Tomato Soup
Of all the recipes a well-intentioned person can offer, soup is perhaps the most difficult to quantify. Laurie Colwin famously wrote about this in the essay “Soup,” found in Home Cooking. For the three people left on the planet who haven’t read Colwin, in brief, she describes soup as naturally…
Minestrone
For the non-Italian, deciding to prepare Minestrone can feel a little intimidating. Minestrone itself–a substantial vegetable soup–isn’t difficult to make. The problem is deciding which minestrone to make. Elizabeth David, writing in Italian Cooking, gives five recipes for minestrone. In The Essentials of Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan offers a recipe…
Repairing a Ruined Recipe
Today’s post is less about “recipes” than it is about thinking creatively. More succinctly, it is how I turned one awful dish into two good ones, and saved the world. Well, maybe not that last bit. I am not the type who recycles leftovers into new dishes. As far as…
Queen Henrietta Maria’s Morning Broth
Long before Pop Tarts or Kellogg’s Rice Krispies were widely available, people breakfasted differently. Then as now, what you ate depended on your societal status. If you were a Tudor monarch, you ate very well indeed. If you haven’t heard of Queen Henrietta Maria, a quick history lesson. Born in…
Summer Squash Soup
I know, summer squash soup now? In September? Well, yes, summer squash soup now, in September. Because zucchini (courgettes to my English friends) are piled high in the markets, along with all manner of yellow summer squash. And my instagram feed is full of posts from my gardener friends, who…
Cream of Turnip Soup
Turnips have a reputation for harsh, biting flavor. While larger, mid-winter specimens are indeed pretty sharp, requiring long cooking to soften them, the Tokyo turnip is smaller, gentler, and mildly flavored. Simmered into a soup with potato and cream, it is amiable and surprisingly sweet. I confess to modeling my…
Hot and Sour Soup
I cannot lie and say hot and sour soup is an easy prospect. Not that it’s especially difficult. It’s not, exactly. Hot and sour soup is a hassle. Here is a recipe resistant to streamlining, to convenience, to ease. It clings stubbornly to each and every little bowl, to every…
Cabbage Soup
Pity the poor cabbage. It gets a bad rap. Too many people are scarred by bad cabbage experiences: boiled beyond recognition….or the cabbage soup diet. Lacking illustrative photos of overboiled cabbage or the soup diet, I give you San Francisco’s Union Square. More accurately, a street near Union Square. Handled…
Caregiver’s Noodles
You’re wondering what these are. These thigmajigs, scmetchiks, whaddayacallits, are a crucial part of a wheelchair user’s day–that is, if the wheelchair user has a “swing-away” style footrest on his chair. The above objects are called endcaps. Their job is to hold wheelchair footrests in place while allowing them to…
Cauliflower Potato Soup
Before going any further, Congratulations to Annelies Zijderveld for the IACP member of the year award and to Naomi Duguid for winning the IACP Culinary Travel Award. I have the uniquely good fortune of knowing both authors. Congratulations to all the winners. — Cauliflower is having a moment. It’s the reigning…