Soup Week Confession

Yesterday was day 2 of Soup Week. Which doesn't mean anything more than the title would suggest. Yesteday, I made soup. This time of year, when things are cooling off (quickly), I find myself wanting hot soup for lunch. So it was time to stock the freezer. Sunday I made my favourite Red Pepper & Tomatoe soup. Yesterday I made Chorizo and Sweet Potato. It took me 3 hours (clean-up included). And herein lies my confession: I like to cook more than I like to scrapbook (gasp!).

10oz of beautiful Chorizo Sausage. I wiki'ed Chorizo to find out a little bit more about it (we eat it often). FYI: It's a Spanish-style pork sausage seasoned with paprika.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to throw my rub-ons out the window (Except the Heidi Swapp ones. They suck.) But cooking seems to be the way I prefer to spend my time lately. And given three hours, I chose to make a soup rather than a layout. And I had fun (until it came time to do the dishes).

Today I will make Cauliflower Cheddar Soup (I know, right???) and when I am done, I will proudly add my individually portioned containers to my freezer, with the same pride in which I add a completed layout to my album.

Carrots, celery, onions and a sweet potato waiting to be peeled, sliced and diced. Oh! And if Brian happens to ask, I would like a new peeler for Christmas.

I guess as far as hobbies go, I never considered cooking. If you had asked me my hobbies I would have answered "Scrapbooking, skiing and reading." But I spend more time cooking than all three of those activities combined. And if you were to judge the talent I possess (on a scale of 1-10) for each of those activities you might give me the following scores: Scrapbooking - 5, Skiing - 4, Reading - 7. But I have been told often that I am a 'good cook' (although that might just be a courtesy). I would give myself an 8 (that's generous).

Cooking my ingredients. I didn't realise just how good the house smelled until I left to take out the garbage.

And now that I have given my 'hobby' it's fair consideration, I can justify spending time (and even money?) on it. I will be heading to the Library today to see what the 'Cooking' section looks like. I own many cookbooks, but I can honestly say I have never checked out the 'Cooking' section of the library looking to build a basic cooking foundation. Does it even exist?

Even when I managed Williams-Sonoma I didn't think of cooking as a hobby (and that's their credo!). I though you were either a Chef, trying to be a Chef or a consumer (which I considered myself to be)... I never thought you could comfortably (and confidently) call yourself a Cook if you just dabbled. I didn't think you could list Cooking as a past time if you didn't own a $300 knife or wear a white hat. Why not?

Ready for the processor. I don't have an emulsifier to I ladle everything into my food processor. Tedious, but I am grateful for even that.

I will no longer be embarrassed to say I spent the day (or week) making soups (it sounds like such a waste of time). But instead I will say it with the same tone in which I would brag about spending a weekend scrapbooking. So what if I start making dinner at 4pm some days because I 'feel like it'? And I won't pretend to bitch & complain about 'not knowing what to make for dinner' because I actually like that part of my day.

Good Eats.

I seem to spending a lot of time in my kitchen lately. More so than normal. Maybe because I can't seem to keep my house clean in the summer...I just finished doing dished at 9:30 tonight. But I have been cooking too (and then cleaning some more...)

 At Vin Room I had these great crispy Eggplant slices. I tried to recreate them at home. They turned out alright and I learned a thing or two. My bread crumbs were too soft & my coating wasn't consistent... but Brian enjoyed them and this is a fantastic way to ruin a perfectly healthy vegetable. Slice your eggplant, coat in egg & roll in a breadcrumb mixture. I added lime zest, pepper & onion powder to mine.. you could really try anything. Then thrown them in a pan of oil & crisp them up (they brown quickly). Great side dish.

 A gorgeous loaf I bought at the Farmers Market.  I've been making a lot of soups for lunch with all this rain lately so it's nice to have good bread to dip. Today was tomato...tomorrow I have to use up my sweet potatoes before they go bad, so I'll come up with something I'm sure...

Dinner tonight (looks pretty damn good hey?). A lasagna I adapted from a Jamie Oliver Cookbook (I always do that, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it did!). This lasagna is like nothing I have ever had before. Made with Asparagus, Peas & Fava Beans. And the recipe called for Anchovies, but I wanted it to be vegetarian so I used capers for that little bit of zing instead. I also baked it, not broiled...and I didn't use fresh pasta (it's hard to find in Okotoks). It was so good.... Can't wait for leftovers tomorrow.



