Awesome Soup #12 Broccoli and Cheese Soup

Broccoli and Cheese Soup

After looking through the Soup Bible Mike decided he would make broccoli and almond Soup. I read the description and said, “Mike, this doesn’t have cheese in it and anyhow the last one we made with blended almonds in it ,came out very gritty in texture and I didn't like that very much” So, the challenge was on and in another of our beautiful cook books, (did I tell you that we have a whole cupboard of them) he found a neat recipe for one of my favorite restaurant style soups, broccoli and cheese.

We are so glad he made this one as it turned out to be really delicious. A hot thick, cheesy soup with pieces of fresh green broccoli and mushroom. Just lovely. Mike gave it a 9.5 and I ,a 9.9.

I decided as we were not expecting company, I would try again with the French bread but this time,I would cook the dough in the regular oven rather than in the bread machine and see if I could get the right French loaf shape. The good thing was the bread again tasted lovely- crusty on the outside and crumbly on the inside, the shape however was a big problem.

 Let me explain. After the bread is mixed you roll out the dough into a long thin shape , then leave it to rise before you bake it. Well my long thin shape was too long for both my baking tray and indeed for the oven so I had to bend it into a C shape. It rose and rose and was a true dinosaur of a loaf. The recipe also tells you to score the top just before baking. Well that doesn't work as when you do that 'pouf' the air deflates the dough and the loaf sags looking more like a balloon version of a dinosaur. Oh dear. All a good learning experience.

We opened a nice bottle of Crane Lake Pino Grigio and talked about what soup we might cook next time, how nice the daffodils looked, how the latest woodshed project was progressing and the perennial topic,” Where should we go for our next trip.”

It was a good soup day.

Awesome soup #11 Onion and Pancetta Soup

Onion and Pancetta Soup

The weather was just lovely; very spring like Texas weather and so nice that our company for the day, Jo and Ruth were able to sit outside on our patio in the sun with us for a pre dinner drink. Maybe later in the year we can have soup day al fresco.

The soup ,Onion and Pancetta, turned out to be just great -a real keeper. Mike had made some adjustments as Pancetta was very difficult to find so inspired cook, he substituted back bacon instead. Add to that, lots of onions 

cumin,tomatoes, basil and parmesan cheese and you have a very tasty soup. This was a fairly thin, textured soup but it went so well with the bread. 

Both Ruth and Jo found it to be excellent and Mike gave it a 9 and I would have given it a 10 but I remembered ,we can't do that or we won't have excellence to aim for anymore. So I gave it a 9.5.

I made a French bread this week but it turned out that it had to be served country style as I had problems getting it out of the baking pan.Oops! However it tasted really scrumptious;crumbly with a brown,crispy crust , broken into bite-sized pieces and really didn't need any butter on it at all .It was a good compliment to the soup.

Mike again made the spinach salad to serve with it and that was just right as well.

Jo had brought a bottle of Argentinian wine to share, Colorez del Sol which was a smooth Malbec red wine and was just perfect.

We talked at some length about the flowers that Ruth had brought. She had manged to find the Alstromeria again but these were a lovely dark red and like the white ones that Roz had brought some weeks before, are supposed to last and last and last. We shall see. They are doing really well at the moment.

Both Jo & Ruth are excellent cooks so we heard about Ruth's boiled Scottish meal she prepares. Sound wonderful. Jo favors English recipes like roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and we already know her sausage rolls are a favorite with everyone.

So far no one has said they are coming next Wednesday to savor the “Soupe du Jour” so please don't be shy. It's an open invitation. Let us know and come on by. Bring a friend. It's always nice to meet new people.

We'll be glad you did. We love the company. It makes the day.

Awesoup soup day #10 Creamy Cod Chowder

Creamy Cod Chowder

  Well this soup was not a total success. So it was just as well this week that no friends dropped by on our experimental soup day. This was a fish soup and we do realize that many people just don't like fish!! However we do. We often have fish once or twice a week for lunch.The photos and recipe in the book looked interesting so Mike decided to give it a try. The recipe calls for smoked cod fillet, which he couldn't get so he used just regular cod and that probably made a difference. We expected a soup much like New England clam chowder but the soup although it tasted fine with chunks of cod, was thin and the corn starch added to thicken the mix,had obviously not done it's job. It was creamy and edible but Mike gave it a 7 and I gave it a 6 as I felt the taste was not as “fishy' as I would like and it was too thin to be a chowder.

  The Soup Bible recommended a warm crusty wheat bread so that is just what I made. The bread rose up fine;it certainly was crusty and warm. Actually a bit too warm and crusty to cut well but it tasted good. Mike thought it was just fine but I would have preferred it to be less dense with more air pockets in the bread.

We knew this was going to be a hearty meal so we just had carrot and celery sticks to go with the soup, bread and white wine.

Conversation this week centered on soup cooking and different flavorings and spices and the why soups and custards don't thicken up .

 (BTW) By the way Ros and Sally, check out the flower arrangement. Your flowers, the carnations and alstromeria bought for my birthday some are still going strong. Isn't that just amazing?

Awesome Soup Day #9 Chunky Bean & Veggie Soup

This soup day turned out to be a great success. Good soup, good bread, good salad, good wine and good friends so what more could we wish for. You might say, a bright sunny day and interesting conversation. Well we had those too and even though it was only the first day of February, the sun was warm enough to sit outside and have pre dinner drinks with Priscilla and Kyle , who came to share our soup day.

The soup was somewhat like a chunky minestrone soup but had the added larger size veggies and cannellini beans to give extra fiber and protein. It was rich tasting, with veggies that you could taste and chew: carrots, tomatoes, celery, and leaks and a smattering of spices. It was hot , steamy and delicious. We all declared it was very good and Mike and I rated it as a 9 all a round. Why not a 10 you ask? Mike explains that if we give it a 10 we will have

no higher point to aim for.

With the salad I made sunflower seed bread which has a base of honey and a small amount of seeds and is termed a sweet bread. It rose beautifully this time and was a light delightful bread to eat with the soup. The only problem I had was to slice it as it was so hot and crumbly .Slices were pretty much of the doorstep variety but delicious spread with butter.( ie. spread)

Mike had made a fresh spinach salad to go with the meal tossed in a light dressing which included bacon pieces, onions and garlic. Just right for this meal.

Our friends had brought a lovely Chianti wine, Gabbiano Chianti Classico. This is a lovely smooth Italian wine from a vineyard established in the Middle ages and protected by an Italian knight Il Cavaliere. This is a wine we will certainly use again. It was a great compliment to this meal.

Interesting people make interesting conversation and our conversation ranged from colonial India, voyages on liners through the early days of the Suez Canal, building cabins in wild Alaska, Japanese food and customs and even a little Japanese language. Kyle is recently retired and is a member of the “No wrist watch society” so Mike and he swapped stories on how to adjust a retirement lifestyle by doing things you always wanted to do and now have actually time to do that and enjoy life. Cheers for retirement.

And that's what just what we did on Awesome Soup Day #9. Enjoy life.