The Prodigal Daughter

4 cups Raw Pumpkin (diced)
8 cups Veggie Broth (you should see other posts in consumed section)
Marjoram
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Ginger (if raw you can add this while you make the vegetable broth, if dry add later)
3 apples
1/2 cup OJ

Prepare the pumpkin. This came from a pumpkin that i had stolen from some poor sap in jersey on the night before my Poppies funeral. Anyway. Dice it up in fairly large chunks, be sure you cut off the skin and the slimy bits. Cut up about 4 or 5 cups, enough so that there is not a lot of broth, this is going to be more a puree then a traditional soup.

Bring veggie broth to boil

Add pumpkin, potatoes, apples

Cook until pumpkin is soft

Add OJ and seasonings (i don’t measure things i just do them to taste…use your best judgement)

Use immersion blender to puree everthing together

Pumpkin soup at its’ most delicous!

1 head of escarole (roughly chopped)
2 carrots (diced)
1 stalk of celery (diced)
2 leeks (diced and rinsed)
2 small onions (diced)
5 cloves garlic (minced)
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup Red Quinoa
1 can black eyed peas (or white beans or chick peas)
10 cups water
Oregano
Salt
Oil
Parmesean (grated)
Pepper

Make the veggie Broth by combining carrots, onions, leeks, celery and a little salt and oil

Simmer until softened slightly

Add water and bring to a boil…let this boil for a while

Strain out veggies to just get the broth

Add Escarole, tomatoes, beans, quinoa, and seasoning (be sure to rinse all the dirt from the leaves!)

Bring to another boil and then turn the heat down to simmer

You know it’s done when the escarole is no longer crunchy in the least

Serve it up in a bowl and add some Parmesean!

I made another, different version…i forgot about the one from last September!

Potato Leek Soup 2

4 small red potatoes cubes not peeled
2 leeks
2 small onions diced
2 carrots diced
1 celery stalk diced
2 sticks fresh rosemary (although i freeze mine, it keeps forever!) chopped up
3 cloves garlic sliced
Tad of fresh ginger (finely copped)
Salt/Adobo and Black Pepper (i wish i had white pepper, but alas!)
Water (6 cups)
Milk (errr i just eyed this up but i think it was about 1 cup)
Butter (a couple ‘o pats)

Be sure you only use the white part of the leeks
Cut these up and rinse under cold water to get rid of any sand
Make the Veggie Broth
Sauté carrot, celery, leeks, garlic, and onion in butter
Add Adobo/Salt
Stir until these things are slightly softened
Add water, bring to a boil
Add rosemary and ginger
Eat some rice and look at the internet while you wait
Add potatoes, simmer until cooked
Remove most of the broth and save for laters
Add milk
Hand blend until smooth
Add pepper to taste and stir
Eats some up!

This is how I made some Collard Greens, Black Eyes Peas, served with Corn Bread (which I cheat with by just making it with Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix).

Collards:
1 large bunch of collard greens (rinsed in cold water and remove hard stems)
Bacon Grease (cook 3 pcs of bacon, reserve half of the grease, the other half will be for the black eyed peas)
Red Pepper Flakes
Salt
Worcestershire Sauce (a dash or two)
Water

Cut the Collards into pieces (roughly the size of spinach leaves)
So like above cook the bacon in a large pot and reserve half the grease
Remove for the bacon, but save it for the peas
Add Collards
Quickly cover with water (enough so they are just enough covered)
Add pepper and salt and worcestershire
Cook for 45 minutes to an hour until tender
Drain slightly and serve

Peas
1 quarter onion or a small one diced
1 Celery Stalk diced
1 Can of Black Eyed Peas
Bacon Grease
Bacon
Goya Adobo (to your taste)
Hot Sauce (a dash or two)
Half Can of Water

Pour half the grease from the collards into a small pot
Cook the onion and celery in this until tender, do not put the heat on too high!
Add the peas, add the water
Add the Adobo, add the hot sauce
Stir and simmer for 30 minutes (or until the water cooks off a bit)
Crumble Bacon and Add

Somewhere in between make to corn bread

Walla, Southern Cooking, the best a white girl from jersey can do, which I don’t think is half bad!

Shit I know. But I made another soup.

1 leek
2 red potatoes (you don’t have to peel them)
1 carrot
2 cobs of cooked corn (whatever that is)
oil, garlic, salt, paprika
3 cups of water

same deal
coarsely cut leek, carrot, and corn off the cob
cube the potatoes
sauté leek and carrot until slightly tender in oil
cover with water
add potatoes and corn and seasoning
bring to a boil and then lower the temp until the potatoes cook
scoop a little under half out and blend with hand blender
recombine with soup
serve

My friend Riley gave me a lot of tomatoes from his father’s garden recently. I was going to make salsa with them but it got cold and yucky out yesterday so I made this instead. I pulled from a bunch of different recipes and then kind of made it my own. I think it would also be good with basil.

2 lbs heirloom tomatoes
2 carrots
1 half vidalia onion
2 celery stalks
sage, salt, pepper, oregano to taste
1/2 cup goat cheese, 1/2 cup of milk
garlic

pre heat oven to 450
quarter tomatoes
put them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with garlic
put them in the oven for about 20 minutes (until they are caramelized)

meanwhile coarsly chop celery, carrot, and onion
sautee the carrot and onion first in a large pot with olive oil on medium low heat
add the celery and let it soften
remove the tomatoes and add them to the mixture
add spices and about a quarter cup water

in a separate pan melt goat cheese on low heat with the milk
combine with rest of the ingredients

DO NOT let this boil, keep on extremely low heat
use a hand blender to make the soup smooth

serve

This is so good, and I just made it up!

Green and Red Fiesta Sammich

2 slices of whole grain bread (i keep mine in the freezer)
1/2 can green chile (already diced)
1/2 large avocado or one small avocado
1/2 half plum tomato (unless you like a lot of tomato)
swiss cheese slices
salt (opt)
lime (opt)

prep:
slice avocado lengthwise, separate, cut thin slices with your knife down the middle

set oven to 400 F, or set toaster oven to dark toast

spread green chile evenly on bread, thin layer so the bread doesn’t sog up

put the cheese on top

toast/oven…come on, you know when cheese is melted..remove

put on tomato and squish it into the cheese so it sticks

take your avocado and carefully remove slices with spoon so you can maintain the shape

add to sammich, sprinkle salt and or lime and enjoy!!

What did I do all day? Well other then look for a job, I went to this really cool art gallery near the coffee shop I frequent. It inspired me to create a shadow box based on my father. The best thing about living across the street from Alanna and Breanne is that I can go over there and use all of their art materials even when they aren’t home. Which they weren’t.

I had two pictures of my father that I discretely took from a drawer in a side table inside my parents’ house. One is of him playing around with what is presumably a cap gun. The other is him with his mother (who died when he was 15, and I regrettably never met) on Halloween. I used a PH neutral glue to attach the pictures to a cardboard material used in book binding so that the pictures wouldn’t be eaten away slowly by some acidic glue. I also attached different clippings from magazines that remind me of my father to the same material. The paper on the back was something Bre had laying around (thankfully). Everything within the box means something special to me and it’s a fabulous way to remember and preserve my father. I also seem to be extremely good at creating shadow boxes. It’s a really good creative outlet for me. If anyone wants one I would be more then happy to make one for you or If anyone would like to know more about how to make one I would be happy to explain. Hot glue guns and a non acidic glue are key.