Bringing the Tropics Home

Last week, my little family and I went for a vacation to Kauai which is one of the islands in Hawaii. As I wrote about here, it is a good idea to get out of the Seattle gray skies and drizzle at least once each winter to keep your sanity - if possible. We have had more sun this winter than usual, but also more cold and a LOT more snow. Suffice it to say that I was really ready to see the sun and to have it be warm.

But it was not to be. Kauai is the "rainy" island and we were staying at the "rainy" end of it, but usually that just means that, in the midst of sunny 80 degree days, rain clouds periodically pass by and drench you. I'm OK with that. Our week was a little different. Some kind of storm system was settled over the islands last week and we had colder than usual temperatures, quite a bit of rain, and a lot of wind. Oh, and not much sun.

We still had a lovely vacation - we were all together in a nice place and the boys got to play on the beach and even stick their toes in the water. We went to an incredible park with the best play structure that any of us had ever seen. Randy and I got a babysitter one night and went out for dinner. And each night at 5pm, we would venture over to the bar for happy hour and the cocktail of the day. The boys were particularly fond of pineapple and guava juice. We were particularly fond of anything with rum.

It was really so nice to be away from our stressful and busy lives back home. It felt luxurious to just sit for a while - and not at the computer! I finished 2 1/2 books and it would have been 3 if I had not chosen Salman Rushdie's latest. He is a tough read.

Now that we are back, I find myself missing the tropics - even if the tropics weren't that tropical for us this year. I wanted to re-create some of those flavors for my clients this week and found the most amazing soup. This tropical gazpacho is quite different than the gazpacho I make gallons of each summer. Most of the vegetables, along with some bread, are all pureed together. Here is the kicker - there is pineapple in there too. It may sound weird, but I assure you the flavor is fantastic. The pineapple doesn't overpower, just lends a slight sweetness and yes, tropical-ness. I would encourage you to taste as you go and what you think it needs. I added additional pineapple and it's juice, plus more lime. I served this soup with Sweet Potato Roti and Golden Basmati Rice Pilaf.


Tropical Gazpacho
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
Serves 4-6

4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 English cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 medium red pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup canned unsweetened pineapple chunks in juice
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
generous pinch cayenne, or more to taste
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 cups crusty bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks
3 cups tomato juice
salt and pepper to taste

In a blender or food processor, combine the garlic, 1/2 the cucumbers, 1/2 the bell peppers, the red onion, 1/2 the tomatoes, the pineapple and its juice, vinegar, cayenne, cumin, bread chunks, and tomato juice and puree until smooth. (DN: If you do this in the blender, it will be quite full. Be sure to hang on to the top when you turn it on.)

Transfer to a bowl, then stir in the remaining vegetables. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Pappa al Pomodoro

I got several questions about how to serve the flatbread. Is it an appetizer? Side dish? Bread? Truthfully, it is whatever you want it to be. The three times I have made it, I have served it as a sort of side. There were substantial other things to eat - like this soup. More on that in a minute. But I can also see it sliced into thin pieces and served as an easy-to-pick-up appetizer. I can see it as a main course served with a nice savory salad. You could even serve it as a pre-dessert course instead of a cheese plate. The possibilities are endless.

I chose to make this soup simply because it was a cold day and it caught my eye. I have made one other version of Pappa al Pomodoro which I found incredibly delicious but this one was even better. I assume that the "real" version of this soup is much more simple - that's the beauty of Italian home cooking, right? But I have to say that I loved the boost of flavor that carrot and fennel added here, and I loved the textural contrast of the croutons and crispy basil on top.

I served big bowls of the soup, the flatbread, and a big salad with lots of yummy things in it (avacado, mushrooms, tomatoes, hearts of palm, etc.) For dessert, a three layer cake with Kahlua in the cake, the custard in between the layers and in the frosting. I did not take a picture of it because, in spite of taking a cake decorating class last weekend, it was crooked and had lots of crumbs in the frosting!

Other vegan soup recipes on DanaTreat:
Tome Yum Soup with Tofu and Mushrooms
Orange Pepper Soup
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

Pappa al Pomodoro
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics
Serves 6-8

I intended to vegetarian-ize this recipe by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock, and by leaving out the pancetta called for in the garnish. I unintentionally vegan-ized it by forgetting to add Parmesan cheese right before serving. If you want the cheese, add 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan either to the whole pot right before serving, or add it to the individual bowls.

Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup medium diced carrots
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, cored, and medium-diced
4 tsp. minced garlic
3 cups (1 inch) diced ciabatta bread
2 (28 ounce) cans good quality Italian plum tomatoes
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 dry red wine
1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the topping:
3 cups (1 inch) diced ciabatta bread
30 whole fresh basil leaves
Olive oil

Heat a large stockpot over medium heat. Add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom, then add the onions, carrots, and fennel. Cook for 7 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Add the ciabatta cubes and cook for 5 more minutes.

