Well it’s been a whirlwind of activity here and I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress with the house and garden. Lots of cooking going on for friends and family because I love working in my new kitchen. It hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging. But dinner is in the slow-cooker and I have a moment before it’s time to walk Bixby, so tonight there is a recipe exchange. From the food blog:
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JeffreyW and I once again had a mind-meld moment and both made a batch of Beef and Barley Soup this week. His yummy photo is pictured above. My recipe is here and JeffreyW’s recipe is here, accompanied by great photos.
Chuck roasts were on sale this week, so I stocked up. I love a good pot roast and have a few recipe variations. I have a recipe for a Tangy Pot Roast here. For a more traditional take on a yummy Slow-Cooker Pot Roast including a full menu and recipes, click here. My new favorite ingredient is a dash of good whisky to deepen the flavors. One of the roasts will be cut up and frozen for soup or stew.
The garden is still producing an abundance of ripe tomatoes, so I made a batch of Tomato-Spinach Soup, recipe here. For a vegetarian version, just omit ground beef. I make it both ways depending on my mood. Serve with grilled cheese sandwich on Easy Slow Rise Crusty Bread, pictured below and recipe here.
Another batch of tomatoes, along with zucchini, green peppers and eggplant (all garden fresh) went into a fresh dinner for guests this week, Garden Fresh Pasta, recipe here.
What’s on the menu tonight? Any fun plans for this first weekend of October?
Tonight’s featured recipe is what we’re having as part of a get-together tomorrow night. It’s simple, hearty soup that we can put together earlier in the day for a quick dinner. Then we’ll be heading out to the local historical farm for Wildlife Night. There will be owls.
Cranberry beans are usually easy to find, but if not, substitute cannellini white kidney beans – you can use dry or canned.
Turkey Bean Soup
- 1 lb smoked turkey sausage, diced (or ground turkey, browned)
- 1 lb dried cranberry beans (soaked overnight, drained)
- 8 cups of water (or 6 cups water, 2 cups chicken broth)
- 1/2 small onion, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 tsp dried Oregano
- 1 tsp Chili powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- Salt and pepper to taste
Slow-cooker
Add all ingredients to the slow-cooker and cook for 6 to 8 hours on low. Serve with fresh hot bread and salad for a complete dinner.
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That’s it for this week. I’m heading out to buy paint…starting on the living room this weekend. Have a great weekend – TaMara
Corner Stone
I am making Vietnamese style Shaking Beef tonight. Inspired by the HRC Shimmy.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Corner Stone:
I am officially in love with this meme, and all it engenders.
karen marie
I’m having leftovers from last night. The end of the onion tart from Trader Joe’s and a big bowl of home-made tomato soup. So good! While the reality of the tart’s appearance is nothing like the picture on the box, it’s a reasonably tasty and fast accompaniment to a nice bowl of soup.
Felonius Monk
@Corner Stone:
I think that is a lot of Bo Luc Lac.
Hal
I ordered a steak and cheese sub. Same place I ordered last time but last time I made the mistake of saying yes to oil and mayo and they put fucking miracle whip on the sub. Complete ruined an otherwise good sub. Miracle whip is disgusting and over powers the flavors of everything it touches.
Carlo Graziani
Those cranberry beans look like what Tuscan’s call “Borlotti”. The Tuscan basic bean/vegetable soup technique is good if you have some reason to vegetarianize a soup, leaving out the broth. What they do is, after soaking the beans, cook them separately in plenty of water. Then, don’t discard the water. Instead, take out 2/3 of the beans and puree them in the food processor with a little cooking water to help them puree. Then add the pureed beans, the intact beans, and the bean water to whatever soup base (typically a kale-based minestrone-type thing) you happen to be making. The pureed beans give the resulting soup huge body and flavor, and make broth superfluous. I do this when my benighted vegetarian friends come to dinner.
Mnemosyne
I need to walk up to Ladies & Gents Night Out to buy a Tiny Yarnover Truck kit from the Yarnover Truck, so I’ll probably see if any food trucks strike my fancy.
