Soup

I'm so very sorry to be posting another failed recipe, but I hope it gives everyone encouragement that not all kitchen ventures are successful. Also, a little failure now-and-then does wonders for deflating the ego. But please don't quit reading my blog, I promise there's some good experiences to come.

The recipe for this soup seemed so brilliant and simple: 1/2 cup baby broccoli florets, 1/2 cup cooked barley, 1 1/2-2 cups vegetable broth. Microwave until heated through and serve. Well, come to find out, I don't like barley much. It has the same texture as cooked oatmeal, which has never gotten my vote. In fact, the barley even turned me off to the Imagine Broth that was recommended by the Moosewood Collective as being the best store-bought broth. I drank the broth and ate the broccoli, but could not bring myself to finish the barley and finally dumped it in the trash. I hate wasting food. I was heart broken. . .especially now that I have most of a bag left that I have no idea what to do with.

If you have a recommendation for improving my barley experience, please comment below. I will be most grateful.

Our first night eating local started off pleasantly in at a great little restaurant on Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando. Virgin Olive Market used to be on Clay, and I think the change in location surely must have increased its exposure. There was a nice, steady stream of customers during our entire dining experience. Virgin Olive makes the grade in a couple of areas. First, it is a fast, very friendly, and significantly cheaper restaurant than the two restaurants it's sandwiched in between. Next, it holds down the spot as a source for good coffee and breakfast in the immediate vicinity. Also, it offers healthy (generally), light, budget friendly meals on top of some unusual foodie items for sale to take home.

Cost Per Person $6.00

Just this past week, I accidentally learned the value in making your own vegetable broth. That story's coming up in the next couple of days. That being said, there are a thousand different ways to make a successful broth. My biggest goal for continuing on with this new-found creation (not that I created the idea, but because I realized how easy it was to do) is the fact that the more flavoring that comes naturally, the less sodium I add. I've become rather focused on such a thing since I've been pregnant and have not enjoyed watching my legs and ankles swell. I recognize salt is necessary on certain things, but have been really, really pleased that I can make a dish without extra sodium.

For example, the Cheddar Vegetable Soup I made today had no added salt. I understand the cheese curds can be salty enough, but the vegetable flavors, red pepper, and parsley seemed to be enough flavor to keep salt far away.

For a belated Christmas present, my darling aunt and uncle sent us 3 pounds of cheese curds. I spent all this morning searching online for recipes in which to use the young white and yellow cheddar pieces. Finally, it was lunch time and I hadn't been very successful. Cheese curds are most popular as Fried Cheese Curds, which there are tons of recipes for. However, after a eating too late last night, my stomach wasn't up for fried foods at lunch. Instead, I remembered a cheddar cheese soup recipe in my Moosewood Cooks at Home cookbook. However, since It's been weeks since my visit to the grocery store aside from the purchase of bananas, milk, and tortilla chips (which do me little good as I'm out of salsa), I had to adapt the recipe to what I had on hand. And you know what? I really surprised my self. I was quite proud how the soup turned out. I will say, the cheese flavor is rich in the vegetable soup. Although it was quite good, it was a bit heavy on the stomach--although that's a good idea when it's cold out. I don't expect it to be a regular soup in my collection, but that's OK because we live in Florida and rarely get the opportunity for it to be cold enough to warrant eating so much soup.

Cheddar Vegetable Soup

Inspired by Moosewood Cooks at Home

• 1/2 large onion, sliced
• 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1-2 small celery stalks, diced
• 1 small-medium sweet potato, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 2 Tablespoons McKay's Chicken-style Seasoning (vegetarian boullion)
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup cheese curds, diced small

Saute onions in soup pot or sauce pan about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add sweet potatoes, carrots and celery. Stir. Mix seasoning in water and pour into pot. Cover pot and cook about 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are soft. (The original recipe called for white potatoes. I think they sometimes take longer to cook. Sweet potatoes seem to cook faster to me.) When vegetables are soft, add milk then cheese. The key is to have small cubes of cheese and to add them gradually so they don't clump.

Ladle the soup into a blender. (Be really careful because the blender may splatter when you turn it on. I have a silicone trivet that I cover the blender with so the soup won't splatter and burn my fingers. A towel could work, too.) Reheat soup and serve garnished with fresh herbs as desired. I bet green onions or chives would have been yummy if we had had any. Also, ground red pepper seemed to be a nice addition, too.

The weather has definitely been a topic in the news. So, why should it be any different on a cooking blog? After all, you gotta stay warm! Soup is certainly key to warming up the inside--not to mention, it's often a great assistant in losing or maintaining weight if that was part of your New Year's Resolution.

But if you're reading this post in the summer, the recipe card says you can eat this soup cold, which Paul did with the leftovers at work the following day. He said it was fine. I thought it was almost better cold. I assure you it's good to have such a versatile soup in your collections.

The concierge at our hotel needed to direct us to a reasonably fast dinner location. Paul said Italian pizza sounded good, and she made a reservation for us at Salute! on Madison Ave. and then directed us on the best way to get a cab to Carnegie Hall for a beautiful, but long performance of Handel's Messiah. (In case you never knew, the Hallelujah Chorus is not the end of the program, only of Part 2.)

