Sunday Soup

I've taken to making a big pot of soup on Sundays, so that then S and I can take leftovers with us to work throughout the week. Here's a recipe I invented and have tweaked based on whatever veggies/pasta we have in the fridge/pantry.

Mostly Veggie Italian Pasta Soup

chop up the following into soup-sized bits:
1 cup carrots (optional, or use potatoes)
2 cups potatoes (optional, or use carrots)
1 cup celery (or more if you love it)
2 medium or 3 small onions (note: onions add most of the flavor here, so you NEED these)
other veggie ideas: frozen or fresh spinach, corn, broccoli... to total about 4-5 cups of veggies

Additional advice: if you are feeling especially lazy, and you have a food processor (or even a hand-chopper from the likes of Pampered Chef) then all the chopping can go really, really fast.

Other necessary ingredients:
Chicken soup stock (enough for 8-10 cups)
1/2 lb. cheese-filled small pasta (tortellini or little raviolis work great!)
Italian seasoning (enough for a few tablespoons of this)
Garlic (I love it, so I put in 2-3 cloves worth)
Olive oil for pan
Salt & pepper

Start by putting olive oil and garlic in a big pot, since this is a one-pot recipe that means little clean-up other than soup bowls/spoons. Don't turn on the heat until you're nearly done chopping up your veggies. Throw in the onions and celery first, since they need the most cooking to release flavor. Cook until the onions are shiny and the celery is easily bite-able (test this) but not too soft. Add in other veggies (potatoes, spinach, corn, broccoli, carrots). Cook for a few minutes more--add a bit more olive oil if needed. Add 8 cups of chicken stock if you like a thicker soup. Add 10 cups if you like a more brothy soup, since the pasta soaks up a lot of water. Add Italian seasoning and pasta; cook until done according to package directions (16-20 minutes, usually).

Enjoy with a big piece of bread!

My favorite summertime drink

When Melissa posted Hemingway's favorite drink, I realized how similar it is to something my sister Andrea and I accidentally 'invented,' which we like to call:

The Lime-gasm!

Instructions for use:

Fill highball style glass with ice

Pour in the following:

original Malibu rum (approx. 2 shots worth)
lime juice (approx. 1 shot or to taste)
fill rest of glass with citrus soda (7up or Fresca work equally well)

Sip and enjoy!

I had no idea that there was already a drink called the Papa Doble, but I am not really a 'drinks' kind of person, more of a 'meet up with friends' type who capitalizes on cheap beer and/or wine. Anyway, I really like the lime-gasm, and if you try it, hope you do, too!

Also, check out Melissa C. Morris in The New York Times! I've enjoyed reading her blog for a while (I remember when she posted the first wedding photos, and I loved her intimate ceremony and white suit) so it's fun to see her getting some blogger recognition. She's not the typical blogger, that's for sure, and I love Monty Mondays! Like she says in the article, she tries to be lighthearted, and that's why I enjoy her writing.

Easy spring salad: the 'Fandango' from Panera in your kitchen

S and I went to Panera earlier this week (mm, soups and panini sandwiches) to do some reading/homework (gotta love free Wi-Fi) and had their Fandango salad. It was quite tasty and seemed easy enough to make, so we went to the grocery store yesterday and recreated it at home.

All you need for this tasty, light salad are the following:
Spring mix (fresh spinach would also be good)
Feta cheese
Walnuts (a handful or so to toss in)
Raspberry vinaigrette (we got Wishbone's version with hazelnut, which was cheap and good)
Mandarin oranges (the kind from Dole in the plastic container are nice--no aluminum can taste, plus you only have to use a few at a time and can put the rest in the fridge for later)

Toss everything together in a big bowl, and serve with a mini French baguette, and you've got a quick lunch or dinner. I also think this would be good with grilled chicken or bacon if you want a meat version that will stick with you longer. You could also toss in raisins or dried cranberries to up the fruit content, or even grapes might be good. Ooh, I'm giving myself ideas...

Let me know if you try it and like it!

It's baaa-aaack

So, back in August, I had a bout with a weird rash. Well, about five days ago, it came back, little by little. I have a dermatologist appointment tomorrow afternoon, and I hope they can tell me what it is. My GP had no idea last summer. The steroid cream prescribed back then, as far as I can tell, has done nothing so far. It was so intensely itchy and hurting on my hands today that I had to leave work early. If the rash is what I think it is (a type of eczema) then I need to relax, because articles I've read on it have suggested that it can go away for long periods of time and reoccur after a large amount of stress. Go figure. Beth needs to relax.

