I’m slowly but surely starting to get back on with the normal routine of things after the craziness of the last month, which is something of a relief, because I think my head might have ‘sploded if things kept up at the pace they were at. As I mentioned, my friend’s mother died, but the full on crazy didn’t stop there, because shortly afterwards (like – the evening after the memorial) I came down with what can only be described as The Worst Flu Of All Time. ALL TIME.

The flu had me laid up for a week solid, at of course – the worst time possible, since it was the week before Pantheacon. As if I wasn’t already stressed out and nervous, I now need to be rushed and frantic trying to get everything done the couple of days before, because I had been sick. Thankfully, after a couple of long days, I was able to get everything I needed to get done, done, go to Pantheacon and have a (mostly) good time. Amusingly, I did end up attending a seminar entitled “Sacred Seasons, Sacred Meals: Seasonal Food & Sustainability”, and the best thing I can say about it is that it’s inspired me to consider applying to do a seminar next year on Sustainable & Seasonal foods. Who knows if it’ll get accepted… But I think I might have to try, because it was just that bad.

One of the things that I try really hard to do as a general rule is have low-maintenance things cooking in the background while I straighten up around the house, make dinner, or whatever. Roasting a whole squash is one of those easy background processes that after you’ve done it a couple of times – you’ll think to yourself, why did I ever buy canned pumpkin? I mean, it requires next to no babysitting, it’s really hard to mess up, and the results are so easy and delicious. Cooking beans or whole grains for later use is also a good use of down time at home. I’m pretty sure I’ve said it before, but – if you have a couple of hours where you’re going to be at home and can breeze through the kitchen every so often – you can make beans.

In my recent fascination with all things Legume, I picked up these beans at a trip to the bulk-bins. They were simply listed as “Baby Garbanzos/Chana Dal” – which tickled my fancy a little bit, because I love trying out new things, and I’d never heard of Baby Garbanzo beans before. Upon closer inspection and a google search or two, I discovered that they’re really more like split Garbanzo beans. I had half of the pound earmarked for a Hummus, that I haven’t made yet, but for the other half I needed a little inspiration – so I looked around for some ideas and came across this site that waxes eloquent about the wonders of Chana Dal, which is where I came across the inspiration for this soup.

All things considered, if you are like me, and try to keep cooked beans and other conveniences like roasted squash in the fridge, this soup will go together so fast it will make your family’s head spin. 0-to-soup in 15 minutes or so. Not quite as quick as Campbells, sure – but not shabby at all, and much healthier and tastier. Plus, if you like it spicier, you can always kick it up a notch by adding in some extra chili powder, or what have you. The measurements on the spices are rough estimates. I strongly recommend adding spices to taste, because a lot of things can affect the flavor – age of your spices, the particular blend of curry, how hot/spicy/whatever you like it, etc…

Ingredients:

• 1 quart Pureed Butternut Squash*
• 1 quart Cooked Chana Dal in Cooking Liquid**
• 1 quart Stock or Leftover Chana Dal Cooking Liquid
• 1 onion; sliced
• 4 cloves Garlic; coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup White Wine
• 1/4 cup Brown Rice Vinegar (or to taste)
• 2 tbs Butter
• 1 tbs Grated Ginger
• 1 tbs Curry Powder (or to taste)
• 2 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Heat the Olive Oil in a large pot over medium heat
• Add the Onions and saute until tender and edges are beginning to turn golden
• Reduce heat and add the coarsely chopped Garlic
• Gently cook for about a minute to heat the garlic thoroughly
• Working in batches, puree the Chana Dal, onions, garlic, and butternut squash together
• Return puree to pot and add the Stock (or leftover Chana Dal Cooking Liquid, if you have it)
• Heat on low, gently, until warmed through
• Stir in the White Wine, Rice Vinegar (to taste), Ginger, Butter and Kosher Salt (to taste)
• In a small bowl, stir together the curry powder, cumin, and chili powder
• Take a spoonful or two of the soup, and stir together with the spice mixture to create a paste, this will help keep the spices from clumping instead of mixing in smoothly
• Add additional soup until paste becomes thinned
• Working to taste, add the thinned paste mixture to the soup until desired spice/heat level is reached
• Remove from Heat and stir in the Sesame Oil
• Serve Immediately

*To make your own Butternut Squash Puree, roast whole butternut squash in a 400° oven until tender. Allow to cool, remove and discard seeds and peel, and puree. One medium Butternut = appx 1 quart puree

**To cook Chana Dal, (or any other bean for that matter) Soak overnight (or atleast a few hours), place in a heavy pot with lid. Add 1 quart or so of stock, a bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary (optional), a sprig of Thyme (optional), and enough water to cover the beans by at least an inch. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer, once beans begin to soften, add a couple of liberal pinches of kosher salt, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally until cooked to desired tenderness.

Over the weekend, I ended up having to run a few more errands than I would really have liked – which definitely isn’t really conducive to my Stop-Being-So-Busy-All-The-Time strategy. Fortunately, it didn’t end up being too inconvenient, and I got quite a few things done. Saturday, I ended up spending most of the afternoon shuttling Miss Thing around. She had a thing for her team that she needed to attend, which ended up taking a huge chunk out of my day. It was also unfortunate in that directly afterwards her coach tried to guilt me in to letting her go to an extra practice session that evening. blergh.

