Aubergine

Make This At Home: Bowl of Soul

There’s a new coffee company that has exploded onto the Santa Cruz scene recently. A scene, mind you, with no shortage of already established coffee houses. But somehow Verve Coffee is shouldering its way into the crowd and making waves.  They have three shops now, as well as two or three other cafes that have some sort of lease and training arrangement to sell their coffee (beans and drinks).  I hear tell you can also buy their coffee beans as far east as NYC. They are active in the competition scene (did you know there was a barista competition scene?) and many of their baristas are award-winning. 

Their coffee is very good, but I’m not writing about coffee today.  What I’m writing about is the drink I’ve recently fallen for on their menu called a Bowl of Soul.  

Now I should say that this coffee company is really hip.  The interior design of their shops is all recycled industrial, with walls covered in large paintings by local artists that I don’t really get (and I’m an artist!).  The music is just the right amount of loud but not artists I recognize. There are only a handful of things on the menu and the baked goods are displayed like art.

At my ripe old age of 39, I’m probably a good 15 years older than their average customer.  I’m never sure if me drinking coffee in a Verve shop is increasing my hipness quotient or decreasing theirs.  So it took me a few visits before I had the courage to admit to the person taking my order that I had no idea what a bowl of soul was.  She was very nice and didn’t laugh at me. She said it was tea steeped in warmed soy milk with honey and cinnamon. She said normally it was made with chamomile tea, but they could make it with any tea on their menu. I ordered it that day with the Art of Tea cinnamon fig black tea they carry, because I needed to be awake, not lulled to sleep.

And it was awesome. Rich and just barely sweet in a big enough mug to sip while I worked.

Now it is one of my favorite drinks. But since I can’t afford the bar(ista) tab of drinking my tea out all the time, I have recently been making it at home.  This is so simple a recipe it is kind of silly to call it a recipe, but if you don’t live within range of a Verve cafe, I do recommend you try this drink at home!

 

Verve’s Bowl Of Soul

 

Heat enough soy milk for a large latte cup.  

In the cup, place your tea bag, a spoon of honey, and a cinnamon stick (or 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon).  

Pour in the soy milk and let steep for 2-5 minutes. Stir and enjoy!

 

You can make this with a range of teas, so try your favorite!

 

writing about food, but not here

While my friend Joan was exploring China last month, I contributed a post for her blog with recipes for three chilled soups.  Late in the season for chilled soups you say? September is sweltering in Japan, and our Indian summer is kicking in here, too. It was 82 degrees today with not a hint of the fog that chills our *actual* summer days!

Hop on over and enjoy if is it hot where you live, too!

I also had an article on preserving food published by Eucalyptus Magazine last month.  You can read it here or scroll down to the bottom of that page to launch the full-page viewer for the full magazine experience. If you live in the San Jose area you can pick up a real (free!) copy at your local Whole Foods.

Adventures with water kefir

I scheduled this post on my calendar the week that I brought home water kefir grains.  I imagined that I would be posting a beautiful tutorial about how to start your own water kefir and you all would be so impressed with my oh-so-healthy hippy mama-ness and my excellent flavor combinations and pretty bottles all lined up in a row.

And then reality intervened. I’m 3 weeks into this project and I don’t actually have one successful batch of brewed water kefir to show you.

Let me back up.  It all started with an article I wrote back in June about canning and preserving that will be published next month.  A couple of the people I interviewed talked about fermenting various things, like pickles, cabbage, milk, and water.  Water?  In my general research, I kept coming across water kefir, which I hadn’t heard of before.  Suddenly I’m running across water kefir everywhere, just like suddenly I started seeing babies everywhere the week after I got two lines on the pee stick.  

Like milk kefir, which I’m familiar with from my childhood, water kefir is fermented with starter bacteria, in the form of grains or crystals.  You start with sugar water and after the little bacterias are finished eating the sugar, the remaining liquid is light and slightly fizzy, filled with healthy probiotics, and not very sweet.  A lot of people drink it as an alternative to soda.  We don’t drink soda anyway, but I tried some lemon-ginger kefir water that I found at my local health-food store and really liked it. I’m aware of how good probiotics are for the body but I don’t really like kombucha and milk kefir is just too rich for me to drink regularly. But at $3.50 a bottle on sale, drinking purchased water kefir was not going to be sustainable habit either.

