Garlic Breath Soup

Poor little baby Zizi cat hated this soup night. But our new buddy Tater-tot loved it! Especially because he got to lick the bowl. The bowl of rich garlic goodness. This soup is a nod to our vampire friends Edward and what's-her-face from Twilight. Or New Moon. Whatever. You know. I should probably know. I can probably take a swing through What Would Justin Bobby Do and figure it out.

Nods Bella and Beau.

Okay soupies, time to start seriously thinking about the great soup pot day coming up, that's right, A Year of Monday's Soup Anniversary Gala. The date should be sometime in January, details will follow, but these are a couple things that should be on your radar in the meantime:

• Review this blog: Take a stroll back to your favorite soggy recipe; was it Veggie Detox (it actually was, I have analytics and that is our most popular soup-- you alcholoholics, you), or African peanut soup (that was MY favorite soup), or Lime Soup (Alayna?). Either way, check out our past hits and remember all the good times we had together. Remember when the blender broke? Classic soup memory.

• Make your request early! If you have a soup you really want to make (you will bring this soup to our party in a soup pot... that's another thing, you might have to buy a soup pot)... email one of us and we'll cross that one off the list. All the soups must be different!
  

• Start singing and tapping your toes: We are currently looking for songwriters, poets and dancers to help us write and choreograph the group "We Aren't Afraid of Soup" song that we will videotape and then repost on our blog and it will quickly go viral.

So let us know who could help us out. I'm not joking about any of this. At first Alayna thought I was and then she saw the soup ladle sparkling in my eye and knew. Knew I was serious. Souperious. And when you're souperious nothing can stop you.

Bad Breath Soup

• Roughly chop 3-4 onions and two heads (that's right, HEADS, not cloves) of garlic and saute in a sprinkling of olive oil and about 3 tablespoons of butter on low
• Add chopped fresh parsley, rosemary and thyme (we cheated and used dry thyme) and cover, stirring occasionally, letting it cook for about 30 minutes
  
  
• Add chicken stock or vegetable broth and bring to a boil
  
• Cube half a loaf of french or otherwise delicious bread and add it to the pot until soft (add more broth if it's too chunky)\

• Blend and serve over the leftover pieces of bread
• Try to avoid sitting to close to strangers

Artichoke My Heart

"You have a bright future ahead of you.

Go into the world.

And use everything we have taught you."

-Tyson Bedford, "Make Me A Supermodel"

Kate has a magic bullet. Alayna has artichoke hearts. You've heard this story before...

Nooo, you haven't.

I was doing who knows what in Jersey so I could not partake on this adventure but Monday Soup fan, Lauren, filled in. Everything was moving along great.

Onions were sauteing...

Alayna was chopping hearts...

Stuff was going in the pot...

The cat was in the bag...

And then... it's time to puree.

"Oh Lauren, it's time to blend," Alayna said, innocently. Having no idea what was about to happen next.

"Yes!" said Lauren, excited to watch Monday Soup in real time and not just recaptured on this blog.

"Lets go to the blender," Alayna says. Bowl in hand. There they go. Five feet from the kitchen. To the corner of the apartment. By the bookshelf.

No one had any idea what was about to happen.

It was the age of innocence.

THE BLENDER IS BROKEN!

Can't you see the crack in the blender?

And that's when Kate's magic bullet comes in. And the story reaches our Monday's happy ending.

Unfortunately, that magic bullet is a wee little thing. And Alayna and soup crew dirtied every dish in the apartment. But worse has happened. And I wasn't there to have to do the dishes.

Now, for the soup:

Ingredients

The hearts from 6 large artichokes
butter
2 leeks
6 garlic cloves, chopped
3 chopped shallots
2 handfulls of baby red potatoes
Veg/Chicken Stock
1/2 bay leaf
Thyme
Handful of chopped parsley
half and half or heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

Method

1 Cut the artichokes lengthwise into quarters. With a small knife, remove the thistley choke part and discard. Cut away the leaves from the artichoke heart and reserve for steaming and eating later. This will probably take longer than you think. Cut or peel away the tough outside skin of the stems and discard. Chop hearts to 1/4 inch thickness

2 In a large pot, melt half a stick of butter and cook the artichoke hearts, leek, garlic, and shallots on medium heat covered until tender (can stick a fork through hearts). Add diced potatoes and broth, about 2-4 bay leave, a handful of parsley and some thyme. Bring soup to a simmer and let cook covered until everything is tender (about 45 min).

3 Remove and discard the bay leaves. Purée the soup with your magic bullet if you somehow accidentally broke your blender body (oops!) and add cream to taste once all blended. Add salt/pepper as desired.

Lauren, with all of our dishes, dirty.