Anyhow, the next day – Sunday, Mr. Man and I decided that we were going to get back to home brewing – so we decided to take a trip over to our local brewing supply store. Our inspiration for it started in the form or a recent post I saw on Homemade Hard Cider over at The Paupered Chef. I mean – we’d been thinking about making another batch of beer for a while, but it hadn’t actually occurred to us to make Hard Cider before. Which, in retrospect, seems like a GINORMOUS oversight on our part, considering how frequently I end up buying a six pack of Hornsby (or similar). Not that I’m a lush – but you know, buying by the six pack isn’t exactly cost effective. So one thing led to another and we ended up at our local brew shop – and we walked out with two vials of yeast, hops, malt extracts and who knows what else. One vial for Mr. Man to make in to an IPA, and one vial to make Hard Cider.

So when we got home, we started the Hard Cider – and then realized that we still had Apple Mead from the year before to rack. Kind of an ‘Oh yeah!” moment. So we started to sterilize some bottles and get things moving on that while I was making dinner, and then after dinner I went out to the garage and made the cider. Which was super easy! I simply poured brown sugar, apple juice and yeast in to a Carboy and ta-da! We have Cider started. Mr. Man helped – a little. I mean, he only sterilized and washed all the brewing equipment, got everything set up for me, told me how and what to do and when to do it, transported everything around, and shook the carboy up. Thats all. But I made the Cider.

Anyways, by the time that was all done, we checked on the dishwasher and found that the load was done, so we started to get ready to rack the Mead. Atleast – we were going to, until Mr. Man asks “Oh, did you use Soap on those bottles?” Because apparently, you aren’t supposed to use soap to wash them because it leaves behind a residue. A little tidbit he could have shared with me beforehand. So we decided to wait until Monday to rack, and run the load again. And have a celebratory glass of Apple Mead. That turned in to several celebratory beers. Anyhow, long story short – the next night we bottled and now have fifty-two fifty bottles of Mead, and then tonight Mr. Man started his IPA. So in a few weeks, we’ll have some homemade Hard Cider, home brewed Beer and the Apple Mead. Yay!

The night that We, I mean I, made cider  was the same night we had this stew. It was a great night for it – we had lots of other things going on, and cooking beans is such a background process that you don’t really have to fuss with very much. Aside from the cooking time for the beans, this dish could really be thrown together in less than half an hour. For the majority of it, I was chopping and prepping one ingredient, while the one before it was cooking. It made life very easy. (Ie… while the bacon was cooking, I was chopping the leeks, while the leeks were cooking, I was mincing the garlic… etc…) Initially, I’d thought about adding arugula and maybe some carrots to this, since I had both sitting in the fridge, but then I saw this beautiful Savoy Cabbage that I received in my most recent FFTY box and just knew I wanted to do something with it. I also had the last couple of late season tomatoes that I’d picked up a week or two ago at the Farmer’s Market that I needed to do something with, so I tossed them in to the pot as well.

It turned out far better than I could have imagined. I don’t know what I was doing wrong all these years before, but I have developed an amazing love affair with beans the last month. Every pot of beans I’ve made lately has just been golden – and this dish was no exception. The Savoy and the Cannellini’s just worked so well together. Now, before anyone asks – yes, of course you can probably use canned beans. However – that said, I don’t recommend it. The cooking liquid for the beans was what made up the liquid of the stew, and it was amazing. I’m just not sure that you can get the same flavor from canned beans. So you know… be warned and all that jazz. If it makes any difference, I’m sure you could make the beans up several days before hand, and then just heat them up the day you wanted to serve them. For the tomatoes though – since I know not everyone is blessed to have fresh tomatoes when hovering around the beginning of November – In your shoes, I would absolutely throw in some canned, stewed, tomatoes. Chop ‘em up and toss them in. Heck, add the juice from the tomatoes as well, cuz that’s what I would do.

Actually – if we’re being fair here… There probably isn’t much you couldn’t change out if you wanted. The cannellini’s are so mild and easy to work with, that I think they might just become my like, favorite bean ever. Of course, I’m pretty sure I said that to Mr. Man about the last batch of beans I made, too – so, you know… I mean, I can’t help it – I’m enthused about beans! (And there’s a sentence I never saw myself saying before). I never really saw myself as getting excited about beans – but lately I have been. I see a new variety or idea for them, and I’m all “NEAT! Wonder how I can work them in!”

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Dried Cannellini Beans; rinsed, picked over, and soaked overnight
• 1 head Savoy Cabbage; quartered and chopped in to fine shreds
• 1 small fennel bulb; cut in to thin slivers
• 3 lbs fresh tomatoes (about 3 cups); diced (or appx 1 quart canned tomatoes)
• 2 leeks; whites and light green area only; thinly sliced
• 5 cloves garlic; minced
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 quart of Scrap Stock (or other Broth)
• 8 oz Back Bacon
• 2 tbs Olive Oil
• 1 tbs White Wine
• 1/4 cup Cider Vinegar
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Pour the Stock and the drained and soaked beans in to a dutch oven with a tight fitting lid
• Add enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches
• Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat until a gentle simmer is reached
• Cover and simmer until beans begin to soften
• Add the Sprig of rosemary and some Kosher Salt, then  simmer until beans are tender (cooking times may vary depending on age of beans, length of soak etc…)
• Remove the Rosemary Sprig, Reduce heat and keep warm while preparing other ingredients
• In a large skillet; brown the bacon.
• When the bacon is done, remove from pan and set aside to drain
• Add the leeks to the pan and fry in the bacon drippings
• When the leeks are tender and beginning to turn golden, add the garlic
• Cook the leeks and garlic until the garlic is aromatic
• Add the White Wine to the Leeks and garlic and deglaze any remaining bacon bits
• Add the Leeks and garlic to the Cannellini Beans and return skillet to heat
• Add 1/2 a tbs of Olive Oil to the skillet and then add the fennel
• Saute until fennel is tender and aromatic then transfer to the cannellini beans
• Add remaining Olive Oil to the skillet, and saute the cabbage until golden and tender (can do in two batches if neccessary)
• Add the cabbage to the beans and bring to a simmer
• Chop the reserved bacon in to fine bits
• Stir in the tomatoes and cook until heated through
• Add the Cider Vinegar and Kosher Salt (to taste)
• To serve, top with crumbled Bacon Bits