Place the tomatoes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process just until coarsely chopped. (DN: I just stuck my immersion blender directly into the can to save washing the food processor.) Add the tomatoes to the pot along with the vegetable stock, red wine, basil, 1 tbsp. salt, and 1 1/2 tsp. pepper. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and allow to simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. For the topping, place the ciabatta and basil on a sheet pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss well. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes, until all the ingredients are crisp. The basil leaves will turn dark and crisp, which is perfectly fine.

Reheat the soup, if necessary, and beat with a wire whisk until the bread is broken up. (DN: I used my immersion blender again here.) Serve hot sprinkled with topping.

Hot and Spicy Soup for a Cold Night

One of the tricky things about my business is coming up with a full menu. When I am cooking for my own family, I usually just plan the main course, perhaps a side of steamed broccoli (my favorite vegetable), and a simple salad. On rare occasions, it's just a main. Or a very simple side. For example, one night this coming week we are going to have Mixed Bell Pepper Quesadillas. I will most likely make guacamole, but other than that will just probably heat up some re-fried beans and make sure there is plenty of salsa.

For my paying clients though, I need to make more of an effort. I charge them for each component of the meal, so I can't in good conscience give them steamed broccoli. Sometimes the three courses just come to me and sometimes I have to scramble to put a menu together that works. This doesn't mean that each course is a show-stopper - I do have time constraints - but I would like to think that each one is something that they wouldn't necessarily make for themselves.

Before I started cooking for clients, I always thought of soup as more a main course dish. But as I saw the need to vary my menus, and to come up with interesting and innovative side dishes, I started making many more soups. If they are not a main course, I tend to keep them relatively simple. I feature one vegetable, or make them nice and light, or - as in the case with this soup - nice and brothy. I was looking for something flavorful, hot, and spicy to serve with the Red Curry last week. I remembered that I had made this soup once before and was very pleased with it. It turned out to be a great choice for a cold night.

Tome Yum Soup with Mushrooms and Tofu
Adapted from Real Vegetarian Thai
Serves 4-6

You can make this soup much more substantial by adding rice or rice noodles to individual portions.

6 cups vegetable stock
3 large stalks lemongrass
Zest and juice of 2 limes
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 fresh jalapeno chili, diced
8 ounces extra firm tofu, cut into 1 inch chunks
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp. roasted chili paste
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt

Zest the limes and set aside the zest. Place the jalapeno and green onions in a small bowl and squeeze the juice of the limes over. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, bring the vegetable stock to a boil. Meanwhile, trip the lemongrass stalks. Cut away and discard any hard, dried root portions, leaving a smooth, flat base just below the bulb. Trim away the tops so the stalks are about 6 inches in length. Using the blunt edge of a knife, bruise each stalk, whacking it firmly at 2 inch intervals and rolling it over to bruise on all sides. Cut into 2 inch lengths.

When the stock is boiling, add the lemongrass and the lime zest and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the stock is fragrant, about 5 minutes. Scoop out the lemongrass from the stock and discard it (it's ok if some of the zest comes along for the ride). Raise the heat to high and add the tofu, mushrooms, chili paste, sugar, soy sauce, and salt and stir well. When the soup boils again, turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and cook for another 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove the cover and add the green onion mixture. Taste and adjust the flavors with more lime juice, soy, or sugar as needed.

Roasted Orange Pepper Soup

In my opinion, it is really easy to "over do" vegetarian food. That may sound strange to someone who is not familiar with it - someone who thinks that vegetarians only eat salads and a variety of sprouts. But the truth is, there is often this implied need to compensate for lack of meat. Whether it is conscious or sub-conscious, it is something I notice in the vegetarian dishes of many restaurants and in a lot of my cookbooks. I even notice it in the recipes I am drawn to. I tend to see something simple and pass it by for something more complicated with twice the number of ingredients.

There are certain cookbook authors who have helped me correct this tendency - at least part of the time. One of them is Patricia Wells. When I was looking for something to serve with a Baked Arugula Omelet and the lentils I made last week, I stumbled upon this Roasted Orange Pepper Soup. I scanned the list of ingredients and, although my first instinct was to make something more involved, I ultimately decided it would match the rest of my meal perfectly.

The beauty of this soup is that it is a perfect first course for almost any meal. It is light but with pronounced flavors, thanks to the roasting of the peppers. It has that dreamy creamy texture but without any cream. Like most soups, this one can be made a day or two in advance, and you can even roast the peppers a day or two before you make the actual soup. I had leftovers so I reheated it last night for guests and added about 1/2 cup of cooked rice to each bowl to make it more of a main course. Incredibly versatile and yet oh so simple.

