forget their nickname, but lets call them the gardeners, and Egg salad made by Sous Chief. We didn't made the bread, (partly because we didn't have time, and partly because we forgot how to!) but it was fresh from the fast sinking bakery(hey, look at that, I made up a new nickname!).
We also had delicious banana bran muffins made by yours truly!
Over all I think Sunday Salad was a huge success, the writer, the fix-it man and his wife(sock lady), One couple I don't know their nickname for (But they are gratefully thanked because they brought watermelon- yum!) and the neighbour and pooh Bear's friend all came over. And I think everyone of them asked us what we did wrong with our soup. (FYI We didn't make soup) And best part of all, we didn't poison anyone with out cooking! Well...I haven't seen any of them sense they left... but I'm sure they're fine. Maybe... Hopefully...
Anyway that's all for now, Pasty Chief has left the Blog!

Long day, but nice

Long day here...eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches for supper. All the soup's gone. It's because I made Thai Vegetable Soup with Coconut Milk and it was so fantabulous we ate all but half a bowl, which The Southerner generously offered to eat after everyone left so we could wash the crockpot. He's good that way.

I got the recipe here. And I made it times 4 which made enough for 14 people or so. I added thinly sliced carrots and broccoli, and instead of canned mushrooms I used diced white mushrooms. SUPER! It's a pretty easy soup to make, but does take a while to cut everything up.

Oh, the dinger on the toaster oven just went off. Gotta run and make the sandwiches. Next week, the Sous Chef and The Pastry Chef are making the soup themselves (and bread, I presume?). Should be very yummy. They've come a long way since I first showed them how to grate cheese!

P.S. If you're interested in my book, it came out last Thursday in the US, this Tuesday in Canada. Click on the link on the sidebar and visit my site for more info!

Ahhh...relaxing...

Today we had a nice, relaxing Sunday Soup. We had six people, including one newbie, plus us, which was fun. The soup was a lovely egg drop and spinach soup. Because it's Mother's Day, The Sous Chef didn't come, but she did come over last night and help me wash the spinach. The soup is best if it's made at the last minute, so I essentially made it just moments before everyone arrived. Cleaning all that spinach is a job though, so I appreciated her help last night.

It was nice and sunny, but it's been a cool spring so far and we haven't moved out onto the porch yet, although for the first two years, we've always been outside in May. Maybe next week.

It was such a relaxing SS, that the Fix-it Guy kept falling asleep in his chair, and the second everyone was out the door, The Southerner headed for the couch for his nap. Me? I'm too excited to nap. Why? Because not only does my book finally go on sale THIS THURSDAY, but it's already in some stores and today, someone sent me a photo of it "in the wild" as we say in publishing...in other words, for sale in a bookstore! It's the blue one, front and centre (Restoring Harmony).

Hope you have wonderful week!

Two Years and Counting!

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of Sunday Soup! Oddly enough, even though I forgot to remind people, and I didn't even tell them that The Pastry Chef was making The Southerner a birthday cake, we had a HUGE crowd. Including us, there were 18 people at Sunday Soup yesterday.

Not only did The Pastry Chef make a beautiful checkerboard cake, but The Fleece Lady brought a wheat-free carrot and pineapple cake. I didn't get any yesterday, but there's half a piece with my name on it in the fridge. In fact, cake is about all we have in the fridge. There's the orange juice cake I made The Southerner on his actual birthday, plus a little of the two from yesterday. Life is good!

We got a few cans of soup for the food bank, but since I forgot to remind people, we didn't get many. We'll keep collecting if anyone wants to bring any next week.

I had a pretty busy week and no time to cook this weekend, so The Southerner and I had extra coffee yesterday and then we did a speed clean on the house and made Potato Leek soup just a few hours before people showed up. We can literally make that soup in ten minutes if we work together and then it only has to cook for about 30 minutes. And people love it. Thank you, Julia Child!

How busy was I this weekend? Well...I bought bread! Yes, bought it! I think that might've been the first time for SS. But it was tasty bakery bread, and local...and organic, so it was all good.

How was your week? Eat any good soup?

Remember Me?

Hi All.
I'm betting you thought I fell into a vat of my own soup and disappeared, but that'd be silly because I'm a VEGETARIAN! I'd never fall into the soup or I'd be violating the most basic rule of Sunday Soup!

After a bit of gentle nudging (Anne) and some not so gentle kicks in the butt (Sous Chef), I am finally back to update SS! It's been an exciting few weeks since I posted too. Last week was my birthday and The Sous Chef made me a most delicious ice cream cake ALL BY HERSELF! She did borrow my spring form pan, but other than that, she did it alone!

