More Soup?!!??

Hey, its getting cold in Atlanta—we need all the soup we can get!

When I made the stew for Tavo, I got the enormous bag of potatoes, envisioning roasted potatoes, french fries, and of course—potato soup! Now, I broached the idea of “grilled cheese and potato soup” to a friend, and he said, “meh.”

So, let this now be referred to as Creamy Potato Soup with Dill—accompanied by everyone’s favorite, Toasted Sourdough! (really, guys—I’m getting about as sick of sourdough as you are) Well, just kidding. I just can’t seem to let this bread go! I do mix it with wheat, so it’s not completely white flour…well, I don’t know. Give me a call if you ever want to chat Sourdough. I have strong opinions on the subject!


Creamy Potato Soup with Dill:

3 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 chopped onion

Go ahead and throw these in your heavy bottomed pot with a big ol’ chunk of butter and cook it down. Meanwhile, start peeling your potatoes. When all is cooked to your preference--I dig the almost carmelized--deglaze the pot with white wine.

Add:
4 cups vegetable broth
6-8 small/medium potatoes, peeled and diced

Cook until potatoes are tender, then mash it with a potato masher. If you have an immersion blender, that would be good. You can food process it all, but I’ve always liked a chunky soup.

Start a roux with butter and flour, add to potato soup base.
Also, add:
3 cups milk-or cream if you're feeling naughty (non-dairy is fine too--just make sure it isn't sweetened!)
Ground Pepper
Dill
Cayenne Pepper
*any other herb combo you prefer

....I like to add hot sauce, too--but Tavo doesn't. To each his own!

Don’t let it boil again after you’ve added the milk.



Honestly, every time I make a huge pot of soup, I think of Donna at this small restaurant I worked at in Myrtle Beach in 2000-2001, after the whole, "living out of my car" stint ended (kind of). Until then, I'd spent high school and college waiting tables. My major cooking experience was slapping together sandwiches and iceberg lettuce salads as part of the waiting gig. And I still have a scar from burning my wrist grabbing bread from the pizza oven at 15.

Myrtle Beach was my first "real" cook job. Okay, I started out washing dishes, but eventually I covered the prep cook and sometimes they'd let me take a stab at the grill (beyond just cleaning the damn thing) At any rate, besides the two soups we had on the menu, we'd make a special every day. And these excited me more than anything you could imagine. Donna and Gayle were both ridiculously patient with my pompous self. But it was Donna who taught me how to cook these soups, while singing along with Billie Holliday, Outkast, Sam Cooke...and I made the kitchen listen to as much Prince as they could handle!

I'm throwing the Outkast on here, because Prince has an issue with youtube. Also, I find it ironic that after leaving Myrtle Beach and spending 4 years in Detroit, I ended up back South again. This song was the jam in late 2000!

Outkast has a ban on embedding, so here's the link:
So Fresh So Clean

On a side note, I received a letter back from the job I applied for in Germany!

I didn't get the job. I did get a signed letter saying I was one of the "best qualified." Oh well, I'll keep trying.

S...S...What begins With "S?" Stew, Soup, and Sauvignon. S! S! S!

The weekend was busy--Tavo and I ended up working most of it. We painted his coworker's condo, and once again, I did not cook anything. We ate out, but nothing particularly noteworthy. So, tonight, after a quick trip to the grocery store (with coupons, I saved $12! This is only a $30 grocery trip, too) I was ready to cook.


Where do you go to my lovely ? - Peter Sarstedt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0NR2jmh-2M

First things first, the Consumer Reports pick of good cheap wine, Lindeman's. I dig this wine--its a very consistent inexpensive wine, generally $6. Trader Joe's, while reasonably priced, is not as reliable.


and what goes better with red wine than some Tomato Zucchini Soup?


This is a slight alteration of Mollie Katzen's Spicy Tomato Soup from the original Moosewood.

Tomato-Zucchini Soup

1-2 T. Olive oil
1/2 large onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 zucchinis, diced
1 t. salt (omit if using salted crushed tomatoes)
1 t. dill (or more)
ground black pepper
large can crushed tomatoes (Cento is the shit)
fill the can 2/3 with water, add that too.
optional:
Parsley, scallions, fresh tomatoes, cream--whatever you have on hand


Heat oil, add onion, garlic, zucchini, salt and pepper. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until translucent. Keep heat low so as not to burn garlic.

Add can tomatoes, water, and dill. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

Add fresh herbs and tomatoes, cream if desired. Heat through and serve.

While I was cooking, we hooked up the projector and played youtube videos of the Kinks, the Oblivions, Guided by Voices, Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Afghan Whigs, the Animals and Cat Stevens. Our buddy, JP, came by.


For Tavo, I made Paula Deen's "Old Time Beef Stew." Seriously, in the fall, is there anything better than a big bowl of thick stew and some fresh bread?
I didn't let the bread rise overnight, I just threw it in the oven right away. So, it's kind of flat. But, I'd let the starter sit out for 3 days--it was excellently sour!

I followed her recipe pretty closely, except I added some white wine, an extra cup of water, and 4 small peeled potatoes.


Ingredients

1-2 pounds stew beef
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 cups water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, minced (Tavo doesn't like big onion chunks)
4 small potatoes or 2 large, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon salt or 2 bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
Dash ground allspice
3 large carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

Brown meat in hot oil. Add water, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, onion, celery, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, and allspice. Cover and simmer 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove. Add carrots and potatoes. Cover and cook 30 to 40 minutes longer. To thicken gravy, remove 2 cups hot liquid. Using a separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup water and cornstarch until smooth. Mix with a little hot liquid and return mixture to pot. Stir and cook until bubbly.