We’ve been keeping things pretty low key the last few days, just kind of taking a breather, it hasn’t been terribly easy, what with dentist visits and the like. But you know, we’re hanging in there. We had more down time this week than we’ve had in a while, though – it was nice to relax a little bit.

However, I’ve been giving a great deal of thought to what our next project will be – and I’m leaning towards painting the den. Mr. Man and I have agreed on a lovely shade of BRIGHT PURPLE that we’re both thinking will be perfect. I get a little grin every time I think about it. BRIGHT PURPLE. It’s always in All-caps, too. BRIGHT PURPLE. Like I look at the test swatch we painted on the wall and I think “BRIGHT PURPLE”. Purple’s always been a favorite color – and since the Den is the room we spend the majority of our ‘working’ time in, we wanted it to be a fun, funky energetic color. So BRIGHT PURPLE. Did I mention it was BRIGHT PURPLE? lol

Anyways, other than finally having life settle back in to a semi-normal routine, we’ve also been working through the backlog of veggies that my Mother’s visit created – there’s been a lot of hodge-podge, throw everything in the pot meals… this soup being one of the many. Thankfully, I think we’re all caught up, so to speak, except for some Pumpkins and delicata squash, which I have some plans for later – but I’m not in any hurry for right yet. I’ve also been looking at some different services around the area for Local/Sustainable Food sources, since sadly – my local grocery stores are well, just lacking in local meat. I had a coupon for Planet Organics, so I tried them first – but a friend of mine uses Spud! and was raving about it, so I decided to give them a try as well.

I haven’t actually received my first delivery from Spud! yet, but I don’t really have any doubts that the delivery will be fine. My first delivery with Planet Organics was fine – and the plan is to use one or the other of these services every other week to save me trips out for simple staples such as Milk and Eggs and the occasional bits of meat. Unfortunately – neither service will really make trips to the grocery store completely unnecessary. They both have a distinctly lackluster showing of beans, flours, and other dry staples. It’s kind of hard to make a choice right now actually. They both have minimum orders – Spud! is a little bit higher, but they’re within spitting distance of each other so that isn’t a big consideration. Planet Organics has a better selection of artisan cheeses, and they actually have milk in Gallon-form (we drink entirely too much milk to buy by the half gallon). Unfortunately, they have a subscriber-method, where you have to either order a minimum amount or they ship you veggies. Spud! is more flexible on ordering – you can place an order as often as you like, although you do get discounts for recurring orders, and while they don’t carry all the cuts of meat I like, they (so far) seem to offer better prices on what they do carry. I’ll probably end up using both services for a little while and see what happens.

Slightly related, I went ahead and ordered our Thanksgiving Turkey from Spud!, and Mr. Man and I have hammered out some ideas for dinner. I tried to get him to be more creative – but he wanted the usual staples… Stuffing, ‘taters, turkey, bread rolls, etc… One of these days I’ll get him to be creative with me. I mean – I know, Thanksgiving is about … uhm… giving thanks? But it’s also about FOOD! And what better excuse do you need to get creative with it? A holiday about food! <sigh> Maybe next year he’ll let me play more.

So anyways, in the whole working through the veggie backlog, I discovered that I had a bunch of potatoes and broccoli – some mushrooms that had seen better days, and a couple of leeks. If that’s not the perfect beginning to a creamy, hearty fall comfort-food soup, I’m not sure what is. When I was poking around on teh ‘nets, I came across this recipe for a Roasted Potato soup, and it was the inspiration for the preparation of this soup. I loved the idea of roasting the potatoes before making them in to a soup. I didn’t follow their recipe, aside from the roasting, although I’m sure it’s good. I also didn’t peel the potatoes. You can, if you want. I mean – I don’t think it will hurt anything. I usually don’t bother with peeling things like potatoes, carrots, apples, etc… unless it’s exceptionally important to the flavor and/or texture. So, YMMV.