Salute was an amazing restaurant with a bar in the front and lots of tables in the back. The monochromatic color scheme made the room very inviting, and we loved our seats looking out the window.

A kind lady met us at the door and waited patiently while I removed both coats and packaged my gloves and hat so as not to lose them. Then, she led us to a table, that I'm sorry to say was very tipped. However, we were happy to have a seat and the leaning table was never a problem.

Our waitress arrived with menus and took our order for drinks. New York water tastes very good. However, I have learned to order lemon with my water, especially when I'm dehydrated. The lemon never came.

Cost Per Person $30.00

Well, we're back from a lovely Thanksgiving trip to Star, Mississippi, and I'm happy to say we've brought a bit chillier weather with us. So, I cracked open my Moosewood Restaurant Soups and Stews cooking "deck of cards" this morning and laid out some recipes to investigate this week. We also have some leftover sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, and mashed white potatoes. So aside from a quick trip to Publix to take advantage of the sale that started on Friday, my time in the grocery store will be pretty limited. I hope a quick tasty supper will allow us time to plan a few things as well as do some last-minute computer shopping thanks to CyberMonday.

Menu Items for Week of November 30

• Jamaican Tomato Soup with Popovers (under Side Dish tab)
• Cream of Spinach Soup with Carrot Orange Salad (under Side Dish tab)
• Risi e Bisi with Arugula and Warm Mozzarella Salad (under Side Dish tab)
• Sweet Potatoes au gratin, Veggie Turkey and Gravy, Veggies
• Leftovers or sandwiches

And lots of seasonal fruit for dessert!

So much of this post should be about focusing on the great pictures. And it's not just about giving Paul all the credit for the fabulous photography. The last time we were at Seasons 52 would have been my birthday, and the restaurant still had roughly the same fall/winter menu with a few changes. In fact, the items from February's post were still available. I'm not complaining. As long as the quality is consistent, there are no issues for me. I suppose we don't visit Seasons 52 during the summer because there are so many options available for cooking at home.

Speaking of cooking at home, the butternut squash on the big vegetable plate is the inspiration for our choice of dish for PumpkinFest this Saturday night. Stay tuned for how it turns out.

Cost Per Person $15.00

Sometimes, it's really hard to think of dinner. Sometimes, it's even harder to think of an entire week's worth of dinners! This is what happened yesterday. I had a lot going on. We had salad for lunch and leftovers and peanut butter and honey for dinner. (Hey, it's what the baby wanted!) However, today my mind got back on track surprisingly quickly as it all came to me while I was at work, and I actually have a meal plan for the week that isn't 100% salad and ice cream.

Dinner Menu for October 12

• Tonight we had the butternut squash pasta bake/lasagna that I took from last year's post and tweaked. I'll have an alternate recipe up as soon as Paul edits the pictures. There's still enough left for another night.
• Butternut squash soup--again trying to perfect a recipe, but suddenly we're in record highs of 90's! May have to come up with an alternative.
• Dilled roasted potatoes and green beans maybe cornbread, too. (High in iron.)
• Salad (just in case the baby rabbit doesn't want anything else as has happened of late.)
• Burritos

We have some great-looking fruit that my be a night's meal with peanut butter and honey toast or cereal or maybe just for desert.

This has to be the best cornbread I have ever had. Lisa Hardinge made it to accompany her Red Lentil Soup when we were visiting Spokane last month. What got me was how light in color it was, how light on the tongue it was, and how it amazingly stayed together and didn't crumble when it was cut and served. I love cornbread, but a dry mixture where most the item is left in the pan or on the side of your plate is a botch! Such a successful dish proves that maybe restrictive foods (like dairy- or gluten-free) might be successful after all.Although all of Lisa's cooking was fantastic, this was likely the most successful just because I talked about it so much to everybody when we got back.

Marie Callender's Famous Cornbread (Modified)

Source: Constance Corbett (Modified)

• 1 ¼ cups flour [See gluten-free note below.]
• ¾ cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ⅓ cup sugar, (or less)
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups milk, (soy or cow)
• ¼ cup shortening, (olive oil works great)
• 2 egg whites, (or equivalent egg replacer)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Add milk, oil, and egg (or egg replacer with water) and mix only until all the ingredients are well combined.

4. Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 in. glass baking dish.

5. Bake for 25-30 min, or until the top is golden brown.

This recipe is very good even when made free from dairy or eggs. I usually mix the egg replacer and warm water in a separate bowl before adding it into the recipe. Blending it with a hand mixer seems to work well. Better Than Milk Soy Original is the best soy milk I've found for cooking. Other types of soy milk give the recipe an unusual flavor. If making gluten-free, use gluten-free flour and add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum to the batter.

