Empty Wallet Soup

     It happens to the best of us......


 Everyone knows that sometimes, after you get the rent, utilities, medical bills and unforeseen expenses paid for, you're just gonna have to be broke for a few days until your next paycheck. We've all been there, commiserate with me, won't you?

 So, tonight's challenge was feeding myself with what I had in the house (our pantry is always well-stocked, thankfully, so this certainly wasn't the challenge it could have been), and rather than let it stress me out, I was actually looking forward to it :) It gave me the opportunity to interpret a delicious and hella easy soup recipe that my friend Merlyn gave me about a month ago :)

 In it's true incarnation, this soup is called *Blushing Bunny Soup* (how adorable is that?), and Merlyn made it for us at our April StoryBook Club Meeting a few weeks back :) Our theme? The Velveteen Rabbit :) Merlyn, my love, as I said that night, I tip my hat to you, because this has to be one of the easiest, tastiest and most comforting soups I've had the pleasure of eating :) I could face a month of rainy days if I knew that this soup would be on the menu every night. Creamy, just a little spicy, and very reminiscent of the old childhood standby (grilled cheese and tomato soup, NOM), this soup is basically all you could ask for in the comfort food realm :)

 So, why didn't I just make Merlyn's original recipe and call it Blushing Bunny Soup? Because I only had some of the ingredients she called for in her original recipe, and had to improvise the rest. However, this was hardly an upsetting task, as Improvising in the Kitchen is basically the name of my game :)

 Before we get to my improvised version of this soup, I am going to include Merlyn's original recipe here, because you really should make it just the way it is, at least for your first try, because it is DELICIOUS :)

Blushing Bunny Soup
(recipe courtesy of Merlyn Fuller)
-1 large can Campbell's Tomato Soup
-1/2 can milk or cream (as in, pour the milk/cream into the now empty soup can until it is half full)
-1 or 2 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
-1 or 2tbsp. Yellow Mustard
-1-2 bags Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- A few slices of toasted Italian Bread


-Whisk all ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat until smooth.
-Serve over broken bits of Italian Bread Toast
-snuggle up with a blanket/good book/classic movie/snuggle buddy and enjoy life :)




 Now, onto my improvised version of this soup. Again, this version came about because I made it with ingredients that I had in my house, as a grocery store trip wasn't happening today. All of these items are fairly standard fridge/pantry fare, and, although I didn't time it specifically, I'm pretty dang sure that you could throw this together in under 15 minutes, maybe even under 10 minutes. That's a warm, comforting, CHEAP (actually, basically free because it was made of items I already had) homemade meal on the table in practically no time at all :) WIN :)

Empty Wallet Soup
(inspired by the Blushing Bunny Soup listed above)
-1 28oz can tomato puree
-1-2 cups milk (I used skim milk) ( you could also fill the puree can half full of milk, like the recipe above, really, it depends on what your desired consistency is, if you like thicker soups, back off on the milk, if you like thinner soups, use the full amount of milk)
-1-2 tbsp. Spicy Brown Mustard
-1 large wedge Smoked Gouda Cheese
-2 slices deli-cut Provolone Cheese
-1 slice deli-cut sharp cheddar cheese
-One large Whole Wheat Pita, toasted (obviously, my first choice would have been Italian Bread Toast, but all I had in the house was the Pita, so that's what I used)
-Salt and Pepper to taste

-Combine the Tomato Puree, Mustard and Milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine.

                       
                              (I used about half of this Pac Man-shaped wedge)

-Grate the Smoked Gouda cheese into the soup and stir/whisk to combine.
-Add any other cheeses to the soup and stir/whisk to combine until smooth.


*FULL DISCLOSURE* The smoked gouda will not melt seamlessly into the soup, some of the texture will remain and it will be visible in the soup. The provolone and cheddar, however, will melt beautifully, and will basically disappear into the soup, making it extra creamy :)

-Taste to adjust seasonings, salt, pepper, etc to taste ( I added a few shakes of black pepper and a picnch of sea salt, and one more squeeze of mustard).


-Serve over toasted pita or bread of choice.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that the variations on this soup are virtually endless :) Want to go Italian? Switch out the Cheddar and the Gouda for Mozzarella and Parmesan and add a little basil. How about Tex-Mex? Use Pepper Jack or Manchego, sub sour cream for the milk and stir in some salsa or jalapenos, serve over tortilla chips. French? Gruyere, Dijon Mustard and a few glugs of wine, serve over baguette, and on and on and on ;) Soup can be whatever you want it to be, once you have the base recipe the sky's the limit :)

Salud,
Lynn :)

Spotlight On: Columbus, Ohio

Nothing beats a pleasant surprise :)

     The first weekend in November my family and I went to visit my brother, Dan, in Columbus, Ohio, where he is a graduate student studying Urban Planning at Ohio State University.