This is a big recipe – I had a lot of veggies I wanted to use up, and Mr. Man and Miss Thing love when there’s something easy they can warm up for a quick & hot lunch, so that wasn’t really a problem for us – but I’m sure it would be fine to halve if you don’t want to make quite so much. I used what I had on hand – but this is one of those recipes that you can easily customize. No Yogurt? Use Sour Cream. No Broccoli? How about Spinach? etc.. I had kind of planned on topping it with a little crumbled bacon – but you know, I completely spaced about it, and no one noticed it was missing. We did top it with a little shredded cheddar, though – and that was a nice addition.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs Russet Potatoes; scrubbed and cut in to 1/4″ slices
• 2 lbs Broccoli; cut in to chunks and blanched
• 3 leeks; whites only – cut in the thin slices
• 12 oz Mushrooms (I used Crimini); sliced
• 2 quarts Broth
• 2 cups Plain Yogurt
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 6 Garlic Cloves; diced
• 2 tbs + 1 tsp Olive Oil
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Preheat Oven to 400°
• Toss the potato slices, leeks and garlic with the two tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt, stirring to coat
• Spread the potato mixture evenly in to the bottom of a roasting pan
• Roast for 45-60 minutes (or until tender), stirring occasionally
• In a small skillet, saute the sliced mushrooms with the remaining teaspoon of olive oil. Set aside.
• Place half the roasted potatoes in to a large stock pot. Set the remaining half aside.
• Add the blanched broccoli and the broth
• Using an immersion blender, (or working in batches in a regular blender), puree the broccoli-potato mixture until smooth
• Gently heat over low and stir in the yogurt and buttermilk until smooth
• Add the reserved potatoes and the sauteed mushroom
• Stir in Kosher Salt to taste
• To serve, top with Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)

Whew – what a week. I know I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record – but maaaaaaaaaaan it’s been a busy week. I’m not even sure where to begin. Let’s see – I spent most of the last week trying to finish recovering from the flu. I wasn’t oh-my-god-kill-me-now-I’m-so-sick… you know the kind, where you really have no choice but to crawl in to bed because you can’t possibly function? No – I was the functionally walking ill, just well enough to feel like I should be getting things done, and just sick enough to be miserable while doing it. All week. I’m still dealing with sniffles and cough, but fortunately, the worst of the miserables are over, and I’m starting to get my energy back.

One interesting side note to my being sick – you know those headaches and icky feelings you get when you give up caffeine? Well – since I was sick anyways, and not feeling up to coffee, somehow in the last couple of weeks I managed to break my caffeine dependency. I mean, if you’re already feeling miserable, whats a little more headache, right? It wasn’t planned – but since it happened, I’ve been kind of enjoying it. I’ve had a little bit of coffee recently, but we’re talking about maybe a shot or two of espresso once or twice a week… instead of four shots of espresso every day. I doubt it will last very long. Mr. Man has absolutely no intention of giving up his coffee, and as long as it’s around, with it’s temptingly caffeiney aroma, it will be much harder to give up completely, let alone prevent a complete relapse.

In addition to my recovery from the flu – Miss Thing had extra practices last week, a game plus extra practice on Saturday, and then we went to Marine World on Sunday. So yeah. Busy-busy-busy. Marine World was fun – but draining. Mr. Man convinced me to go on one of those spinning rides, and I ended up getting a little ill towards the end of the day – but we had a lot of fun hitting the roller coasters and what have you before that. Marine World might have been a little more fun if it’d been warmer. The weather has turned cooler. It’s been downright nippy the last week or so. Which has had me breaking out the soup pot more often lately – something that Miss Thing is no doubt unahppy about, but that I’ve been really enjoying. I’ve had a hard time turning over some of my pantry staples the last year or so – so when I decided to make this chili, I went hunting around and found these Eye of the Goat Heirloom beans that I’ve had for some time. They ended up being really spectacular in the chili – and I can now say that I’m an heirloom-bean-convert. These were much better than any other canned or dried bean I’d had before. Full of flavor and texture. In fact – I went poking around on some heirloom bean websites, thinking about ordering some, and had to stop myself from buying one of everything. I think I’ll wait until the first blush of infatuation has passed and then decide what I really want to try.

If you don’t have have Eye of the Goat beans – you can use any type of Pinto style bean. (I suppose you could skip the bean-cooking-process and use canned, too – if you really wanted to…), the flavor will be a little different, but should still be really good. You might be surprised to find out though, that this chili has absolutely no tomatoes in it. Cross my heart – it’s that red from the squash and sweet peppers. So all you Tomater-Haters, enjoy! However, if you were to use orange or yellow sweet peppers, your color may vary – but it will still taste good. When you make up this chili, you can do several of the steps in different parts, over the course of a couple of days even – if you’re short on time. I had the day kind of planned out for making this dish, so I was able to get it done in one day – but I’ll admit, it was time consuming and at one point I had to leave for several hours and then come back to finish it.

I roasted the peppers and squash in the morning, had the beans cooking on a back burner, and made Scrap Stock for some of the stock in the chili. (Now that it’s getting cooler again I figured I should probably stop being lazy and start making stock again…) In the afternoon I came home and assembled everything and simmered for a couple of hours to finish cooking. The plan was to serve it with some Anadama Bread that Mr. Man was baking – but unfortunately, the bread wasn’t ready until long after everyone was hungry and wanting to eat, so we served it with crackers – which was almost as good. My roasted peppers got a little more… roasted… than I intended them to, but it didn’t end up being a problem. For those of you trying this at home though – I’d suggest stopping the roasting process a little bit sooner. Oh – I almost forgot. I didn’t roast the Cayenne Peppers I threw in there, because I didn’t find them at the store until after the rest of the peppers had been roasted, but it really didn’t matter that much. And if you can’t find fresh Cayenne Peppers (They aren’t particularly common after all) just use as much powdered cayenne pepper as you like instead.

