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!!