Recipe Note: To roast peppers, preheat an oven to 450 degrees. Place peppers on a baking sheet and bake in the oven, turning occasionally, until skin is quite black in places, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and place a long sheet of foil over the baking sheet. Wait 10 minutes, then remove foil. Allow peppers to cool enough to handle, then peel the skin away. Do this over a bowl so you catch all the delicious juices. Discard the seeds and inner membranes.

Roasted Orange Pepper Soup
Adapted from Vegetable Harvest
Serves 8

Wells suggests serving each bowl with a drizzle of pistachio, walnut, or olive oil as a garnish. I skipped that step.

Olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
Sea Salt
2 lbs. orange peppers, roasted, peeled, and sliced
2 quarts vegetable stock
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Freshly ground pepper

1. Heat a stock pot over low heat and add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the onions and a healthy pinch of salt and sweat - cook, covered, over low heat until soft - for 4-5 minutes. Add the sliced peppers and cook for 4-5 minutes more. Add the stock and the potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, covered, until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

2. In a food processor or with a blender, or an immersion blender, puree in batches. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Jerusalem Artichokes

A few weeks ago, we ate at the new restaurant Poppy where, I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the meal. But, I had the most incredible soup and have not been able to stop thinking about Jerusalem artichokes since. I found a recipe for a soup that sounds quite different from the one I had but no less intriguing.

This is the first time I have worked with Jerusalem artichokes which, as it turns out, have nothing to do with either Jerusalem or artichokes. They actually are part of the sunflower and look like ginger root. As I was buying the four pounds I needed for soup to feed 10, I started getting carpal tunnel just thinking about peeling all of those buggers. Thankfully, the books I consulted said to just give them a good scrub instead of a peel. Phew! I cut them into a small dice and roasted them in the oven where they proceeded to smell like french fries - always a good sign in my book.

The soup I had a Poppy had the most incredible velvety texture that can only come from time in the blender. One of my least favorite kitchen tasks (a list coming to this blog soon...), is to blend soups in the blender. Unless you wait until it completely cools down, you have to be incredibly careful that the lid of the blender doesn't blow off and spray soup all over your ceiling. Even if you don't have that lovely experience, you still end up dirtying another pot or bowl putting the blended soup into while the un-blended soup waits in the original pot - not to mention the blender. I HATE doing more dishes than absolutely necessary.

Enter the immersion blender. This wonderful tool allows you to basically stick your blender into the soup pot. The only extra thing to wash is a small wand with a blade. I have had one since 2000 and it is one of my most used kitchen tools. I use it, not only for soup, but also to crush canned tomatoes, right in the can. It's genius.

Just a few weeks ago, I got mine out to puree something and it had gone and died on me. I was actually surprised it had lasted as long as it had, seeing as I use it quite frequently. My parents bought it for me about 8 years ago, when there weren't many models on the market. Mine came from Williams-Sonoma and their name was actually on the side of the blender. I thought I would bring it back to them since I have had excellent customer service there in the past, and just see what was what. Incredibly, they could look up the records of when my parents bought it and tell me how much it cost at that time. It has been years since they have attached their name to this product so they offered me a new Breville one for the whopping price of $1 since mine originally cost $98 and this one cost $99.

I love the idea of shopping at local kitchen stores. There are two decent ones I can think of in Seattle. But with customer service like this, it's hard to walk away from Williams-Sonoma.

The one complaint I have about my spanking new immersion blender is that it is battery operated so it needs to be charged before using it. Since I don't use it that often, it's never charged when I need it. So, when I went to puree this soup today - and I was fighting daylight so I could take a picture - I ended up putting it in the blender after all. Because of the Jerusalem artichoke skins, I didn't end up with a perfectly smooth puree - even using the blender. But I always like a little bite in my soup so I didn't mind at all.



Spinach and Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
Adapted from Easy Vegetarian Cookbook
Serves 4

14 oz. Jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchokes), chopped into 3/4 inch pieces
Olive oil
Kosher salt
1 leek, white and pale green part only, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Splash of white wine
4 cups vegetable stock
6 oz. fresh spinach
Juice of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss Jerusalem artichokes with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Roast for about 15 minutes, until starting to brown.

2. Saute the leek and garlic in a little olive oil over medium heat, for 3-5 minutes, until soft but not brown. Add the white wine and continue to cook for a further 3-5 minutes, until the liquid has reduced completely

3. Add the Jerusalem artichokes and vegetable stock and simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Add the spinach and fresh lemon juice and blend - either in a blender, food processor, or with an immersion blender, and until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Moroccoan Food and My Dad

My dad is a retired doctor - an oncologist to be exact. He had a private practice for over 30 years and worked incredibly hard the whole time. The patients he had tended to be incredibly ill and he lost so very many of them to incurable cancers. He also saved a lot of them, or extended their lives beyond what they could have hoped for.