When I was younger (before I learned to cook) I used to buy those seasoning packets for things like chili, gravy, soups, etc… and add them to the dishes I was preparing. At the time it was definitely a step up from the boxed mac-and-cheese and hamburger helper that I had relied upon before that. Eventually it happened that I had assembled everything for chili and realized that I didn’t have one of those seasoning packets for chili. I tried everything I could think of to make it taste right, probably dumped in far more seasoning from my spice rack than was neccessary, and was about to pull my hair out in frustration when it occurred to me to look on the interwebs (hey – I was young… and so was the internet! It was a long time ago… don’t mock me.) And I discovered that the secret ingredient to good chili was Unsweetened Cocoa. It was kind of a revelation for me – and probably marks the beginning of my move away from spice packets and getting to where I began to cook more things from scratch. However, I can say that at the very least, from that point on, I never bought another Chili Spice Packet again.

At any rate, I was inspired to make this chili when I received an Acorn Squash in this week’s FFTY box. I wanted to make something a little different, try something new. The sweet peppers I’d managed to develop a back log on, so it seemed like a great way to use them up too. I’ll admit – the acorn squash flavor wasn’t quite as strong as I was hoping, so I might have to experiment with this recipe a little more and see what I can do about that, but it was still delicious. In fact – Mr. Man said it was the best Chili he’d ever had, ever. Oh – one last thing… I had intended this chili to be served alongside bread of some kind. Corn Bread, Anadama bread, etc… So I didn’t use any thickener really – it was still nice and hearty anyways, but if you prefer your chili a little thicker, I’d recommend making adding a couple of tablespoons of flour to the browned sausage and onions to make a roux.

Ingredients:

• 1 Acorn Squash; washed
• 2 lbs Sweet Peppers; seeded and halved (quartered for large peppers)
• 1 lb Mild Italian Sausage
• 12 oz Eye of the Goat Beans (or other dried pinto-style beans – or substitute with canned beans)
• 3 quarts Stock (I used 2 quarts Scrap Stock and 1 quart Chicken Stock – if using Canned Beans, you’ll only need 2 quarts)
• 1 Onion; diced
• 4 cloves Garlic; minced
• 3 Jalapeno Peppers
• 2 Serrano Peppers
• 4 Fresh Cayenne Peppers
• 2 tbs Unsweetened Cocoa
• 2 tbs Cider Vinegar
• 2 tsp Cumin
• Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt to taste

Method:

• The night before you want to make chili:
• Rinse and pick over the Dried Beans
• Soak the Beans overnight
• Drain the beans, and place in to a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid (recommend dutch oven)
• Add 1 quart of the stock, and enough water to cover the beans by 2 inches (if neccessary, during the cooking process, add more water to keep the beans covered by atleast 2 inches of liquid)
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer – stirring occasionally until beginning to become tender.
• Add a couple pinches of kosher salt to the beans and continue simmering and stirring occasionally until beans are cooked to desired tenderness
• While the beans are cooking – prepare the squash and peppers.
• Preheat Oven to 350° and place the whole acorn squash in a baking pan
• Place in the oven and roast until cooked through. Set aside to cool.
• For the peppers, place the seeded and cut sweet peppers in to a roasting pan, along with the (whole) jalapeno peppers and serrano peppers
• Toss with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt
• Roast for 30 minutes, or until tender and beginning to turn golden brown along edges. Set aside to cool.
• Peel and seed the cooled squash (peel should just pull right off)
• Puree the squash in a blender until smooth (add some of the stock if neccessary)
• Transfer the squash to a bowl and set aside until ready to assemble the chili
• Place the sweet peppers in to the blender and puree until smooth (add stock if neccessary)
• Transfer most of the sweet peppers to the squash, reserving about 1/2 a cup of Sweet Pepper Puree in the bottom of the blender, and set aside until ready to assemble the chili
• Add the Serrano Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, and Cayenne Peppers to the reserved Sweet Peppers in the blender. Puree until smooth (add stock in neccessary)
• Transfer to a small bowl and set aside
• In a large, heavy pot – begin browning and crumbling the sausage. When cooked, add the onions and saute until translucent.
• Add the garlic, and squash-sweet pepper mixture, stirring to combine
• Begin adding remaining stock, stirring to combine
• Add the cooked beans, cider vinegar and kosher salt
• Take the cocoa powder and place it in to a small bowl.
• Stir in the cumin and a couple spoonfuls of the Spicy-Pepper Puree until smooth (can use the stock from chili instead for milder)
• Add the cocoa-pepper mixture to the chili and test for heat
• Add additional spicy pepper mixture to the chili until desired heat level is reached  (to taste)

Today was such an awesome day. My sister and good friend took a few days off of work this week for a stay-cation, and so for the first time in a little while we got to set aside a good block of time for some uninterrupted chatting. As always happens when the two of us get together – we start talking and then five hours later we realize, “oops, suppose we should get home now…” It’s been like that almost since the first day I met her – and I feel so blessed to have her as part of my life. At any rate, the time hanging out was well worth it, even though I didn’t accomplish much else today, because now I feel much more relaxed and de-stressed. Sometimes the laughter and companionship of a good friend is better than a day at the spa.

After I got home, I had to take Miss Thing to practice, and I was torn between coming home and working on this blog post, or hitting the thrift stores to see if I could unearth any treasures – lucky for you peoples, I decided that I wanted to share my good mood with the interwebs, so here I am. Be Happy. Hurry up. I’m waiting. lol! Anyways, this recipe kind of evolved from a distinct desire to “do something” with those black eyed peas that I picked up at the farmer’s market. Ever since learning how amazing fresh beans are in comparison to the dried ones, I’ve found it impossible to walk away from fresh beans when I come across them. Fresh Fava and Garbanzo beans have both had a transformative experience on the way I look at beans. Dried beans are really no comparison. So despite the fact that I knew I probably wouldn’t get to them as quickly as I shoulda, I bought a couple of pounds.

