No Shortcuts

Every year, I join the many folk who prepare for the holidays by preparing baked treats. I would venture that most of us have family favorite recipes we are implored (or even ordered) to make.

For me, it's butterscotch pie (from a recipe my mother-in-law gave me) and pumpkin pie made the Pennsylvania Dutch way.

And, it is especially Scottish Shortbread. There are no shortcuts to making shortbread. This simple tasty treat is a hand-mix all the way kind of recipe.

I got the recipe years ago from my Aunt Arlene. I lived with my uncle Arthur (my dad's brother) and his wife Arlene while my parents were on their last term as missionaries. I wrote a bit about her here--she was the aunt who urged me to buy the practical coat. While she could be abrupt and severe, she could also bake up a storm.

Every Christmas, she made wonderful shortbread. And one year, she taught me how. I have tried to teach various family members who are interested--it really is a teach by doing kind of recipe.

So, here goes.

AUNT ARLENE'S SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

The ingredients:
5 cups flour-take out 2 heaping tablespoons, replace with 2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
3/4 pound of butter COLD from the frig

Slice butter into flour mix and work with hands until all flour disappears and it begins to stick together. Form a ball of dough in your hand, then break it apart. When it is thoroughly mixed, the dough will crumble into the size of small peas--

Put into a flat pan (I use one about 10 by 14)--

Press in very firmly and evenly--

Prick with a fork--

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes--

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees and bake until it is the color of rich cream--

Remove from oven, sprinkle with sugar --


Cut immediately--

into pieces about an inch wide by three inches long--

Place in an airtight tin.

Now the terminology in the recipe is exactly as my aunt had written out the recipe. I can tell you from years of experience making shortbread that it takes about 10 minutes after reducing the oven heat for the shortbread to become the color of rich cream.

I love that description--the color of rich cream--but it assumes an experience few of us have had. When whole milk was delivered from house to house, the milk bottles would sit at the door, and the milk would slowly settle. By the time the housewife (most likely) brought the milk inside, it would have settled. And the rich cream--a pale yellow--would have been on top. If this ritual happened long ago, the cream would be skimmed off and used for special food preparation.

Sadly, today, our milk is put up in plastic bottles, and most of us are so far removed from its production we have no clue what color rich cream is.

I also like the detail of the dough crumbling into pieces the size of small peas. Maybe that's how you can recognize an authentic recipe--homey little details such as these.

If you are a pie dough whiz, I think you will do well at making shortbread.

But, don't take any shortcuts!

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Apologies on the photo orientation--Blogger got very weird and would NOT let me rotate some of the photos for correct view.

Now You Can See It

It's tough to get a full view--but this is fairly good.

Note--this kitchen is now in use...knives, coffee pot, coffee grinder!

A cabinet over the refrigerator--a new item. And things previously stored on top of the frig are now nicely tucked away.

A fun corner cabinet--perfect for coffee mugs.

This is a kind of "before" photo--all the open counters with nothing on them. That soon changed.

Woo hoo--trash and recycle bins tucked away.

The highly popular storage cabine, just waiting to be filled.

Yes, you are correct--the coffee pot shown here is NOT the same as the one in the top photo--new kitchen, new coffee pot. ;-)

Note the one essential in our house--an electric tea kettle.

OK--enough said (and shown).

The next entry from the kitchen will be the return of Saturday soups. Stay tuned.

Saturday Soup 8 - 2008

I have not posted a soup recipe for quite some time. I have noted in the listing of blog subjects that "family" and "soup" as subjects are neck-and-neck. Hmmmm--with today's post, and subject entry of "soup" that topic will surge (or slosh) ahead. Oh well, I will just have to tag more entries as family--especially old photos!

This soup recipe is the one I made for our Super Bowl party this year. Every year, we have a FEW friends in. They are dedicated football fans, and cheer wildly for the game. This year, fortunately for us, they also cheered wildly for the Giants. Our daughter's fiancé is a long-time die-hard Giants' fan. So, in his honor, we cheered for the Giants. (Plus I don't like teams that cheat--ahem--any Patriots' fans out there. . .sorry.)