When I tell someone who knows him (a former patient, family member of a patient, or someone in the medical community) that I am his daughter, they unfailingly tell me what a wonderful man he is. I know. He is a great dad too. During my entire childhood, he worked very long hours, but it never seemed that way to me. He was very present when he was home, so it seemed that he was around a lot more than he actually was.

I worried a little about him retiring. Being a doctor, a good doctor, was so much a part of him and I wondered how he would transition to a life without that identity and with a lot more free time. I needn't have worried. He and my mom have been incredibly active and busy basically since his retirement party. He took birding classes, joined a softball team, joined a cancer survivor support group (yes, he has also been a patient), and he and my mom have traveled all over the place. Last year they went to Austria and Germany on one trip and Italy on another.

Just last week, they left for Morocco. They are going with a tour group of sorts (an active tour group), but this was still a big step for them. Morocco is much more foreign than the other places they have traveled - except for Turkey a couple of summers ago. They were very excited to go but apprehensive. I can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures. A bonus of their trip is that they opted to start in Madrid - a place they had never been. My dad was an art history major (unusual for someone who is pre-med), and had never seen the Prado Museum. His favorite artist is Goya and there are some of the most incredible examples of his work in the Prado. My dad is five years post-op from his cancer and is incredibly healthy. It makes me very happy that he will see those amazing paintings and get to see Morocco.

In honor of their trip, I decided to do a Moroccan style dinner last week and at the heart of it was this amazing soup. It's called Harira Soup and, among my many cookbooks, I have several recipes for it. The one I chose last week turned out to be my favorite yet. It comes from a marvelous cookbook called World Food Cafe, which is also an incredible restaurant in the Covent Garden are of London. Randy and I ate several meals there and I was always torn as to what to order (it is all vegetarian). World Food Cafe is owned by a husband and wife team and the husband just happens to be the Photographer-in-Residence for the Royal Geographic Society. The cookbook's photography is stunning and the recipes reflect their travels all over the world.

Harira Soup
Adapted from World Food Cafe
Serves 4-6

This soup is very easy to make but it does require a fair amount of chopping. Look at it as an opportunity to practice your knife skills! Like most soups, it tastes even better the next day, but will most likely be very thick. Add water as needed as you reheat it. You can also do some things ahead of time, like chop the celery and carrots (potatoes will discolor and onions will get too stinky), and measure out the spices.

Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. saffron or tumeric
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tbsp. paprika
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 large red potatoes, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup dried green lentils
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes in heavy puree
2 cups vegetable stock
Water as needed
1 14 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 oz. vermicelli (or angel hair pasta), broken up
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat and toss in the onions and a healthy pinch of salt. Saute the onions until soft. Add the garlic and stir for three minutes.

Add the parsley, ginger, black pepper, saffron or tumeric, cayenne, paprika, and coriander, stirring to prevent sticking. Add the potatoes, carrots, celery, lentils, and tomato paste. Stir well and add the tomatoes, stock, and enough water to cover the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, adding more water as necessary to make a thick soup.

Add the chickpeas and vermicelli and cover. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. Pour in the lemon juice and add salt to taste.

Soup for Deb

A few years ago, I decided to lead a PEPS group. PEPS stands for Program for Early Parenthood Support and it is, as it sounds, a support group for new parents. I joined a group when my older son was just a couple months old and, while I loved the concept of the group, I just didn't get that much out of it. I liked a lot of the women in the group, but didn't think our leader did a good job of keeping things real. I felt like the only one who was having a hard time with the whole newborn thing and I think the leader could have helped some of those issues come out.

Because I really support the idea, I thought I should lead a group and help other women (or men) live through those first few months. Lucky me - I got an extraordinary group of moms and leading that group is one of my best experiences of the past five years. We met for four months and saw the babies go from tiny little bundles to sitting up and interacting with the world. These moms were very honest with the struggles they were having and I really felt like they all got a lot out of the time we all spent together.

One of the women was a real treasure. Deb is that incredible cheerleader type who is completely and 100% sincere. She is tirelessly positive and yet the first to admit when things aren't going right. She injected humor and caring into all of our discussions. Early on, she told me her husband was a builder and was in the process of building two houses in a neighborhood that I love. They planned to move into one and the other was going to go on the market once finished. At the time, we were thinking about getting pregnant with our second child and our house was feeling a little small. I went to take a look at the house in question and fell in love.