I finally managed to find time to get them shelled yesterday, with a little bit of (grumbling) help from Miss Thing. Well, actually there was a lot of grumbling and a little help. When I poked around in the fridge and dredged up the last two ears of corn, I began to get the inklings of a plan. Some Bacon and Broth, and we had soup. And it was awesome. Just like with the Fava and Garbanzos, Fresh Black Eyed Peas are a completely different animal from the dried version. They were only mildly beany, with a fantastic fresh taste and texture. I won’t lie – they were a pain in the you-know-what to shell, but taste wise, they were amazing.

Now that I’ve seen how good fresh beans are, I admit that I’m a little puzzled that they aren’t available more often. I can only guess that most people aren’t willing to put in the work to shelling – but thats okay, because dude, more for me. In fact, I’m thinking that I might have to meander on down to the Farmer’s Market again this weekend to see if there are any vendors carrying some. But anyhow, back to the soup.

We’d already had corn on the cob recently, so it was a good time to experiment with doing something a little different with it. The light sweetness of the corn worked out perfectly with the spicy and tangy flavors that I was shooting for. Even Miss Thing, who has been anti-soup for the last year or two dubbed it “Pretty Good.” Which is high praise coming from her.

The nice thing about this soup, is that (aside from shelling the peas – which you can do anytime beforehand) is it really goes together very quickly. From start to finish it only took about 20 or 30 minutes – which includes prep for the remaining ingredients. Fresh Black Eyed Peas cook much more quickly than their dried brethren and fresh corn kernels barely need any cooking at all, IMHO, which makes this a perfect meal for a busy evening. I’d also like to tell you how well it reheats for meals later in the week, but unfortunately both Miss Thing and Mr. Man had 2 bowl fulls each and we didn’t end up with a lot of leftovers. To be fair, they’d both skipped lunch – but who wants to do that? lol

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Fresh Shelled Black Eyed Peas
• 2 cups Fresh Corn Kernals
• 1 and 1/2 quarts Chicken Broth
• 1 Onion; diced
• 4 cloves Garlic; minced
• 3 strips thick cut bacon; cut in to ribbons
• 2 tbs White Wine
• 1 tbs Green Hot Sauce (or to taste)
• 1/4 cup Flour
• 1/4 cup Cilantro; finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/4 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 Lemon; Juiced
• Kosher Salt to taste
• Sour Cream (optional)

Method:

• In a large heavy saucepan or dutch oven over medium-high heat, fry the bacon ribbons until crispy
• Remove Bacon pieces and set aside
• Reduce heat to medium and add Onions to rendered bacon fat. Saute until translucent
• Whisk in the Flour and cook until flour smells mildly nutty and is golden in color
• Whisk in the Broth a little bit at a time until incorporated
• Add the Garlic and bring the broth to a simmer
• Add the Black Eyed Peas and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until they’ve reached desired texture
• Stir in the corn kernels and cook for 1-2 more minutes
• Remove from heat and stir in the reserved Bacon, Cumin, Chili Powder, Lemon Juice, hot sauce, White Wine and Cilantro.
• Add Kosher Salt to taste.
• If desired, when serving top with a dollop of sour cream

We had guests come over for dinner on Sunday. As a nice change of pace, instead of spending all day Sunday cooking, I prepped up a bunch of stuff on Saturday so that Sunday could be spent straightening up (and not being frazzled). While I was doing a big cooking push, though – I needed to take care of the regular meals of the day, too – which is when I decided to make this soup. I needed to clear up some space for the things I was pre-cooking, and make room for important stuff – like BEER.

When I went to the Concord Farmer’s Market after receiving my box last week, I picked up some fresh Anise (fennel), I used the bulbs in a pasta dish that (unfortunately) I wasn’t able to get any pictures of – but the greens I had lopped off and saved. I also had some Kale and Mushrooms from the farmer’s market, and a small bunch of Nantes Carrots from my most recent FFTY box. Together, those items were taking up a fair amount of space in the fridge – and when I thought about what I wanted to make with them, they kind of screamed “soup”.

A lot of people I know tend to toss out the greens from things like Anise, carrots, beets, radishes, etc… which is unfortunate, because there is still plenty of yummy flava and nutrition to be found in these little-used parts. I tend to chop up whatever greens I received with said roots, and add them to sautes, pastas, salads, etc… Basically, just about anything and everything. A lot of times, (when I had space in the freezer for it!) I would hang on to scraps and ends and make Scrap Stock, but since the weather has warmed up, we’ve been eating soup and stews less, so I’ve been muddling by with store bought chicken broth.

