Every thing but the kitchen sink-soup!

 

There is nothing easier then throwing together an infallible soup with just simple ingredients from your kitchen. Today I noticed there were a few things I had on hand that either need to be eaten soon or where going to have to be composted. As much as I am sure my little composting worms would have enjoyed the food, I am not a big fan of waste. So I set out to make my mouth watering "every thing but the kitchen sink" soup.

So what goes into this soup? Well as the name implies-everything (but the kitchen sink!) I had an opened glass jar of tomato sauce, one onion, two potatoes, a can of kidney beans, a can of celery soup, a handful of yellow lentils, frozen corn, frozen green beans, fresh carrots, chicken broth, white vinegar,one jalapeno, salt, pepper, and a dash of hot flakes.

There were no immediate plans for the onion so I pureed it in my smallest food processor. The jar of tomato sauce HAD to be used. I originally opened it for some other dish and didn't use it all. If you don't have any tomato sauce simply use fresh! The potatoes were starting to look bored and slightly offended in the fact that I had not yet used them, so in they went. And basically the same with everything else. Make sure you rinse your beans, if you use some.

You can use anything you have on hand. I keep jars with different colored lentils, barley, wild rice, dried peas and corn. They make a great addition to this type of soup. I also buy huge bags of frozen organic vegetables at cost co and giant bags of fresh organic carrots there. Which is perfect for a great vegetable soup.

After you make this a couple of times you will learn exactly what you need to add to give your soup just the right flavor. I MUST have mine with a tang, zip and heat! So for me that means, using vinegar or pepperoncini's with their juices and something hot, like jalapenos or hot sauce. But you might not enjoy sweat rolling down your check while you eat, so play around with it till you know for sure! Enjoy and happy slurping!

Adventures from Ad Hoc

I read some thing in my new book Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller writes that you should master foods and not just try a new recipe once and move onto the next. But make it several times each time learning something new about it. How it tastes, smells, feels, looks and so on. After attempting TRUE homemade baked beans for the first time, I have decided that I WILL master those darn beans! They had such great flavor but the texture was not perfect for me. Since I was using dried beans rather then canned it made the difference in texture...and not for the good. As well biscuits, I have made them twice now and this second time they turned out a bit better, I am starting to get an idea as to what my problem might be...over working them. So one day you will hear from me saying that I made baked beans that not only tasted wonderful but felt wonderful as well and biscuits that fluffed up like no ones business and just melted in my mouth. Its amazing what inspiration you can find lurking in a book. How one mans simple thought is anothers "ah ha" moment.

Quick Pickles

For Christmas dinner this year I decided to go with a BBQ theme. What would BBQ be without pickles? Well if you have spent any time in the south then you know you simply can NOT have one with out the other! A truly southern treat would have been fried pickles, but I am not ready to have a coronary yet so I went with a basic version. This is so unbelievably easy it makes my heart flutter. Is it bad that my favorite part of dinner were the pickles? This recipe is good for 2-4 people, depending on how many pickles you like (wink, wink!)

1 large cucumber sliced in rounds 1/4 inch thick
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbs salt
couple dashes of dill
couple dashes of celery seeds
5 black pepper corns

Place cucumber slices in a bowl or mason jar, then bring all other ingredients to a boil in a sauce pan. Boil on low for about ten minutes, when done pour over cucumbers. Place in refrigerator until you are ready to eat these tasty tokens of love!

Pasta with Zucchini

Great pasta need not come from the frozen food isle or Heaven forbid a card board box. With just a couple of ingredients it can be made year round, but this recipe is at its peak through out the summer when tomatoes and zucchini are abundant. When you take your first bite all the glorious warm feelings of summer will over take your senses. If you have been busy in the garden you will reap the rewards of all your hard work and back breaking labor.

