sustenance

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the onslaught of soup continues. it has been so cold here. my body is screaming for warmth and extra liquids. soup!! so i made delicious, comforting, and hearty mushroom barley soup. i love this soup. it's very earthy and very satisfying. here's the recipe:

mushroom barley soup

1/3 cup dried mushrooms, such as porcini
1 cup hot water
2 tablespoons oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 pound white mushrooms, washed, trimmed, and coarsely chopped
1/2 pound shiitake, cremini, portobella, or other mushrooms, washed, trimmed, and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pearled barley
6 cups vegetable broth (or beef broth)
salt and black pepper

cover the dried mushrooms with the hot water and set aside for 20 minutes. drain, reserving the liquid, and finely chop the mushrooms.

heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot. saute the onion and carrot in the oil over medium heat until the onion begins to color. add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. add the fresh mushrooms and saute for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms soften and begin to release their liquid.

raise the heat, add the barley, and saute until it begins to color slightly. add the broth, mushroom soaking liquid, and reconstituted mushrooms. season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 40 minutes, until the barley is tender.

this soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and frozen for a month. reheat to serve.

recipe notes:

• i used dried shiitakes instead of porcini because that's what i had.
• i used 1/2 lb. of white button mushrooms and 1/2 lb. of baby (porto)bellas.
• i added 1/4 cup more barley (total of 3/4 cup).
• i added more broth, equalling about 8 cups.

posted by: artichoke72 at 01:41 | link | comments (3) |
all recipes, vegetarian recipes, soup recipes

chocolate ice cream cone cupcakes

monday was my son's 4th birthday. i made a basic chocolate cake batter and baked it in 24 individual flat-bottomed ice cream cones. while those were baking i whipped up some delicious chocolate mousse. for the mousse, i poured 3/4 cup heavy cream that i had brought to a boil over 8 ounces of chocolate chips. i stirred until the mixture was smooth. i whipped 2 cups of heavy cream and then gently folded in the chocolate mixture. i put the chocolate mousse into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and piped the mousse onto the cooled cupcakes, so that it looked like soft serve ice cream. i sprinkled rainbow jimmies on top. alternatively, one could top the ice cream cone cupcakes with a scoop of ice cream.

posted by: artichoke72 at 01:59 | link | comments |

southeast asian food

i'm a big fan of southeast asian food, especially vietnamese and thai. when we lived in arlington, texas, there was a large vietnamese community there, so we got to enjoy several vietnamese restaurants. when i was pregnant with my son, i dragged my husband to one of the vietnamese places at least once a week (sometimes 2 or 3!).

my favorite dish at vietnamese restaurants is bun. bun is a huge bowl of rice vermicelli noodles topped with grilled meats, tofu, and/or spring rolls. various other toppings usually accompanied the bun (theses also varied by restaurant)and could include shredded carrots, bean sprouts, thai basil, cilantro, pickled daikon, cucumbers, crushed peanuts. the dish was served with a nuoc cham, which is a fish sauce comprised of fish sauce (nuoc mam), garlic, chiles or chile sauce, shredded carrots, sugar, and lime juice (or vinegar). nuoc cham is one of the most addicting things in the world!

when we moved to the shenadoah valley in virginia, we didn't have a comparable vietnamese restaurant, but we found a little thai place that made bun. we came to love that place (the thai cafe in harrisonburg, virginia), because the people there are so sweet. there was another thai restaurant in harrisonburg that we loved. it is called taste of thai (www.taste-of-thai.com) and it is the BEST thai restaurant i have ever had the pleasure of encountering. they have a thai-style wonton soup that is delicious. it is the basic wonton soup, but has chinese broccoli (including the leaves), thai basil, cilantro, and some other herbs. they also have a dish called pad phrik khing. it's a curry (red, maybe) with green beans and chicken (or beef, pork, or tofu) with lots of coconut milk, thai basil and keffir lime leaves. it's spicy hot too! it is one of the most wonderful things i have ever eaten! i can't reproduce it either (i have tried so many times).

in fredericksburg (where we live now), there are two thai restaurants. both are so-so (although the one downtown was much better the second time we ate there). there is one vietnamese restaurant, but we dont' go there often. the owners are super nice and they remember us everytime, but the food is not authentic enough for our tastes and the portions are little.

since we are in a southeast asian food rut, i have taught myself to cook lots of dishes and i've gotten quite good at preparing them. sometimes it's hard to find the ingredients i need because we don't have an asian market here, but we get by. i grow thai basil and thai chiles in the summer, so that is nice. i also try to go to asian markets and stock up on products when we travel. so, yes, i love southeast asian foods and i am constantly on the lookout for recipes and restaurants.

posted by: artichoke72 at 20:29 | link | comments (3) |

the food bank

a few days before christmas, i took a couple of bags of food to the local food bank. it was the 1st time i have actually been there, myself. i usually donate food through the boy scouts or girl scouts (they come pick it up from my home). it was incredibly sad. i wish i was able to do more.

i am on some kind of 'baby list' and i get tons of coupons for infant formula. many of those coupons are for free cans of infant formula. i don't have an infant (and if i did, i would breastfeed....i'm a strong believer in breastfeeding), but i've been redeming the coupons for free formula. so i was able to take over $100 worth of infant formula (the good kind that has dha added) to the food bank. it made me feel good that i was able to do that. if it wasn't for the coupons, i would have never been able to do that financially.

i think the food bank is a worthy charity. the people i observed there were truly needy. and my parents have been in a situation where they had to utilize a food bank, so it hits close to home. the one thing my mom said about that experience was that the food was all expired and of poor quality. and they were not able to get fresh produce or dairy. the food that is donated to food banks by individuals is usually the result of cleaning out the pantry....consisting of expired and unappetizing food. the food is often highly processed and devoid of any nutritional value. people could not be adequately sustained on food bank food.

posted by: artichoke72 at 03:25 | link | comments |

cheese

i absolutely love cheese and it's quite possible i'm addicted to it. i was just looking in my refrigerator and counted 9 different kinds of cheese. that's excessive! goat cheese, feta, mozzarella, mild cheddar, pepper jack, habanero cheddar, parmesan, ricotta, and american singles are all sitting in the fridge calling my name. oh wait, i forgot, there is some rice cheese in there too....pepper jack flavor....it has a funky aftertaste...not sure if that counts as cheese.

one of my favorite cheese dishes is chile con queso...not velveta & ro-tel, but the real deal. i'm always on the hunt for the perfect chile con queso recipe (also called minguichi in some parts of mexico...michoacan). my favorite queso recipe at the moment is so simple...it's 1 cup mexican crema and 2 cups shredded cheese (a medium cheddar or monterey jack is what i use) with either crumbled dried chiles or chopped pickled jalapenos. i like the version using monterey jack and pickled jalapenos. to make the queso, you just heat the crema in a heavy saucepan over low heat. when it's warm, stir in the shredded cheese. when that is melted, add the dried/pickled chiles. it can be a bit thick, so i usually thin it with a little splash of milk. one of my favorite restaurants, magnolia cafe (www.cafemagnolia.com), in austin, texas serves their "mag queso" with chunks of avocado and pico de gallo. it's wonderful!

posted by: artichoke72 at 21:50 | link | comments |