If you don’t happen to have anise greens, you can substitute other greens such as spinach or whatever you have on hand. You’ll lose the delicate flavor of the anise, but it should still be yummy. One thing that I like to do whenever I’m adding rice to a soup, though – is to have the rice seperate, and then add it as I’m serving. It helps prevent the rice from becoming mushy. (I hate mushy rice)

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch Red Kale; leaves torn from stem
• Greens and stems from 2 Anise (fennel) heads; coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch Nantes Carrots; sliced
• 1 large onion; diced
• 4 cloves Garlic, coarsely chopped
• 6 Sausages, cut in to disks (I used bratwurst, but any kind will do)
• 8 oz Mushrooms; sliced
• 3 cups Broth; divided
• 1/2 cup White Wine
• 2 cups Cooked Brown Rice
• 4-5 Green Onions; sliced
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• In a large, heavy pot, brown the sausage slices
• Add the mushrooms and saute until tender
• Remove mushrooms and sausage from pot and set aside
• Add the Onions to pot
• Saute onions until translucent and slightly golden
• Push onions to the side and add carrots to the clear spot
• Saute until Carrots are tender
• Add the anise greens, garlic, white wine and 1 cup of the broth
• Bring to a simmer, cover and reduce heat until anise stalks are tender (appx 4-6 minutes)
• Add the Kale. Cook until beginning to wilt
• Remove from heat
• Working in batches, puree the anise-kale-carrot mixture. (Mixture will be fibrous)
• Strain through a sieve, pressing to remove as much liquid as possible
• Return liquid to pot, discard solids
• Add the mushrooms and sausage to the liquids and heat over low until mushrooms and sausage are warmed thoroughly
• To serve, put some rice in a bowl and ladle hot soup on top of it, top with green onion slices

I made this soup a few nights ago – it had gotten pretty late in the evening, and we were all hungry, but I didn’t really have anything planned for dinner. Miss Thing had had a friend spend the night, and stay for the day, and somehow day had turned in to late evening, and then we all realized that we hadn’t eaten very much that day.

It was already after 8, which made it too late to run and pick up a pizza from our favorite pizza place, and really too late for anything very involved. After some hemming and hawing I finally settled on making this soup, the idea for which I’d been kind of kicking around in my head for a few days, because I really wanted to make a dish that really highlighted the unique flavor of the green garlic.

The soup was a big hit. Mr. Man loved it, and even Miss-I-hate-soup-Thing loved it, putting away two bowlfuls herself, and it was easy to throw together.

Ingredients:

• 4 Onions; diced
• 3 Shallots; diced
• 4 cloves Garlic; minced
• 1 quart Scrap Stock or other broth
• 2 cups Heavy Cream
• 1/4 cup White Wine
• 1/4 Cup Italian Parsley; finely chopped
• 2 bunches Green onions; sliced – divided
• 4 Green Garlic; sliced – divided
• 1 tbs Butter
• 1 tbs Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• Over Medium heat, In a large, heavy dutch oven or stock pot, melt the butter and olive oil together
• Add the onions and Shallots and saute until lightly carmelized
• Add in the garlic, half of the green onions, and half of the green garlic. Reserving the other halves.
• Saute until green garlic and onions soften
• Add the white wine and cook for a minute or two before adding the stock.
• Bring the stock to a low simmer.
• Remove from heat and stir in the Cream, remaining Green garlic and Green Onions, parsley, and kosher salt to taste.

We had some sun today, yay – although I didn’t get much sleep last night, so unfortunately I missed a lot of the sun catching up on some Zzz’s. When I woke up, Miss Thing was back from school – Mr. Man worked from home today, so he was volunteered to go grab her while I slept. She was even in a good mood after school today – for a change. Or atleast she was until after her workout. (She takes an athletic class a couple of evenings a week) After I picked her up, she was in a pretty foul mood, to be honest. Gawd, what I wouldn’t give for one teenage-drahmah-fest-free-evening, I swear.

Anyhow, aside from that, my evening went very smoothly. This soup is actually pretty quick to make (when not taking time away to argue with a drahmah queen). Which made it a good choice for after her practice, since we get back so late in the evening after it. I used to make a similar soup to this back when I was Vegan – many moons ago.I know – hard to believe, but true. Must have been oh – eight or nine years ago now. It lasted for about 2 years or so, and ended because we started traveling a lot. And 8-9 years ago in most restaurants in the South-East states, being Vegan usually meant an iceburg lettuce salad – with no dressing.

Anyhow, this soup is very rich and creamy, even Miss-I-don’t-like-soup-Thing thought it was delicious. And it’s a fairly quick meal, only taking about 30 minutes or so to make. An Immersion Blender really makes life easier, but if you don’t have one, you can blend it in batches in a regular blender. Because of the potatoes, leftovers will thicken as it cools, but can easily be thinned back out again.

Ingredients:

• 4 Potatoes, peeled, quartered and sliced
• 1 quart + 1 Cup Scrap Stock or other Broth/Stock
• 4 cups Spinach Leaves; any thick or woody stems removed
• 1 Onion; chopped
• 4 Cloves Garlic; minced
• 2 tbls Clarified Butter (Can Substitute Olive Oil)
• 1/8 Cup White Wine
• 2 Cups Heavy Cream
• 1/2 Cup Buttermilk
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• In a sturdy pot, over medium heat, saute the Onions in the Clarified Butter until they begin to turn golden
• Add the White Wine, Garlic and Stock and 2-3 good sized pinches of Kosher Salt to the onions and bring to a simmer.
• Stir the Potatoes in to the broth.
• Bring broth back to a simmer, and then cover and reduce heat.
• Cook until potatoes are fork tender – approximately 15 minutes.
• Stir in the Spinach, and cook until Spinach becomes soft, bright green, and wilted.
• Using an immersion blender (or working in batches with a regular blender) puree soup until smooth.
• Remove from heat and stir in the Buttermilk and Cream
• Add Kosher Salt to taste

I still had one lonely little butternut squash sitting in the pantry last night, looking all forlorn and forgotten – so when we were hunting around for an easy dinner, I decided to make a soup with him.  The Coconut Milk and the Squash make this soup rich, creamy, and satisfying without the addition of dairy. If you substitute Vegetable Broth for the Scrap Stock, you’d have a completely vegan/vegetarian soup on your hands.