How hard could this be to make myself, right? It is just fermented water. I live in Santa Cruz and almost everyone I know has something or other fermenting on their kitchen counter.  On purpose, even! 

I found some dehydrated grains and followed the instructions to rehydrate them.  I searched through a few blogs and found a straightforward recipe for a first and second ferment cycle that looked like it would produce something very similar to what I had been buying.  I filled up my special half-gallon Ball jar with sugar water, poured in my little grains (I can’t help but imagine them with smiling little faces after all the time I have recently spent researching on this web page) and sat back to wait.

After one 48-hour cycle nothing much had happened, but I had read it might take a couple of cycles for dehydrated grains to really “wake up,” so I poured out that batch and put the grains in fresh sugar water.  This batch I let go a little too long and it started to smell bad.  So that one got poured out, too.  The third batch seemed ok.  It smelled slightly yeasty, which I had read was expected, and it tasted ok.  But no fizz.  I strained out the grains and moved them to a new jar of sugar water and started a second ferment cycle by adding a bit of juice to the kefired water and putting them into sealed bottles.  Two days later and still no fizz.  And the water seemed thicker than I remembered the stuff from the store being.  The consistency was kind of like maple syrup. It didn’t taste bad, but it didn’t really taste good, either. But I blamed the juice, which I didn’t even really like plain.  I threw out that batch, too.

I persevered.  Every two days last week I started a fresh batch of sugar water and moved the grains to it. I bottled up the finished water for a second ferment cycle, then moved the bottles into the fridge after another 48 hours of brewing.  I did start getting a bit of bubble in the second cycle, but the water was still thick and just not what I was expecting. And my grains were not multiplying. Every resource I’d seen indicated an indicator of a healthy colony is that the grains multiply like crazy

Finally, last night, I decided that I was doing something wrong.  I poured all of my syrupy not-water-kefir down the sink and turned to Google for some deeper research.  

The problem with using the internet for research is that there is just so much information out there.  I found many more recipes that differed in slight, but possibly important ways from the one I had started with.  One said you should never use filtered water but instead use tap water and boil it first if your city uses chlorine.  Another said always use filtered water because tap water contains chemicals that are bad for the grains and they can't be boiled out.  One said always rinse the kefir grains between batches, another said never rinse them.  One said never use refined white sugar to make the sugar water and another said that white sugar is the best “resting” sugar and you should use it every 3-5 cycles to let your grains regenerate. Some said the initial ferment should be in an open container and other said it should be tightly lidded. Some recipes said that you must use a quarter of a lemon and a handful of raisins in the initial ferment and others said that you shouldn’t put anything other than sugar in that ferment and that all flavorings should be added to the second ferment cycle.  One resource seemed to indicate that the thick water was a result of too many minerals in the source water and another said to add a scoured eggshell to the batch (a common source of minerals) if the kefir was coming out thick.

So now I’m overwhelmed with information but still don’t have a solution.  This morning I started a new batch with half sugar and half maple syrup in the same kind of water I had been using before and rinsed the grains really well in clear water before transferring them.  I’m going to cycle the batch every 24 hours for three days and then try another 48-hour ferment with filtered water and a quarter of a lemon to see what happens.  If that doesn’t work I’ll try without the lemon but with eggshell or mineral drops.

And if that doesn’t work, I’m going to chuck these grains and start over again with a fresh batch.

All I can say is that right now I’m feeling like a bit of a failure as a fermenter!

Have you made water kefir?  Do you have any advice for me?

 

Make this at home: Cherry-pomegranate ice pops

When we were at Strawberry Music Festival over Memorial Day, we had the best ice pops I think I've ever tasted.  They were cherry-pomegranate flavored, just the right balance of sweet and tart, and the most amazing garnet shade of red.  