Fast forward many months, many sessions of Randy crunching numbers, many decisions and choices on how to finish the house, and having my second baby - Deb is my neighbor. She is also a true and wonderful friend. We have spent a lot of time at one another's houses and my older son and her daughter are best friends. She has helped me innumerable times - whether just pouring me a big glass of wine just when I need it, or watching one or both of my kids. We have shared many many meals together and one of her favorite things that I made for her was this soup. She keeps reminding me that she wants the recipe and the time has come to put it here. I made it for my clients last night and it is as wonderful as I remembered. A delicious way to start a Mexican meal - I served it with Baked Rice with Tomatillos and Poblanos and Black Bean Salad.

Deb and her lovely family are moving in the next month to another house and I am just sick about it. It is only 6 or so blocks away but I will so miss having them next door. Here is your soup, friend.



Sopa de Calabacitas (Zucchini Soup)
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
Makes 6 first course servings

I made substantial changes to this recipe which I have included here. The original calls for a lot more cream (1 cup) which is too rich for my taste, but feel free to add as you like. Fresh epazote can be hard to find - I used dried as I was sauteeing the onions and added slightly less fresh dill.

1/2 lb. poblano chiles
1 1/2 lb. zucchini, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 cup chopped white or yellow onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp. butter or olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
2 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
3 tbsp. chopped cilantro
3 tbsp. chopped fresh epazote leaves
2 tbsp. chopped fresh dill
1 small jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream

Roast poblanos: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place poblanos on a baking sheet and bake until brown and wrinkled, about 15 minutes, turning once. Remove from the oven and carefully wrap a sheet of foil to cover the baking sheet. Let rest 10 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skins and discard the seeds and ribs.

Make soup: Cook zucchini, onion, garlic and 1 1/2 tsp salt in a wide pot, over medium heat, stirring often until vegetables are softened. Add broth, water, poblanos, and corn and simmer, partially covered, until corn is tender, about 5 minutes. Puree 2 cups soup in a blender with cilantro, dill or fresh epazote, and jalapeno until smooth (use extreme caution when blending hot liquids). Return to pot. Stir in cream, pepper and salt to taste. (Soup can be made one day ahead. Allow to cool completely, then cover and store in refrigerator.)

Two Dishes out of One

A few months after my oldest son was born, I got it into my head that I wanted to start a supper club. Everything is a little foggy from that time in my life so I don't remember what made me decide that was the right time - especially since I could barely make pasta with jarred sauce because of the exhaustion I was experiencing. Maybe it was a desperate attempt to get back to the cooking I loved and missed with the care required for a newborn. Regardless of the reason, start one I did and almost four years later we are still going strong.

We started off getting together about every other month and now we have slipped a bit so it is only four or five times a year. We are all committed to making it more frequent, but coordinating four families' schedules (there are ten children between all of us) makes it a little difficult. We hosted this past Saturday night and I thought long and hard about what I wanted to make. I feel like the past few times we have hosted, I have made something a little on the "weird" side - something aggressively vegetarian - so I thought I would dial it down a notch and make something more approachable.

Fall is the perfect season for dinner parties. It's cozy to be in someone's home rather than a restaurant, and the possibilities for seasonal dining are endless. I chose to feature some of my favorite flavors - apple, squash, balsamic vinegar, sage. We started with a simple green salad with lots of herbs (chervil, parsley, and tarragon) and a wedge of Camembert cheese. Because the dinner was going to have a lot of strong flavors, I chose to keep the salad very green and clean. The dressing was a simple vinaigrette with whole grain mustard and champange vinegar.

The main feature of dinner was a Butternut Squash Galette, a variation on this one from the Macrina Bakery cookbook. The squash was mixed with cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, plus a couple pinches of fresh sage, and that mixture was topped with sauteed apples which had been tossed with the same spice mixture. Lest this all seem to sweet for dinner, there was a healthy scattering of Gorganzola cheese and parsley over the top to keep it nice and savory. To accompany the galette, I made incredible cipolline onions (you can find the recipe here) which will certainly be a repeat on my Thanksgiving menu. Until I met Randy, I would never have considered an onion anything other than an element of a mirepoix, but he has taught me that onions need their due.

Because two of the three parts of the plate had sweet elements, I thought the third needed to be really savory. For some reason, white beans jumped out at me and I decided to make some with sage and tomatoes. I usually find bean dishes too dry, so I was determined to make this nice and moist with lots of flavor. My end result met my expectations but because I am me and I chronically overcook, I made way too many beans. Ultimately, this was a great mistake because I used them the next night to make a simple and delicious soup. All I had to do was saute some onion and finely chopped celery and carrot until soft, add the beans (which already had a fully round flavor of their own, especially after a night in the refrigerator), a little vegetable broth and voila - soup!

