Awesome soup #8 Cream of Scallion soup

This week I wanted to have a light soup as I was going out that evening to a Robbie Burns celebration It was January 25 and the celebration was being held at my British Connection ladies group at fabulous cook's house and I just knew the food would be delicious and plentiful.( It was !!)

So Mike chose a light cream soup made from very basic ingredients: scallions, onions, potatoes, cream and a few herbs. It was to be served either hot or cold but as it was January and cool for Texas, you can guess how we had it.

 It turned out to be very light and easy to eat. The texture was smooth but the “delicate taste of onions” promised in the Soup Bible was so delicate it was almost non existent. Perhaps it would taste better cold when all the ingredients have had time to mature. Reminds me of some people I know. We must remember to try it again in the summer as it certainly was a pleasant soup. Mike gave it a 9 and so did I.

With the soup I made French bread which again tasted just fine, crunchy and good. The aroma, as I took it out of the oven, was wonderful but again the shape was less than desired. My dough does seem to spread sideways rather than rise upwards. I shall have to look into that and see what I can do about it.

With the meal, we had a light white chardonnay and creamy coleslaw.

No friends came to share this week but next week we look forward to seeing Priscilla and Kyle to share soup #9.

Remember if you would like to share “Soup day” just call and let me know. We would love to see you.

Awesome soup #7 Beef Noodle Soup.

Just the description of this soup, let alone the photo, makes you want to try it.

“Offer your fortunate friends or family a steaming bowl of this soup packed with delicious flavors of the Orient”

Yes, the flavors were delicious- ginger, egg noodles, sirloin steak, spinach, sherry, soy sauce and a few others as well. Mike says it called for porcini mushrooms but he couldn't get those in any of his local shopping places  so substituted regular mushrooms.

With the soup Mike made a very creamy coleslaw and we pre -opened a bottle of Californian Turning Leaf pinot noir to go with the meal.

Then our friends Joe and Sally came to try out our soup , bearing a lovely bouquet of deep red/mauve carnations and a bottle of Veo Grande Chilean wine . Thanks S & J.

Well this week's soup was deemed excellent by all. It was spicy , but not too spicy, very tasty and definitely had a feel and the look somehow of Chinese food I thought. The texture suited everyone and we all said this was really a 10 and we would definitely use this recipe again.

This week I tried to make bread sticks like they serve at the Olive garden. I should have known better. The photo that came with the recipe was not inspiring. The bread sticks tasted just fine, hot and buttery, but looked more like bread planks because they had spread sideways .

Note to myself :remember rising dough spreads sideways as well as upwards and bread sticks need some kind of mold at rise and bake in to get to the required shape.

To make up for the flat bread sticks I produced a peach pie and ice cream to go with coffee and I can say we had a great #7ASD.

All in all, it was a lovely meal. The conversation was fun and interesting as it always is with S & J and ranged from future fun vacation getaways to selling and buying exotic cars. Something for everyone. Thanks for coming S & J.

Awesome Soup #6 Curry Celery and Garlic soup

Friends, Ros, Catriona and Les took us up on our open invite issued from last week on our blog (so nice to know some people actually read these blogs) and called to say they would love to come for a "surprise soup and bread lunch".

So this week Mike made curry, celery and garlic soup which came out looking very much like the picture in the book.

No problem with the cooking as this time Mike made sure both the celery and potatoes cooked up really well so they blended into a really smooth soup. Mike gave it an overall 9, I gave it an 8 to 9 but felt it needed a little more taste of curry. Now that was completely my fault as I had said not to put too much curry in the soup as it would be just too hot so I was wrong again and will not interfere in the soup cooking again. 

Our guests all seemed to like it but being polite guests, were diplomatic with their judgment and mostly agreed with us. Catriona did think it a little gritty but I found the texture okay. This led to spirited conversations of the terrible items we ate during and after the war in England like tapioca and semolina. 

Mike had made creamy coleslaw to eat on the side which helped with the overall meal and taste. It blended well with the soup.

I made the same wheat rolls again this week as  I made last week but cut down the giant size to pixie size. One big mistake was to bake them in muffin tins as they rose up to look like wheat toadstools and most were still pretty large.  They did taste pretty good and Ros seemed to like them especially well. Who can't like hot bread with butter!!

As we had been having pre lunch drinks of beer and sherry we continued with these drinks with water and also a light red wine.

The best part of the whole meal was the great conversation we had with our friends. We found out from Les, a true Texan, being born in San Antonio, the story of the Balance rock which is close by Enchanted Rock in the Hill country.

A great lunch to remember . Now let’s look for next week’s menu.

Awesome soup day #5 Vegetable and Herb chowder.

So Mike found a chowder in the Soup Bible after some discussion on what a chowder really is.Mike associated chowder with the creamy bowls of clam found on Cape Cod . I associated it with a creamy version of lumpy potato soup. So I looked it up and it is a generic term meaning any soup thickened with milk or cream containing vegetables or fish so we were both right.

Well the photo in the book didn't look very creamy but it cooked up with lots of great veggies into a very nice thick soup and yes, some milk was added right at the end of cooking. Most of the cooking time went into preparing the veggies and I am sure with this kind of soup probably any veggies could be used. The various herbs added to the taste and probably could also be adjusted accordingly.. We both pronounced this a definite 9 for overall satisfaction and texture Realizing the veggies could have been given a little more time to cook ,gave it an 8 for taste. This is one recipe we probably will use again.

I decided to make wheat dinner rolls instead of a loaf of bread this time. These came out much better than I expected giving a warm yeasty smell to the kitchen on a cold winter day. The only problem was that I should have divided the dough into 12 or 16 rolls rather than 8 as they came out as rolls fit for a giant to eat but really tasty and just delicious with butter.

To compliment our lunch we opened a bottle of Ruidoso Red , a wine made by Willmon Vineyards in New Mexico given to us at Christmas by our friends Cheryl and Lou. This is a lovely smooth red wine and was just perfect to compliment the meal.

Another friend Tamsin, did ask what we would do when we ran out of new soup recipes. Looking at all the cook books we have ,I don't think that will be a possibility.

PS. If any of our local friends would like to join us to partake of the soup of the week just let us know a couple of days ahead of cooking time and you will be most welcome.