The weather that weekend was cold (as you may remember me writing about), but we kept finding ourselves standing in line for ice pops anyway.

When we got home I started hunting around for a recipe.  I was surprised to only find a couple of versions. One used yogurt and another was pomegranate-raspberry instead of cherry. How is it that so few people have discovered this delicious combination?

Neither was quite was I was looking for, but using the raspberry recipe as my base I started experimenting.  I ended up with someting pretty delicious, but still not quite those pops we craved even in the snow.  I guess I'll just have to head back to Strawberry for the original version next year!

Here is my version if you want to give them a try.  Let me know what you think, and if you try any variations that come out wonderfully!

Cherry-Pomegranate Ice Pops

Note: Every style of pop molds holds a slightly different volume, so I'm writing this recipe in proportions rather than true measurements.  Adjust your batch accordingly.

2 parts pomegranate juice
1 part cherry juice
1/2 part fresh or frozen cherries, pitted and chopped
agave syrup or honey to taste

Divide the chopped cherries evenly between your ice pop molds.  Mix remaining ingredients together and check to make sure the sweetness is to your taste.  Pour the juice mix over the cherries and insert pop sticks into the molds.  

Freeze until hard.  Serve and enjoy!

10 links on Tuesday: Things to do with strawberries

Image from Design Seeds.

Where I live we don't just get strawberry season.  We get strawberry spring, summer, and fall.  Strawberries from May to November.  So many strawberries.  

I love strawberries, but I also run out of ideas for what to do with them (other than straight from the basket - ahem).  Here are 10 new ideas that I'm going to try this spring/summer/fall.

1. Strawberry Cheesecake Cups - strawberries stuffed with goodness!
2. Slice fresh berries over this Flourless Chocolate Cake from Real Simple. 
3. Strawberry strawberry cheesecake for a lucky dad!  Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the recipe.
4. Here is a vegan smoothie recipe that sounds delicious and filling - Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie.
5. Last time I was at her house, my sister threw together a quick salad with spinach, gorgonzola and strawberries.  It was delicious!  Here is a similar salad from Whole Foods Market.
6. Here's a different salad with strawberries spin - this one with pecans and a sweet onion dressing.
7. Summer is not complete without fresh strawberry ice cream.
8. I love this post from the Tea and Cookies blog about failed strawberry jam. I also love making strawberry jam more than I love eating it, even when it comes out well.  I'm so glad I'm not alone! Here is Orangette's recipe for the jam she recommends.
9. I might try this as an alternative to strawberry jam this year - a conserve of berries in a barely set syrup. If that phrase makes your mouth water, rest assured you are a foodie.
10. These strawberry-mint  ice pops sound deliciously refreshing!

Guest Post: 10 Easy, On-The-Go Toddler Munchies

 I'm so pleased to share a post with you today by Danielle of Danielle's Kitchen and Velveteen Mama. Danielle and I met in an online writing class taught by Meagan Francis last fall, and I was lucky enough to meet her in person this spring at Blissdom in Nashville. Danielle launched Danielle's Kitchen last month to focus on allergen-free food and eating well with allergies.  We have toddlers about the same age so I asked if Danielle would share some recipes for on-the-go toddler snacks.  Now excuse me while I go make some of of these nut butter balls.  Enjoy!

   

As a food allergic family, we cannot rely on any packaged food to meet our needs for quick, on-the-go snacks.

This means we've had to get a little creative about our snack options and are used to toting our food with us wherever we go.  A side benefit is that packaged foods are expensive and typically filled with all kinds of stuff we really don't want in the growing bodies of our children anyway.  

Here are some ideas for healthy, on-the-go food that are friendly for toddlers, too.  As a bonus, most of these are (or can easily be made) allergen-free. 

Invest in some good quality small containers and it's easy to toss a few snacks in your bag on your way out the door.  

 

Nut Butter Balls

 Mix 3 parts nut or seed butter, 2 parts nutritional yeast, 1 part honey (or maple syrup) and a pinch or two of salt (to taste) until you have workable dough.  Roll into balls and then roll in crushed cereal or nuts.