White Beans with Tomatoes and Sage
Serves 6 (with enough for soup, see recipe below)

When I made this, I used 1 1/2 pounds of beans to serve 8 and I had a tremendous amount left over. This recipe is a little more modest.

1 lb. dried white beans, such as cannelini
Olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 28 oz. can Italian whole tomatoes, with added puree
3 tbsp. chopped fresh sage
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the beans a large pot and cover with cold water by at least two inches. Allow to soak overnight.

Drain the beans and rinse them well with cold water. Refill the pot with the beans and enough water to cover by at least two inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly, cover, and cook until tender. Depending on the freshness of your beans, this can take 30-60 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and drain the beans.

In a large skillet, heat enough olive oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic and saute until starting to brown. Add the beans and the tomatoes, breaking up the tomatoes with your hands as you add them. Be sure to add all the puree in the can. Add enough cooking liquid to get a thick stew consistency (you can always add more if it seems to dry). Sprinkle with a healthy pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper, and the sage and cook, uncovered, until thick, about 20 minutes.

Place leftovers in a covered container and refrigerate overnight.

White Bean Soup
Serves 2

You can blend part of this soup or all of it to get a thicker consistency. I had planned to do so and then found out my immersion blender was broken.

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
Olive oil
Leftover White Beans with Tomatoes and Sage
1-2 cups vegetable broth
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small soup pot, heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute, stirring occasionally, until soft and the onion starts to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the beans and broth, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, until thickened slightly.

Missed Opportunity

So, let me just put this out there. I never used to watch TV. I was probably even a little snobby about the fact that I didn't know anything about any of the shows.

In the summer of 2003, Randy and I moved to London. Besides a few of his business school contacts, we didn't know anybody. Our year there was one of the best of my life but it was lonely. Television was more pleasant to watch there and we quickly fell into the habit. Two of their five networks do not have commercials and one of them would run movies without the massive edits that we have in this country. Even on the channels that had commercials, there was only a break every 20 minutes, as opposed to our 8-10 mintues here.

Once we returned home, I kept up my television habit. I wish at the end of the day, after the kids are in bed, I had the energy to read, but I just don't. I like to zone out and relax but I am a little appalled at some of the shows I have gotten into. Sure, I love Project Runway, Top Chef, The Office and those other "acceptable" ones. But I also have gotten hooked on America's Next Top Model and, yes, The Bachelor.

For those of you who don't know, last season's The Bachelor was actually The Bachelorette and the guy who she almost chose lives in Seattle. His name is Jason and he seemed like a very nice guy, he has a young son, and women all over the country fell in love with him. I don't think anyone was surprised when they tagged him to be the next Bachelor.

Here is where things get interesting. My brother Alex is a personal trainer. He owns a personal training gym in Bellevue (a suburb of Seattle) and one of his clients happened to be this guy Jason's boss. When he said he needed to get in shape for this show, the guy sent him to Alex.

I heard all this through my mother, who wouldn't be caught dead watching a show such as The Bachelor, but she is very amused that her daughter, the one who used to be such a TV snob, does. I immediately got stars in my eyes and called Alex offering my services as a personal chef. He was enthusiastic, saying he would like to know what Jason was eating and knew that, as a trainer, he would get better results for his client knowing that the food was healthy. I think we left it that Alex would check with him and I would think about if I really had time to cook for one more person and add a completely other part of town to my route.

And then I got really busy. I picked up a new client. I cooked for a friend. I had crazy weekends full of food. I tried through all of this to be a good mother to my boys and keep my household intact. I kept thinking that Alex would call me if Jason was interested. I guess, with good reason, I let the ball drop.

Alex brought his kids over for dinner on Sunday night and told me he had just had a weekend of filming with ABC. They were in town to document Jason's life here and the training he was doing was a part of it. I asked him whatever happened with the chef part of things and he stunned me by saying, "You never called me back." Suddenly, I felt like I had just missed a tremendous opportunity and spent the rest of the evening replaying our last phone conversation in my head, and berating myself for not going after something with the potential to be really big.

But now, several days later, I realize that things probably worked out better anyway. Really, how could I have increased my food production and driven and miles and miles off my normal route for a non-paying client? My business is just me in my kitchen. Scaling up requires a huge investment of my time, something I don't have with two young kids. My brother has a gym, he has a staff. I have me in my kitchen. If I got publicity from cooking for The Bachelor, where would that leave me? Unable to take on the clients who could potentially come my way.

Interestingly, today I got a request from a friend to help out someone in need. A woman who works for him just had a very preemie baby and he wants to nourish her with my food twice a week for the next couple of months. This is where my attention should be, on cooking and sharing my food, not my theatre major pipe dreams.