    People, I do not know what I was expecting, but it most certainly wasn't a gorgeous, clean city with a vibrant arts community, a huge and amazing university with a kickass sports team, beautiful rivers, peaceful suburbs, interesting and diverse neighborhoods, just about every other cool thing you can think of. We had a wonderful weekend exploring, attending the Ohio vs. Indiana football game (Buckeyes won 34-20!!!!! O-HI-O!!!!), relaxing in the hotel, and EATING. No foolin', the food scene in Columbus is A.MAZE.ING. I can't say enough good things about it :)

    The foodie adventure started on Friday night when we hit up a Middle Eastern Restaurant called Lavash Cafe .

This my friends, was first rate short order Middle Eastern cooking. Yes, you read that correctly. You wouldn't think that a counter service- based restaurant could be this good, but it WAS. Their menu was extensive and everything was fresh. excellently seasoned and DELICIOUS. An added bonus was that the owner was a constant, pleasant presence in the dining room, stopping by each table several times to answer menu questions, deliver food to customers that weren't able to walk up to the counter, make jokes, check on the diner's experience, and just generally be entertaining and friendly. This gentleman clearly took pride in his food and his business, and his good mood was certainly infectious. We started with hummus and Kibbeh, which, for those unfamiliar, is ground meat with onions and pine nuts in a deep fried wheat shell served with yogurt sauce *YUM*, for entrees, there were gyro platters, Shawarma, and Mojadara (rice and lentils over a tomato, cucumer and herb salad), all served with saffron/almond rice, salad and pita bread. This place was a total win :) Props to the Lavash Cafe crew for running such a tight ship :)

  But the evening didn't end there :) After some shopping and a little downtime at my brother's apartment, we headed over to what might have been one of my favorite spots, the Grandview Ave. neighborhood for some ARTISANAL ICE CREAM  *swooooooooon!!!* We had the pleasure of going to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, (sorry, I couldn't the photo of this one to load) which, if you are unfamiliar, is a homegrown business that started in Jeni's home kitchen, and now has 11 locations across the state of Ohio. Jeni's only uses local milk from grass fed cows, and boy oh boy oh boy can you taste the difference that that makes :) In Jeni's own words, they only create ice cream flavors that, " we fall madly in love with, that we want to bathe in, and that make us see million year-old stars". I am so glad that there are other people in the world that feel the same way about ice cream that I do :) The Jeni's team is endlessly creative when it comes to ice cream flavors. Among the flavors we sampled that night were Goat Cheese with Figs and Cognac, Salty Caramel, Smoked Tea and Plum Pudding, Vanilla Cedarwood, and one called "The Milkiest Chocolate in the World" which most certainly lived up to it's name. I do not have the words to tell you how absolutely delicious this ice cream was, but I can tell you that Jeni's will DELIVER ICE CREAM VIA UPS ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY!!! I know this because my brother sent my mother some Jeni's ice cream for Mother's Day this year :) I wholeheartedly recommend this ice cream :) Jeni has also recently published a cookbook, and one day soon it will be MINE!!!

The next standout on our culinary tour was post-football game dinner on Saturday night at City BBQ

    Another Ohio standout, and one of the only BBQ joints I've ever found that might actually be in the same category of Syracuse's beloved Dinosaur BBQ. Again, this is counter service in it's highest form. You know the food's gonna be dang good if there's a (fast moving) line out the door. After ordering at the counter, and waiting a surprisingly short amount of time, we plunked down at a bare wooden table which was dressed only with a napkin container and a motley assortment of bbq sauces, we dug into our feast. Friends, this was my first encounter with a Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich, and HIGH HOLY HELL am I a woman converted :) Allow me to explain. By and large, I strongly dislike coleslaw. I find it too squishy and too sweet to really be palatable in most cases. However, this coleslaw was cool and creamy and tangy, not the least bit sweet or mushy, and the interplay of the tangy, cool coleslaw against the rich, unctuous pulled pork was HEAVENLY :) I now have a standard order whenever I go out for BBQ :) Several of my table mates also got the Carolina Pork Sandwich, but the Brisket and the Pulled-Pork sans coleslaw were also excellent. I must also give props to the fresh-cut French Fries, which were the exact right kind of crispy, the mac and cheese, the spot-on cornbread, and THE DEEP FRIED PICKLES ( deep friend pickles were one of those foods that weirded me out at first, but one bite and I'll never look back, YUM-O!!!) A fun quirk about City BBQ? The walls are decorated with antique/quirky/interesting bbq and hot sauce bottles, and if you bring one in to add to their collection, you get free food, can't hate that :) I also want to give a nod to the fact that both their lemonade and iced tea were scratch made and freshly brewed with real lemons and real tea leaves and natural sugar and you could absolutely taste the difference :) We wanted to try the Peach Cobbler, but we were stuffed absolutely silly and dessert was not an option, so we'll save that one for the next trip :)

Before heading back to Syracuse on Sunday, we had brunch at another local institution in the Grandview neighborhood, Paul's Fifth Avenue  .
 