PORTUGUESE KALE SOUP

Serves 10

Ingredients

2 large Spanish onions, diced
1 pound linguica, sliced (Portuguese sausage).
You can substitute chorizo or, I used kielbasa since I could not find either linguica or chorizo
1 pound fresh kale
4 cups of chicken broth or stock
1 tsp. black pepper
2 T. thyme, dried
4 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 pound canned red kidney beans (or 1/2 pound dried)
12 oz. V-8 vegetable juice
12 oz. canned stewed tomatoes

Directions

1) If using dried kidney beans, pre-soak and cook according to package directions.
2) Dice onions 1/4" thick and cut sausage into thin slices. Place both in a large stockpot and cover with water. Let simmer for 20 minutes.
3) Wash kale, remove the spine from leaves, then roll leaves and slice thinly.
3) Add kale, chicken stock, pepper, and thyme. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the beans and potatoes to the pot.
4) Pour in V-8 juice and stewed tomatoes. Cook on low heat until vegetables are tender. Let soup continue to simmer for several hours on low heat. This soup may be refrigerated and keeps well for serving days later.

The recipe recommends serving this hearty soup with corn bread (which I did for the Super Bowl). All in all--a very tasty winter hearty meal. And kale is so good for you!

I will continue to post Saturday soups, but only occasionally.

Saturday Soup 5 Fall 2007

We just returned from the last home game of the Penn State season--since I didn't get to post my Saturday soup before we left early this morning, here it is.

This soup was my all time favorite soup at our church Bistro. Several years ago, when we were doing the Best of Bistro--I begged for the committee to choose Mulligatawny soup--to no avail. I was informed that although it is tasty, it is time consuming. So I will just have to taste it in memory.

The editorial note which identifies the soup as an early American standard is a bit confusing--the source of the note is the woman in our church who is a trained chef who vets all the recipes for ingredients, quantity, directions, and such. I believe the origin of this soup was from the British Raj days of bringing foods back to England from India.

Mulligatawny Soup

Makes 12 servings.

This recipe is an early American standard, which boasts a harvest of winter vegetables and the somewhat unusual tastes of curry and almond milk. This version is somewhat time-consuming. You might want to sauté your chicken and make the almond milk ahead of time.

INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
12 T. butter
(1-1/2 sticks)
3 pounds chicken pieces
4 medium carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
10 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound blanched almonds
1 cup water
1 cup tightly packed spinach leaves
2-1/2 T. curry powder
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves

1) Melt 6 T. of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add carrots, onions, garlic and potatoes. Cook 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until onions become translucent. Remove vegetables from the pan and reserve. Wipe out the pan.

2) Add 2 more T. of butter to the skillet and melt. Sauté chicken pieces until they are nicely browned, then place them into a soup kettle.

3) Add chicken broth and bring soup to a simmer. After 30 minutes of simmering, check one of the larger dark meat pieces of chicken for doneness. The chicken should be almost ready to fall off of the bone when it is done. Remove chicken pieces from the kettle and allow them to cool slightly. Discard skin and bones and chop the chicken into small bite-size pieces. Return chicken to the pot. Return the soup to a simmer.

4) While soup is simmering, make almond milk. Toast almonds in the oven at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes until they just turn light brown. Grind them in a blender or food processor for 2 minutes with 1 cup water. Strain mixture through fine mesh strainer (or double layer of cheesecloth). Reserve all almond milk and discard residual almonds.

5) Add spinach leaves and reserved sautéed vegetables to the kettle. Simmer for 1 minute.

6) Melt remaining 4 T. of butter in a small skillet and stir in curry powder. Add curry mixture and almond milk to the soup kettle. Add cream and cilantro and bring just to a simmer.

If you try it and like it, let me know.

Saturday Soup 4 Fall 2007

Having promised an orange soup for this week’s Saturday Soup, I decided to choose one that is a little different. Most of the orange soup recipes that I have (by orange I mean have an ingredient such as pumpkin, sweet potato, squash that gives the soup a distinct orange color) call for chicken stock. If you are a total vegan, no doubt you can substitute vegetable stock. This one is different in that the orange ingredient is carrots.

This soup has a lovely zing to it, thanks to the fresh ginger and nutmeg that the recipe calls for. And using carrots and pears gives it a fresh taste.

Carrot Ginger Pear Soup
Makes 12
servings

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup grated fresh ginger
20 large carrots–peeled and coarsely grated (about 8 cups)
2 quarts chicken stock
2-1/2 cups apple juice
3 large ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and chopped (about 4 cups)
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

METHOD
1) In a large stock pot, heat the butter over low heat. When melted, add onions and ginger and cook slowly until soft (about 10 minutes). Add grated carrots, chicken stock, apple juice and chopped pears. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir in nutmeg. Let cool slightly.

