Egg-lemon soup

Yesterday I had plans for this post.  I was jazzed to write about the beautiful farmer's market lunch I put together with Amherst friends.  I was ready to rhapsodize about the beauty of seasonal vegetables, to describe the messy murder of a pomegranate that took place in my boyfriend's kitchen.  I had photos taken, cute turns of phrase lined up.  Yesterday, I was all set.

But that post will have to wait for another day.  Today I have a cold, I'm home sick from work, and all I can think about is soup.

Wild Mushroom Bisque

I used to hate mushrooms as a kid. I think it was mostly a textural thing, though the taste was never very appealing either.

I don't know when or where it happened, but somewhere along the transition to adulthood I started to really appreciate the culinary value of fungi. Maybe I grew out of my mother's genetics (hates mushrooms) and into my father's (loves mushrooms). Maybe I was influenced by the insights of Emily's Uncle Tom, whose experience as a chef made him keenly aware of the mushroom's capacity as a "flavor sponge" (while simultaneously infusing any dish with a earthy quality, kind of like parsley). Maybe I just got less picky and forced myself to like it. Who knows.

Now that I eat mushrooms and actually enjoy them, I figured it was about time that I cooked something centered around them. Fortunately for me, the Creative Loafing Food Blog had a mushroom bisque recipe up a few weeks ago, which the poster assured was "life-changing" -- particularly for ex-fungophobes. Perfect, right?

Of course, it's hard NOT to be "life-changingly" delicious when you use half a stick of butter and half a cup of cream. Diet eating this ain't. Delicious it is, though.

N.B.: this particular concoction comes courtesy of my sister, who I put to work in the kitchen while she was visiting Tampa on vacation. But hey, I did all her prep work for her AND was busy preparing the night's entree, Grilled Eggplant and Smoked Gouda Bruschetta. Hooray for sous chefs!

Someday soon I'll prepare this all by myself though.... as it is quite tasty.

White bean and tomato soup

My grandmother never really liked to cook.  She did it, of course, for many years out of necessity--in the pre-feminist 50's and 60's, with a husband and three daughters to feed, cooking was an inevitability.  And as a good Jewish grandmother, conditioned to shower her family with love in form of food, she continued to make meals for us whenever we visited.

But with the rise of packaged foods, as her children and grandchildren have grown independent and her body has slowly wound down, she's stopped cooking on her own.  Now, at age 87, with a 94-year-old strict-vegan husband, her repertoire in the kitchen is limited to cocktails in the evening and fruit salad in the morning.  Most of her recipes were handed off to my mother long ago; they're Mom's recipes now, and that's how I remember them.

But there's one recipe I do remember well from her kitchen, the only real "grandmother's recipe" I have: white bean and tomato soup.

Curried Lentil Soup

I’ve been traveling a lot over the past month, mostly for job interviews. Looking for a job on the West Coast while living on the East Coast is maybe a little bit crazy, but hey, it’s worth it. DC isn’t a bad place, but I can’t wait to get back to Seattle and all of its wonderful particularities. Not to mention the abundance of farmers’ markets, and fabulous coffee to be found on every other corner!

Jet-setting is fun for a few weeks, but it takes its toll as well: the jet-lag, the screaming baby on the redeye flight, the work that needs finishing when you return . . . October arrived, things finally calmed down, I was about to recover from my exhaustion—and then the weather turned in DC. My poor immune system couldn't handle the combination, and I got hit with a classic case of the common cold. What to do? Make soup, of course.

Chicken stock/vegetable broth

A disclaimer: last week, my beloved camera up and died on me.  It had a good long life--it saw me through three cherished years of college, which is basically a lifetime for any digital doohickey these days.  I am not devastated to see it go.

However, its passing means that I have no photo for my post this week.  Which is fine, because my chosen subject is not glamorous or photogenic.  It is, however, delicious and versatile--two of my favorite words when it comes to food.

Onward!

Roasted Vegetable Soup and Dessert with Strawberries

Canada is getting chillier by the day, reminding me that summer is no longer with us. Pat, in serious denial, is off camping and canoeing this weekend leaving me to post this week.

A few weeks ago I made roasted vegetable soup with bacon. I always thought that making soups that weren't made by throwing stuff into boiling water would be complicated and not worth the effort. Not so. Happily I was enlightened by Helen Dujardin of Tartelette. Her blog always has such sumptuous photos, that before I know it I find myself delving into the recipe. (and I'm a sucker for beautiful photos!) Over the past year since I discovered her blog I've used vegetables I've never heard of and tried out recipes that I never would have thought to. Plus--this is the important part--everything I've made from her blog has been delicious. Not just your average "yeah that was a good meal" delicious, but the "I can't afford to leave leftovers at all" kind of delicious.