Sick Soup

I don't know of anyone who wasn't fed canned chicken noodle soup when they were sick as kids.  I distinctly remember not liking the stuff with the stars, believing the long noodles were far superior.  I can't, however, remember the last time I had soup from a can.
Getting sick sucks.  Getting sick when you have a four-year-old who doesn't appear to understand the phrase "Mommy isn't feeling well; you need to let her sleep" sucks even more.  I might be able to take a sick day from work, but there are no sick days in parenting.
You know what else sucks?  Not having a go-to "feel better" food, specifically a "feel better" soup when I get down with the sickness.  Ever since I was pregnant, I have shunned most poultry (even the thought of it makes me shudder), so chicken soup, even something homemade, makes me a little uncomfortable.  For a time, I tried phở, that wonderful Vietnamese street soup, and it was delicious, but it didn't make me feel rejuvenated in the way I was looking for.
Enter Cho Dang's Korean Tofu and BBQ.
The Chandler location for the California restaurant is mere minutes away from our house, and I can't remember how or when Husband stumbled across this beauty, but I'm so glad that he did.  Not only do the dumplings hit the spot whenever I need them, but I've discovered that their spicy pork tofu soup is The Most Perfect Thing to help make me feel better.

Lava so hot it makes me sweat...

The soups can be ordered at five levels of spiciness, from "white" (not spicy at all) to extra hot.
Usually I opt for the medium, which is nice and hot without making me want to either die or drink all the milk in the world.
Last week, I either became a wuss, or they added a little extra zing to the soup, because my mouth felt like it was melting off.  I started sweating when I was eating.  Yep, that's right.  I was A Sweater.  Right there at my kitchen table.  Yet I wasn't able to stop, and so I sat there, eating my soup and sweating like a whore on nickel night a sinner in church a racehorse until my belly couldn't take it anymore.
And then I did the same thing again at lunch the next day.
I'm not sure if this soup actually does anything like ridding my body of little cooties, especially this go round, which is a combination of the common cold, an ear infection, and strep throat (super fun times!!!!!!!), or if it's more of a placebo thing, but even Husband agrees that there's something "magical" about the soup, and you can be sure that the next time I'm feeling under the weather, I'll get more.
What is your go-to food (or drink) when you get a case of the sniffles and aches?

When It Gets Cold in Arizona, Make Arizona Mountain Soup

It actually does get cold in Arizona.  Many people don't realize that we have higher elevations (as a Washington State native, I just can't call them mountains, though) that host skiing and other delightful winter activities, and in the winter months, the temperatures up there get downright frigid.
But last week, it was cold all over the state, and I'm not exaggerating; the highs barely hovered in the low 40s, and at night, we dropped into the mid-20s.  Signs that it was colder than usual were all around us:

• Rose bushes were covered with sleeping bags.
• Scarves were seen all over town.
• Rarely-used heat seaters were toasting buns all over the Valley.
• Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's were beset by panicked citizens clamoring over the last pair of thermal undies.

OK, maybe that last part wasn't real, but I kind of like to imagine people, shivering in their heaviest sweatshirt, clearing out the racks of long johns.

What I do know actually happened is that in Casa de Philistines, we were going to need soup.  Lots of it.  It would warm us up at dinner time, and the making of it would keep the kitchen nice and toasty as well.  So Soup Week came at the most perfect time for us, and I reveled in the joy that was a Dutch oven on a hot burner.

I found the recipe for Arizona Mountain Soup while I was searching for an "Arizona style" soup online.  I thought it might be fun to focus my Soup Week contribution on something local.  Unfortunately, while a fairly standard recipe can be found all over the internet, I can't find any information as to why it's called Arizona Mountain Soup or how it originated.
I'm horribly disappointed.
I like to imagine that this is a "cowboy" or "wild west" version of minestrone, like some Italian immigrants who came to make their fortune in the west years back were inspired by the southwestern tastes and threw them into the campfire pot.
Yep, I know - I can spin quite a fanciful yarn, but I digress.
This soup beat away the chills easily.  I decided to healthify it a touch and add some more fresh vegetables to the original recipe, since why just use onions when you can have meeruhpwa merepoi mirepoix?
(OK, French-speaking people, how do you even get that spelling?  I'm gonna have to go all phonetically logical German on y'all - Suppengrün - BOOM)

Most Arizona Mountain Soup recipes also call for dried beans that you soak before cooking.  Y'all, I have a confession: I can NOT cook dried beans to save my life.  Yes.  Yes, I know.  This should be the simplest thing.  But I...just fail.  So I used canned beans.  And I'm OK with that.  For now.
It was fantastic with a side of homemade cornbread, by the way.

