Tuscan Stoup

A few weeks back we were at Sally's and the topic of “stoup”came up. We understood from Sally that a stoup was a conglomeration of a stew/soup that was made adding various ingredients during the day to a broth. It was one of those kind of favorite dishes you remember from childhood that your mom used to make. Not only that, Sally had found recipe to make it on www.houndstoothgourmet.com.

So for our next soup day Mike looked over the recipe and decided this would be a good stoup to make especially as this one called for Italian sausage , one of his favorite items. It certainly had many other items in it like kale, Parmesan cheese. beans  and tomatoes and small shell pasta. You probably could add any other items that you had on hand to make it a real stoup. Mike bought Andouille sausage and said invite "Someone who likes spicy food to help me eat it because you know you won't eat much if it's spicy!!"

Sally and Jo couldn't come so we asked Ros and she was delighted to come. The stoup was indeed spicy but if you didn't eat the sausage ( me) ,just fine. The kale had almost disappeared being one of those veggies that goes from a hugh bunch to almost nothing when cooked.We all thought this was an excellent stoup and we can see why it was a favorite. Mike gave it a 9 , Ros a 10 and I gave it an 8 ( because of the spiciness and overall look- a bit messy.The texture and broth was lovely.

We had a very nice white wine Bare Foot Pinon Grigio with it compliments of Ros.

To eat with the stoup I made a recipe given to me by the Empty Bowls organization. It is in their special cook book called “Soup and Quick bread recipes”. Just the thing for us.I chose Southwestern three cheese biscuits and these came out as an excellent side biscuit, soft and fluffy and just lovely . Believe me you didn't need butter with these biscuits. They do need to be eaten just cooked as we tried the one we had left later in the day and that was not so good. 

Mike's Clam Chowder

So on a hot day in November- yes it really is hot almost 80 degrees Mike made a soup that would have been more suited to a winter's evening in February!!

However we can't know what the weather will do especially if you live in Texas where even in the space of one day the weather can change from hot as h*** to cold as i**. and often at this time of the year.

The soup looked very nice as you can see in the photo with lots of veggies and ham swimming in a creamy soup base. We sat down . I took one spoonful and said ” I think you put too much pepper in the soup ” ,trying to say this with my mouth open to dissipate some of the heat. I could see by the look from Mike he was thinking I was just being fussy as he knows I don't like spicy foods. That was before he took his first mouthful and said ,” Hum .Yes .maybe I did use a little too much cayenne pepper and also the paprika as well. I did cut it down you know!!”

Anyhow we managed to get acclimatized to the peppery taste and I actually ate most of it. The veggies( potatoes, corn) were fine as was the clam and ham ,The creamy texture was lovely but I think Mike has now written on the recipe. “ Measure the cayenne pepper and paprika carefully next time.”

it was just as well Mike had opened a bottle of Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio which is just a lovely refreshing light white wine which went down like a dip in a cool stream.

No it really wasn't THAT hot!!

Chinese Soup

We had both been very busy and soup day rolled around and I said," Why don't we go to a Chinese Restaurant and try their soup?" Mike agreed and so we did.

We went to the Chinese Cafe on University in Denton which is one of our favorite places to eat . The food is good, the price is very reasonable and we just knew they would have a choice of soups as they are a buffet style restaurant.

They had indeed 3 soups to choose from; seafood soup, spicy hot vegetable soup, and egg drop soup. We took small helpings as we knew we would be trying all the rest of the food as well. We couldn't pass up that now could we.

Our soups were good full of good things, not that we recognized many of the ingredients. They were highly colored and very hot, indeed tongue-burning hot. I found the seafood soup had strange pink pieces floating in it and it tasted somewhat fishy but okay not overwhelming.I did not like the thick glutenous texture very much. Mike tried both the other soups and said they were just fine but really spicy and he knew I wouldn't like them .He found them a bit thick textured as well.

And then we were on to the other delightful variations of food that only a good Chinese buffet can supply, I think the only thing we didn't sample was the sushi But the rest of the meal was super delicious.

However I still prefer our homemade soups.