The creation of this recipe came years ago after watching an episode of Martha Stewart. She had a guest chef on who was preparing a pasta recipe. His recipe included onions, eggplant, bell peppers and loads of fresh herbs. I kept the zucchini and peppers, but quickly ditched the onions and eggplant. During the winter when organic peppers are too expensive or impossible to find I simply leave them out. The key ingredient to this recipe is this: WHITE PEPPER. If you don't have any, stand up, grab your keys and rush to the market...now! You won't regret this purchase. So now onto the recipe.

16 oz penne pasta
3 large Zucchini (quartered and sliced 1/4 inch thick)
1 large red bell pepper (optional)
2-3 tomatoes (I prefer Roma, when available)
3-6 cloves garlic (the more the merrier)
white pepper to taste
salt to taste

Before getting started its best to chop your vegetables. I prefer to slice mine similar in size to the penne pasta. Boil your pasta till al dente, drain and return to pot. Drizzle with olive oil. While your pasta is cooking sauté the vegetables. Adding your pepper and salt to taste. White pepper has a different flavor then standard black pepper so start slow and adjust to your preference. I like a lot of white pepper for its distinctive spicy pungent flavor. I also prefer to use quit a bit of garlic. Once your vegetables are cooked through add them to your pasta and give a few turns with your spoon until the pasta is coated with the juices of your vegetables. This dish is a very mild and refreshing meal, enjoy or as they say "bon appetit!"

Kefir

Have you ever tried a kefir drink? There are loads of the on the shelves at the market and with all sorts of flavors to choose from. I have bought a couple jugs before and was seriously unimpressed. "Yuck", to be exact! Well did you know that kefir is extremely easy to make in your own home? It is much more economical making your own as well.

The first step to making your own kefir (Pronounced: keh f é-er [as in keh in kettle, and fear].) is obtaining your kefir grains. This could possibly be the hardest step. My grains came from a friend, who has been making kefir for a very long time. With time your kefir grains will start growing and you too can share your grains with a friend. Assuming you do not have a friend with kefir grains, then I can recommend a couple of options. First you can buy some off of ebay. Very simple just go on and search for kefir grains, there will be lots to choose from. Next there are several websites where people are selling their grains:http://www.pocketsofthefuture.com/ their site is just one example. Also be sure to read through Dom's Kefir site http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html to get ALL the information on kefir.

Now that you have your grains you are ready to get started. Kefir grains should be placed into a glass (or plastic...sigh!) jar. Then simply add your milk (I use raw milk, next best would be store bought organic, followed by regular milk)adding enough for you to drink over the next few days. Set the jar with its lid on only slightly, so gas can escape, on a counter for about twelve hours. Your grains are working its magic and creating you a delicious healthy drink. It will taste effervescent and its sourness will range from mild to extreme depending on how long you leave your kefir on the counter. I prefer mine not very sour so I leave it only twelve hours.

Once your twelve hours is up simple strain the grains out and place them into another jar filled with the milk you will use once your current kefir runs out. I use a hand blender to blend my kefir, because during the fermentation process your milk will separate. Just keep the two jars rotating and you will always have fresh homemade kefir at your hands!

Dehydrator fun

A while back I made the decision to purchase a food dehydrator. Sadly, I haven't had the best luck with dehydrating. I was sure I would fall madly in love with every creation that came out of my machine. Unfortunately that has not been the case. Turns out this foodie prefers her food in its natural state. A fresh crispy apple vs. a dried chewy apple, I choose the fresh. I have experimented making crackers, cookies, fruits and veggies. So far apples sprinkled with cinnamon and pineapple have been my favorite treats. I am trying to stay positive, upbeat and motivated with dehydrating treats.

Which brings us to this post. I have come up with a fun game and I would like to encourage you to play along. This is called Dehydrating Your Way Through The Alphabet! Its as simple as the name implies. Each week you take a letter from the alphabet and dehydrate treats the correlate with that letter. Start with the letter A and dehydrate your way through the letter Z.

Example: The letter of the week is P, dehydrate Pineapples, persimmons, and pears! I am using P as the example because by chance I am dehydrating persimmons and pears at this very moment. But next week I will officially kick off this game and will be starting with the letter A. I encourage you to play along and see what yummy treats you can come up with!!!