Play With Your Food

Notice the Chook Shed Shiraz in the background.  My girlfriend the thrifty crafter introduced me to this wine and it is my new favorite under $10 bottle.  You'll find it at your local Trader Joe's.

Okay, so I’m not actually advocating that you surprise your roommate or significant other with a handful of roasted broccoli to the face.  I’m merely suggesting that being a little playful and experimenting with food can be a good thing.  With a little creativity and sense of adventure, you can take one recipe or cooking technique and come up with a number of variations to spice up your repertoire and keep it interesting in the dining room.
 

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with my soup recipes.  We had some leftover cilantro in the frige after Max made that delicious steak taco salad.  I thought that cilantro might work in my sugar snap pea soup recipe in place of basil.  I also omitted the edamame (I’m trying to stay away from soy) and was too lazy to put together the onion, pepper and bacon saute.  It was an altogether different flavor. 

On another evening, I was in the mood for cauliflower soup, but didn’t want to take the time to roast it for my roasted cauliflower soup recipe.  So, I decided I’d make the soup with the same technique as my broccoli soup recipe.  It was much quicker and quite delicious.  I've made it every week since.  I preferred the color of the soup this way as well.  Using chicken or vegetable stock lends a yellowish color as opposed to the cream/tan color of the roasted cauliflower soup.

I've been using the Cuisinart Smart Stick hand blender that my lovely mother gave me for Christmas to puree my soups.  The hand blender does not do as good of a job of creating a super smooth soup as a regular blender.  Max seems to like the chunky consistency better, so it works out well.  And, its nice to be able to skip the transferring step and puree the soup in the pot.