Paint & Draw together -Old master style

This was a 8x10 painting in acrylic on canvas board I did in response to a challenge put out by the blog, Paint and Draw together. I hadn't painted for some time and the previous paintings were done with oil and using only a palette knife. That leads to very long brush( knife) strokes and you need to use a very different technique in doing a painting in the style of the old masters. Both enjoyable  but this was more demanding.

Pink flower -palette knife painting

My ffirst attemp to paint using just palette knives with oil paint.

Love the colors of this one but it is a difficult technique

Hallowine Soup Day

This year Halloween fell on, you guessed it.... Soup Day so we decided to be at least a bit festive and keep Halloween in our thoughts by making, you guessed it again, PUMPKIN soup. On the web there are many recipes for pumpkin soups, It was difficult for Mike to pick just one to make. Various people had told us how to prepare a real  pumpkin but he opted to use a regular can of pumpkin puree. Neither of us are real fans of pumpkin so what would we do with the remainder of an actual pumpkin? The  recipe Mike chose only called for an 8 oz  can ( or half a regular can).

The soup was a little different too because, just like French onion soup, it included crouton triangles of bread, spread with cinnamon , butter and brown sugar that you crisp up in the oven and then float on the top of the soup. Sound delicious doesn't it? The soup itself was very simple,- pumpkin ,spices, butter , chicken broth and whipping cream, It turned out very well . It was tasty and the croutons just seemed to dissolve in your mouth, Quite a treat indeed. Changed our minds about pumpkin and the soup  easily earned   10 this week.

However the crowning glory of this soup day was the wine we had brought when we were on vacation in Door County on Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin. At Door Peninsula Winery we took a trip through the winery , tried ( and bought and drank )some of the wines and then at the last minute bought their special wine especially for Halloween. It is called called Hallowine. Clever. This came in a lovely pumpkin colored and decorated bottle that looked very seasonable of our table so we reckoned even if the wine was only so-so the bottle would be a nice memento. The wine was a semi sweet apple wine spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and it did complement the soup well. It tasted even better on the following evening when we warmed the wine and had it with some fruit and brie cheese and crackers. Ahh the good life of old retired people...

On the back of the bottle it told the legend of 
Hallowine.

In 1665 Reginald W, Hallow brought his unique blend of fall harvest apples and mulled spices to ferment in the crisp Door County air, He dubbed his creation Hallowine then mysteriously disappeared ( creepy music insert here,,,,)

334 years later Door Peninsula Winery honors Hallow's legacy conjuring up the distinctive autumn flavor of the region for a limited time. One sip and we're sure you'll agree It's so good its scary!!

Empty Bowls, Soup Day continues....

Empty Bowl Day in Denton,Texas

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This week we decided not to make a new soup as we had a large container of the vegetable and pesto soup we had made last week still in the freezer . So with a little help from some ham and a few spices plus some new ciabatta rolls we managed to have a pleasant Soup Day as usual. The soup actually didn't seem much tastier as we had hoped it might but we knew we had a much tastier soup meal coming up on Saturday .This would be the day we would go with friends Sally and Joe to the annual “Empty Bowls” day in Denton.

Empty Bowls is a marvelous idea as it is a fundraising event with proceeds going to the local food pantry which helps by giving food to the many people who just don't have enough money to buy food . Yes, not all Americans are rich in fact many struggle each week just to make ends meet and this year we were told it seems to be worse than ever.

Our selection of bowls

So we paid for our tickets ( $15 ) each and off we went on a beautiful crisp sunny morning to Denton .We arrived to find the soup lunch was going great and the church hall where it was being held ,almost packed to capacity with lots of people and an equally large number of willing volunteers. There were two very long tables just full of the most lovely bowls made by local artisans. The idea is that you can select one of these great bowls to take home with you so everyone was picking up bowls to find just the right bowl for them. What a difficult choice to make! There were so many kinds. You could tell they were all lovingly made by a great many adults and children as their way of helping.

I had done some pottery making in the past and I could tell that many were truly wonderful pieces of art. Some bowls, made probably by the kids, were colorful and charming with finger prints all around the edges. The wooden bowls were lovely as well. So many different kinds.

