Some soups ‘n’ stuff
Often, on a can, box or bag, there’s a recipe suggesting how to use the contents of the can, box or bag. These are generally okay recipes, after all, the producer wants to show off their product in the best light.
I’m prone to go that one better, trying to create a recipe for something I’ve eaten, and liked. Both cases are illustrated in this post, and in the previous two posts, for that matter.
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A swell soup featuring green chilis, potato and chicken.
This is another “made up” soup.
I bought a container of soup at the big deli and greengrocer on 4th street in Berkeley. This was my lunch on a day of book rep meetings, but it turned out to be darned good and I sought to repeat it at home.
What I could see or taste was:
Green Chilies, the dark green kind with thick flesh
Cubes of potato
Chunks of chicken
Celery
Swiss Chard or spinach.. just a little
Chicken broth
The soup was rich and very brothy and good. In a cup, before stirring, it had probably 2/3 solids with 1/3 broth on top.
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It’s just a short walk from Green Bean Casserole to St Helena Soup.
The key ingredients are the same: Ground Beef, Green Beans, Tomatoes.
Once upon a time, Carol and I were in St. Helena in the heart of the Napa Valley and needed lunch. This was years ago, shortly after we arrived in California, say 1993. We were walking up and down the street, perusing bookstores—there were two or three at that time, and it may have been the time we bought Madhur Jaffrey’s A Taste of the Far East (published in 1993)—and stopped into a lunch place. I ordered the soup of the day. It was so good, that I shared a bite with Carol. When we got home, we agreed on the ingredients, and C made a recipe. It appeared in the second volume of Eats4One (Eats4One i).
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Different strokes for different folks
I’m home alone for a week after my second trip to Ohio in as many months. This time it was to visit with son-from-France and brother-from-Georgia. Wife is staying on for her high school reunion, which explains my home aloneness.
In the days leading up to the trip, we tried to use up all things fresh, but didn’t make it through a pound of green beans. Those, we spread out in a metal pan and froze, au natural. I don’t recommend freezing fresh green beans, except in dire straits… they do retain their color and flavor, but the texture goes all limp.
After airplane delays on my trip home, I arrived late in the night and ate a can of chicken noodle soup. I dreamed of green bean casserole.
There’s always a pound o’ ground in the freezer and I made Chunky Tomato Base shortly before the trip. We’ve had a half used box of instant mashed potatoes in the cupboard for over a year, but that stuff has no sell-by date. All set.
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As served at the Party in the Park, Rising Park, Lancaster, Ohio
1 pound Hot Jimmy Dean or Bob Evans Sausage
1 Jar (14 oz) medium heat salsa
1 brick Velveeta (no substitute)
Cook sausage in a pot.
Cube Velveeta and throw it in the pot to melt. Add the salsa and stir everything together.
Serve with something crisp to dip.
Serve on a Hot Dog.
Reserve some for an omlet in the morning.
I’m guessing you can get this recipe, or something like it, on the Kraft Velveeta web site, but it’s so much nicer to scratch it down on the back of an envelope over a glass of wine at the kitchen table.
Salty, spicy, tangy.
From Farm to Freezer
It’s almost exactly 100 miles from my house to Mariquita Farm, just outside Hollister CA, and it takes almost exactly 2 hours to get there for the U-pick Tomatoes day. Take 101 through Gilroy and turn left on 25 toward Hollister. Turn left onto Shore Road and left onto San Felipe Road. The farm is on the left; if you cross the creek, you’ve gone too far.
We go almost every year in September and pick enough Early Girl and San Marzano tomatoes to make enough sauce to last a year, two flats. The first year we went, we picked four flats, too much good stuff.
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