These are a great source of protein, healthy fats, and B vitamins. Store in the fridge or freezer and they'll stay firm in a snack box for a few hours.  

For a treat for mom and dad, melt a few chocolate chips and roll the balls in chocolate before or instead of the chopped nuts. If you use peanut butter and coat them in chocolate, I'm told they taste strikingly like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

 

Hard Boiled Eggs, Cheese Cubes, Deli Meat

Simple and accessible, these are all easy and relatively tidy protein sources. Paired with fresh fruit or veggies, they make a pretty complete lunch, too.

 

Sardines and Crackers 

These might be a little messy on the go, but if you can get past the yuck factor, sardines are a great source of healthy omega fats and calcium (which is a boon for those of us who are dairy-free).  My 15-month-old loves to be fed bites of sardine (yes, bones and all!) while munching on some rice crackers.

This is also a quick and easy lunch when you're stuck for ideas.

 

Fruit and Nut Bars

If you have a food processor and 30 minutes, you can make these.  

Use a ratio of 1 part nuts/seeds to 1 part dried fruit, pick a nut and/or seed (cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds) and a moist, dried fruit (dates, prunes, raisins).

Lightly roast your nuts/seeds (if desired) and blend in food processor until pieces are small, but not granular. Remove nuts/seeds from processor and set aside in a bowl.  Put your dried fruit(s) in the food processor and pulse until they form a paste.  Go easy on your food processor so you don't send it into cardiac arrest!  You might need to give it breaks to cool the motor.

Scrape your fruit paste into the bowl with your nuts/seeds and mix well (use your hands and get in there!). Either roll them into bars or  press into a parchment lined pan and chill.  When firm, cut into snack-sized bars. Store in the fridge or freezer.

 

Pancakes  

They're not just for breakfast anymore! You can hide all sorts of nutrient dense things in pancakes.  Try adding nut butter, protein powder, cottage or ricotta cheese, and/or mashed fruit (bananas, applesauce, pureed sweet potato, carrot or beets, etc).  

Make ahead and keep them in the fridge or freezer.  We like to warm them up in a toaster.  Because we're gluten-free we omit any sweetener and use pancakes in place of bread on sandwiches, hot dogs/hamburgers and as toast.  My kids also love to grab them for a quick snack. 

 

Cheesy Chickpeas 

These are a big hit around here as a snack or full meal.  My six-year-old takes these to school for lunch in her thermos on a regular basis.  

Put your chickpeas in a bowl, drizzle with oil or water, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and titch of garlic powder.  Tailor the amount to your tastes.  Toss well and enjoy! The grown-ups like theirs with a bit of salt, too.   

These can be eaten cold or heated up a bit.  An alternative for older children: Drizzle with oil, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and a few pinches of salt.  Toss well, then bake on parchment at 350F for 20 minutes or until crispy.  

 

Speedy Salsa

In a bowl mix some drained and rinsed black beans, chunks of avocado and/or tomato, and a squeeze of lime.  Add a titch of onion, garlic and/or chipotle if your toddler likes those things.  Adjust amounts to your liking.  

This is a great finger food to enjoy alone or with bits of soft tortilla. 

 

Hummus

My toddler eats this right off the spoon, but yours might enjoy dipping carrot sticks or crackers in it. Mine will dip carrots in his, but then he just sucks it off and goes back in for another dip.  If you're worried about choking on bits of carrot or cracker, just keep an eye on your little one to make sure they don't bite off big chunks.  

My favorite hummus recipe is 1 can of chick peas, 1/4 cup of reserved liquid from the can, 1/4 cup sesame tahini, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 large (or 2 small) cloves garlic and 1/2 tsp salt. Blend in a blender or food processor.  Add more of the reserved liquid until you get the consistency you want and adjust garlic, lemon and salt to your tastes. Easy breezy!

 

Granola

Granola is a great way to exercise that toddler pincer grasp and by making your own, you can tailor it to your individual families tastes and needs.  