The wonderful bowls

After we had selected our bowls we found a place at one of the long tables and then went to choose a soup. We did not use our art bowls for the soup. These were too special for that purpose. There were many soups to choose from; tomato, gumbo, vegetable ,chicken and noodles , sweet potato,chili , sausage and without exception, all were excellent and homemade and very tasty.

We all tried  different soups and each one was voted a 10 plus as just delicious. You could go back for  refills as many times as you wanted . I think Joe and Mike tried them all.

Vegetable Chili Soup

Meanwhile at the table we chatted about our pots and with the other people that were sitting there or just passing by . What a interesting time we had with such friendly people.

We talked to one of the organizers and she said that one man, Mr Reed had made over 300 various pots and these were much prized. He made them each year as his contribution. Some people who come every year collect his pots. Mike and I had actually inadvertently selected two of his pots .The fun part of the bowl was not only the skill, beauty and individual design but underneath on the base Mr Reed writes different inscriptions which are really fun to read. For instance on Mike's bowl it said” Reed 26 April 2012 Mowed the lawn this morning, played ball with the dog .Did this. Need to feed the fish “Then just as we were finishing Mr Reed came over to say “HI “ and we were so pleased to shake his hand and say "Thank you".

Joe and  Mr  Reed

There was also a silent auction with many beautiful paintings,bowls, dishes jewelry, scarves and other very special craft items all given by caring talented artists .All to swell the coffers for a good cause.

Just a lovely soup day and one which we will remember and be sure to attend in the future.

Butternut Squash soup

Butternut Squash soup

So this week we bought the illusive butternut squash . I got the right thing this time. Mike made the soup that friend Ruth had recommended as a lovely tasty soup. Well she was quite right . The main ingredient was, and I bet you can guess it , butternut squash. Added were carrots , celery, onions, green apple , stock and various spices. The biggest problem we encounted was peeling the squash and getting the seeds out with a spoon. Ruth later told us the easiest way to do this was to partially bake the squash and then you can scoop the flesh out easily. Now why didn't we think of that?

We had invited friends Ruth and Ros to eat with us and to give us their opinion on this new soup. Both thought the soup turned out excellent and gave it a 10 plus grade. In fact , so did both Mike and I. It was smooth and creamy with a very nice taste. This is one we know we will try again. Just a great soup for a cold winter evening and not at all difficult to make.

I made bubble bread to go with it and then nearly ruined it by sitting outside drinking a pre dinner drink and chatting with our friends. Suddenly smells of burning drifted out from the kitchen and I rushed in just in time to save the bread from becoming “blackened” bubble bread. It complemented the soup very well and is so easy to serve as you just pull the individual bubbles apart from the main loaf.

To finish the meal I had decided to make Queen of puddings. This is a very old British recipe .I hadn't cooked it before and it looked lovely in the recipe book and not at all difficult to make. It had the advantage of using some items I had already in the pantry. There were breadcrumbs, sugar, milk and eggs which made the base which is covered in a blueberry jam and then served with a layer of meringue to finish. I felt it certainly looked better than it tasted. It has the texture of the bread pudding that I just don't care for. Mike and the ladies thought it was just fine and so that was the main thing.

We so enjoyed their company. Ruth has a million and one stories and can always keep the conversation interesting. Ros brought lovely fresh laid brown eggs and so we enjoying lovely meals with eggs that have bright yellow yolks. I don't think we will make egg soup though.

Vegetable Pesto soup

Have you noticed that in the fall there are lots of different kinds of vegetables in the grocery stores? There are squashes of all kinds and root veggies and at least some I really have no clue about. I felt a bit like that when I was the person who shopped this week for the ingredients for this week's soup, Vegetable Pesto .It sure had a lot of vegetables!! it had spinach, onion, mushroom ( is that considered a vegetable?)carrot, potato, tomato, parsnip, turnip, celery, green pepper, leek, garlic, green beans, peas, squash, and cannellini beans

You can see by looking at the photo it was chock full of veggies. Mike had made the pesto with Parmesan cheese,basil and garlic and we had some in a small dish on the side as well as some included in the soup.