Arizona Mountain Soup

• 2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed, OR 1 1/4 cups dried pinto beans
• 4 slices bacon, chopped*
• 1 (or 2) onions, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3-4 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (since I don't eat chicken, I used homemade veggie stock)
• 2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp paprika (or to taste)
• 1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (if you like a little bite, or more, if you like more of a bite)

If using dried beans, soak overnight in 3 cups water.  Without draining, simmer until the beans are tender (about 2 hours).
In a large Dutch oven, cook bacon until nearly crisp.  Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery and cook until the veggies are tender.  Stir in tomatoes, rice, beans, and spices.  Add in the stock and an additional 2 cups water (or more, should you need it - heck, I used a little bit half a bottle of wine that I had lying around).  Bring to boiling and then simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Season to taste before serving with hot cornbread (which, just as a reminder, MUST be made in a cast iron skillet).

*To make the bacon easier to cut, freeze slightly for a little bit before chopping to bits.

This is a soup that freezes really well, and I have a quart of it taking up some valuable real estate in the freezer, so even though the temperatures have gotten tolerable once again, I may have to haul it out this weekend after our "nature walk" with HRH.

Please take some time to check out the other amazing soup recipes we have going on this week; there is something for everyone, and I am somewhat sad that Arizona is already starting to leave soup season in the rearview mirror.

• Broccoli Cheddar Soup in Homemade Bread Bowls (one of my most favorite soups ever) by Kirsten of Comfortably Domestic
• Hearty Vegetable Mexican Soup with Jalapeño Cheddar Cornbread from Haley at The Girly Girl Cooks
• 3 Bean and Spinach Soup (PLUS A LE CREUSET GIVEAWAY) by Katie at The Hill Country Cook
• Garbage Soup (seriously, this is a don't-miss) from Madeline up at Munching in the Mitten
• Gnocchi Pesto Soup by Mads of La Petite Pancake
• 40-Clove Garlic Chicken Soup with Garlic Croutons by Megan of Wanna Be a Country Cleaver (aka Dr. Megan)
• Sunchoke Soup with Gorgonzola and Honey Crostini with Lauren at Climbing Grier Mountain
• Coconut Curry with a Lot of Aloha (ALOHA!) by The GromMom herself, Monica
• Beef Bourguignon (again with the French spelling!) that Carrie of Bakeaholic Mama made (and can probably pronounce better than I)
• White Chicken Chili from the world traveler Kat over at Tenaciously Yours,

And tomorrow (Saturday) come back to see these three wonderful recipes, too:

• Pink Prosecco Soup (a dessert soup!!!!!!) by Anne at From My Sweet Heart
• Creamy Mushroom Soup from Kvetchin Kitchen's Beka
• Shrimp Bisque by Jeanne of Inside NanaBread's Head

There you have it - creamy soups, broth soups, sick soups, cold soups, dinner soups, dessert soups, soups for every occasion and every palate.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go turn on the air conditioning so I can have an excuse to put up another batch of one of these amazing ladies' soups right now!

Impromptu

We got potatoes in our CSA share this week, and Scott was all over them.  He announced that he was going to make vichyssoise, as we had also gotten leeks.  So off to the store he went for cream (and deodorant, but that wasn't for the soup), and then he got busy in the kitchen, completely ignoring the giant container of chicken stock that was already in the fridge to thaw a bag from the freezer and trying to burn down the house by broiling some bread with herbed feta (HE herbed it; it came "plain").
I had found a very simple bean salad recipe from Mark Bittman that I had planned to have for lunch, but since Scott had his own lunch while I was out donating blood, we saved it for dinner.  I used chickpeas, my favorite, and green red onions (I mean that they are baby red onions; this isn't some homage to a weird PBS series).  This really was simple, and the beauty of the recipe is that it's insanely versatile, so I can use this again a zillion times with new taste combos.  It's a great excuse to start buying my beans in bulk rather than in cans.
Since we were getting all fancy (I mean, come on - vichyssoise - that word just LOOKS fancy), we told our lemon dealer friend Danielle to invite herself over for dinner, which she did.

