I made ‘Whatever soup’ over the weekend, which is basically using up whatever is in the fridge for vegetables added to a pound of protein and an appropriate stock.
The only new item was some small pasta to add some carbs to it. It is good cold weather food that gets better in the freezer.
Then today I baked a pumpkin cake, which essentially a pumpkin pie with some extra eggs and flour. It’s not bad, but cream cheese frosting covers a multitude of sins.
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20 comments
Sounds like we’re on the same wave length; recently I’ve made chicken noodle soup from scratch and cooked down our Halloween pumpkins to make muffins and pies. We’ve actually had some (almost) cold weather (ignore the 90 degrees that was hit two days ago). We’ll have fall for 2 weeks and then we’ll skip winter and go straight into spring….
Time to cook warm comfort food!
Similar reasoning, Ellroon, two days after a series of record lows, we posted a record high. I got my cooking in between.
Soup is a good way of not wasting food, and provides something to share with a neighbor who doesn’t eat enough of a variety of foods. If I give it to him in a form that he can heat in a microwave, he’ll take it. I can’t convince him that cooking isn’t hard, and it’s the cheapest way of eating.
How ’bout dat! 😉 😀
My new kitchen will be finished soon! Just waiting for the new oven to arrive and be installed (tomorrow I’m told), then the painter to finish up. Everything else is done, Cook-top, double sink, fridge/freezer, benches & cupboards, wall & floor tiles, exhaust fan… Convection microwave is hear and will be installed with the oven (above it).
Been thinking about what my first meal will be! So many choices. Hmmm… Think I’ll do that pasta dish I posted a while ago. 🙂 Go to the market Sat morn and grab fresh produce. Damn! I’m getting hungry! (I haven’t had lunch yet.) 😉 LOL
I’ll be all set! We have a big gas/charcoal BBQ/spit and a Pizza/bread oven outside. Now with a new kitchen, I have no complaints. 🙂
I love a good soup in Winter. I used to make a big pot, then freeze it in smaller freezer microwave-safe containers. Easy to grab and microwave when I wanted soup. 🙂 Minestrone is actually the Italian (& Mediterranean generally) “Whatever Soup”. 🙂
Enjoy guy’s! 😀
“… I’ve made chicken noodle soup from scratch…” – ellroon
Started with the egg, did you? 😀
Not much serious cooking around here, but what we did last week was indeed a shift toward cold-weather fare. Fiesta, the heavily international grocer around here, carries several extensive lines of Indian (i.e., from India) packaged foods; even including cooking the basmati rice, the total time is about 20 min. for a nice, hot, HOT (peppery) meal. I defy anyone to still feel cold after eating, say, sag paneer, or any of the various curried beans, or navratan korma. Mmmmm!
Just fixed some clam chowder. Out of a can :(. Yeah, I have a cold. You don’t think I’d eat canned chowder otherwise, do you?
Some things only work when they are made in quantity, I mean lasagna for one or even two isn’t worth boiling the pasta, but four to eight is good. Making less than two quarts of soup isn’t worth thinking about because you can’t just let it simmer for a couple of hours.
Hurricane soup requires a cauldron, because it contains the contents of multiple fridges and freezers. That is campfire food. You just keep it simmering and add water from time to time because you can’t store it. The only rule is that it can’t contain anything that doesn’t require at least refrigeration.
Seems like people are always happy to see pies and cakes, but real food meets resistance.
Minestrone is a solid source of protein, as are all of the bean dishes. I have nothing against prepackaged food, as long as the only things included are actually food, and not chemical additives.
A little curry goes a long way for me.
A little curry goes a long way for me.
now you’ve done it. i’m not really fan of soup, but now i want to cook up a big pot of mulligatawny.
Hurricane soup? Can you elaborate? I may need to do earthquake soup sometime in my life….
“Cauldron” is one of my favorite words, both the sound and the feel in the mouth pronouncing it, but I almost never have a chance to use it these days. Back in my Renaissance Festival days, any large pot was called a “cauldron” by the performers for the benefit of the audience…
“A little curry” goes at most an hour in Our House. A lot of curry goes only slightly longer.
The thing about soup is that it always seems to get better the lower it goes in the pot or the longer it is stored. My problem with food that is really hot/spicy is that the heat hides the other flavors.
Steve, we used to have a big three-legged cast iron pot that could be suspended over the fire or actually place on the coals. These days you are forced to use the big pots for deep frying turkeys, or having a crab boil. They are stainless steel and don’t have the heat uniformity of cast iron.
Essentially, Ellroon, anything that can be boiled is chopped up and dropped in the pot to make the soup. Nothing from a can, because that stuff may be needed later, depending on when the power comes back. You start with the stuff in the fridge, because the stuff in the freezer with stay frozen for a couple of days if you don’t open the door. The freezer stuff is for the second batch.