I had planned to cook French bread in the bread machine but it wasn't until I had the machine whirring away kneading all the ingredients that I realized that this loaf would be ready approx 2 hours after we had finished eating our soup. What to do? Fortunately I had a loaf,all be it, a rather sad looking thing in the freezer that I had made about 4 months ago. I quickly defrosted it and hoped it would be okay. I reckoned we could always toast it if needed. Thank goodness no visiting friends were coming today.

The soup turned out to be just fine and looked a lot like the photo in the book . It was very tasty especially when the pesto was added and stirred into the mix. The fun was in eating it and trying to recognize the individual tastes of the many veggies. We both gave it high marks, 8.5. I would have like a few less veggies and a bit more juice or liquid.. Mike would have preferred it to be more spicy. That has been duly written in the cookbook for next time.

I have to mention that the recipe made many helpings of soup and as you can see, we have enough for another meal or maybe two in our fridge. I have a feeling this is a soup that will also be better when it has time to mature just like a good wine. I'll let you know.

PS Time to mature doesn't work with bread!!

Soup Day Begins Again

Celery soup

Fall is Here- Soup time again.

So with the start of the cooler weather in October, we began to think of soups again.When we were looking into fresh ideas to try, our friend Ruth said she had recently tried butternut squash soup and it was ”wonderful”.

Well that was something we hadn't attempted. Now I really didn't know what a butternut squash looked like but not deterred went off to Sprouts, the local farmers market store, and there in a display were all kinds of squash and yes ,some were in a box labeled “butternut”. So I picked one up, a large dusky red tuber. Meanwhile Mike had found a recipe and we were all set to try the new soup.Only one problem on the day we were to make the soup, Mike looked at the squash and said,” If this is a butternut squash why does the  grocery label say, Red yam?” Oophs!  A quick check on the Internet showed I had indeed picked up the wrong thing. Not a good start to Awesome Soup Days !!

A quick look in the fridge and there we found a large bunch of celery. Just the thing for a quick soup. Mike hastily checked his recipes and in no time at all had made a light , very tasty celery soup which he served with crusty ciabata rolls. We both thought this was a great soup and gave it high marks and as Mike said ''really easy to make” having so few ingredients.( celery, broth and spices). Soup day was saved.

However a really nice surprise came a few days later when our friends Sally and Joe invited us to their lovely country home to participate in their Soup Day. Sally said she had taken our idea and decided she would serve a soup to her book club members when they come for their weekly meetings .What a good idea and so simple for everyone including the cook. So she had made a huge dutch oven full of a lovely Chicken Parmigiano soup and having made so much, invited us over to share it the next day.

Sal, Joe and Mike at lunch. Guess who is taking photos?

And what a lovely fresh soup it was. It is a combination of chicken ,onions and tomatoes with added spices served over  garlic flavored parmesan toast.

The texture was just right; a thin spicy broth which flavored the bread with a hint of garlic and lots of cheese. Jo and Sally also served  fresh fruit and some great wine with the meal and we had a lovely time. As Sally said “a truly balanced meal”-good friends, good food, good wine and plenty of interesting conversation.

However the best thing was knowing that our idea of a fun soup day had spread and other people were enjoying the fun you can have with a simple meal and sharing with friends .

Shirley enjoying her soup.

Awesome Soup #21 - Green pea and Mint soup

Green Pea and Mint soup

We wanted something tasty as this was to be our last soup for a while and after last week's bland soup, here is the one we found,
What could be more tasty than lots of peas and a bunch of mint leaves? Well, it did turn out really tasty , the peas were sweet and the mint very flavorful. Just as Mike was about to spoon it out he said , "It says you can eat it cold. Shall we do that- it might be better?"

The bread was not quite ready so we debated back and forth but in the end decided to eat it as it was. Now while we were deciding, the time had passed so in fact we had the soup kind of not hot and not cold. This was probably not the thing to do and I suspect this would actually be a great cold soup for a hot summer day. The texture was just right and Mike gave it an 8 and I gave it a 7.