After leaving work, I did some retail therapy, bought some Burt's Bees soothing ointment, a sushi kit, and some new shirts at Old Navy. Miraculously, the distraction helped. S came over this evening and we made sushi, and I must say, while it did not look quite like what you get in restaurants, it was mighty tasty. We made California roll with mock crab, cream cheese, toasted sesame seeds, carrot and cucumber. I think we may experiment with ingredients in the future, but we agreed that it was excellent for a first try. Plus, the instant miso soup I bought was better than any we've had before. Yay for World Market.

S asked me a few days ago what my New Years resolution was. He said, "It doesn't have to be a big thing, just something little." I finally told him that my resolution is, and always has been, to worry less. It's such a general thing, though, that I narrowed it to: I resolve to look for, if not the best outcome for a situation, an okay one, instead of the worst possible scenario.

If you like the dressing at the sushi places, try this...

I have had a salad with nearly every dinner this week, and it's all because of this Creamy Asian-Style Salad Dressing recipe. I change the batch size to 1.75 cups, make a few modifications, and so it becomes the following:






Japanese Sushi Restaurant Style Salad Dressing

1.5 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup soy sauce (can add more to taste)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted (fry pan on medium for a few minutes, stir until brown)

It's pretty much a one-day ticket to Yumtown! I eat it on spring mix with cucumbers, but it's also great for dipping baby carrots, or for any salad you like. So tasty, so easy.

Fried yum-yums

I'm on my lunch break at work, nibbling at some leftovers from Tuesday night's Panko Extravaganza, wherein S and I fried up the following: broccoli, mushrooms, and shrimp. Ooh, the panko breading is so good! And cheap! It's about $2 for a whole bag of it, and while dipping each individual item in flour, then egg, then panko, is not exactly the most fun experience, it is worth it when the items are fried, lightly salted, and eaten. It's easier than tempura, in my opinion, and the crunch is worth the work.

A recipe for the munchies

One of the best little snacks to make for a week are these Garlic Ranch Oyster Cracker snacks. I normally associated them with the holiday season, since my former boss would make them and bring them to work in a big red bowl. Well, now I have to say that I crave them and they are a good little hunger squelcher, though they don't make for great breath (carry mints).

Here's the recipe, with my commentary, of course.

2 bags oyster crackers (usually not in the cracker aisle--check the soup aisle)
1/2 teaspon garlic powder (not to be confused with garlic salt)
1 teaspoon dillweed
1 package dry ranch dressing
3/4 cup oil (I use vegetable, but olive oil would probably be great, and some recipes I've seen call for more oil... really, it's not so great to have greasy fingers after eating these, so 3/4 seems about right)

Mix garlic powder, dillweed, and ranch dressing packet together with oil. Pour over oyster crackers in large container, making sure to stir well and let the oil absorb. Letting these sit for a while and absorb the oil is also a good idea. Then... enjoy! They are also good in soup just like regular oyster crackers, but with some punch.

Doesn't that look good?

I am having a very big craving right now for... you guessed it, sushi! This isn't really problematic, except that I'm at work and don't have time to run to the grocery stores in town that sell sushi in their deli sections, and I especially don't have time to go to the one (1) sushi restaurant in my central Minnesota city. So, I have to wait until after work.

I really need to learn how to make California roll, and then I can wow friends with my incredible ability to make them very full after eating only six pieces of tiny food. Mmm, sushi.

Sesame oil is good

S and I have kind of gotten into cooking together, mainly because we are becoming cheap (don't want to eat out) and lazy (don't want to go out to find food). Thus, I grab a lot of cookbooks from the library, or we just end up throwing yummy ingredients together and see what happens. This week, while my parents were gone, we made a rice/shrimp concoction with hoisin sauce that was quite good. Then, at the library later in the week, I saw Bruce Cost's "Big Bowl Noodles and Rice" and decided it looked like our kind of thing. I was right!

This is the shrimp fried rice recipe from the book, with some modifications because we had half the called-for bean sprouts (I added mushrooms instead) and no bean pods or shallots (onions and peas instead). It was mighty tasty, and really pretty easy. S manned the stove and I threw in the ingredients. It was a rather quick process, too, once the rice was cooked. We both really want a rice cooker someday, and I can see us getting into the habit of making a few cups of rice each week to have on hand for such impromptu dishes as this.


S enjoying the meal. We had some sauce left over from Leeann Chin (really good, quick Chinese take away with home base operations here in Minnesota) and I put some duck sauce on mine (top photo). Yum! I'm making myself hungry just looking at it again.