Veggie Soup for the Meat-Eating Soul

That's not soup, foo, that's rhubarb crisp! Okay. So Alayna and I have been discussing this and as we note time and time again we're both Virgos, so we're anal about details. That and we've been doing this blog for almost a year and a half and we also have this other neglected blog, Friday's Dinners, which I like in theory but as we have since realized we should just have a one-stop shop with all our recipes. Also, as Alayna and I expand our cooking reach into the delicious far corners of the kitchen (I made strawberry chili preserves this weekend what what!) we want to include those recipes here. More than soup yes, but the theme is to highlight that we shouldn't be afraid of soup OR cooking. And all our recipes fall into that theme.

So what to do? Basically for some dumb reason we decided to create this blog on blogger, which I think is far inferior to wordpress. I want to transfer platforms but I'm not sure how to do that easily without hand plucking all this content. Dos Mios! Does anyone have tips? I need to re-structure this monster so it's more easily searchable. I need seperete pages. I need so many things. But what don't I need? Soup. This soup is wonderful, as always. So make it, then tell me how to re-do this blog.

Thanks for coming to soup Lindsey!

Veggie Soup for the Meat-Eating Soul

• In a separate pan, heat olive oil and cook six boneless skinless chicken thighs (or breasts) cut into bite-sized pieces until done and turn off, reserving juices
• while chicken is cooking, use a clean cutting board and knife to chop up six cloves of garlic and saute with two sprigs of fresh rosemary and some generous shakes of red pepper flakes in your soup pot
  
• when the garlic is fragrant/opaque, add in a chopped whole yellow onion
• when onions are translucent, add on bunch of broccoli rabe, also chopped, including everything except the very bottom of the stems and cook covered
  
• next add two yellow squashes, cut into slices then quartered, and one bunch of swiss chard torn into bite-sized pieces, covering back up
• when squash is mostly done, add two cans of drained black-eyed peas to the pot, along with the chicken in it's juice and cover the rest with broth
• bring to a simmer and serve with mary's delicious carrot bread!

Rhubarb Crisp

• Take about one pound of rhubarb and strip the stringy parts of off the rib of the rhubarb by pulling them off with a paring knife (if you were a really particular child, you may remember doing something like this with really stringy celery, but i promise it's easier than that was). When you're done, the ribs will look like naked rhubarb and kind of green.
  
• Cut into bite-sized pieces and put into a bowl
• Add one pound of strawberries, halved or quartered and one can of drained cherries (or more rhubarb or more strawberries... I just had a can of cherries)
• Squeeze about a tablespoon of orange juice onto the fruit, grate some zest onto the mix and then stir in half a cup of white sugar, then place into a buttered square brownie type dish
• in a food processor or with a hand mixer, take six tablespoons of cold butter, add some cinnamon and salt, then half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of flour, half a cup of rolled oats and half a cup of almonds or pecan, and pulse or mix until there are pea-like sized balls. it's important to use cold butter so it doesn't just melt!
• put the topping onto the fruit in chunks and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes until the top of the crumble is browned
• enjoy!

Dark & Stormy Mushroom Soup

Sometimes Alayna and I surprise ourselves. I feel like here, bathing in soup bowl #64, we are still making some pretty awesome soups with unique and rich flavors. The thing that's particularly wild about that is that they are all so simple. We were discussing how we've never incorporated tools beyond a blender, oven and stove. This attests to both our zen and lazy personalities.

Further, with each passing soup bowl ladled and served I feel more like ... I'm feeling heady so excuse me ... but soup as a way of life. (WWYSBD = What Would Your Soup Bowl Do? ... well, probably just sit there.) I have been making a point to utilize local farmer markets more and more and make and use our own broth-- the idea of knowing exactly what I'm putting in my bowl (the bowl that Alayna made in pottery) and that it's good and simple is quite the rarity in these fast, strange New York City times.

So as I sit back at my desk at work, sipping a Diet Coke, a product I have no clue what it actually is, where it came from, or how long it can last, though I have a feeling an awfully long time-- the fact that I am totally aware of the stuff in my soup bowl is a delight.

To think Alayna never saw a purple potato before!