The buttercream frosting was my favourite part. Why? Because the night before she made the cake, she was over here cooking with me and this is how our conversation went.

Sous Chef: I'm a little worried about the frosting.
Me: Why?
SC: Because I've never made frosting before.
Me: You didn't frost the other cakes you made?
SC: Well, yeah...but I got it out of a can.( BIG SIGH) I can't do that for you.
Me: (Evil laughter!) That's right, baby! And don't even try it.

So she made the frosting from scratch. And get this, she remembered I liked candied pecans, but there weren't any at the grocery store, so she got online and found a recipe and made them herself!!! I was so proud! And they were totally yummy.

In other news, I was supposed to help The Sous Chef make soup for the volunteers at The Commons one Saturday morning, but my phone got unplugged (it was an accident, I swear) and she ended up making soup for twenty people ALL BY HERSELF. And I got there just in time to eat it and it was DELICIOUS. You do realize what this means, right? It means that I taught someone who thought grated cheese got that way by buying it in a bag and frosting came in a can how to cook!!!!

Anyway, enough about TSC, who wasn't even here today, but did come last night and chop a LOT of broccoli for the Broccoli Almond soup. This is a yummy and delish soup. However, we won't be having it often because I almost passed out at the checkout when my tiny bag of bulk blanched almonds cost $12.47!!!

The Southerner and I are cutting out butter for the most part and so we've been offering up different things (besides the obvious one, soup) to go with the bread. Today I had a homemade hummus and also some blackberry-blueberry-chipotle sauce (which I think only The Fix-it Guy ate). It's really quite tasty though, so as The Southerner says whenever someone says, "Oh, I don't really like X," more for me!

Even though I try not to talk about my job/book here too much, I do have to point out that since my last post, my website has received an all new facelift and you can watch the book trailer and hear the music from the book, performed by The Southerner and The Fiddler.

I'll try to do better on updates, but you never know! I did miss you all though. Oh, oh! I can't forget, this is really important and I forgot to remind everyone who came today...Next weekend is the Second Anniversary of Sunday Soup! Two whole years! And what that means is that we will be doing our annual "soup drive for PHC." If you come to Sunday Soup, please bring canned soup donations for the foodbank and we will deliver them. Last year, we had around 25 cans. I think we can do better this year, don't you? See you then!

Tonight we had my favourite soup. A red lentil dal (that turns yellow when you cook it) and scallion pancakes. So yummy, I'm going to go have some more.

If I had spring allergies, they would probably make me too tired to write anything else, but I don't have them because I REFUSE to have them. So I'm just too tired to write more for no reason. Have a good week!

Two For One

Even though I haven't been posting much on this blog, I do mean to at least get the menu up every week! But last week, I totally slacked off.

The Fix-it Guy gave me a big bag of garlic from his garden and requested garlic soup. I made a roasted garlic and roasted potato soup, which was pretty good. The Southerner said, and I quote, "It tastes like dirt...or maybe just smells like dirt. That's why I like it." Ummm...okay...

Interestingly enough, The Fix-it Guy did not actually come to SS and so I sent him his in jars on Tuesday and he didn't even like it. So, that's the last request I'm taking from him. :-)

I also made a buttermilk quick bread which was excellent, and especially good later in the week when I turned it into this wine-cheese-egg bake dish. Oh, yum!

It's now just after four, and no one's here yet, so I'll just quickly post about today's soup. It is that time of year when the freezer needed to be inventoried and we have to start eating everything from last summer that we haven't (I know food guides say stuff loses it's flavour after 3 months, but I think that's just some organized food propaganda because we're eating lots of stuff from the garden still and it's fantastic). Anyway, I had a LOT of zucchini still from that one plant so last night the Sous Chef and I made a very nice curry zucchini soup with sour cream. I forgot to make the bread before bed, so today I made two loaves of whole-grain sunflower bread (made with whole wheat flour and whole grain cereal). It's about as hippie as it sounds, but it's actually quite tasty and I'm already thinking about breakfast tomorrow - toast with local honey (when I say local, I mean LOCAL, as in just down the street!).

So there you go, two SS in one, and I even rambled on a bit! My Grandma will be pleased as she's been missing her SS update. She'll be even more pleased to hear that since I'll be coming to visit, I'm going to start filling her soup containers again and I'll be bringing lots of soup to her!

Have a great week everyone!
P.S. The Fix-it Guy just showed up and says it's snowing! It hasn't snowed all winter! I think he's imagining it though. All I see is rain.

