Tomato Bisque

Yum!  The tomato bisque turned out beautifully.

Here's the cashew cream:

The cashew cream is really thick--maybe as thick as yogurt.  It tastes kind of bland with just a barely discernable cashew taste.  The mild flavor makes it perfect for thickening soups.  This is much thicker than could ever be achieved with soy milk. 

In it goes:

 

And, after an encounter with the immersion blender, it's ready to go!

And, I must say, the soup was fantastic.  This cashew cream stuff has opened up the world of cream-based soups.  Very exciting.  This should keep me (and thus you) occupied for the forseeable future of Soup Sunday.  The anticipation is palpable.

Another one

Looking at these comics again reminds me just how funny they are.  I have every C&H book published, and on occasion I flip through them just to look at the expressions on Calvin's face.  Like this one:

Bill Watterson had an uncanny knack for getting inside the head of a 6-year-old--and his portrayal of the parents is dead-on, as well.  Plus there's bike content!  What more could one want in a comic?  I miss it so.

It's here!

I never imagined that I'd ever spend this much on a blender, but I have done it.  I have learned the value of the saying "Never say never" over the years.  I'm going to blame this one on my mother.  She got me a copy of "The Conscious Cook" by Tal Ronnen.  Such gorgeous recipes.  One of the first recipes I spotted was for tomato bisque.  If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I am on a quest for the best tomato soup.  So of course this one caught my eye.

BUT, the recipe calls for cashew cream, which is basically pureed raw cashews and water.  Apparently the cashew cream has the consistency of half and half while imparting a very mild flavor.  I was intrigued.  And annoyed, because our blender, while very nice, leaks out of the bottom.  This has been an issue for years and I can't find a replacement rubber ring to try to alleviate the problem.  I've just stopped using the blender and have gotten by with an immersion blender and a food processor.  However, neither one of these would do for cashew cream.  The wheels began to turn.  I got on Amazon and checked out the reviews for high-zoot blenders.  I waited until I had the dinero saved, found it on Overstock.com and pulled the trigger earlier this week.

And today, it arrived.

I hear these things will puree concrete, although I will not be engaging in that practice.  I'd like to experiment a bit with raw food, although from what I've seen it takes WAY more work than I'm willing to put in.  Still, it will be fun to try some new recipes.  Oh yeah, this thing actually cooks the soup for you, too--yah, I know it's not raw then.  Fortunately, it came with a recipe book so I can practice with both hot and cold soups.

Sorry to disappoint, but the first run in the Vita Mix will not be a batch of margaritas.  You will see its debut on Soup Sunday where I will present tomato bisque.

This cracked me up today

Not that I haven't seen this about 50 times through the years, but I saw this one this morning and it struck my funny bone.  The most brilliant comic strip ever.

And, yes, I'm probably violating every copyright law on the books in posting this, but you can enjoy it until the man knocks on my door and tells me to remove it.

Christmas Eve all over again

I believe I've posted before about the post-holiday doldrums that typically set in for me this time of year.  So, to that end, we re-enacted Xmas Eve on Friday night.  Lori purchased "A Christmas Story" for me on DVD about a week ago--curiously enough, I've never seen that movie except for on TV.  So, we decided to have an Xmas Eve do-over to watch it.  No presents for the re-enactment, though, damn it.  FYI, the TV version is the same as the DVD version,  I figured it had been edited for time, but couldn't really discern that anything substantive had been cut.  And believe you me, I've seen it a LOT.

I made Baco Dip for the occasion.  No photos, sorry about that.  That dip is pretty darn good, gross as it sounds.  I must also mention that the blog I pulled this from is fantastic.  Wonderful recipes.

Unfortunately, my other culinary adventure of the day didn't turn out so well.  I embarked on a black bean soup recipe that called for dried beans.  The recipe didn't specify that I soak the beans first, so I didn't.  That was my first mistake.  Here's a pic of the soup just as I started:

The recipe instructions said to simmer for 2-3 hours until the beans were tender.  Well, guess what?  When the beans haven't been pre-soaked, they don't really get very tender.  Three hours into it and the beans were, shall we say, chewy.  So, I continued to simmer.  Three more hours and we were getting there.  But, by that time I'd had enough of messing with the soup.  I attacked it with my trusty immersion blender, thinking bits of bean would cook more quickly than whole beans.  Lori had a bowl of it and said it was good, but I was so tired of tending to the soup that I couldn't bring myself to eat it.  Anyone who knows me will realize that this is highly irregular for me.  Now I have a freezer full of black bean soup that I may or may not eat.  Bummer, man.

I learned a valuable bean lesson this week.  Pre-soak, pre-soak, pre-soak.

Pasta e Fagioli

Tonight we had Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Bean Soup) for Soup Sunday this week.  Recipe from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen.

Easy, simple and hearty.  A good end to a chilly Sunday.

These are definitely on my wish list

Can't you just see me stylin' in these this spring?

Yeah, me too.  It looks like a combination of an adult diaper and a truss.

Another installment of Soup Sunday

I know, I know, I promised more interesting content than food posts, but I just haven't gotten there yet.  I have a few ideas, I just haven't had the gumption to put pen to paper--or I guess I should say I haven't been able to muster the brainpower to tap out any coherent thoughts.

But, hey, I know you're here for Soup Sunday, so here it is.

This week, it's Tortilla Soup from Quick-Fix Vegetarian.  I had a big pile of ripe avocados to use and this soup is just the ticket for that.  It's kind of a twist on the traditional tortilla soups in that it's blended.  And it doesn't have chicken in it.