The Essence of Local and a Return of Balance to the Force

I have been wanting to try Essence Bakery in Tempe for quite some time.  I'm not sure how I originally stumbled across the restaurant; it may have been in one of many searches for local restaurants that use local ingredients, as this is something that Essence strives to do.
After I first learned about it, I was intrigued.  Then I found this article, and I can honestly tell you that I was salivating the entire read.
That was it.  I had to get there.
Of course, it's not the closest place to eat, and I knew that busy mornings (and lunchtimes) had the possibility of creating a cranky Wee One, so I've held off.
Fortunately, I was at a workshop in Tempe today, and I convinced my co-workers that this was where we needed to go to lunch.

Corned Beef, Cabbage, and a Day at the Farm

I had fully planned on a detailed report of our St. Patrick's Day feast, but I'll be honest - we were so busy eating, I completely forgot to take any pictures!

However, here is the menu.  It was amazing.

Who You Callin' a Shrimp?!? (or, Taking Stock)

Today HRH was at home with me, so I juggled too many various and sundry activities (all three computer screens were going at the same time for a while), but one project that I knew that I HAD to complete was making shrimp stock.
I kept the shells from Sunday's dinner just for this purpose, but you know what happens when any seafood product sits for too long - yuck!  I thawed out some frozen shells I had collected the past few times we had shrimp, too, so I had a good pile of shells with which to make a lovely starter for crab bisque or the ubiquitous chowdah!
While a chicken or turkey stock recipe generally calls for adding veggies into the water, I kept this one simple - shells and a wee bit of Tony Cachere's.  That's it.  I wanted the flavor to be really of the sea (or should I say, of the farm where these shrimp were raised?).
I was a little nervous - since I had HRH with me all by my lonesome AND I had to work (darn you, Power  Ball!), I wasn't able to monitor the kitchen every second, so if Zooey the Devil Dog left my sight, I worried that she was getting her doggie nose into that hot pot.  But she behaved herself for the most part, and after a few hours, I had a gorgeous gold stock of which any home cook should be proud.  I let it cool, strained out the shells, and placed into two freezer bags for later use
The thing I liked about this project is that once I'm through, I have used everything but the bag the shrimp came in.  This really is a benefit to sustainability.  The meat was, of course, eaten (there are a few that made it into the stock that shall be given to Zooey and Holden as a treat this evening).  The shells were used, but they can also be thrown into the compost - these are a great source of calcium (for the ground and for you, so if you ever eat a fried shrimp, pop the whole thing into your mouth!).  If I can just find a place that will wrap shrimp solely in paper, I will be set, as I can compost the paper, too, and I'll have a delicious, homemade meal that leaves literally no waste.  Win-win!

Oh, Crêpe!

Sigh.... we're out of bacon again, so this morning, the hubby made crêpes, filled with Swiss cheese, mushrooms, broccoli, and eggs.  They were super nom-worthy.  We tend to have sweet fillings more than savory, but A) I think I ate all the jam and B) the broccoli needed to be used more than the Nutella.

Our CSA delivered more mizuna this week, so I adapted a chicken and mizuna stir fry recipe that I found on the Whole Foods website (I don't shop there for various reasons, but I'll happily steal their recipes).  

I used what we had on hand - a yellow onion instead of scallions, more soy sauce instead of rice wine, etc.  It was pretty tasty and definitely tinker-worthy (definitely should have put in the chile paste, but forgot, and I think this would be good with any protein - pork, beef, tofu, even shrimp).  I thought the new tablecloth and placements (that the cat is currently trying to cover with fur) were cause for celebration, so I pulled out the chopsticks instead of slumming it, as per usual, with the forks.

Finally, I used our acorn squash and a few honeycrips from the supermarket (um, so, I did NOT know that in Arizona, when one grows apples, the harvest time is actually NOT the fall but the summer, so sadly, there are no apple orchards to peruse through right now.... total bummer to this pacific northwest girl) to make an acorn squash apple soup.  I had to do this tonight because HRH has decided that she is big enough now to eat a whole apple rather than the slices we offer her in her high chair, so when she saw the apples, I knew I had to act quickly before they were all gone.  

We're not having this until tomorrow, but I already stole a taste, and I was delighted with it, especially as one of the spices used was curry, and I tend to classify that right up there with basil.  I feel like by eating this soup, I'm growing in my gastronomic comfort zone.

Now, the recipe says that it's even better the next day, which is common in soups, so I can't wait for tomorrow's dinner already!