• cut up about a handful and a half of baby potatoes into bite-sized pieces (we used multicolor ones) and put into a separate pot to boil
• fill a medium sized bowl with water and about two ounces of dried porcini mushrooms and microwave for five minutes, letting the mushroom steep until needed
  
• saute 6 cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil with one sprig of fresh rosemary and a few sprigs of fresh thyme, adding half a yellow onion when they begin to be fragrant
• when the onion is translucent, add six chopped carrots (the skinny kind or two of the fat kind) to the pot and cook covered
• wipe off 3 portobella mushrooms and chop into bite-sized pieces, adding to the pot and stirring
• cook until the portabella mushrooms are done all the way through, then add the porcini juice (straining out the mushrooms) and potatoes (strained), topping off with bouillon cubes and water
• when broth is heated, add a bunch of chopped chard and cook five more minutes until done
• serve with Gouda and/or Swiss cheese

A Light Leek Soup

First, lets start with a pretty picture of ingredients so that no one loses faith in me as a cook:

Rosemary, thyme and garlic

I'm not going to lie. Soup night was BIT of an adventure last night.

Mary is in Guatemala this week with some college friends (jealous!) so I decided to meet up with my partner from Amigos in 2000 (that's right, a DECADE ago) for a drink before soup night. But I also had some dried chickpeas and homemade chicken broth, so first a ran home and threw them into the dutch oven on low so they would be ready when I got home.

When I got back, I was greeted with this:

my apartment

Oh yeah, that's a smoke filled apartment.... and some really burned chickpeas.

The mystery is that I really DID leave the stove on very low. Dutch ovens don't need much heat, that's the whole beauty of them! So I'm blaming the cat. Although I probably shouldn't have left the apartment with the stove on. Safety first!

LUCKILY, I was still able to make a delicious soup.... just not as chickpea-y as I expected. And yes, I am that girl who rescued as many chickpeas as she good and likes the taste of lightly burned (or, in my mind, toasted!) things. You may want to stick to canned though.

separating the weak from strong

And yes, my apartment DOES still smell like burned chickpeas. So does my hair. And my hands. I had to scrub my dutch oven for about 45 minutes to get all the burnt parts off after soaking it overnight. Don't drink and dutch kids. Or don't dutch and then just step out for one drink because you might end up smelling like a Mediterranean market and not in a good way.

On the plus side, my mom always told me eating burned things would make my hair curly.... cheap perm, here I come!

Without further ado....

A Light Leek Soup

• saute 6-8 roughly chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme

• add the roughly chopped white and light green parts of 3-4 leeks and cook until they're getting a little floppy

• add one bunch of broccoli (include the thin parts of the stem too, and if you want to blend, the whole stalk)chopped into small pieces/florets

• add one large zucchini, sliced and quartered, and about 3 tablespoons of butter, sliced around the pot and stirred in

• cook, stirring occasionally, until broccoli is bright green and zucchini is mostly soft

• add chicken (or veggie) broth, barely covering veggies and about 1.5 cups of cooked "toasted" chickpeas.... or just an unburned can of chickpeas

  • note: I used a broth that I'd already infused with lemon, which was GREAT, but you can also just squeeze the juice of 1-2 lemons in at this point

• simmer a little while until veggies are done all the way through and serve!

  
  

  
  

Garlic Soup Two (Electric Boogaloo)*

Last night Mary was spending quality time with Gavin for his birthday, and guest-of-the-blog Jocelyn called out sick with a fever. With my roommates nowhere in sight, I souped alone. I thought I would hate it, since I'm kind of a social person, but here's the thing:

For the past six months, my life has been a little bit of a whirlwind. In September I started studying to take the GREs and putting together a fundraiser for AMIGOS. Test-taking and fundraising segued pretty quickly into applications and the holiday season, and in the new year it's been financial forms, catching up with book club and helping a certain someone plan a wedding (yay!). Now, because I'm me and love a full plate, I've put together a (long) list of the things I want to do in NYC before I head off to school (like actually see all those museums) and have signed myself up for a ceramic show at the beginning of the summer. It makes for a busy schedule, especially when you also want to see your friends and have people coming in to visit.

So souping alone? It was a nice break. I went to the gym, did some prep for a dinner party on Wednesday and even cracked a non-bookclub book. And the soup was great. Light, easy, delicious and, most importantly, did not involve a trip to the store.



Garlic Soup Two (Electric Boogaloo)*

• In a medium sized sauce pan, bring some chicken broth to a simmer along with three crushed or grated garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh thyme (I used some lemon chicken broth I made the week before, so add some lemon for extra flavor), and salt and pepper to taste
• Once the broth is fragrant (about 5 minutes of simmering) add on zucchini, thinly sliced, and a handful off soup pasta (I used egg noddles) and cook another 5-7 minutes
• Turn off the stove and mix in a few handfuls of spinach
• In a separate bowl, beat one egg with a fork, adding in a few generous spoonfuls of pecorino or parmesan cheese and some ground black better. Add a spoonful of the hot broth to the egg bowl while still mixing, and then put the whole thing back into the pot
• Enjoy!
  