Happy Birthday to the Pastry Chef

This week is the Pastry Chef's birthday, so her sister, The Sous Chef came over on Friday night and we made a fabulous corn chowder. This morning, at the crack of dawn (okay, 9:30am), the Sous Chef came over again, and we made this cake!

It's The Pastry Chef's Sweet Sixteen birthday and she had informed me on numerous occasions that the cake had better be special and NOT vanilla, like The Sous Chef wanted. So while this cake might look like vanilla (we tricked her), it was actually a three layer Red Velvet Cake with butter cream frosting in the shape of a heart with sprinkles. Special enough? She thought so!


Happy Birthday, Pastry Chef!

Happy Chinese New Year!

So today just happens to be the Chinese New Year, which is very fitting because on Friday I found out that my publisher sold the rights to my book, Restoring Harmony, to CHINA! That's right, my book is coming out in China. Pretty cool, eh?

To celebrate, I made Hot and Sour Soup and Scallion Pancakes. It was all pretty yummy. Although, scallion pancakes for a crowd takes quite a bit of time. For the soup, I used a mixture of a couple of different recipes. And for the pancakes, I doubled this recipe. Enjoy!

P.S. Last week we had vegetable soup and bread and an obligation right after SS, which is why I didn't post anything at all. Sorry!

Sorry folks...

All I can manage today is the menu:
Tomato Orange Soup
The Southerner's Famous Cornbread

Yum.

24 January 2010

Potato Leek Soup
Buttermilk biscuits with chives and cheese

Sunday Soup ended early so we could go to the island's Concert for Haiti. Four hundred generous people and a lot of volunteers raised $14,000 , plus the silent auction proceeds (figures not available yet) in one evening.

We live on an island. It could be us. But it wasn't, so we will give, and give, and give. And the Canadian government will match our efforts.

Blessings to you all.

A Blog Break

Hi Everyone,
Well...Sunday Soup is still going strong. We've had several new guests over the last few months, and both The Sous Chef and The Pastry Chef are coming right along in the kitchen and making wonderful things to eat.

However...

Truth be told, I'm getting a little burnt out on this blog. I don't really know what to write each week anymore. I seem to be using all my words to write my new book too, which makes it hard to be creative here. So...I hope you will bear with me while I take a break from blogging. I will still check in each week with a menu update, but that's about it. I know that some of you who live off island like to catch up on what's going on here, but after almost two years, I just need a bit of a blogging break.

So, that said, the soup today was Pumpkin and Delicata squash with Sage and Maple Syrup. There were two kinds of bread: Challah and a whole wheat. Much thanks to The Pastry Chef for helping to make the soup and bringing wonderful cookies today!

Have a great week, everyone! And thanks for being so understanding.

Vacation

I know...I know...I'm letting all y'all down, but I really need a vacation from blogging this week because my deadline for my new book is pressing upon me (it's a good thing, but it takes all the words I have right now).

Just know that we had SS, it was fun, we missed you if you weren't there, and the soup was...oh, man...I can't even remember. No, wait! I do. Onion with cheesy toast.

See you next week!

Is Today Sunday?

The Sous Chef has bronchitis. Don't worry, she was banned from the kitchen and she's gone back to University where she can infect a lot more people than we get at SS (I know...I know...she's not contagious anymore...that was a joke, SC!)

The Pastry Chef came over though, on Friday night, and we made Chunky Garden Vegetable Soup. Guess where we got the veggies? Yep! The Southerner grew them. You knew that already, though, didn't you?

The Pastry Chef didn't actually come over to make soup, she came over to learn to make bread. You see, for holiday break homework, she was supposed to do a random act of kindness and so she asked me to teach her to make her bread and then she took the loaf of bread with her on a walk the next morning and gave it to the first stranger she met! How sweet was that? She met a fellow dog walker and handed it off, and because we live in a small community, the guy was just glad to get it, not worried about being poisoned or anything! Yay, small communities! And yay Pastry Chef!

Anyway, she ended up helping me make the soup, which is why it is pretty surprising that she did not show up today. I am sorry to say that The Pastry Chef has had entirely TOO MUCH TIME OFF FROM SCHOOL because she LOST TRACK OF THE DAYS and did not realize today was Sunday until I called her afterward to ask where she was!

Luckily for her, despite a huge crowd, and the fact that The Fleece Lady declared this "the best vegetable soup ever" there was ONE bowl left and I saved it for The Pastry Chef.