I have to say, I think Jason would have enjoyed this soup, healthy and filling as it is. But the person who really needs it, and who I would be really happy to share it with, is a new mommy, scared for her baby.

Mediterranean Five-Lentil and Chard Soup with Walnut Gremolata
Adapted from The Artful Vegan
Serves 6

With all apologies to The Millenium Restaurant (whose cookbook this is), I made some changes to the method here. They suggest you cook each type of lentil separately for which I see no reason, other than to make you crazy and do a lot of dishes. You can use fewer types, even just plain old ordinary lentils too. Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you off, it is an easy soup to make with little hands on time. The gremolata isn't totally necessary but gives the soup a nice crunch.

Gremolata

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and very finely chopped
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp. minced parsley
2 tbsp. minced dill
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl. Serve, or store refrigerated, covered, overnight.

Five-Lentil Soup

2 tsp. olive oil
1 red onion, cut into small dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger
2 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp. caraway seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. allspice
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup dry sherry
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1 15 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup dried red lentils
1/4 cup dried brown lentils
1/4 cup dried green (Le Puy) lentils
1/4 cup dried black beluga lentils
1/4 cup dried yellow split peas
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups chopped red chard
2 tbsp. light miso
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook soft. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add all the spices and saute, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the sherry, sugar, all lentils and the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Add the chard and simmer for 10 minutes, or until wilted. Place the miso in a small bowl and whisk in 1/2 - 1 cup of stock until the miso has dissolved, then add the mixture back to the soup. (This will keep the miso from clumping.) Remove the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a garnish of 1 tbsp. of the gremolata.

If You Can't Stand the Heat...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seattleites are known for complaining about the weather. Most of the year we gripe about how rainy and dark it is. When it's sunny, we complain about how it's not going to be sunny tomorrow or how it wasn't sunny yesterday. And when it's hot, boy do we bitch about it being hot. As my neighbor Jeff (originally from Minnesota) says, "You people are only happy when it's 75 degrees with a slight breeze." Yep.

So, it's really hot today and it was really hot yesterday. I have basically been chained to my oven and stove so I have been complaining more than usual. In the last 36 hours, I have cranked out a considerable amount of food and my oven has been on virtually non-stop. When planning the menu for tonight's "Market Fresh Dinner", I knew I wanted really summery fresh food - as much purchased from the Phinney Ridge Farmer's Market as possible. The soup and salad would be cold, the appetizers and main course would be room temperature, the dessert would be cold. Great, right? The problem is that everything still needs to be cooked before it can cool down to the temperature just right for eating. Hence, the sauna that is my kitchen.

But here we are, over an hour before people arrive and I am basically done except for some last minutes assembly. On the menu...

Appetizer
A Trio of Crostini: Green Pea with Mint, Tomato Jam, White Bean

Soup
Cold Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup with Mint

Salad
Beet Salad with Arugula and Ricotta Salata

Main Course
Eggplant Torta
Farro Salad with Zucchini and Pine Nuts

Dessert
Raspberry Sour Cream Tart

I am excited about the Eggplant Torta. It's a recipe that I've never tried before and although this is a terrible photo (I'm getting a new camera soon!), here is what it looks like...

The basic premise is that you are kind of making a lasagne but without noodles and in a cake pan. So not really like a lasagne at all actually. But similar flavors! You make a tomato sauce and layer it into the pan with eggplant, Parmesan cheese, and mozzarella. Then you pour some egg into the pan and hope that it sets up a little like custard. I haven't cut into it yet and fingers are crossed. Even if it turns out to be a mess, I know it will taste good.

The recipe I'm going to share is for the cold soup. I'm a big fan of cold soups - especially on really hot days, and this one is very refined. Simple, beautiful, complex flavors. I made some big changes in the method of this recipe but not in the ingredients. They wanted me to use my broiler and I simply could not turn on my broiler today, so I used my grill and stovetop. The recipe also doesn't tell you to peel either the peppers or tomatoes (or seed the tomatoes for that matter), but unless you have a food mill (I don't - one piece of kitchen equipment I actually don't own), you are going to have a great tasting soup full of vegetable skins and seeds. Below is the recipe with the changes I made.

UPDATE: It is now the next morning. I just couldn't get back to writing with the flurry of activity that is an 8 person dinner party. It was a wonderful success. The guests were all thrilled with the food and really enjoyed each other's company. I had two wonderful helpers (moms from our old preschool class) who made serving the meal a pleasure. Thank you Rebecca and Shaynee! The Eggplant Torta was good (even for someone who doesn't love eggplant) but really ugly. It was very wet so I would make some changes next time, like straining the tomato sauce, but I would make it again.