It is cooked slowly for a long time and is different every time you do it, because people have different things in their house. It is ‘hobo cooking’, but with generally better ingredients.
Just checked the contents of my refrigerator. Pickles: check. Mustard: check. Yogurt: check. Canned sodas: check.
Other than that it’s empty. I’d make a very bad hurricane soup with those leavings, methinks ;).
“They are stainless steel and don’t have the heat uniformity of cast iron.”
NOTHING else has the uniformity of cast iron. Unfortunately, nothing else needs the constant maintenance of cast iron. I had a half dozen pots and pans about 30 years ago, kept them in good condition and cooked some wonderful stuff in them. When I moved because the owners were going to tear the place down, the only place to store them was in the garage. You know the story from there. The next time I moved, I tossed them out… with a tear in my eye, but it had to be done; the rust was REALLY bad. Every so often I am tempted to buy more, but I am in no condition to own more high-maintenance cookware these days.
The thing about soup is that it always seems to get better the lower it goes in the pot or the longer it is stored. My problem with food that is really hot/spicy is that the heat hides the other flavors.
Hence the old rhyme:
Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;
Some like it hot, some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot, nine days old.
It was from the Middle English ‘pease pudding’ (also known as ‘pease pottage’). I believe it was first recorded in ‘Mother Goose’ circa 1760. 🙂 Pease was a sort of mass noun for a family of legumes. Eventually it became ‘pea’ (singular) and ‘peas’ (plural). It was actually a spicy dish and still survives in some parts of Canada and England. 😀
That’s why it is a neighborhood project, Badtux, because some people may actually have food in their fridge.
Yes, Steve, you have to keep it oiled, or you have a major problem, but it is so great for slow cooking.
Other than no bean soup, there is nothing as pathetic as fresh bean soup, Kryten. It needs aging, which is one of the nicest thing about refrigerators. I generally don’t eat it until it has had at least a full day in the fridge to blend the flavors. I have been known to cook a ham and give most of the meat away to get a good bone for bean soup.
Bryan, I could actually make bean soup. I keep a large supply of canned and dry goods and there is spicy sausage in the freezer. The reason I do not keep a lot of things in the refrigerator is because I’m single and just don’t get around to eating stuff in the ‘fridge before it goes bad, so I throw it out. My larder actually would feed me for several weeks before I scraped bottom.
The secret to a good bean soup though is, as you say, time for the flavor to blend. That’s why I bought a crock pot slow cooker :). But if you’re in a hurricane situation with no electricity, a large cast iron pot is of course the best choice of all. Luckily they still make them. I can buy one at a camping goods store out here in the Silly Cone Valley, but you probably would have to mail order one, like this nice 8 quart Lodge dutch oven with legs and bail. That’ll make a nice big batch of hurricane soup I bet!
That Dutch oven is the right shape and design but the last time I did it, someone had one that was bigger. It was probably an antique from when people regularly cooked in their fireplace.
Yeah, I have more in my freezer than fridge for the same reason. I only bring things down a day before I’m going to use them, and then I freeze the leftovers that I won’t eat in a day.
Hmm, like this 20 quart Texsport dutch oven? They also have one with legs.
Lodge has 10 quart dutch oven that is very nice too, if you’re looking for something a little smaller.
The only cast iron I have is a couple of skillets and a griddle. A cast iron griddle works so much better than any other griddle, I don’t know why they sell anything else. I should probably get a cast iron dutch oven for making soup, but my electric crock pot does the same task and is easier to clean, so …
That’s more like it.
I make soup in my Mother’s cast aluminum Dutch oven that is certainly easier to clean, but you have to pay more attention to it.
The attention requirement is one of the reasons that crock pots are so handy. You can throw a chuck roast into a crock pot and let it simmer for a complete day to produce the shredded beef for tacos and burritos. The only drawback is the need for electricity, which is a consideration around here.
Yes, cast iron is the only good choice for a griddle, because it avoids the hot spots and makes it a lot easier to flip things. You do have to wait to clean them, but they are just more consistent.
Not sure what you mean about waiting to clean a cast-iron griddle. Once I’m done I just spray it with spray cooking oil and swipe the loose oil off with a paper towel and it’s done. I hope you don’t suggest actually *washing* a cast-iron griddle, that’s heresy!
Yeah, the electricity part is the problem with a crock pot. Not a problem around here, if there is an earthquake electricity will be the least of my problems.
The exterior crud, Badtux, that sets off the smoke alarm when you put it on the burners. The cooking surface is scrapped clean and oiled while still warm, but it’s easier to wire-brush the exterior crud after it cools.