A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Presto Pasta Nights #45: Split Pea/Alphabet Pasta Soup

For the lovely Ruth at Once Upon a Feast's weekly Presto Past Nights blogging event, I made soup. Again. But really, can you ever eat enough soup?  It's filling. It's good for you. It's comforting.  That's a win-win.  This time it's a little difficult to see my pasta so I'll show another pic. 

Not only does this soup have split peas and alphabet pasta in it, it also has yellow and brown lentils, wild rice, and barley. Then, when I made it I added onion, carrot, green and red pepper, and celery which makes it vegetarian.  I haven't decided to go exactly back to strict vegetaranism but I have decided to make most of my meals non-meat. I have to have a little wiggle room for seafood and the occasional steak.  It's like any diet. Once I say "absolutely no more of that food will ever be consumed by me again" is the exact moment when I can think of nothing else and would walk on a bed of nails on my knees to get that, so knowing myself, I'm saying that I will eat much less meat than ever before.

Just FYI,  I didn't put all of those peas, lentils, rice, pasta, etc., together but I was glad when I saw it at the Amish Store in Branson and will be buying more.  They have several dried bean/pea soup mixes that are just wonderful. With the veggies I can saute at home and herbs I can add myself, it's a full but quick meal to put together.

The mixes can also be ordered directly online from The Amish Country Store.  Most of the products are made by Missouri Amish families.

Weekend Herb Blogging Celebrates Two Years: Rice and Beans with Zucchini and Annatto

Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen is celebrating the two year anniversary of everybody's favorite food event: Weekend Herb Blogging.  Congratulations, Kalyn! Check with Kalyn's site from Monday on to see the round-up of all the wonderful herby and veggie dishes from around the world.

Her celebration coincided with my personal celebration of 1) having friends in from St. Louis and Woonsocket, RI that I haven't seen in --forever!--and 2) my one day shopping spree.  I've really been working on my spending habits this year, as in, trying to reign my spending habits in and I've been pretty successful so far.  It feels good to feel more in control of the whole instant gratification thing, if you know what I mean. But I did allow myself one day at one store with my friends to go a little nuts. That one store was The Amish Country Store in Branson where they have my all time favorite aisles of spices. The Amish Country Store is a family owned business that stocks furniture and food products produced by local Missouri Amish families, along with a variety of about 150 fresh spices brought in weekly in bulk and repackaged into smaller containers. Usually I stock up on fresh home-bottled (canned in glass jars) goods and Mrs. Miller's noodles but on this trip I concentrated on refilling my spice cabinet.  Here's my haul:

From top left to right: ground annatto, dried celery flakes, dried red and green bell pepper (I like having those on hand for when I need seasoning but the crisper is bare), red popcorn and coconut oil (I was weak), dried lavender, dried chamomile flowers, star anise, Hungarian paprika, cardamom, lentil and pasta soup mix, and  Tupelo honey.  You'll be seeing a lot of these things in the coming weeks.

My featured spice for today is: Annatto

New to The Daily Tiffin

I'm a new writer to The Daily Tiffin, subtitled For A Healthy Family Lifestyle blog. It's a nice place to go for current information and recipes about all things healthy.  I'll be in a revolving schedule posting about once a month showing/giving lunchbox ideas and recipes.

My article is here:  Legumes to the Lunchbox Rescue  and then fell free to wander around for lots of great information.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Carrot, Chickpea, and Barley Soup with Tofu

I found this soup recipe in Shape Magazine this month and it really intrigued me. I've never thought of carrot or chickpea soup, let alone putting them together.  Along with the barley, just reading the recipe made me feel healthier and in the need of going to the gym to complete the day. So I did, right after I made the soup for mine and Gene's lunch.  It was excellent, deceptively hearty with tons of flavor. I confess, though, I did monkey, or monkAy as Jeff at C for Cooking says, around with the recipe a bit.  After my initial tasting, I decided I really needed a better bottom note to round out the flavor and got what I was looking for by adding a tsp of curry to the mix.  I also needed a little more protein since I'm chronically anemic and am constantly being reminded by my primary care doc to "eat more meat". Yeah, whatever.  Tofu works for me in this case.  As a side note, if you substituted vegetable stock for the chicken stock and left off the parmesan garnish, the recipe would be vegan.

  This is also my entry for Alanna of A Veggie Venture's "Soup, Glorious Soup" blogging event for the month of February, celebrating the warmth and nourishing qualities of soup. I heartily agree!  Nothing takes the chill off winter like a good bowl of soup. Check in with Alanna throughout the month to see the updated menu of soups being celebrated.