My basic recipe is 3 cups oats, 3 cups seeds/nuts/dried fruit, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon (optional), 3 tsp ground chia seed (optional), 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey, 1/4 cup oil, and 1/4 cup applesauce.  Mix together and bake at 350F checking every 10 minutes, tossing or flipping occasionally, until cooked to your desired crispiness.  Store in an airtight container. 

 

Other Snack Bars and Bean-Based Goodies

Chocolate Covered Katie is one of my favorite websites for healthy, tasty, vegan snacks.  I'm not vegan, but her recipes contain healthy fats and proteins that are often portable for on-the-go parents.  Here are some favorites that mimic store-bought treats:

• Quaker-Style Chewy Granola Bars.  I can't wait to try these!
• Snickerdoodle Blondies (but they're good for you!) These use white beans or chickpeas as a base and you cannot taste them!
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookie LaraBars (nut-free)  (nut-free)

Eating healthy and wholesome food doesn't have to be hard or tricky.  With some imagination and a little preparation it is relatively easy to have handy snacks your toddler will love and you will feel good about eating.

What are some of your favorite go-to toddler snacks to have while you're out and about? What do your little ones love to eat?

 

Danielle is a mom of three, writer, and veteran allergen-free whiz in the kitchen.  When she's not whipping up safe meals and treats for her family that are free from gluten, dairy, soy, corn, peanuts and (usually) eggs, she can be found reading, writing, or knitting.  She blogs about the joys and struggles of being human atwww.velveteenmama.com and her allergen-free wisdom and goodies can be found at www.danielleskitchen.com.

 

10 links on Tuesday - The Mason Jar Edition

It isn't quite canning season but I have all these jars so I was wondering what else I could do with them while I wait for the berries and stone fruits to ripen up.  And lo, this post was born.  10 things you can do with Mason Jars:

1. Make Butter 

Since my friend Veronica posted recently about making butter in Mason jars, I've been wanting to make some at home.  When I was a kid we would do this with my mom.  It is surprisingly easy, and makes really really good butter.  I also found some flavored butter recipes that I'd like to try.

2. Candle holders for the garden

Here is a how-to for a straightforward hanging candle holder made from a Mason Jar. This version, all in a row, is lovely, but I can't figure out how it was assembed and there are no instructions.

Or stick a face on it and it becomes a jack'o'jar.

3. Wired Light or a Wired Chandelier

For those of you who are a bit more handy, here is a DesignSponge DIY for making a wired fixture using jars for the bulb shades. 

I also really like this version, which was inspired by a pottery barn fixture. 

4. Pack a Salad for Lunch

This one is entirely new to me - making a layered salad in a jar.  What a good idea!

5. Premade Drinks for a Party

I love this idea for a fancy garden party.  You could go beyond lemonade, too.  How about herb-flavored iced tea, or sangria? So very Martha Stewart! 

6. Wall Organizers

I've seen a few different versions of this idea on Pinterest.  

8. Wall Planter

Take the wall organizer a step further and you have a sweet herb planter.

9. Reusable Storage Containers

Change up the jar lids and you have reusable pourable jars and pumpable jars.

10. Sewing Kit

I saved the real Martha Stewart link until last.  Add a bit of fabric and padding to the lid and store your sewing notions inside.  Use a tiny jam jar to make a travel kit!

 

I put my baby in a box

And she loves it.

I have been cooking dinner with Bean at my feet for a while now.  She has a set of play food and play pans and access to the tupperware cabinet.  But as she gets taller and more inquisitive, I've been getting more and more nervous about her roaming the kitchen below hot pans and near a hot oven. Her dad doesn't get home from work early enough to help distract her during this window of time, so I needed another solution.

I read about the Fun Pod on Liz Lamoreux's blog recently. Her daughter is just a little older than mine and at about the same developmental stage.  A couple of  local mom friends with slightly older toddlers have the Learning Tower, but I was worried about the open sides.  Bean isn't quite walking yet, and I was afraid she'd slip and fall out.  Or climb in when I didn't want her to have access to the counter.  Also it has a huge footprint and I do not have a large kitchen.