2) Puree soup in a food processor or blender until perfectly smooth. Store in an airtight container overnight in the refrigerator or up to one month in the freezer. To serve, reheat slowly and garnish with thinly sliced pear or fried grated ginger. Most supermarkets–and all Asian groceries–carry whole fresh ginger root pieces. Choose a piece of root that is very firm with no visible wrinkles. To use ginger root for this recipe, peel all of the brown skin off of the ginger root and put it into a food processor or grater.

Enjoy!

The Joy of Cooking

From the title of this post, you might not realize that this is intended to celebrate my one year anniversary of blogging. (Drumroll heard distantly in the background!) But it is. Exactly one year ago today, we had just returned from our vacation in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Since I had for the past ten years written a travelogue of our trips and accompanied those with photographs, it seemed like a natural: combine something I am already doing with a new medium. Hence my first five blogs were about that trip.

As this year of blogging has gone by, I find what I most enjoy in blogging is really akin to cooking. Mix a bit of this with a bit of that, stir in a couple other ingredients, cook it a bit, and see what comes out! Now, I could have used the analogy of weaving—blogging is like weaving a fabric: select these yarns, mix with other colors, etc. But that would have been silly, since I really do want to write about cooking.

The first recollections I have of doing anything with cooking were in the kitchen at Matopo Mission. We had an honest-to-goodness wood cookstove there. While I didn’t really do much cooking, I did help my mother and sometime the African house girls with some chores. But I always enjoyed telling people I learned to cook on a wood cookstove! (Here’s a scary aside—when I went looking for an image of such a stove on the Internet, one site that came back was called End Times, a group that is preparing for apocalyptic living when all of civilization breaks down—well, it is comforting to know that I will know how to cook then.)

Photo of wood cookstove from

http://antiquestoves.biz/wood%20cook%20stoves.htm

The next phase of learning the joy of cooking came from the aunt I lived with during my parents’ time in Africa, while I stayed in the US. My aunt was an excellent cook, and specialized in pastries. She made the best pie dough, and taught me how—although I am not sure that is quite accurate for two reasons: 1) my mother was also an excellent pie maker, and I am sure I learned some tricks from her, and 2) making pie dough is something you can just do or not! This aunt also taught me how to make Scottish shortbread, which has become a family tradition for Christmas time. I make batches of shortbread and give them to my children, to my dad and step-mom, to friends, and I mail them to my brother and to my sister.

My learning to cook took a giant leap forwards when I landed what was then the highest paying student job on campus when I was a college student—I was the weekend cook. I attended what was at that time a very small college—since many students went away on weekends, there were usually not more that 200 students on campus for weekends. But, I was in charge of planning and preparing three meals on Saturday and three meals on Sunday. Oh my! Cooking in quantity is a different kettle of fish—hmmm, perhaps I should not use food sayings. All I really remember from this year is being dead tired on weekends, and always smelling like cooking oil. Yecchhh!! Since those days, I have never again had to cook for 200 people—thankfully.

As my children were growing up, I tried to make sure they had some rudimentary cooking skills. It wasn’t important to me for either of them to be gourmet cooks, but it was important to make sure they could survive by preparing their own food, if they needed to. One summer, when my son was staying home on his own for the first time, he called me at work and asked—Mom, can I make myself some eggs for breakfast? Sure, I said and hung up. A bit later, the phone rang and it was him again. Mom, what kind of pan should I use? I suggested the small frying pan. OK—and he hung up. A little bit later, the phone—Mom, how do you cook eggs? I think I suggested scrambling them. He must have learned something as he enjoys cooking now.

I recall one time when my son and daughter in law were visiting, I suggested going shopping. My daughter, at that time a young teen, was going along and wanted to know where we would go. I suggested a kitchen store. My daughter thought that sounded incredibly boring—and of course it was for her. But I just replied (wisely) —just wait until you have your own place; you will enjoy going to kitchen stores. Fast forward about 10 years, and she was setting up her own studio apartment in Manhattan, and we had fun provisioning her first kitchen. She is (I hasten to add) an excellent cook—as far as I am concerned, she has surpassed my cooking abilities!