Mr. Man felt that it could use more heat, so for those of you who like it spicy, you could add a little extra cayenne pepper if you like. I personally felt it was perfect. Miss Thing was her usual, charming self when being confronted with both soup AND squash in the same meal, and announced that she was not hungry. I hope her animosity towards soup goes away soon – but I’m sure some of it is just the age and the desire to be contrary just to be contrary. I served it with Whole Wheat Biscuits to make it a little more substantial.

Ingredients:

• 1 Butternut Squash; peeled, cored, and cut in to chunks
• 1 qt Scrap Stock, (Can Sub either Chicken or Vegetable Stock)
• 1 can Coconut Milk
• 1 onion; diced
• 5 cloves garlic; minced
• 2 tbls White Wine
• 2 tbls Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 tbls Olive Oil
• 1/2 tbls Butter
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• Kosher Salt

Method:

• In a large pot, with a tight fitting lid (cast iron dutch oven recommended!) melt butter with the oil over medium heat
• Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions being to caramelize.
• Add Squash and Garlic, stirring until squash has been well coated with oil
• Pour Stock over the squash and throw a couple pinches of salt in
• Cover and reduce heat
• Simmer for 15 minutes, or until squash is tender
• Add Coconut Milk, Cider Vinegar and White Wine
• Use an immersion blender (or work in batches using a regular blender), and puree until smooth
• Stir in Spices and Kosher Salt to taste

As I may have mentioned before, we’ve had plague circulating through our household the last two weeks. First Mr. Man, then me, now Miss Thing. Sad thing is, I got it, just as Mr. Man was feeling better – and Miss Thing got it, just as ~I~ was feeling better. Fortunately, now that I was feeling better, I had the energy to make Miss Thing some soup to help her get over her cold. Unfortunately, she has suddenly decided that she hates soup and all things soup related, ah – to be a teenager where everything only appears in blacks and whites, and anything a parent does is evil.

At any rate, after some finangling, she agreed to have some – and if she didn’t thank me, I’m sure her poor beleagured sore throat did. Mr. Man and I thought this turned out incredibly excellent, and I’m not sure why she chose to turn her nose up at it, but it’s probably some obscure hormonal difficult teen thing.

For the pasta in this dish, I used some leftover Browned Butter Pasta – which turned out really freaking excellent, if I do say so myself, but you could use regular cooked pasta of any kind. This makes a fairly large pot (I was making planned leftovers), but could easily be halved.

The nice thing about this recipe is you can kind of build it as you go. For instance, while I was cooking the lentils, I was simultaneously preparing and simmering the rest of the soup. The whole thing actually only took about an hour to make – roughly. I cooked the lentils separately, because I wanted to be able to cook the potatoes and carrots in the broth – with salt! to allow them to absorb the flavor without ruining the texture of the lentils. Lentils, as with most beans, can not be cooked with salt or they become tough. This step could be skipped if you would like to substitute a can or 2 cups of another kind of cooked beans of some kind for the lentils. For the Pasta, I recommend placing it in the bowls as you are serving – rather than stirring in to the soup, and allowing the heat of the soup to warm up the noodles – mostly because I hate mushy noodles. If you like mushy noodles, feel free to stir the noodles in just before serving.

Ingredients:

• 3 and 1/2 quarts Scrap Stock or Chicken Stock (divided – and brought to room temperature)
• 1 Cup Lentils; washed and picked over
• 3 Shallots; chopped
• 4 cloves garlic; minced
• 2 Potatoes; peeled and cut in to 1/2 inch chunks
• 2 Carrots; peeled and cut in to thin slices
• 5 Crimini Mushrooms; sliced
• 4 tbls butter
• 4 tbls flour
• 4 cups Al dente Cooked Spoon-friendly Pasta Noodles (such as Macaroni)
• 1 lb chicken breast; cooked and cut up in to chunks
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 1 sprig rosemary; de-stemmed and finely minced
• 1 tbls Fresh Thyme; finely minced
• 1 tbls Fresh Tarragon; finely minced
• 1/4 cup Fresh Italian Parsley; finely minced
• 1 tbls White Wine (to Taste)
• 1 tbls Champagne Vinegar (to taste)
• 1 tbls Kosher Salt (to taste)

Method:

• While assembling other ingredients, Cook the lentils:
• In a small saucepan, bring 1/2 a quart of Stock to a boil.
• Stir in Lentils. Cover and reduce heat Cook for 45 minutes or until tender and liquid is absorbed. – See Note
• When the Lentils are cooked, they can be added to soup – pretty much anytime.
• In a large soup pot, melt the butter.
• Add Shallots to Butter and saute until translucent
• Whisk in Flour
• Cook over medium heat until flour mixture becomes lightly browned.
• Whisk in the remaining broth
• Bring Stock to a simmer and then stir in Garlic, Potatoes, Carrots, Rosemary and Thyme and Salt
• Cover and reduce heat
• While that starts to cook, saute the mushrooms:
• Over Medium Heat; add oil and mushrooms to a skillet.
• Saute until mushrooms are lightly browned and tender
• Add Mushrooms to Soup
• Simmer Soup for 45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender and cooked through
• Stir in Chicken, Parsley and Tarragon
• Add Vinegar and Wine to taste.
• To Serve, place cooked noodles in bowl. Ladle soup over noodles. Do not add noodles to the soup unless you like mushy, mushy noodles.