Soup IS Good Food!*

Soup. I just love the word. Soup. My acupuncturist once told me that the Chinese view of the stomach is that it is like a big pot of soup. She was advising me against cold drinks. "You wouldn't put ice cubes in a big pot of warm soup, would you?" That's logical.

I'm thinking about becoming a soup specialist. But I don't find that many good recipes. I mostly stick to the standards: fresh tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, and vichyssoise. At this point in my life, I can hardly stand canned soup.

Please tell me about your favorite soup. I want to know.


*A note to the Campbell's Soup Company: Please don't sue me for using your slogan. Thank you.

Fish Soup

This soup is delightful, and easy to make. Serves 2-3 people.

Ingredients:

4 T butter
1/2 onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled & diced
thyme
water
3 c. milk (or cream)
2-3 fillets of white fish

Procedure:

Melt butter in soup pot. Saute chopped onions until transparent.
Add diced potatoes. Saute for 1-2 minutes.
Add fresh or dried thyme.* Stir.
Add water to cover, enough to completely cook the potatoes. Boil lightly for about 10 minutes.
Gently stir in milk, a little at a time, and simmer until hot enough to cook fish.
Add 2-inch pieces of fish, and cook about 3 minutes.

If you use cream this dish will be decidedly richer, and probably better as a side dish than a complete meal. (Great for an appetizer to impress dinner guests!) Otherwise, dilute soup with milk to reach the consistency that appeals to you.

Serve with toast.

*When using fresh thyme in soups, bundle twigs and tie together, then remove when the soup is ready to serve. Dried thyme can more accurately be measured in pinches, to please your palate.

I'm a big herb freak, so I use a lot of dried thyme in this delicious soup.

Energy Shortage -- Learning to Cut Back

When fuel prices soar, we find ways to save money, such as wearing long underwear in the house, driving less, and spending less $ on food. It's the logical process of dealing with the economic downturn.

When our bodies are low on energy, the body economizes by getting sick. A bad cold this month has taught me, or rather reminded me, to slow down and conserve energy. January is a tough month in the Midwest. We just came off the whirlwind of holidays -- shopping, overeating, and celebrating. We feel we must keep going. We must get stuff done! For some reason, perhaps it is our American life, we find it disconcerting to be still, even when there is ANOTHER snow storm, and ANOTHER cold snap of zero degree weather. In our culture, it is hard for us to STOP.

As cliche as this sounds, listen to the body. Yes, I know, the body & mind & spirit together all are experiencing cabin fever. There are remedies for that. But if you can't go to Mexico this year, you'll have to use cheaper remedies. Here are some suggestions...

1) Put some really pumping music in your car... do car chair dancing and singing at the top of your lungs while driving.

2) Dance in the house -- arms overhead! Really go for it! With abandon!

3) Play outside even though it is really, really cold.

For obtaining seasonal balance, I suggest...

1) Read books that you can actually devour. That means entertaining books, not intellectual stuff that makes you smarter.

2) Be crafty. Do a tedious craft you would never want to do in the summer. Something using hot glue. Or perhaps drawing straight lines until you can actually draw a straight line. Repetition is key.

3) If you really need something that is creative, productive, and can be done while seated, write letters to your friends. Write letters to your congress members. Become an armchair activist.

It's all about balance.


FRENCH ONION SOUP
Saute 2-3 large sweet onions in butter & olive oil. Add beef stock.
Serve with grated gruyere cheese on top, and crusty french bread.


HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
YEAR OF THE RABBIT BEGINS FEBRUARY 3
Shopkeepers in China hang lettuce upside-down at their entrances. When the lion dancers parade down the streets, or hutongs, they climb up to grab the lettuce, ensuring an abundant spring.

Dump Soup

The photos above were taken this morning, and Ariel inspired this post. She brought a variety of things to my bed (a ball, some blocks, paper, toys) and told me she was making soup. Things kept being added to the soup, and stirred. Also, a photo of my pantry, which is right now totally random and messy.

I learned this recipe from a music teacher I worked with when I was teaching in the public schools. She was an unusual woman, a big woman, not exactly fat (although she did talk about Weight Watchers points during lunch every day), just large and intense. She was older than me, lived alone and was concentrating on earning her Masters in Education. Her thesis was on the power of music education in increasing math test scores. She was so passionate about her vocation, that while teaching a roomful of disrespectful, wild, obnoxious kids, her enthusiasm made her sweat profusely.