When it comes right down to it, I am a simple cook—nothing fancy, nothing exotic. How could it be else when I come out of a Pennsylvania Dutch background, and married a man with like background? Even so, I am still a sucker for a kitchen store. When we would visit our daughter (and her fiancé) when they were in New York City, we loved going to Zabars! And when we visit our son and his wife in Pittsburgh, we love to go to the Strip where there is a wonderful kitchen store and many food vendors.

I have two favorite kitchen items that come from such trips—a mixing bowl with a handle, and a set of mini-prep dishes. I can’t imagine cooking without these items.

Donna’s Recipe for blogging

Ingredients:
1 personal activity
1 childhood recollection
1 treasured memory
1 or 2 references to family
A sprinkling of self-deprecation (if that is not available self-promotion may be substituted)
Several well selected photographs

Mix all these together. Set aside for a while. Run a grammar and spell check.

Serve liberally.

Wait for compliments, if any.

Here's to the NEXT year of blogging! Cheers!

Ratatouille Redux

If John Updike can revisit a character, write an entire new book--or even a series of books--and call his work Rabbit Redux, I figure I can blog about ratatouille again . . .and call it ratatouille redux.

Today, I made the first batch of ratatouille for the season. It felt like first fruits of the season going into the pot one by one.

First, I sliced green and orange peppers, then purple onion. While they saute in some olive oil, I go to work.


First, I assemble the cast of characters--eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash along with tomatoes.



Then I get the supporting characters ready--olive oil (already in the pot), salt & pepper and basil--LOTS of basil.



I cube the eggplant. And toss it on top of the simmering peppers and onions.

Between each squash layer, I put sliced tomatoes and generous sprinklings of basil.

Next, the sliced zucchini.

More sliced tomatoes (and basil).

Then sliced yellow squash.

When it is all layered, I pour a small can of V-8 over top (to make sure there is enough juice).

Finally, simmer until all the vegetables are tender.

One summer, I actually grew ALL of the ingredients for ratatouille. I admit--that was many years ago. Of course, as anyone who grows zucchini knows, you had best have a few other recipes handy for your harvest.

Tomorrow we will enjoy the ratatouille.

And celebrate the beginning of summer.

Post Script -- I forgot to link the original recipe. I have now done that above, and also here.

Saturday Soup 12

Today is our neighborhood yard sale. That means, while the posted signs say 8 a.m. to ??, in reality people start trolling our streets around 6 a.m. or so. And that got our dog's attention. I don't know what part of her "breeding" this is, but she barks ferociously in response to outside noises. So, squirrels running across the roof --BARK, BARK! Car doors shutting --BARK, BARK! People walking by talking --BARK, BARK! Bicyclists whizzing by --BARK, BARK!

You get the picture. Since my husband has been out of town the last several days, the dog is ESPECIALLY on guard. In fact, she has taken to sleeping in the front entrance-way. Perhaps she thinks if he comes home, she will be the first to see him. Or maybe she thinks--just let any intruder try to get in--I'm all over it.

Well, I arose MUCH earlier on a Saturday than I would normally--up at 6:19 a.m. because the dog heard something.

What does this have to do with soup? (Tapping finger to lips, furrowing brow, scrunching up face!) Actually--nothing. Just thought I'd share the joy of an early morning.

Herewith today's soup. And an announcement--the Saturday Soup feature will begin a summer respite next week. I suspect most people don't make soup during the warmer months of the year (unless they are cold soups). Since all my recipes are from our church Bistro which is mid-winter, all the soups are hot. So, beginning Memorial Day weekend (in the US) and continuing until after Labor Day (also in the US) Saturday Soups will be on vacation.

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RATATOUILLE

Serves at least 12

1 medium eggplant

1 or 2 zucchini

1 or 2 yellow squash

8 medium size tomatoes

1 purple onion

1 green pepper

Olive oil

Basil

Salt

Pepper

1 small can V-8 juice

1. In a large soup pot, place a good amount of olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of pot.

Wash the onion, remove skin and thinly slice. Wash and core green pepper, also slice. Place these in bottom of pot and saute on medium high heat until tender. Then turn heat back to low.

2. Take eggplant, wash and cut into 1" cubes. Place this on top of onion and peppers.

3. Take 2 tomatoes and slice, then place on top of eggplant, then season this layer liberally with basil, some salt and pepper.

4. Repeat this layering process with zucchini, and tomatoes with seasoning; then again with yellow squash, tomatoes and seasoning.

5. Pour the V-8 juice across the top of the whole mix.

6. Simmer the whole mixture until vegetable are tender.

This is really a vegetable stew, that can be served as a soup alone, or as a side-dish with a meal. It can be served hot or cold. It also stores well in the refrigerator.