      This was another establishment that was packed to the gills (although being the day after an at-home game victory for Ohio State, I really shouldn't have been surprised). At first, I was a little put off, because there was absolutely NO ROOM for diners waiting for a table, so your choices were to hover over the already seated diners, or smush two or three deep against the wall. However, this is a design flaw and in no way the fault of the staff. They sat us as soon as they could and got to us as soon as they could. Having been in food service off and on for most of my adult life so far, I'm more than willing to cut them a little slack. Our server was in a refreshingly good mood, which is always welcome after a harried morning :) Paul's has been around for over 40 years, and if the rest of their meals are as good as their breakfasts are, I can understand why :) No one got anything especially elaborate, eggs over easy/sunny side up/scrambled, toast, a Greek Omelet, a Wisconsin Omelet, sausage patties and home fries,but everything was cooked to perfection, served hot, excellent portion sizes, and DELISH :) If I had one complaint about Paul's it would be that they really should expand their building, they absolutely have the client base to justify an expansion, but service and food-wise, everything was excellent :)

I loved Columbus, capital *L* Loved :) I had a wonderful time with my family and I was genuinely sorry to leave. I'm definitely going back as soon as possible :)

Love,
Lynn



     

Crock Pot Lasagna

    Is there anyone else out there who experiences Food Emergencies? I'm sure there are, but allow me to explain. In my world, a food emergency is akin to a craving. When, for reasons internal or external, a certain food becomes immediately necessary. Stress, PMS, good days, bad days, and so on, lead to food emergencies. I myself have been known to have Milkshakes Emergencies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Emergencies, and Fresh Fruit Emergencies, just to name a few :)

    Being Italian, Pasta is basically always at the top of my comfort food list. In all it's many incarnations, homemade pasta is basically love and comfort in a bowl, at for me:. Sometimes, you just need Lasagna, you know what I mean? However, sometimes I just don't have the time to make a traditional lasagna, as much as I would like to. Last year, my wonderful Mama gave me a cookbook that was a compilation of recipes from the people who work at her hospital, and in this book are several delicious stew and pasta recipes that have been designed for a slow cooker. My two favorites from this book are the Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese (that one will probably show up in a later post), and the star of today's show, Crock Pot Lasagna. Yes, friends, Lasagna wherein you can throw virtually all of the ingredients into the Crock Pot, uncooked, forget about it for a few hours, and then have it ready and waiting for you. The only "cooking" you have to do is brown the meat before it goes in. Oh, Crock Pot Lasagna, where have you BEEN all my life?

  BEFORE WE BEGIN: This version does not serve up as neatly as traditional lasagna (the kind you put in the oven and serve by cutting and serving in squares). Getting the lasagna out of the Crock Pot can make the layers more prone to falling apart, so they won't be pretty, perefectly shaped squares, but that certainly won't affect the taste. The flavor is not exactly the same as traditional lasagna either, but it's pretty darn close and goes together in about one quarter of the time. So, here ya go, throw this in the Crock Pot mid-morning and the bubbly, cheesy, meaty pasta goodness will be ready for you by dinner time :) YUM:)

Crock Pot Lasagna
- 6 Lasagna noodles, uncooked
- 1/2 lb. ground beef
- 1/4 lb Italian sausage (you could also use all beef or all sausage, depending on your tastes)
- 1 garlic clove (or 1/2 of a garlic clove if garlic isn't your thing, although I find it hard to believe people like that actually exist 0_o)
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded  (okay, I'll be honest, the recipe in the book called for 1 cup, but if you think that's all I used you clearly don't know me very well :) Use however much tickles your fancy:)
- 14 oz. Pasta Sauce, we make our own in my family, but if you do jarred sauce, use your favorite brand.
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 can mushrooms (optional, I've made it both ways, and they're both tasty, again, do as you please)
- 8 oz. Ricotta Cheese (my Mom mixes one egg and a little parsley into the Ricotta cheese, even though the recipe in the book doesn't call for it. I prefer it my Mom's way, but it's your call)

- Grease Crock Pot (Unless it's non-stick. I was tempted to skip this, don't. A thin coating of oil or Pam should do you just fine)
- Break noodles in half and place 1/2 of the noodles in the bottom of the Crock Pot. Brown beef and sausage and drain. Spread half of this mixture over the first layer of lasagna noodles.
- Follow the meat mixture with half of the sauce, water, mushrooms (if using), ricotta and mozzarella. Repeat ingredients in this order for the second layer, ending with the mozzarella cheese.

- Cook on low for 5 hours. Serves about 4 people.

This recipe is enough for about two layers. If you have a bigger/deeper Crock Pot, or you are feeding more people, this recipe can be increased by 1/3rd (for a third layer), doubled or even tripled. That's why I love dishes like this, they can be adjusted to feed as many people as you can crowd around a table. Pasta is Magic :)

To give credit where it is certainly due, this recipe came from the Community General Hospital Family Cookbook:)

Enjoy <3
Lynn

UPDATE 11/26/11: I would like to apologize for the photo quality in this particular blog post. This was back when I was still getting the hang of food photography and wasn't very adept at getting step by step photos. The next time I make this dish I will reshoot the photos and put them up here so that they better illustrate the recipe :)