Pimp my Pizza

I don't know how to make pizza dough. I mean, I am sure I could, it's not rocket science, but I never have. I guess in our house, pizza is the thing we eat when we are hungry & haven't planned ahead. Pizza is a convenience food around here. But we rarely order pizza (when we do, we splurge on Pizza Hut), instead I rip into the grocery store & buy a frozen pizza. And then I 'pimp it out'. My mom does this, and for a long while I thought everyone did. But today, when our company asked what kind of frozen pizza this was I realized I should maybe share my moms ' home imporvement' tip. I buy whatever is on sale when it comes to pizza. So my foundation is usually just $4-$5 (The one pictured above was a MacCains Bruchetta Pizza). Then I take it home & add-on all the good stuff (usually whatever we have around the house). Todays Pimped Pizza got diced ttomatoes, shredded spinach, extra mozzarella and a little bit of green pesto.  So good. So there, if you're bored with frozen pizza but don't want to shell out for delivery, just 'pimp' your pizza by adding your own fresh ingredients. Love it.

My First Simple Apple Crisp

  You see, I never order Apple Crisp when I am out for dinner. There's always something with chocolate I'd rather order, something better than a dessert made of fruit. Today I decided to make a pie with the beautiful apples I had just bought but time seemed to fly by this afternoon and I ran out of time to make a pie. So, Apple Crisp it was. So here, without further adieu, is my first SIMPLE apple crisp.

Sammy peeled the apples (I used 5) and I chopped them up.

 I tossed the apples in cinnamon. I used 2 tsp. but I love cinnamon so I like lots.

 For the topping it's 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup of brown sugar & 1tsp of Nutmeg. Mix it together with 1/2 cup of melted butter or margarine.

 Scoop the mixture onto the apples. Cover it completely, the mixture won't spread when baking (it just gets crisp!)

 Ta-da!

My very first apple crisp. Simple. But Brian said it was delicious (he was a willing guinea-pig). I think it needed a little something else, but for my first try I am pleased with myself.



Sunday Mornings & Evenings

I love having people over for meals, it's a great excuse to set a pretty table. I spend a lot of time in my kitchen but it isn't a chef's kitchen my any measure. My kitchen is a mish-mash of things I've collected over the years, things that don't match & things that are, well, useful (no matter how ugly). I recently replaced my drinking glasses with these recycled glass ones from Starbucks. Brian was complaining that there were too many small glasses, so naturally he loves the new ones. I know they aren't something that need to be 'replaced', but our needs change & I can justify adding new glasses as long as I get rid of the old ones....

 Extra crispy bacon. Who doesn't love bacon? Even the vegans I know say they miss bacon.

 Springy cloth napkins in napkin rings. Pretty.

A big plate full of waffles (there were two).

Breakfast was great & we were so full we skipped lunch!

 Tonight I started a stitching project from a book I bought a while ago. I love this book. It's so easy (I mean, really very easy), has great pictures, instructions & do-able projects. Tonight I decided to make a little felt stuffed owl for Molly. I'll walk you through the steps I took tonight (until I started going cross-eyed and decided to blog for a while).

I cut an owl out of felt. There are no patterns, but simple shapes like this are easy to freehand. It took me about 3 tries to get an owl I liked.

The owl on the left is the one I am making. So cute right??

 Machine sewed on the breast piece (also from a freehand pattern....turned out pretty good!).

Now I am busy stitching away to embellish the owl. I am about half way there but the lighting in my house is pitiful (as you can tell from my pictures) so I thought I should break.

Brian's cousin is coming to stay with us for three weeks. She arrives Friday & I thought I should have some little projects around for us to work on...just in case this rain doesn't let up! I hate teaching someone something I haven't done before, so this is my dry run. I think it's going to turn out great!

Hope everyone had a Happy Fathers Day. We sure did!

Beautiful Beans

I didn't end up at the Farmers Market today. It's a long story, but there was no way it was going to happen. So I pouted for a bit. And then I made 3 dozen Chocolate Skor cookies (one dozen for a friend who helped me out the other day). I had big plans to take the kids on a looong walk. But it started to snow. Really? In April? Yes. In April. So, because I am stuck at home (I have no car. Long story.), I am going to pay homage to this crappy, cold weather by firing up my crock pot and making a great Turkey Chili. I know, sounds delicious. As I rinsed off my dried beans to boil them, I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. Ok, I could believe it... but they are pretty right? Kind of unexpected for 'supper'. So I snapped a picture and then tried to see how many of the items in this Organic 18 Bean Mix I could name.

Here's what I got:

Beans: Blackeye, Red Kidney, Baby Lima, Navy, Pinto, Small Red

Lentils: Green

Peas: Whole & Split Green

Here's what I missed:

Beans: Appaloosa, Azuki, Black Turtle, Calypso, Great Northern, Mung

Lentils: French, Red Split (I didn't know there were red split!)

Peas: Yellow

I think beans are overlooked in our home. I use them a lot in soups, stews and chilis, but knowing there are so many out there that I have yet to discover is intriguing. I don't think most people (who aren't vegan) know how versatile beans are. Last year I made a chickpea burger from scratch to take camping, and they weren't for me, but they opened up a new door for chickpeas in my home. Chickpeas were generally only used in Hommus but now I've even used them with squash in my Tagine. I am dying to find a source for more unique beans...perhaps the Farmers Market??