And if any of that makes any sense to you, you probably live here in the San Fernando Valley. Hi, neighbor!
Mike E
@Hal: I eat steaks whiz ‘with’…I have no idea what yer talking about
geg6
I want butternut squash soup. Or leek soup. With some sort of decadent grilled cheese. It’s chilled off a little this week and it’s been rainy and feels like fall. Plus there is currently no heat my building at work, so I’ve been chilled the last two days. Soup sounds fantastic.
Pogonip
I have no recipes but would like to state that Target’s dark chocolate Halloween Kit Kats are great! We’re going to buy several bags to freeze.
Mike E
@Mnemosyne: my theaters are anchoring a citywide bluegrass shindig…food trucks galore, and a ginormous bouncy slide right outside my front door!
guachi
I actually had homemade beef and barley soup for dinner tonight.
Weird!
Poopyman
Just back from a week at Disney World at a conference. Did anything happen this week?
Princess
Rosh Hashanah on Sunday so brisket, potato kugel, baklava, and apple challah are in my future. Tonight Ialso started a roasted hazelnut and prune sourdough bread to take to friends.
Poopyman
@Mnemosyne: I don’t, but I was watching Food Truck Wars, or whatever it’s called, while on the plane, so I’m now officially jealous.
(Although I was already pretty jealous after seeing “Chef”.)
NotMax
Secret to old-fashioned, long time on the stove beef and barley soup is to use meat still on the bone. Alternatively, a stewing meat* or similar plus adding in what can be found at a good market labeled as soup bones (which the neighborhood butcher used to give away for nothing) to the pot. They’re usually sold already chopped into manageable sizes.
Thickens it nicely, and one has the yummy bones to suck marrow from as well.
*NOT the packages labeled ‘Stew Meat’ in the meat display. No way to tell from what cut those descend, could be anything and everything in the same package.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
Is anyone else old enough to remember this folk ditty?
rikyrah
that all looks delicious!
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Hal:
Say no more, say no more.
Kay Eye
Mmmm, need to scratch through my recipe clippings and find that good butternut squash, corn, and chicken chowder I made last year. We are enjoying a cool spell ( lower than 90 every day this week except one) so it’s time for soup. I should be able to adapt it to a crock pot.
Makes me want to shimmy.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Pogonip:
I just bought a bag of Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews, which I plan to test out with a glass of red wine, just as soon as I finish my shaved pork on a pretzel roll sandwich.
p.a.
@Corner Stone: had bo bun hue for lunch, it only comes in xl at the local Pho-house, so I just had a little nosh the rest of the day.@geg6: I use acorn squash in veggie broth with some finely sliced rehydrated guajillo pepper for extra color. this time of year local unpasteurized apple cider and a dash of calvados too.
Shana
@Princess: Damned close to my menu for sunday night: brisket, potato kugel, roasted carrots with tahini mint and pistachios, apple cake with caramel sauce in my star of david bundt pan.
Tonight we had rotisserie chicken with fresh green beans, roasted potatoes and pear crisp for dessert. Older daughter came for dinner. She and hubby talked working in a law firm and trying to also have a life. So nice to have her back in town.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: have a safe trip, by the way!
Major Major Major Major
@p.a.: I got bun bo hue broth in my eye one time. Ow.
TaMara (HFG)
For those looking for squash soups:
Butternut squash and leek soup
Roasted Butternut and Apple soup
TaMara (HFG)
@Princess: Yum.
satby
I love fall, love the excuse to make soup, and love just about everything with pumpkin in it. So Pumpkin Curry soup is going to be on the menu this weekend. Works with butternut squash or golden Hubbard’s squash too.
I mix it up with yellow curry and coconut cream sometimes for a milder and richer flavor. And always use fresh, not canned pumpkin. Love the stuff.
p.a.