I make ratatouille (pronounced rat-ta-too-ee) all summer long and it has become one of our favorite summer dishes.

Until the fall--enjoy summertime!

Saturday Soup 11

I just returned from a Mother/daughter tea that my step-mother invited me to. They served watercress soup and potato soup, both of which were fine, but neither as tasty (we agreed at our table) as some other soups we have eaten.

I mention the Mother/daughter tea only because tomorrow is Mother's Day, and--truth be told--I do not know of a mother/daughter soup. Of course there are many recipes passed from mothers to daughters, but no soup that one would automatically associate with Mother's Day.

This soup recipe is probably one of the most unusual ones my church featured. It is called Stuffed Pepper Soup, and that is exactly what it tastes like. So, if you don't like stuffed peppers--skip this soup. On the other hand, if you DO like stuffed peppers, then this soup is a great way to get that same taste.


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STUFFED PEPPER SOUP
Serves 12

2 lbs lean ground beef
2 cups onions, chopped
1 can -- 28 oz -- tomato sauce
1 can -- 28 oz -- diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups cooked converted or long grain white rice (not instant)
2 cups chopped green peppers
2 beef bouillon cubes
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper

In large saucepan or dutch oven, brown meat and drain, removing meat from pan temporarily. In same pan, lightly brown the chopped onions. Add green peppers and stir to coat. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, stirring to blend.

Dissolve bouillon cubes in 3 cups of boiling water. Add brown sugar to the solution and stir to dissolve.

Add ground beef, rice, and bouillon mixture to the pan and bring to a simmer.

Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30-40 minutes or until peppers are tender.

Season with salt and pepper.

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Eat, enjoy--and have a happy Mother's Day.

Image from http://www.txbeef.org/

Saturday Soup 10

We have just passed May Day, and we are coming up on Empire Day (May 24), so there really isn't a Scottish holiday that I can claim to be celebrating. Nor can I claim to have Scottish heritage (in spite of my red hair. . .but, who knows, what with DNA testing and all, maybe I do). But all this is beside the point. I decided to feature a Scottish cheese soup for today's Saturday Soup.


When we featured this soup at our church Bistro several years back, we selected cheese soup because my husband said--I would really like a cheese soup. Since at that time I was chairing the Bistro, I exercised my "powers" and asked our chef to find such a recipe. This is what she found. And the soup was yummy and a HUGE hit at the Bistro. The only trick--you must keep stirring, or it will suddenly clump.


Please note I use Scottish correctly (for any of you with Scots heritage). I made the mistake of remarking to one of our church members, whose last name is Wallace, that she is Scotch. Well, she drew herself up and sniffed--Scotch is the drink; I am Scottish. Believe me, I have not made that mistake again.

Oh well--enjoy the soup.


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SCOTTISH CHEESE SOUP
Serves 12

4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/2 cup finely diced leeks (white part only)
1/2 cup finely diced carrots
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 13-3/4 oz. cans fat-free low sodium chicken broth
1 12 oz. bottle of beer
1 lb. grated mild cheddar cheese
1/2 lb. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 lb. grated blue cheese
pinch of cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste
Chives (for garnish)

1. Melt butter in heavy soup pot. Add diced celery, leeks, and carrots. Cook, stirring over low heat for 3 minutes.

2. Add flour and cook, stirring, over low heat an additional 2 minutes. Add the broth and beer. Bring to a slow simmer until vegetables become tender (about 5 minutes), stirring occasionally.

3. Over low heat, gradually add the cheeses, whisking all the time, until smooth. Season with cayenne and black pepper. Continue cooking over low heat until heated through. Do not boil or soup will separate.

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You read correctly--this recipe calls for a bottle of beer!

A Scottish toast to end this blog:

When we're gaun up the hill of fortune, may we ne'er meet a frien' comin' doun!

Saturday Soups III

I was planning to respond to specific requests for soup recipes (which I offered last week), but since today is St. Patrick’s Day, I have to feature potato soup. What is more Irish than potatoes? And this particular recipe is a "smash hit of a potato soup."

Image from http://www.fantasy-ireland.com/legend-of-st-patrick.html

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Melt-in-Your-Mouth Baked Potato Soup
Serves 12

5 pounds baking potatoes
48 oz. canned chicken stock
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground rosemary
3 cups half-and-half
12 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1) Peel and chop potatoes into 1/2" cubes. Pour the broth into a heavy stock pot. Add the potatoes, salt and rosemary and boil until potatoes are soft — about 30 minutes.