I just met Lisa when we were in Spokane for the Bloomsday Race. Brent and Paul have been friends for years, and Brent has visited on occasion. But even for our wedding, Brent came alone while Lisa managed the household and two great kids. I was excited to finally get to meet Lisa. And I was exceptionally grateful for all she taught me about a kitchen and thinking outside my traditional cookbooks. She has generously shared the recipes to go with the photos Paul took while we were spending the weekend with our friends, and they will make a great little series for Eat Like a Rabbit.

Lisa requires a gluten-free diet. And just like so many other allergies or other issues, many people (including myself) often focus on the can'ts instead of on the cans. Lisa taught me that planning and an open mind can make life in a restricted kitchen easy to manage.

Incidentally, I haven't seen pictures, but I get the feeling Brent and Lisa's garden is bigger than ours. I think they are so lucky!

Thank you, Brent, Lisa, Kyle, and Elena for your hospitality and for sharing these fantastic recipes with me and with EatLikeaRabbit.net readers.

Red Lentil Soup by Lisa Hardinge

Saute on Medium Heat

• 2 large onions, chopped
• 6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 8 tablespoons olive oil (or less)

Add

• 3 cups red lentils, rinsed
• 3 tablespoons McKay's chicken- style seasoning
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon basil
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• 1 large can tomato sauce, 14.5 oz.
• 10 cups water

Heat to boil. Simmer on medium heat up to 45 minutes, stirring regularly.

NOTE: Can substitute 2 tbsp. dill weed and 3 cubes vegetable bullion for seasoning.

While looking for tahini at the grocery store this week, I happened to see way down at the end of the aisle Tamaris Soy Sauce! I couldn't believe it. Now, I can make Lynn's Vegetarian French Onion Soup recipe without exception. But. . .I'll have to wait until the end of the Florida heat. I also saw in my newest cookbook Coming Home to Cook that Mary Sheehan uses Tamaris Soy Sauce in her hummus. It looks like there's a lot of uses for it in an international kitchen.

In honor of the end of my month-long series about our trip to France, I am finishing with a guest post by a new friend, Lynn Muldrew. Although she is Northern Irish, she has been working in France with Brina, my friend from high school. Lynn was happy to share her family recipe for Vegetarian French Onion Soup because most recipes I know are made with beef or chicken stock. The first time I met Lynn was in Paris, but we got along well and I know the other people on the trip really enjoyed her being their tour guide. This picture is actually of Lynn with Larry, Paul's cousin's husband. Because Larry was so tall, Lynn put her bright pink hat on him so everyone could see where to go. That experience will go down in a lot of memory books. Those who remember her voice can imagine her reading this post in person.

Guest Post by Lynn Muldrew

I'm going to share a slightly adapted French recipe for onion soup. Traditional French onion soup is made with only water and onions (plus seasoning). However, having tasted an improved version I'm going to share this one with you! This recipe serves about 10 people.

Last week's menu plan went really well. The only thing I never got around to was the Dutch Boy. Sadly, I still won't get around to it this week because we're out of eggs and there will be no grocery shopping until we return from a long Easter weekend with Paul's family.

Previously, I have made this soup and loved it. I'm not sure what went wrong this time around, but we weren't as excited about it this time. So I will probably be spending my time trying new soup recipes, which makes a lot of sense when it isn't cold that often in Florida. So many soups, so little time! However, I think the mixture of flavors is still creative and fun for those with more experienced taste as the egg and lemon are quite unusual. For people who have more calendar time to eat soups that warm the inside, I think the creation is worth a try from your own stove.

Pot pie is another recipe that falls under the Mom and Me group. Every time my mom asks me what I want for my birthday dinner, you can bet she already knows and has secretly stashed away the ingredients for this incredible one-dish meal. It is time consuming and requires lots of vegetables and seasonings; so, it is a rare treat. I am always grateful when I can get it. The pie crust recipe is definitely not original. My mom has seen it in a number of cookbooks and collected it from a friend of hers about the time I was born. Not sweet at all, the crust is fabulous for savory recipes, but can easily be adapted to sweet recipes. I have even used it as a crust for apple pie that was amazing. By all means, pot pie falls under fantastic winter comfort food. And my mom's is the best! (This I know for a fact because we have tried the miniature store-bought vegetarian pies. You likely won't see a review of those on ELAR. Believe me the love put into this dish is well worth it.)

My cupboard, fridge, and freezer looked really full; so, for a few weeks I did limited to no grocery shopping. Toward the end of the cleaning-out-the-cabinets process, I was left with the ingredients to try a recipe from the Vegetarian 5-ingredient Gourmet. I thought I could get away with using the frozen corn in my freezer and the canned Hunt's tomatoes in the cabinet that I was stuck with after our educational experience with the pasta taste test. The concept was really good, but Paul's comment solved any question as to whether or not the soup was good.

This was surprisingly a great and easy recipe. I found it in the same Better Homes and Gardens as the recipe for the fruit cake topping. When I saw the photo and the recipe in the magazine, I knew it would be easy to create a vegetarian variation and had foods that my family would eat. However, when I poured the soup our of the pot on my stove and into bowls, I became nervous that it didn't look so good and might taste horrible.

Continue Reading