@Major Major Major Major: looked up the recipe once. too much work for moi, especially when I’m 1/4 mile from the restaurant. they don’t do the coagulated pork blood as in the online recipe I saw, but add fishballs instead.
satby
And for the rest of the puree from the cooked pumpkin, everyone loves pumpkin-praline cheesecake. *
Except the one neighbor who was allergic to nuts.
*if substituting fresh pumpkin for canned pumpkin pie mix, you need to add the additional spices that would go into pumpkin pie.
raven
@satby: I hate pumpkin anything.
Pogonip
We’re going to buy a small chest freezer. Does anyone have any recommendations?
satby
@raven: yeah, it’s a love it or hate it thing. I never liked it myself until I started using fresh pumpkin I cooked and pureed myself instead of the canned stuff.
Lizzy L
Black bean soup with cilantro and sour cream tonight. Maybe roasted carrots. Biscuits, yeah. (Not homemade, alas.)
raven
@Pogonip: @Pogonip: Try this.
I know she’s a tracker, any scarlet would back her
They say she’s a chooser, but I just can’t refuse her
She was just there, but then she can’t be here no more
And as my mind unweaves, I feel the freeze down in my knees
But just before she leaves, she receives
p.a.
@Pogonip: Tend to use a bit less energy than uprights (at least pre-energy star models) but if you have back issues consider an upright.
raven
Oh, chest FREEZER. . . never mind.
MomSense
Grilled cheese and tomato tonight. It was a long week and I’m pooped. Got a dog asleep on my feet and watching Luke Cage.
geg6
@raven:
I love pumpkin. Almost anything pumpkin, though I make exceptions for pumpkin beer and coffee. Totally heresy, those two. I think it’s that my birthday is on or around Thanksgiving, also my favorite holiday. This year, my birthday is on Thanksgiving. It’s special when that happens.
Shana
@Pogonip: My recollection from when we bought one, was that it’s better to get one that opens on top as opposed to one that looks like a fridge. They’re supposed to be better from an energy efficiency standpoint and are less likely to accidently open.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
Did you spatchcock it?
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@raven:
I like the flavour of pumpkin, but hate the hype. Anyhow, it’s an abomination much before October 15th. I have relatives who jump on the PSL bandwagon around August 4th, and if I didn’t want to keep peace in the family, I’d jump all over them.
p.a.
@geg6: Don’t drink pumpkin beer lager-cold. cool or less brings out the flavor, otherwise it’s just weak ale. ignore this advice if your dislike is more philosophic than gustatory.
MomSense
@Steeplejack (phone):
Heh.
redshirt
@MomSense: How many episodes have you watched? I just finished 4.
p.a.
Homer alert. Here’s some pumpkin whiskey. I have a small sampler bottle. Really nice.
redshirt
Pumpkin this, pumpkin that. When did freaking pumpkins take over our culture?
Hal
I know this is a recipe thread, but this is hilarious.
Trump cat
booksofadam.tumblr.com/image/151115333908
p.a.
@redshirt: The Pumpkin Trust has been biding its time since the Gilded Age. Rumor is Russian money is behind it.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: real wasabi in my eye, wow
MomSense
@redshirt:
Just two so far.
redshirt
@MomSense: What do you think, with no spoilers?
Baud
@srv:
Good to know. Thanks.
Hal
@srv: Ben and Jerry’s is already on my shit list for discontinuing their peanut brittle ice cream and now this.
Baud
@srv: Being not a fascist, I’m with her.
I never eat that brand of ice cream so I can’t boycott anyway.
Lyrebird
The recipe above looks AWESOME… I will say that it seems like boiling beans for at least 10 min (tho wikipedia says 30min) helps prevent one possible source of food poisoning. (one that slow-cooker temperatures do not knock out)
CaseyL
@Baud: Tried Ben & Jerry’s once. It’s OK, don’t quite get the hype; I guess it’s more of a culture thing than a flavor & texture thing. I rarely eat ice cream and when I do, I want it to be Haagen Dazs.