* I only made two servings of soup since my fridge is full of produce for the dinner party and I'm running out of tupperware. I also made a HUGE amount of food on Sunday night for no discernible reason.

Smoky Tomato Soup

Consider yourself lucky if this is the first time you are hearing that I've been sick. I can't stand when I'm sick and I have tendency not to be able to talk about anything else. I also am highly suspicious of medicine. So I often avoid it, which you could argue, might be why I'm still sick. But I swear gurgling warm salt water and eating a strange amount of brussels sprouts is working and really, tomorrow I think I'll be totally fine.

And the reason I'm sick? Soup. I know, I know.

Gavin came home sick early last week so I decided to make him soup after work because I'm 27 going on 60. I wasn't worried I'd get sick because I believe I have a superior immune system. I was so not worried that when he didn't finish his bowl of soup I finished it for him. I even had a passing thought that this probably wasn't brilliant but was so egotistical about my soup strength that I didn't care.

Sniffle sniffle cough cough. And that is why I had to miss this soup night at Alayna's. And I'm souper sad (can't help it) that I did because how good does this soup look? Roasted tomatoes. Amazing. When I'm stronger I will recreate this masterpiece in a bowl and I'll never be sick again.

The Soup!

Cut 6-7 very ripe tomatoes in half and put face down on a baking sheet with half a head of unpeeled garlic (or whole, I only had half) with the top cut off and a little olive oil sprinkled on. Put in the oven at 375 for about 30-40 minutes, until the skin easily comes off the tomatoes and the garlic is soft

Put 3 dried chiles pasillas and 2 dried chiles anchos on a different baking pan and put in the oven for about 5-10 minutes until they are puffed up. Take out and let cool.

Once cool, cut the stems out of the peppers and take out the seeds. Put all the other parts into the blender

When your tomatoes and garlic are ready, put them into the blender as well. The garlic should easily squeeze out of it's casing. You will want to wait a little bit for your tomatoes to cool so that the lid doesn't fly off the blender, so in the mean time....

.... chop one yellow onion and saute in olive oil

Once translucent, add one large can of diced roasted tomatoes with juice and slowly heat

Blend your chile/fresh tomato/garlic mixture thoroughly and add to the pot

Top off with chicken broth and like, simmer about 30 minutes

In those thirty minutes, cut up an avocado, grate some sharp cheddar cheese and heat up a pan of oil to cook up some tortilla strips.

When all the elements are in place, serve yourself with avocado, cheese and tortilla strips on top

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

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup / Ode to Beets

Union Square Market. Where I buy my beets & they play the Amelia song and I want to die because I'm so filled with joy.

Hello soup lads and ladles. (O.M.G. I'm good at this.) November is here. Which means all of our little vegetable friends are burrowing deep into the ground to stay warm, thus the perfect time for root soup.

Root soup sounds cool, doesn't it? Like Alayna and I somehow have morphed into two heavy set frontier women surviving the winter with only one donkey and a plow. It sounds almost as cool as when Lauren Cook casually mentioned how she pickles AND CANS her beets. My jaw dropped I was so impressed.



The thing is, I've been eating beets every day since Saturday afternoon. And I plan to eat them again in a few hours for lunch. Everything that comes out of my body is red. I love it. Poor little Zachy who had beet dinner with me on Saturday doesn't so much.

Via text message:
Zach: My poop was red and it scared me and I'm never eating beets again.
Mary: I ate the leftovers today and now my pee is red too!
Zach: I feel ill.

Of course, Zach didn't feel ill. He is just nervous because he has a marathon to run in 12 months and he's freaking. Don't worry Zach, keep eating nutritious foods like beets and you'll do fine.

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

• chop about 4 parsnips, 4 turnips, 6 regular sized carrots, one large yellow onion, and 3 medium sized beets into bite sized pieces and put into a brownie pan
• add 4 whole peeled cloves of garlic
• sprinkle the whole mix with sea salt, black pepper, herbs De Provence and olive oil and mix with your hands to coat
• bake in the oven at 450-500 degrees for about half an hour, stirring once or twice, until you can fork through all the veggies fairly easily
• transfer to a soup pot, cover with vegetable broth and bring to a boil until the veggies are easily mashed
• blend and serve!