And, how about a loaf of sourdough?

and some nights are for chinese take-out from Burger Win

This is one of those chinese food places attached to a gas station. If you can get past that factor, you'll quickly realize its one of the best in Atlanta. (The menu says "Burgers Win" but the actual restaurant is called "Burger Win")...and honestly, the burgers have very little to do with anything.
Shrimp dumplings, steamed.

Panang Curry Chicken, small order.
Broccoli & Bean Curd w. Garlic Sauce, spicy. Large order.
Now to relax and watch a movie!

Marine Corps Ball, hiking in the woods, and a little bit of onion dip

Have you ever seen that movie, Mermaids? It's got Cher in it, along with Winona Ryder and a very young Christina Ricci. It's a fairly unremarkable movie, but one thing I remember is that Cher's character never made a full meal. They only ate appetizers. And this has always appealed to me.

We had a busy weekend! Halloween, Tavo had drill, we had the Marine Corps Ball, hiking, and Tavo's parents were celebrating their anniversary last night. The good thing is that food was provided at most of these events. The bad thing? I didn't cook a darn thing. So tonight, after a long day at work and no cooking all weekend--should I make a big, delicious meal? Naw, let's just have some onion dip and cocktails.

I found this recipe on White on Rice Couple's blog. Check them out--the pictures are breathtaking and the recipes are fantastic! I did a slight variation on their Baked Walla Walla Sweet Onion Dip. Here in Georgia, of course, we use Vidalia onions (which you can now find this late in the year! Usually, they're more of a spring/summer onion) and instead of California's Best Foods brand mayonnaise, we used Duke's Mayonnaise out of Greenville, South Carolina. Support your local brands! Below are the results--next time, I think I'm going to throw a bit of spinach in, for the semblance of health. We ate the dip with...toasted Sourdough!



Baked Vidalia Onion Dip with Toasted Sourdough



We also broke into the Military Special bourbon. Something about the cool, autumn weather brings out the bourbon drinker in both of us. (blech--it wasn't that great. I do like the label, thoguh)


So--ready for pics from the Ball?




And on Sunday, my buddy Jennifer and I hiked Kennesaw Mountain, about 30 minutes north of Atlanta. It was gorgeous out--and about 400 other people also decided to hike. Regardless of crowds, it was great to get outside and climb a mountain .









And when I came home from my jog tonight, Tavo had set up some candles in the front room....

I love you too, babe!

Mummies!! (courtesy of Tavo's coworker, Katrina)

Highway to the Danger Zone

Happy Halloween from Tavo's coworkers

..and these tasty mummies!

Stew of Seitan! (a halloween post)

What have I been cooking up in my cauldron?

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

Nope--I kept it vegan today. I've been cooking up a Stew of Seitan. I borrowed the recipe for homemade seitan from Urban Vegan. If you haven't had a chance to check out her page, give it a gander! She's a very talented vegan cook.


They puffed up!

After making the seitan, I saved some for sandwiches, but decided to make a stew with the majority. I consulted Robin Robertson's Cookbook, "Vegan Planet" and chose to do a slight adaptation of Belgian Style Seitan Stew with Dark Beer. (she has a blog, too--that link goes to her recipe) Beer? Yes, please!



...and what good would stew be without the ubiquitous loaf of sourdough?



I don't know who created this, but it was my favorite YouTube of the day.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI

Let's have some hummus, too!

When I became a vegetarian back in college, I was heavily influenced by my very resourceful, talented roommate, Em. She introduced me to organic foods, homemade mac and cheese, and let me know that not all vegetables came in cans. After watching me eat spaghetti every day for 3 months straight, she introduced me to the Moosewood cookbook and suggested we try out a few different recipes together. We're still best friends today.

I always think of her when I make hummus. We went on a roadtrip to California, careening down to Tulsa, Oklahoma to pick up another friend. The three of us took my little pick up, trading shifts driving and sleeping in the back on the off shifts. We dropped off our friend in LA; Em and I continued up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco. As we were all on college budgets, Em and I each made a vat of hummus, tabbouleh, and bags of homemade pitas. We ate these pretty much exclusively. Em always thought my hummus was too lemony, but I like it that way. I like hers, too--its got a creamier texture. So, I'm writing this heavy on the lemon, but feel free to adjust it to your taste. The great thing about hummus is all the variations. Black bean hummus, jalapeño hummus, olive hummus--possibilities are endless. I chose roasted red pepper hummus this week.



Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can garbanzos, drained
2-3 T. tahini (mine are always a bit more than a T.)
1/3 cup lemon juice or 2 lemons
1/2 cup roasted red pepper
dash soy sauce
Broth or water as needed
**olive oil for desired consistency and to drizzle on top

optional:
cumin
cayenne
hot sauce

**my red peppers were packed in olive oil, so I didn't add any extra

Food process the garbanzos and red peppers with some broth and lemon juice. Add all other ingredients and mix. Food process again for smoother texture.

POST SCRIPT

I posted this last night, with just the hummus shots, and a certain Mr. Doggy Bloggy noticed I didn't include any pitas :)

Well, they turned out kind of funny, so I wasn't going to post them, but here they are, my Square Pitas. (I was going for a flat bread-but it puffed!)




The dough was some leftover white/wheat combo pizza dough. I sprinkled some herbs, cayenne, salt and grated romano on top. Bake at 500 for 5-6 minutes, remove and cover with towels or put in a paper bag to keep soft. Even though they're square, they still taste pretty good!