Prescott Cactus
@Pogonip: Currently have a Kenmore chest freezer, mid size (2 clowns well folded), no auto defrost. Must shut it off twice a year and empty out and use a hair dryer for a couple minutes. Total job time is 45 minutes.
Never a problem.
ETA: Best when operating full. Ice tea jugs filled with water are added to keep it full and running compressor less.
ruemara
What’s on the menu? I was going to go out and grab a burger and try to go out and enjoy something. But a friend called and said she had an emergency and needed my computer. So I ran home from the gym and proceeded to wait an hour for her until I texted her and she said she’d changed her mind. I had a slice of paleo bread with bacon jam and my drive to find some sort of human interaction is done. I have no idea what I’m going to eat or if I’m going to eat. No appetite.
tsquared2001
I wish I knew how to cook. I am the Smoke Goddess when it comes to b-b-que and make a mean baked potato but otherwise, I am clueless.
When I was a poor student in England, I expected regular rice to work like Minute Rice so I put one cup of water for every cup of rice into the pan like you do.
No accident that the other ladies on the floor took me under their wing for at least Sunday dinner. Ate a lot of fish and chips from the shady dealer just off campus.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I know you’re tired of me pointing this out, but your friends are jerks. I wasn’t that irresponsible even in my pre-medication days.
Jeffro
My crock-pot shredded pork tacos were a hit tonight…I’ll have to put that into the recipe gizmo here sometime soon.
(could probably do about the exact same recipe with chicken thighs next time)
Happy weekend, all – off to see JMU whup UD tomorrow for Family Day!
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Thanks! I have to finish packing and then head off to bed sometime in the next half hour. Have I mentioned yet that I have to get up at FOUR O’FUCKING A M tomorrow morning? Check-in for the bus starts at 5:00 am and it’s about half an hour away. Plus I want to make sure I get a good seat.
NotMax
First world problems.
Post office always leaves my packages on the front porch. Yesterday, it turns out, they left one I was expecting down the hill, inside my landlady’s carport which is attached to her garage. Just now found it, way out of sight.
Her address and mine are not identical.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Las Vegas, right?
Dunno if you saw it downthread, but there’s a Carnegie Deli at the Mirage.
Bring the leftovers home to G (and score mucho brownie points).
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Yes, I saw! I’m kind of stuck at the Circus Circus, so I’m not sure if I’m going to get to the rest of the Strip, partly because I’m not sure about wandering around by myself at night in Vegas (though it should be pretty safe if only because of the crowds) and partly because I may be insanely tired after 6 hours of voter registration.
Sandia Blanca
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: Yes! I love that song, and think of it whenever I see the word “barley.”
laura
I had a really satisfying Chicken Tortilla Soup in the Marina District after day 1 of Hardly, Strictly Bluegrass. Mavis Staples, Boz Scaggs, Shawn Colvin & all of it free and soul restoring. Steve Earle, Rebirth Brass Band and the amazing Moon Hooch! The Giants are crushing the Dodgers, I am officially in heaven.
workworkwork
I’m currently in the hospital due to low platelet count so I’m unable to cook.
However, the room service menu is surprisingly good. They have me on the diabetic plan (75g/meal) and there are some very good selections, including some tasty soups and salads.
The rib-eye (0g) is particularly good and you just add some steamed veggies (so far nicely al dente), some cottage cheese, some soup (the chicken noodle is my favorite so far), a sugar-free jello and you’ve got a nice meal.
Still would like to get out of here and go back to cooking my own meals, though. I guess I’ll treat it like a bit of a break.
JR in WV
@workworkwork:
When Mrs J was in for a long count, she was particularly well tended to, they would save her fresh strawberries and an extra fruit plate. She said it was varied enough that she never got bored over her 59-day stay. Everything was done professionally, as opposed to cheaply.
As opposed to the place where we get joint surgery done. Thank god it’s usually a one night stay, and that there are good restaurants close by for takeout. They serve your worst nightmare of hospital food. So enjoy your break, since the food is good. Given the price, it should be at least 2 stars Michelin style rankings.