The Fun Pod was exactly what I was looking for.  It allows Bean to be up at counter height with me, safely, and only when I want her there because she can't climb in and out on her own. It is sturdy and stable, but small enough that I'm not tripping over it. It is short enough to fit under the counter when not in use.  The Pod can be adjusted as she gets taller so it should be useful until she is several years old.

Our kitchen isn't arranged in a way that allows her to be very close while I'm actually cooking, though I have let her play in the sink behind me once and I imagine it will be great for her to help me clean up when she's a bit bigger.  Usually I set her up on the opposite side of our penninsula, in the dining room, but facing me.  She can color, play with blocks, or eat a snack while I cook.  She's not underfoot, is safe from the hot stuff, and can see me. She also asks to get in throughout the day so she's in and out of the thing all day.

I'm cheap when it comes to baby stuff.  With the exception of her car seat, I've managed to source almost all of her big items free (from friends or freecycle) or used and cheap.  But I'm really glad I invested in this item brand new.  We use it so often, and will be using it for years.

Cooking my way from funk to epiphany

 

This weekend started off with me reading feedback on a piece I'd written that I really didn't agree with. And then reading an email from someone who had tossed out something else I'd written and replaced it with her own version. And then yet a third email along the same lines. And at the end of a week when the whole family had had the flu, it had been raining for days, and I had been struggling just to produce anything - let alone anything of value - during my precious working hours, those three things were enough to crush my fragile little writer's ego and make me want to quit.

On Saturday morning while I snuggled in bed with my little nursling I considered my options. I could quit. I could take this as a sign that I really have no talent and no business trying to make a living putting words together. I could stop writing, stop trying to build my skill and get my words out into the public. Or I could walk away for a bit.  Do something else. See if I felt better in a little while.  In order to make time to write I have been making some tradeoffs that are not all that comfortable. I gave some things up entirely and let some other things slide.  I have tried to make peace with doing many things badly.  My life was already pretty trim this fall when I started making those changes and some of the things I let go of were actually things that were important to me.  Having a clean and organized house.  Cooking food from scratch for my family.

I decided I wanted to spend my weekend doing something I missed having enough time to do well: Cleaning my nest and cooking. Cleaning - especially clearing clutter - calms me and makes me feel lighter.  The act of letting things go gives me more emotional space. And cooking, especially when I am cooking for other people, makes me feel really good. The process of chopping, measuring, stirring and simmering slows me down and gives me enough distraction that I can process stuff in the back of my head. Thoughts simmer on my internal back burner.  And having a fridge full of fresh and delicious food just feels good.  Taking care of my family this way makes me feel good.  Watching them enjoy food I have prepared for them makes me feel good.  And I needed very much to do something that was going to make me feel good.

So I pulled out my tattered little notebook of favorite recipes, consulted the cupboards and made a menu and a shopping list.  After Bean's afternoon nap we headed out to the store and stocked up. On Saturday evening I tidied up the main living areas and cleaned the kitchen. On Sunday morning, after lazy breakfast and showers, I enlisted the LHM to help me entertain the girl, got my comfy Dankos on and got to work.  This is what rolled out of the kitchen, onto the the table and into the neatly-labeled containers now lining my fridge:

• roasted chicken with lemon and thyme 
• pan-roasted brussels sprouts with the addition of my special secret ingredient 
• custardy popovers from the Moosewood Cookbook
• a loaf of bread from a recipe labeled "Martha's Oat and Honey Bread" but otherwise uncredited
• a pan of quinoa, half of which I used to make...
• a batch of my mother's quinoa dulce cereal
• adzuki beans and rice, a Japanese comfort food I found on Tea's blog
• a jar and a half of meyer lemon marmalade (another uncredited recipe cribbed from someone's blog)
• a fresh quart of whole milk yogurt