As they were leaving, I asked them which recipes they most wanted me to post. They mentioned the Goat Cheese and Pistachio Stuffed Dates (something I served while they were enjoying a glass of wine outside), and the Rasberry Sour Cream Tart. So, three recipes today! So I don't have to type out all three, I will direct you here for the Raspberry Tart. In the instructions, it says you can make the crust and fill it with the sour cream filling up to one day ahead. I did that and felt that the crust got soggy. Next time, I would bake the crust one day ahead, cover it with foil and leave it out at room temp. I would also make the filling and put it in a covered bowl in the fridge. Then I would assemble the tart the day of the party. On to the other recipes.

Chilled Roasted Tomato Red Pepper Soup with Mint
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
Serves 4

2 lbs. red peppers, quartered and seeded
2 lbs. tomatoes, halved and seeded
1 small onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Olive oil
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/2 cup water
4 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. finely chopped mint, or to taste

Preheat gas grill to high. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes and bell peppers with enough olive oil to lightly coat. Grill on high heat until the skins of the veggetable start to blacken and the vegetables themselves get tender. Allow to cool, then peel the skins off the peppers (don't worry if you can't get all the peel off) and slip the skins off the tomatoes. Place both in a bowl and add all the juice squeezed out of the tomato skins.

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Drizzle in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan and add the onions. Saute until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and coriander and continue to cook until the onions are slightly brown, stirring often. Remove from the heat.

Puree the vegetables in batches until smooth in the blender. Add a little water to get the blender going if necessary. Stir in all other ingredients except mint. Chill soup until cold, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days ahead. If you make it ahead, you may need to add additional water to thin when ready to serve. Garnish soup bowls with mint.

Goat Cheese and Pistachio Stuffed Dates
Adapted from The New Classics by Martha Stewart
Makes 16

You can make the goat cheese filling one day ahead and refrigerate it. These hors d'oeuvres can be assembled several hours before serving. Loosely cover them with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to three hours. Bring to room temperature before serving.

4 oz. soft goat cheese
3 tbsp. shelled salted pistachios, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp. finely chopped fresh chives
Pepper
8 plump, soft dried dates (preferably Medjool), pitted and halved lengthwise

1. Stir together the goat cheese, the pistachios, and the chives in a small bowl until smooth. Season with pepper.

2. Arrange dates, cut side up, on a platter. Using a small spoon and your fingers, fill each date with a small mound of the filling. Garnish, if you like, with additional chopped pistachios and chives.

Gazpacho

I love gazpacho. What's not to love? It's cold and refreshing, has tons of flavor, is really healthy, and can be garnished to your heart's content. And it looks beautiful. I even like bad gazpacho - you know, where the texture isn't quite right or the balance of flavor is off.

Randy and I went to Spain for our honeymoon and I ate gazpacho every single day and sometimes twice a day. Lunch was always a bowl of the soup and a "tortilla" which is like a frittata made of eggs, potatoes, and onions. I looked forward to this lunch each and every day. It was always a little different depending on what town we were in, but always delicious. I often started dinner off with gazpacho instead of a salad because, after all, it is kind of a liquid salad, but oh so much better. Really cold, tangy from the tomatoes and sherry vinegar, sweet from the onion and cucumber, and all nice and crunchy.

As much as I love the soup itself, the garnishes really make it for me. Big toasted croutons are my favorite, but this time I also included diced avacado and hard boiled egg. It all just made a good thing that much better.

As our June gets off to a very wet start, I thought I would beckon summer with a Spanish menu. Along with the Gazpacho, I served a Vegetable Paella, Smoky Swiss Chard, and for the Dana Treat, a Vanilla Bean Flan.

Gazpacho
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated
Serves 6-8

One of the best things about this recipe is that it is dead easy. Really all you are doing is chopping and mixing. It is a great do-ahead recipe because it can sit for up to two days in the refrigerator and needs no last-minute attention except for garnishing. To make great croutons, cut some good sourdough bread in to large (1 inch) cubes. Toss on a baking sheet with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a good dose of kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Bake in a 375 degree oven until golden brown. I don't drizzle my gazpacho with olive oil, but you certainly can!

3 ripe medium tomatoes, cored and seeded, cut in to 1/4 inch cubes
2 medium red bell peppers, cored and seeded, cut in to 1/4 inch cubes
1 medium cucumber, seeded and cut in to 1/4 inch cubes
2 large shallots, peeled and minced
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tsp. kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
5 cups tomato juice
1 tsp. Tabasco (optional)
Olive Oil (optional)

Combine tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, shallots, garlic, salt, vinegar, and pepper in a large glass, ceramic, or stainless steel bowl. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato juice and Tabasco. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and serve cold with garnishes of your choice.