Pre-blended--avocado in the base of broth, salsa and garlic:

Using one of my favorite and indispensable kitchen tools (I do love the immersion blender):

 
Presto, it's soup!

Good stuff, and leftovers to boot.

Dip for dinner

I made a vegan take on the familiar 7-layer dip.  The recipe came from The Kind Diet.  I left out the vegan "cheese," as every cheese approximation I've tasted has been completely awful.  I've found it's best to just leave out the fake cheese and call it good.

It was pretty tasty but certainly not low-fat.  Are low-fat and tasty mutually exclusive?  I don't think so, although it does seem that way sometimes.

Anyway, it made for a pretty dish.  See, faux cheese would have covered up all of that lovely color.

Tonight's dinner

Stuffed shells.  Recipe here.  These are really, really tasty.

Soup Sunday, on Monday

I apologize for the delay in posting this.  I know my loyal readers must be hanging by a thread...

And, I'm afraid that I may disappoint with this week's selection.  It's a re-tread.  We had friends over for dinner last night, so I wanted a tried-and-true recipe.  It's very much a rarity for us to have people over, so I didn't want to ruin it with a kitchen flop.

So, we had mushroom and wild rice soup.  I love, love, LOVE this soup.  I did go out on a limb and made a few new recipes, though.

Cucumber and garbanzo bean salad (another one that I have no idea where I got the recipe):

No-knead bread (not new):

And, for dessert, peanut butter krispy treats.  Now, these are not photogenic.  I had to preface the picture with that disclaimer, lest you think it's some sort of fake meat loaf.  These are actually very tasty, although not quite as crispy as the original Rice Krispie treat made with marshmallows.  Lori said she actually prefers hers a little softer, but I miss the crispy-crunchy texture.  Still, easy to make and tasty, so I'll definitely make these again.  Clearly we're making good progress on these.

I wish I could take better food pictures.  With no effort on my part.

Free at last

This is me NOT at tonight's MBAC meeting.  Bottoms up!

Note: I am only drinking one of these.

Happy Birthday, Calvin!

Calvin's 11 today.  How the time flies!



What a good guy he is.

Slick!

I'm no huge fan of threadless stems, mostly for aesthetic reasons.  If I were mechanically adept, I could probably provide more substantial rationale--or maybe I'd be a convert, hard to say.  Still, the LHT has one (as does the winter bike) and I am adapting and even accepting.

I saw this doo dad while surfing today:

Not bad.  At least it's functional and gets the light mounted above the bar where it can be seen more easily.  Plus, it's a Paul component, which automatically ups its desireability factor.  Neato!

Improved mental state

Just as I suspected, I feel much better after today's bike ride.  While it wasn't long or intense (as if any of my rides are), it was good to get outside and take in some fresh air and sunshine.

I only fell once--on some ice in City Park.  I thought I was heading into a puddle and I should have known better.  I was holding my own and then went down before I knew what was going on.  Nothing serious, fortunately, and I continued on my way.  The roads had a lot more snow and ice on them than I expected.  Our main roads and heavily traveled side streets are clear, but other streets and shady spots are still treacherous.  I could definitely tell the difference between riding a wide, knobby mountain bike tire and a pretty wide (700 x 37) road-bike tire.  I did a lot of fishtailing in the snow and slush today, whereas I wouldn't have on the mountain bike.  But, the trade-off is that the mountain bike is a dog on dry pavement and would require me to expend more effort than absolutely necessary, so I only take that bike on short jaunts or when the roads are >50% covered.

What was wet and slushy this afternoon will be solid ice in the morning.  Bleh. 

Here's a (cell phone camera) picture from today's ride.  It's my favorite view from City Park.  Certainly this view has been featured on the blog before, but I never tire of seeing it.

Temps are slated to plunge on Wednesday, so I'm glad I was able to get out and enjoy the day today.  It could be awhile before it happens again.  I should be good for tomorrow's commute before the bottom falls out.  Looks like I'll be riding the shame train on Wednesday.

I'm dismayed that I'm having that tingly-scratchy feeling in my throat that is usually the warning signs of a cold or other ailment.  I have high hopes of fending it off, but time will tell.  With that, I will sign off with the intent of hitting the sack in the very near future.

First Soup Sunday of 2010

The Soup Sunday tradition continues into 2010.  This week features a butternut squash/yellow curry soup.  I found this recipe today on the internet and then promptly forgot where I found it, even after looking through my IE history (edit: found it!).  Ah, well, apologies if you were interested in the recipe.

This one was pretty good, but I'll probably try other butternut squash soup recipes when the opportunity presents itself.  I'd say this was slightly disappointing as the first Soup Sunday effort of the year.  But, that could also be due to the post-holiday blues.  It seems like everything comes to a standstill for 2 or 3 weeks surrounding the winter holidays.  It's kind of odd but I like it, other than the boredom factor at work.  And, now it's over and we're back to the same old grind.  The same old grind is becoming really grinding, I must say.

I'm not sleeping well (which is HIGHLY unusual for me) and my mental state is even more cantankerous than usual.  I attribute this to my lack of on-bike time.  My riding has been limited of late to short rides to the library and the grocery store.  It has been cold with snow-packed streets, which is my excuse for the lack of riding.  This will be remedied tomorrow.  Temps are expected to be near 40 and dry, so I will be getting my expanding posterior on the bike tomorrow for a little pleasure ride.  Fresh air and exercise are the cure for what ails me.

Or maybe some more bike stuff.

Livin' large in 2010

Calvin and Clark had their New Year's swim this morning...