soups

bring out the spoons.

miscellany chili recipe

02/17/2013 | 5 Comments | Topics: default dinners, food., recipes, soups

… and there is chili on the stove.
That is my pat answer all winter long. With teen-very-active sons, keeping warm, homey food at the ready is one of my top mom priorities. When I am in my zen-mother moments, I am filling the kitchen with chili for after school, baked breads and cookies, big bacon-laced breakfasts and so forth. All winter long, chili on the stove is not uncommon—and… [more]

6 soup recipes for winter

11/26/2012 | 3 Comments | Topics: food., recipes, soups, vegetables

Who doesn’t need a list of soup recipes for winter… [more]?
You can skip all the talk and go straight to the soup list, below. OR you can listen to me share why I love making chicken stock and—though expensive—why I splurge on organic and/or farm-raised chickens:
I am a big fan of farm-raised chicken. I actually buy 4 chickens a month (remember: I have two teen sons who eat

cheddar and broccoli soup recipe (using broccoli stems!)

07/24/2012 | 4 Comments | Topics: food., recipes, soups, vegetables

Broccoli stems should not be underrated. In fact if you are cooking on a budget, buying broccoli heads with long stems is much less expensive than buying bags of pre-cut florets. (Enter this cheddar and broccoli soup recipe… [more]). Think on it: you can have expensive pre-cut florets at just one meal OR buy long-legged broccoli heads and have florets at one meal and soup at the next. Not only

how to make vegetable stock

03/22/2012 | 4 Comments | Topics: food., just talk, recipes, soups

I sincerely cannot believe it has taken me this long to add vegetable stock to my repertoire. I make chicken stock and beef stock all of the time—even to the point of pressure canning them for storage. I swear by homemade stock.… [more] It is yet another of those recipes that once you start making it at home from scratch, you will cringe at the thought of buying the ‘store’ version.

foodbuzz 24×24 beyond the eggs: culling and cooking your urban hens

02/26/2012 | 14 Comments | Topics: contests, entree, farm., food., just talk, soups, urban livestock

This was a special dinner, an occasion for pulling out all the stops. Joshua McNichols—a childhood friend of mine AND co-author of The Urban Farm Handbook… [more]—and his wife Emily came to dinner. My teenage sons joined us for this formal dinner in. It was a meal bordering sacred: the six of us were eating a ‘gourmet’ feast to honor Joshua and Emily’s recently culled chickens.

Joshua and I butchered

quinoa, red bean and yellow pepper chili

01/10/2012 | 3 Comments | Topics: food., soups

I love chili, especially this time of year. It is perfect for a warm lunch, snack or light dinner the same way crisp lettuce greens and just-picked berries scream of summer.
I love chili because: it is a brilliant after-school snack for my teenage, growing-taller-than-life sons. I can start a batch mid-afternoon and when they swing open the door and bee-line it to the crock-pot. Sometimes I make chili on… [more]

DaVinci Wine Cookbook: page 5 [of 10] ZUPPA & INSALATA

10/05/2011 | Comments Off | Topics: davinci wine, food., Italian food & wine, recipes, salad, soups

Zuppa e Insalata.… [more] The soup and salad course is not to be missed: salads are home to seasonal greens plus seafood and all the trimmings—or simply lettuces with high quality olive oil, salt and pepper. A quintessential soup of Tuscany—and born out of a peasant’s kitchen—is called ribollita. Ribollita can take on many forms, from thin and broth-like to thick like stew. Its signature ingredients include day old bread, cavalo

tomato soup.

02/18/2011 | 7 Comments | Topics: food., recipes, soups

Yum. When I was in college I would frequent this little diner, set up my computer and text books and park in a chair for hours on end. I studied best with absolute silence OR a constant hum of noise—which I somehow managed to block out. This diner was a perfect study spot, and I would frequently order scones and a [bottomless] latte or this creamy tomato soup that I… [more]

jarred fish soup

06/23/2010 | 5 Comments | Topics: food., just talk, recipes, soups

I do love jars.
Its a fact. I put candles in them, use them to shake up my salad dressings, to keep leftovers in my fridge, to freeze grandma’s strawberry jam and more. They are so useful and a brilliant alternative to Tupperware. Recycled jars… [more] make great pencil holders, make iced tea somehow more authentic and with a little wire and creativity: can stand in as lanterns in your backyard.

Ribollita!

02/20/2010 | 9 Comments | Topics: food., Italian food & wine, recipes, soups

Ribollita (also written Ribolita—with one ‘l’) is a classic Italian vegetable-and-bread soup (or more of a stew?). I have had it multiple times, see it regularly on cafes all over town (I am currently living in Florence, Italy… [more]). In fact, I have two favorite ‘stand-up-and-eat’ lunch windows—and one of the best bowls of Ribollita I have ever eaten, came from one such window.
As with ANY Italian recipe, there