2) Remove approximately one-half the volume of the softened potatoes and broth and puree in a food processor or blender.

3) Return the pureed potatoes to the broth mixture and add half-and-half. Simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently until the soup thickens (about 45 minutes).

4) Garnish with cheese, sour cream and bacon.

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Since this is St. Patrick’s Day, here’s an Irish blessing.

May the blessing of light be on you—
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

I am sure many of us have a favorite Irish blessing. Ruth offered one on her Friday Flowers. What’s yours?

Next week: by request, a chicken soup for Cathy.

Saturday Soup II

After I initiated the Saturday Soup post last week, my brother noted that he is the soup maker in his family, but tends to make soups that feature tomatoes. So I will pick a soup that uses tomatoes (to some extent). Feel free to let me know if you have a hankering (isn't that a great old word) for a particular kind of soup. I will see if I can find a recipe.

A word about the soups. First, you will note that all the soups SERVE 12. The reason for that is to accommodate projecting the amount for our church’s soup Bistro. You can of course half the recipe if you like, or double it for that matter.

Second, all the soup recipes come from somewhere—if the original place is known, I will include that information. Our church did assemble a soup cookbook for the 15th anniversary of Bistro several years ago. In fact, copies are still available at the church!

Third, each recipe has been reviewed by a member of our church who is a graduate of the New York Restaurant School. Alice Anne is a highly qualified chef, and she has vetted all the quantities, instructions, etc. She has also modified the original recipes to make the soups more easy to prepare.

Finally, I will rotate the soup choices. I started last week with an orange soup—a pumpkin, squash or sweet potato choice. I will try to rotate thusly: orange; vegetable; meat based—beef or chicken; fish. There will be an occasional miscellaneous soup that doesn’t fit into these categories.

So, herewith this week’s soup:

SPICY BLACK - AND - REDBEAN SOUP
Serves 12

This soup was first served at Market Square Church following the noontime World AIDS Day Memorial service in 1998.

Vegetable oil cooking spray (such as PAM)
3 cups chopped onions
2-1/2 cups sliced carrot
6 cups water
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 (16 oz.) packages frozen shoepeg white corn
2 (15 oz.) cans red beans or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Mexican-style stewed tomatoes with jalapeño peppers and spices, undrained
2 (14.5 oz.) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 (4.5 oz) cans chopped green chilies

Place a large pot coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot.
Add onion and carrot and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in water and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Cover; reduce heat, and simmer 1/2 hour.

Saturday Soup

I have decided to join my fellow bloggers who feature a day of the week with a repeating theme. Among the blogs that I read that have an on-going feature are ones about flowers, bunny fixes, anything about Vancouver Island, trips, mind trips and trip remembrances. Other bloggers keep me entertained with (not weekly) but occasional stories about Boston terriers, whether one or two (I so want one!) and wildlife.

So, as I cast about for what I can use for a weekly feature, I suddenly thought of one of the unique things about the church I attend. Every year, we hold a fundraiser for our local Christian Churches United. We have a soup BISTRO!

We decorate our fellowship hall, we pick four soups and then members & friends of the church make soups and donate other foods such as breads and cookies.

Then we have two seatings (with tickets--that is the fund raiser part) for the community to come, eat soup and listen to wonderful lively music. It is a grand festive occasion. Since we always hold this the first Sunday in December, I think of it as the official start of Advent.

So, I will be featuring a soup a week on Saturdays (until I run out of soups). I plan to feature those from our Bistro, but may throw in some other personal favorites.

First Saturday Soup

Thai Pumpkin Soup--this is one of the all-time favorites.
Makes 12 servings

64 oz. fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
30 oz. canned (or fresh) pumpkin
24 oz. mango nectar
1/2 cup reduced-fat chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 T. minced scallions
2 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp. fresh orange rind, grated
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
3 T. chopped fresh cilantro

1) Combine broth, pumpkin and nectar in a large Dutch oven, and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat, whisking while adding remaining ingredients,
except for the cilantro.

2) Let simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and add cilantro.

The mango nectar is available in the Spanish foods section of most grocery stores, and rice wine vinegar is available in the Asian foods section.

ENJOY!

All photos in this post taken by church members for Bistro