The bread was, shall we say, somewhat a disappointment. I had found a recipe for beer, cheese  and herb wheat bread which sounded wonderful. It sure smelled wonderful as it was cooking . Unfortunately like a lot of wheat breads it failed to rise completely and although it tasted okay it was a heavy bread and strangely enough was very salty. No salt was in the recipe either so where it came from we just  don't know.

The wine, a 'Simply Naked' Californian Chardonnay was excellent and very refreshing .Mike had bought fresh carrots as the organic stall at the weekend and they were lovely and crunchy and you could actually taste the  carrot!!
We are a bit souped out but Mike says due to the quantity of vegetable,beef and chicken stock he has left in the refrigerator, we probably will continue making soups until we run out. 
I think with the hot weather fast approaching  most likely we will be having  Awesome COLD soup days !!

Awesome Soup# 20 Beans & Greens

Beans & Greens soup

Both the soup recipe and the bread recipe sounded lovely. The photos in the cook books looked good as well so what could go wrong we thought. We wanted this lunch to be really nice as friends Les and Catriona were coming to share  with us. They understand we never know just how these things will turn out but we always like the lunch to be a success when friends come by.

Well the soup was as you would expect . It included bean, onions, carrot , celery and various herbs as well as the leafy greens of spinach and Swiss chard. The only thing that worried Mike was only water was added not stock and it also  didn't seem a long enough cooking time to develop the taste. And he was correct. Apart from the taste of the beans and the veggies it was a very bland and plain tasting soup. Mike gave it a 7 and I gave it a 6. Our friends were super  diplomatic but agreed really not very tasty. Mike says IF he makes it again he will use beef or vegetable stock and cook longer and see if that improves the taste.

I had made sun dried tomato and rosemary bread. Doesn't it just make you have visions of a perfect Tuscany scene? The bread rose well but during the baking  sunk just a little but the outside was crispy  and the aroma just wonderful. It tasted really nice . it was just about the right texture. I served it with with  two dipping sauces ; one was a gift from Sally, a very spicy garlic oil sauce, the other,  olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The garlic dip was one, I find really hot. It just burns the inside of your mouth. I keep well away from that  but Les thought it  was actually mild ( but then he is a true Texan and I am not). The bread and the dip as they were quite flavorful certainly helped the soup .
I'd also made a fresh apple pie which served with ice cream finished off the meal well. As usual we chatted about so many things as you do with old friends; cars and driving schools , retirement and travelling and of course cooking and soup.

Our soup days are drawing to a close. Soon it will be too hot to enjoy a hot soup and so we 
now need to figure out what our next project will be.
Keep in touch.

Awesome soup #19 Bloody Mary Soup

Bloody Mary Soup

Now this one did not come from the Soup Bible. it came from another super recipe book called the Soup Bowl also given to us by our friend Sally.This soup sounded so different and interesting that this is one Mike just had to try.
After all we all like Bloody Mary drinks don't we?  So why should we feel any different about a soup of the same name.

Unfortunately , although it had some very interesting ingredients, it was not a soup I  would want again. The soup , as expected ,called for tomatoes. I bet you knew that. Also the usual ingredients for soups : garlic, salt, pepper, and basil. As you might also expect from the name, a very small amount of vodka was included. This actually did not add to the taste as all The alcohol gets cooked away and as you also probably know, vodka doesn't have much of a taste by itself, if indeed any at all. But what did alter the taste was the Worcestershire sauce and the Tabasco sauce. The recipe did not give any amount of these to add and I think Mike was a  bit 'heavy handed" with the bottles. So the overall effect was a smooth tomato soup which was as hot as chili. Quite a surprise!

 Mike who likes hot, peppery tastes gave this soup an 8.5 and I gave it a 6 . I thought that was generous as I can't abide a burnt mouth when I am eating.
Fortunately I had made some brown wheat rolls which actually this time  came out the size and shape they should be so we calmed our fiery mouths with warm soft rolls with lots of butter and long gulps of a nice white wine. All was not lost.

Our conversation included a discussion on when Soup Days should end as our weather is getting warmer. Maybe our hot mouths just made it feel that way. Maybe after May 1 we will convert to Fabulous Salad and Desert days . How about that?
I'll let you all know.