Happy soupies.

Halloween Soup

Putting sausage guts in our soup. Awkward to write out, delicious to eat.

It's so spooky that Alayna and I weren't even trying to make HALLOWEEN SOUP. Neither of us put together that soaking the black beans in water for an hour and 45 minutes and using that water as the broth would dye the entire soup black. Making it the purrrrfect ghoulish soup.

Wait, what? Soaking the beans for an hour and 45 minutes? I KNOW. That's a really long time to wait. So what did we do? Uhm, figured out six different Halloween costumes based on Alayna's closet and dressed up by the soup. Because that's soupies do on Monday nights.

Here we go! Monday's Soups first Halloween! And please don't judge me for writing some of the worst captions ever.

An Egyptian adding poison to her father's soup.

"Looking into my soup bowl I see many leftovers in your future."

Stepford wife cooking away her sadness and dreaming of a future where she can take her mind out of the kitchen and into the workforce!

A Mayan Indian thinking about traditional Mayan life and how we only have 2 more years left on the calendar. What will be the last soup she makes?

Holy smokes, Bond girl is tied to the hot soup bowl and is about to die!

Thanks James Bond for annihilating that pot of soup with an electric screw driver.

Just kidding. We didn't annihilate our soup! We ate it. And now you can, too!

Shrimp / Sausage / Black Bean Spook Soup!

• put 1.5 16oz bags of dried black beans into a soup pot and fill halfway with water, bringing to a simmer
• while that's simmering, chop one fennel bulb, a white onion, three cloves of garlic, 3 large carrots and a red pepper into smallish pieces and dump into the pot
• cut open the casings of 2 sweet and 2 spicy italian sausages (or 4 mexican chorizo sausages) and break the raw meat into little pieces, dropping them into the pot
• ADD WATER WHENEVER THE SOUP DOESN'T COVER THE BEANS.... also add veggie broth powder (or salt and pepper) to taste
  
• after about 1.5-2 hours (when the beans are soft all the way through) bring the soup back up to a boil and throw in a pound of thawed frozen shrimp (no shells) for 3-4 minutes until cooked through (this is optional, but delicious)
  
• serve with shredded cheese on top

Carrot Coconut

The texture revolution.

This is what I mean, these are the things I've started to do differently. I buy the New York Sunday Times at the store on 25th and 3rd even though I can read it for free online. I drink coffee in a mug which I refill and refill and refill on the long part of my couch and pick apart the paper. I bought a hard covered book (Sherman Alexie, War Dances) at the store. It was new and cost $23. I just re-read all the underlined parts of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," my copy is taped up the spine. I read it in Galicia. I lent it to a boy to read in Galicia. I lent it to a boy to read in Barcelona. I re-read it in Barcelona. I mailed it home on a box that took a ship across the Atlantic.

"There is no such thing as safety. There are so many seeking safety here now that they make a great danger. In seeking safety now you lose all."

I underlined that. But I didn't add any stars on the margin next to it. Which means those sentence were my lowest priority of underlining. I have a structure. Two stars is as high as a sentence can be. I won't tell you what those are though.

I meant to write about something else for this post but then I started looking through books because I was looking for Something. A line or something. And instead I remembered how much I miss the feeling of books. I remember pretty much almost exactly what I was thinking when I underlined everything I have ever underlined. It's a gift. I paged through a Mary Oliver book of poems, and then a Frances Driscoll book of poems, which I don't think is a big name but I found her in a used bookstore in Maine-- which place in Maine, Brunswick? and I cried sitting in the corner reading it because it was sad. And then I probably pitched a tent somewhere.

Alayna and I haven't discussed the texture revolution that thoroughly yet but I know she's part of it, too. She forgot what it felt like to receive mix tapes and then she did in the mail and remembered. She builds pots in her hands. That's a good one.

What do you do to keep texture in your life? Making soup counts, too.

Carrot Coconut Cah-Cah-Cah

• 4-5 garlic cloves chopped in olive oil, saute
• Add 2 shallots, 5 stalks of celery chopped, 1 head of broccoli chopped
• a few generous shakes of garam masala, chili powder and coriander
  
• Add 2-3 large leeks, a "decent" amount of ginger chopped
• 4 small red potatoes, skin on, add a bag of regular carrots chopped
• Pour in a can of coconut milk

Add enough chicken broth to cover the veggies

Bring to boil and then let simmer for about 25 minutes until veggies are soft

Blend!