Welcome to the Ozarks

Mmmm...from Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend.  After all the leftovers were eaten or frozen, after all the turkey was demolished and a new jar of Hellman's mayo was written on the grocery list...it's another round of comfort food and for Gene and I, the dead mama tour.  Those of you who are orphans and from the south (especially who grew up poor) will understand.  What did you eat on the night before payday growing up when the larder was getting bare?  Brown beans and cornbread. I don't care if it is cheap. That's what makes Gene and I think of home fires burning. 

And by the way, it's not pinto beans. Beans are named by color in the Ozarks, not by names. I didn't know that a "brown bean" was a "pinto bean" until I was an adult.

If you think there is a recipe then you'll just have to come to my house and watch while I throw them in the pot because I couldn't tell anyone how to make them to save my soul. I can list the ingredients but that's about it.  The only thing I know for sure is that you must use pork and it must be cured, whether that's a hunk of ham or a slab of fatback or a chunk of unsliced bacon from a hog butchered within the family when we were growing up, or now, as adults, purchased from Burger's Smokehouse which has been rated one of the best in the country and worth every penny.

Other than the hunk, chunk, or slab, you need a bay leaf, a clove of garlic, sauteed celery and onion, and I use generous shakes of a house seasoning salt and red pepper flakes. 

And here's my cornbread confession: see how yellow those corn muffins are?  My grandmother would be so appalled. I grew up in a white cornmeal house. I was told my whole youth that yellow cornmeal is for stock (as in animals), white cornmeal is for people, and cornbread is NOT ever never never sweet.  But I bought the corn muffins at the store.  I know you'e shocked. 

But hey, life goes on. I was and still am in the tail end of National Novel Writing Month and I'm determined to win or get very very close.  At this moment, I'm take a break at 21,000 words to write this post. Too bad I can't count it towards my NaNoWriMo entry but I'll make up the time. I'm off work today and it's gloriously rainy, the perfect day for channeling Stephen King and writing my guts out.  Anyone who wants to cheer me on and see my periodic word count updates throughout today and tomorrow, click over to my personal blog  www.xanga.com/Marie9949

Later gators!

Sufferin' Succotash!

The fabulous Sher over at What Did You Eat? inspired me to reach both inside my southern roots and outside my southern roots for this one in that when I saw her recipe for Herbed Brown Rice, Corn, and Edamame, it looked so clean and wonderfully fresh tasting, it reminded me of succotash and I realized that I could never remember eating succotash in my whole life. Maybe I have but I don't remember it. I've had all the ingredients separately but I don't remember growing up with mom combining them or having ever done so myself before. Then, after witnessing Sher's week long vegan experiment, which didn't look easy, but it did look noble and her food was beautiful, I decided that along with my new emphasis on cooking healthy around here that I'll be serving up more meatless meals from now on, starting with something similar to that recipe of Sher's.  Actually, I could have made Sher's recipe but I would have had to go to the grocery and that would have required energy, something I didn't have at the time so instead I made up my own little concoction from what I did have on hand.  Next time, I will try yours, Sher, because I'm sold on the concept and so was Gene. He loved it!

Okay, I have to step back and confess yet again.  Partly, my motivation for more meatless meals is a genuine desire for stepping up our eating health now that I'm out of school and have the time to cook again. But partly, and this is the confession, Gene's paying a price for my weird taste vagaries. I go through periods where food repulses me slightly, specifically meat. It's really more of a texture thing than a philosophical vegetarian argument kind of thing.  Some days I just don't like the way beef and poultry chew.  I don't really understand why, I just know I don't like 'em in my mouth because of the texture. Go figure.  Taste is fine so I have no problem with chicken or beef stock or animal protein in general as long as I can't feel it.  Then usually, after a few weeks of that, I wake up one morning and think "Sure could tuck into a nice thick, juicy, pink steak."  (I know. Pity Gene for having to live with the crazy woman.) Again, don't understand it but I've decided not to fight it anymore. Who cares why?  I've decided I'm simply going to start listening to my body more and giving it what it think it needs in the moment, except when it holds me hostage for Krispy Kremes (there is no redeeming health value in Krispy Kremes, sorry to be the one to break it to you, folks) or  maraschino cherries (I'll have to do a post about those someday. The amount of dye in each of them is a mini cancer bomb but I love them anyway.)