Backyard Gardens Are Fun!

Our garden is getting into summer shape. We've got four tomato plants doing real well. Two of them are growing through our wire box cover! Bertie's tomatillos, she has four of them going, look like they are going to be real bountiful. That means lots of red salsa this summer, good thing we've been saving jars. Our lettuce and spinach have lasted longer than we expected, probably because it hasn't gotten real hot yet.

There is a great sense of satisfaction in harvesting baskets of three different types of lettuce for a week's worth of salads. I also get a big kick out of snipping leaves of lettuce for Tommy's sandwich wraps for his lunches during the week.

Having herbs is also great. You can spend $2-$4 for a few leaves of basil, dill or oregano at the store. We've got peppermint, rosemary, thyme, basil, dill and fennel going so far. For dinner tonight I made some pesto with our basil. Two cups of basil, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, 3 garlic cloves, 7 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan, salt and pepper. You roast the garlic cloves unpeeled for about 5 minutes and then add the pine nuts for just under 2 minutes. Remove the garlic and nuts from the pan. Let the garlic cool th and then unpeel them. Add all the ingredients to your food processor and run into a paste. You're done. How cool to go out and snip off a couple of cups of basil and have it on your table for dinner!

Speaking of pine nuts! Holy crap, I'm going to be a pine nut farmer! $35 a pound for cripes sake.

If you've got a garden going let us know what you have going on.

Easiest Soup I've Made - Sauerkraut & Sausage

I found this recipe in a little book I bought at Cost Plus - World Market. The book is titled "1 Stock, 100 Soups". It was written in the UK so the measures and some terminology are quirky but there are quite a few good soups. The one stock is vegetable and all 100 soups are based on it. The recipe for the vegetable stock has an extensive list of ingredients and yields 4 cups. For the Sauerkraut & Sausage soup I used a boxed vegetable stock to save some time but look forward to making the vegetable stock soon.

I made this soup for Bertie and Tommy a few weeks ago and it was really good. I ate sauerkraut quite a bit growing up because of my Mom's German heritage. I always ate it but wasn't a huge fan so I was surprised at how much I liked this soup. My wife, Bertie, also loved the soup which was surprising because she had never had sauerkraut before so I was encouraged about the soup's potential for popularity. Last week I ran a poll for what soup to make and I included this soup in the list of candidates. Surprisingly this soup finished second in the polling. With that vote of confidence I decided to bring it in this week.

This makes 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
32 ounces of sauerkraut, drained
1 pound of kielbasa or other cooked sausages, sliced into 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 quart of vegetable stock, more if you prefer to thin the soup
2/3 cup of sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Melt the butter in a large pan over low heat
2. Add the flour and paprika and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes
3. Turn off the heat
4. Gradually stir in the vegetable stock a little at a time until fully incorporated and the mixture is smooth
5. Bring the flour and stock mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly
6. Add the drained sauerkraut and sausage pieces
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste
8. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer low for 30 minutes
9. Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the sour cream right before serving

Creamy Southwestern Onion

Funny story with this soup, I'll get there in a bit...

I found this recipe on a website called copykat.com. This site specializes in providing recipes from famous restaurants. I believe I was looking online for a soup I tasted at Sweet Tomatoes/Soup Plantation but I don't recall which soup. Anyway this site is a good resource for all kinds of recipes.

I love French Onion Soup so I thought this Southwestern version would be fun to try. Here's the funny story part. I made an error with the chipotle chilies when I made this soup. The recipe calls for 3 Oaxaca chilies or canned chipotle chilies if you can't find Oaxaca. I misread that line as 3 cans of chipotle chilies not 3 chipotle chilies from a can. Needless to say the soup was way too spicy so I kept cutting the soup until I ended up with almost three batches instead of one. It was still a bit too spicy but went over well at work anyway. It is times like these that you wonder how you manage to stay out of your own way!

This recipe makes 6 plentiful servings.

INGREDIENTS
2 large yellow onions, halved, sliced thinly
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons of cooking sherry
1/4 cup of flour
1 quart of chicken stock
3 Oaxaca chilies (substitute 3 chipotle chilies, drained, from a can with adobo sauce if you can't find Oaxaca chilies)
1 cup of heavy cream
6 ounces of white cheddar cheese, shredded
1 roasted poblano pepper, stem and seeds removed

METHOD
Sauté the onions in the butter until tender
Add garlic and sherry
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute
Add the chicken stock and 3 Oaxaca or Chipotle chilies
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes
Remove and discard the chilies
Add the cream and diced poblano chilies
Simmer for 5 minutes
Salt to taste