As I stood at the sink washing the last of the cooking pots and looking through the steamy window at the twilight I had an epiphany.  I call these "kitchen sink epiphanies," though it is unusual that they actually happen at the kitchen sink.  They are those moments when you are in the midst of doing something mundane and you realize something that you didn't know you knew before. That moment when have a thought that you know immediately is deeply true and you say to yourself, "Of course!" The moment when something that was tangled suddenly smooths out and begins again to flow. My kitchen sink epiphany on Sunday evening was this:  I have to keep writing.  Not that I can't or don't sometimes want to quit, but in order to keep my courage and my resilience up, I have to keep showing up at the page.  At the end of February I set myself a goal of writing 750 words each weekday.  The first week I did pretty well.  The second week a little better.   Those words are the roughest of drafts and not nearly publishable yet, sometimes little more than a list of ideas that I mean to come back to later.  Sometimes the words just flush out the crap from my head so I can focus on the next task at hand.  But when I write those words regularly, my confidence grows.  My ideas flow faster, the pieces start to come together more easily.  When I am away from the page I find myself yearning to get back to it, thinking about what I want to write about next, forming fragments and structures in my head.  I am a better writer when I write regularly, and because the words are plentiful I feel less precious about them.  I can see that even in this example of only half a month.  Last week I only wrote my 75o words on one day of the week. Without the habit of my practice, my resilience was gone and the criticism (or perceived criticism) hit me hard.

So Sunday evening, knowing my family's bellies were nicely filled and feeling my creative well filled as well, I resolved to get back to work on Monday morning. I also read the feedback again that had sat so wrong on Friday. I still didn't agree with all of it but I was able to find useful parts.  And then I was able to let go of the rest. 

And on Monday at my first opportunity, during a nap and instead of the laundry, I came back to the page.

 

The best garlic soup

We've been sick around here and it has been cold and the intersection of the two is soup.  Soup made with chicken broth, preferably.  Or garlic.  Or both.  This soup is the both.

I originally found it on the tremendous 101 Cookbooks blog, a spin on a recipe from Richard Olney's The French Menu Cookbook.  Heidi Swanson's version nails down amounts, the main difference from Olney's version, but I just don't cook that way, so my version goes back to rough measurements and reflects my adjustments.  It turns out this is actually a soup that you can wing pretty well.

This soup is likely to cure what ails you, and will also keep vampires away.  I recommend feeding it to anyone you are likely to be up close and personal with in the next 24 hours so at least you all stink of garlic the same.

Richard Olney's Garlic Soup

4 cups chicken stock (homemade is best for combating a cold)
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
a small handful of fresh thyme
about 2 medium cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled, and pressed (un-pressed cloves should measure about 1/3 cup)
fine grain sea salt to taste

Binding pommade:
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
medium handful freshly grated dry cheese (Parmesan or Asiago)
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

day-old crusty bread or large croutons, shredded cheese & more olive oil to drizzle

Bring the stock and water to a boil in a medium sauce pan and add the herbs, garlic, and salt. Heat to a gentle boil, cover,  and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and remove the bay leaf from the pan. Taste and add more salt if needed.

With a fork, whisk the egg, egg yolks, cheese, and pepper together in a bowl. Drizzle in the olive oil, beating all the time. Very slowly, while continuing to beat the pommade, add a large ladleful of the broth to heat the eggs.  If you do this or the next step too fast, the broth will break (it won't look pretty, but still tastes ok). While whisking continuously, add the contents of the bowl into the garlic broth. Keep stirring until the broth thickens slightly.  If the soup doesn't thicken within a few seconds, turn the heat back on medium and keep stirring.

Place a handful of fresh croutons (that would be in my old life) or torn bread chunks (what I do now) into the bottom of each bowl and pour the soup over the bread. Finish with a sprinkle of cheese and a drizzle of oil. Serve immediately.

Makes about 4 cups of soup.

This recipe was adapted from the 101 Cookbooks Blog where it was adapted from The French Menu Cookbook by Richard Olney. Originally published in 1970, this edition was republished by Ten Speed Press in 2002.