We had a lot of guests tonight, some new, some regulars. I'd love to be clever and give all the new guests nicknames, but basically I'm just too lazy...I mean, tired. We had a long, but wonderful weekend of brunches, and music and general frivolity. And now, I'm going to relax a bit with The Southerner. Y'all come back, ya hear?

A Sweet Time

Those of you who missed today are probably going to regret it when I tell you that we had a whole table full of yummy sweets! There were vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chocolate pine bark, butter cookies with icing, butter cookies with organic chocolate, and lovely mince pies! Plus The Fleece Lady's dip and chips, oh, and soup. Yep. There was soup too.

It was an original soup, and while The Southerner thought I missed his comment about where the recipe came from, I did not!

The Fleece Lady: Oh, it's original? I was wondering what book she got it out of.
The Southerner: She got it out of the Book of Desperation.
Haha!

He said this because as of nine o'clock last night, I really didn't know what I was going to make for today. So, here's what I did. I had made a big pot of baked beans for us - not traditional ones, but white and pinto with onions, sweet curry, coconut milk and ginger. They were lovely...so lovely, that I decided to use them as a base for my totally original soup. What I did, was make a pot of vegetable stock, thin the beans down with it, puree it, and then cooked another pound of pintos, added them with sauteed celery and carrot, some curry, and another can of coconut milk. Voila. Bean Soup with Sweet Curry & Coconut. Yum! Who needs a cook book, I ask you?

It was a quiet Sunday Soup today. The Sous Chef dropped off the Pastry Chef and took her soup to go because she's poorly. Then Roxy Steve came by (their dad) and had some soup and a visit. Also The Neighbour came along with The Fix-it Guy & The Fleece Lady. They brought the mince pies, so instead of putting a dent in our hoard of baked goods, we actually increased our stash! I'm sure that The Southerner and I can work on that though and nothing will go to waste...just waists.

Anyway, it was a nice, warm, candlelit, final Sunday Soup of 2009, and from us to you, Happy Holidays and see ya in 2010!

Soup to Live On

The Fix-it guys said of today's soup, "You could live on this stuff." It's possible. It had a lot of good stuff in it. Actually, a person (not The Southerner as he thinks soup is an appetizer) could probably live on most good vegetable soups with some grains and legumes thrown in.

Today's soup was Miso with Cabbage and Root Vegetables. I didn't actually have any of the soup. I don't like Miso. But I heard it was really good, and judging by how much of it is gone, I'd say people liked it. I know Miso's supposed to be really good for you, but I just don't like the flavour. Why make it, you ask? Well, the truth is, I've made a lot of soups and I had all the stuff and other people like Miso, so why not?

This weekend's been a bit crazy so I didn't actually have time to make soup in advance, which was another good reason to make this one. Apparently cabbage is best if you eat it soon after you cook it, and this soup only needed to cook for twenty minutes (the work was in all the dicing, chopping, and sauteeing), so I made it around 2pm today. I generally make the soup on Friday night or Saturday. The only other times I've made it on Sunday was when I burned the soup, and when I made a horribly disgusting soup that even The Southerner wouldn't eat!

All in all, it was another lovely SS. We did the candlelight thing again, and The Writer brought another fantastic deep dish apple pie (don't tell him how good it was though because we're trying to convince him that he needs to keep practicing).

There is one thing I want to add to today's post. I know that a lot of you who read this are cooks yourselves and handle a lot of the food you eat. And even those of you who don't cook, all definitely eat. So when you sit down to have your next meal, have a good look at it and remember the farmer who grew it.

Today's Sunday Soup
is dedicated to our dear friend,
Farmer Ralph.
You will be missed.

Hearty Soup & Candlelight

A few weeks ago, the power went out right as SS began and we had a lovely candlelight evening. It was such a success that tonight we turned the lights low before people arrived and lit candles again. Everyone seemed to enjoy it!

The Sous Chef is busy with exams this week, so alas she had to eat cafeteria food this weekend and we missed her. However, it was an excellent opportunity for Pastry Chef (aka Younger Sister) to come over and pinch hit in the kitchen. We made a mighty fabulous hearty vegetable chowder from this recipe (subbing homemade veggie stock for the chicken stock) using local, organic veggies and sage right from my windowsill. It was yummy! The bread was the usual, but no one complained!

The Neighbour was out sick with a cold, but we didn't let The Fix-it Guy go over and drag her to SS anyway. She was missed though. All in all, a sort of nice, chatty, candlelit night. Snow in the forecast, so I better go blow those candles out now and save 'em in case we really need them.

Have a great week! Eat well.