Alayna and the soup. I cannot smile while spooning soup. We tried. We took 8 pictures. I can't do it.

French Lentil & Baba Ganooooooooush

As the lentils simmered Alayna used plumber's clay to fix her vase and I highlighted special lines in Jack London's biography I had earmarked not having a pen at the time. The soup smelled wonderful. Zizi couldn't stop waiting for shadows to move on the wall.

It smells like autumn now. This is good. I'm wearing two sweaters right now. Which is excessive but the room is chilly.

While the soup simmered Alayna and I went through her craft box. Thick oils and sandpaper, somewhere. I paged through her sketchbook from France. A drawing I did from a rooftop in Fez drinking mint tea. A picture of the corner of my apartment over the art gallery. And a lot of hollowy trees. A letter never sent to a boy. Van Gogh's bedroom. I miss textures.

We started eating the baba ganoush before the soup was ready and it was wonderful. We drank ginger tea from the elephant mugs before that. I walked home 30 blocks and the sky was purple and blotted with clouds and it felt spooky like Halloween. I howled when I tripped over a rat running across the street.

This soup tastes like France and a little bit of fall. It's good.

Lentil Soup
(adapted from Mojdeh's mother, who took it from Martha, as in Stewart, that originally had elusive french lentils and escarole, neither of which we could find)

• finely chop about four cloves of garlic and saute in olive oil
  
• add a medium sized white onion, also chopped, and cook until almost translucent
• add 3-4 medium sized carrots in bite sized pieces and cook covered for about five minutes
• add 1.5 cups of lentils (green or french) and 3/4 cup of yellow split peas (or stub lentils for all... we were just going for color and then they all looked the same, but tasted delicious)
  
• Add one large can of diced tomatoes and fill the pot with vegetable or chicken broth, adding 2-3 bay leaves and several sprigs of fresh thyme

• bring to a simmer and cook covered for 40 min (to test, make sure the lentils aren't crunch in the middle)
• turn the heat off the pot and stir in one bag of arugula, letting it wilt in
• Serve!!!

Baba Ganooooush!

• cut an eggplant in half lengthwise, stab it with a fork a few times, and bake is at 400 for about 45 minutes (when you cut it open and it's all mushy and brown instead of white, it's done)

• let cool, then scrape insides of eggplant into a food processor, discarding skin.
• add the juice from half a lemon, about a spoonful of tahini (make sure you stir it well before adding so it's not all clumpy), 2 cloves of garlic and some salt and blend until smooth
• Serve!!!

Spinach Garlic Eggdrop Soup

Poor Alayna was home with a fever and couldn't make it to soup night. Which is a shame because I'm pretty sure the soup we made can cure any disease as it has about 10 cloves of garlic. Daniel and Zach came over and stood in for Alayna. They helped me cook and drank my left over wine and roasted eggplant dip. (Seriously, if anyone wants roasted egg plant dip, let me know...)

Anyway, the inspiration behind this soup was that I didn't feel like buying anything for it. This is a great poor man's soup. Especially if you have an herb garden then it's pretty much just water. I don't have an herb garden. Maybe next week.

Alright, there is a new New Yorker with my name with it. Go peal some garlic my little vampires.

• In a soup pot add 2 or 3 cups of vegetable broth (optional... well, isn't everything optional)
• Add 4-6 cloves of garlic into the broth with a bay leaf, sage, parsley and a few sprigs of thyme.
• Reduce heat to a simmer and let sit covered for 20 + minutes

Meanwhile...

• In a small bowl pour in some olive oil, salt, parsley, thyme leaves and pressed garlic and use a brush to paint it on both sides of a thinly sliced baguette
• Place on a oven tray and pop in the oven at 350 F for 10 minutes... or something... just flip when browned and let sit a little longer... you know.

And go back to the soup...

• Add a bag of spinach, stir it around until it wilts
• Mix olive oil and 3 eggs in a bowl
• Add a ladle full of soup into this bowl to temper the eggs (thanks for the fancey lingo, Daniel)
• Pour this mixture into the soup pot.

Now drop a piece of miracle toast into your bowl and then ladle the soup over the bread.

It's delish!

Ummm, I can't stop making videos. I don't see this going anywhere good.

Peach Gazpacho

As you may have noticed, Mary and I have been on opposite vacation schedules for most of August. It’s been hard, but mostly we’ve survived by doing this thing called ‘hanging out with our other friends’. Last week, those friends were Jenny and Larisa , two lovely ladies I know from my pottery studio.