I liked her a lot, and she was very smart, if a tad socially inept. The kind of person I enjoy working with, but wouldn't really want to hang out with. You know what I mean. When she told me about Dump Soup, I admit I thought it was sort of low-class. I was a bit of a food snob at that time. Nevertheless, I tried it and loved it!


The DUMP SOUP recipe is this: Dump 5 cans of stuff from the pantry into a large pot on the stove. Cook until hot enough to eat.


This is my preferred Dump Soup:

1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can chicken broth

These days, I don't keep canned corn or green beans or chicken stock in my pantry, so I have to improvise. As always, I'm not going to tell you how to improvise, because I know y'all know how to cook!

I know you don't believe me; I'm telling you: it's good! One time a few winters ago, we had a visitor stop by on a 3-hour layover. I had no time to make something elegant and fabulous for my foodie food snob friend, so I made Dump Soup and didn't tell him what it was. And by god to hell, he loved it! He said it was PERFECT! So, modestly I said, "Oh, I just whipped this up," like, "Oh, this old thing? I just threw this on." And it was true!

Dear readers, that visitor was one of YOU. Do you remember?

The moral of the story is: the flavor of food is about perception. Surrounded by loving friends and family, food can always taste exquisite. Especially if it is pretend food.

Weather Conundrums, and Guilty Pleasures

It is a typical spring day in Minnesota: I have changed clothes three times already, to accommodate the weather changes. I will probably change again when the sun goes down.

It was cool and rainy in the morning, and the kids are sick so I wanted to make a big pot of soup. But the weather forecasters are telling us it will be 90 in about 5 hours. A big pot of hot soup would be a waste. What to make? Vichyssoise! Potato soup is one of my favorites because it can be eaten hot or cold. The baby can it plain, and I can spice mine up with hot sauce and a drizzle of olive oil (note my artistry in photo above). Also note my culinary artistry with fresh spring herbs from my garden: savory, tarragon, and chive blossom. Mmmm....

Also today I am in the process of making red velvet cake, using this recipe. It is inspirational, I tell you. I just found out that you can make cakes just for fun! Who knew?

Well, actually, I do have a guilty little reason for making this cake. My daughter got a fever this week and I didn't take her to the doctor because I wasn't really very worried. But she stayed sick, so I finally took her in and she has strep throat. So I felt really bad for not taking this more seriously, and I bought her presents, and now I am making a cake. I think that makes up for being somewhat negligent, don't you?

Carrot Cashew Soup From The Bagelry

Oh, people, I am a bad, bad person. I try to be good, but I am human.

Last night I made a variation on Rice & Tuna: Mixed Sushi. A salad of cold sushi rice, smoked salmon, spinach, soybeans, and carrots. Sounds pretty good, right? NOT! And this is what I paired it with -- (am I crazy?):

Carrot Cashew Soup

OK, so we ate it as a family, and Ariel went to bed peacefully, and then I was HUNGRY! I have unused tickets for pregnancy cravings and postpartum depression, so I asked my DH to get me junk food. I wanted a junk food sandwich. He brought home a Milio's Italian sub and I ate the whole thing. He kept asking me, "Are you going to finish that?" because I would pause and breathe, and enjoy, and he knows I never finish something so huge as that. But I ate ALL of it.

It feels wrong, and it feels wrong. I HATE supporting factory farming of any kind. Weak! I am so weak! My body is speaking for me! My body is having more power than my intellect! I hate that!

Anyway, this soup is freaking' awesome:

CARROT CASHEW SOUP
From The Bagelry in Santa Cruz, California (where I worked for 2 years)

Saute 1 onion, some ginger, and some garlic in sesame oil.
Add some sliced carrots, and broth, and cook until almost done.
Add whole cashews, and cook until soft.
Puree.
Add soy sauce to taste.

The recipe I had from The Bagelry was for about 8 quarts of soup, enough to supply customers for a day. I adapted it for just a family. You do what you think is right. For me, making soup is all about salt content and texture.

Tonight, I'm going to ask my DH to make greasy tacos, filled with ground beef. Ethically-raised beef, of course.