Making friends in New York is a strange thing, especially if, like me, you take a little while to warm up to people. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not because New Yorkers are unfriendly. They’re extremely friendly… as long as your not blocking a major thoroughfare on the sidewalk or in any way making a line take longer than it should (no, it is not an appropriate time to grill the barista on their knowledge of indie bands at 9am when there’s a line at the coffee bar, annoying hipster dude who obviously does not understand the importance of that iced coffee to my life right now).

The biggest roadblock to friendships here seems to be one of scheduling. With old friends, it’s okay to call them up at 9pm to make plans for the evening. With new friends, there’s pressure to come up with something cool or interesting. What if you have nothing to talk about or they hate seeing movies (note to potential new friends: I kind of hate seeing movies because the theater is always cold and you can’t talk without getting shushed) or you bring them to a party that’s really lame? Will that doom your relationship? At least with dating you can save yourself with the virtue of a good night kiss!

But that’s part of the reason I love my pottery friends. For the past year and a half, every week we’re at the studio at least once, talking about pots or glazes or how something should be put together so it won’t crack or our jobs or our families or that TV show. It’s friendship, middle school style, where you’re not really doing anything but hanging out. Plus, they think my jokes are funny. And so, in honor of pottery, some (vegan!) peach gazpacho with a side of asparagus!

Peach Gazpacho

• Roughly chop 5-6 ripe peaches, 5 ripe tomatoes, 2 red peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 small red onion and a large handful of mint.
• Blend and chill until cold (use the tomato water to start off the blender), adding salt and pepper to taste.

Bonus Asparagus:

• Chop up 3 cloves of garlic and sauté
• Cut one packet/bunch of asparagus into bite-sized pieces and add to pot, along with a handful of chopped baby portabella mushrooms
• Cook covered until the asparagus is bright green and serve (butter optional)

Thai Coconut

Sorry to all our fans who have been hungry for two days because this posting is late. I am a little scatter brained as I'm moving out of the apartment where Monday Soups was born. Luckily, Alayna already asked the girl subletting the third room in our apartment if she would think it was weird if I were given spare keys and came here every Monday with groceries after work even if Alayna wasn't home yet. The girl thought that Yes, it would be weird. But that's okay because we were planning on doing it no matter what she said.

The point you need to take away from this? Monday Soup will proceed as normal. Speaking of Monday Soup being in the headlines. I know, I actually wasn't speaking about that at all. Alayna and I are happy to report that a Friday's Dinners entree has been published in Craved Magazine. Yes, Craved Magazine, the English speaking magazine in Dubai. Obviously.

Fear not, when this whole things blows up and I'm never stressed out about my rent check again, we will remember where we came from... We also might get rid of the "blogspot" in the URL. But not quite yet...

So right, the soup. It's great! And different. Surprise a friend with this fancy treat from the Far East. It reminds me of my buddies in Thailand. What up Governor of Phang Nga? Remember when your driver picked me up every morning and then we ate ice cream cones together and that was my Peace Corps experience? I do. What up Christy? Remember how you are still in Thailand? I do.

P.S. Click on that Christy link and buy that shirt. Good cause! Then pgarut it on and make this soup!

Thai Loco-Nut!

Put a large packet of cellophane noodles (6-8 ounces) into a bowl of warm water and let soak for about 15 min

while preparing other parts of soup

Dice 6 cloves of garlic, and a good sized portion of peeled fresh garlic (I love garlic, so I put in about a hand's-width... some people might find that excessive)

and saute in olive oil with 4-5 chili peppers, broken into small pieces

Add the zest from 3 limes and 1 lemon to the pan and continue sauteing until fragrant

add one (large) box of shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped and saute some more (just a few minutes)

Add about 1/2 cup of lime juice and 1/4 cup of lemon juice,

and 2 cans of coconut milk (I used one regular and one light... vague attempt at healthiness after being mocked for my appreciation of butter),

fill pot up a little more than halfway with chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

Add fish sauce sauce to taste... it sounds gross, but is delicious and I used about 8 teaspoons (confession, I cook all the time and don't own measuring implements. Awkward.)

Drain and add cellophane noodles, trying to separate them as they go in (this will make serving easier later)

In a separate pan, cook 3-4 chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces.

Once cooked through, add to the soup pot

Once everything is in the soup pot, add a few big handfuls of spinach and stir in... once they are a little wilted, add a handful of cilantro and cook another 2-3 minutes

Eat up!

Saw-dee-kah!