soups

bring out the spoons.

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… [more]

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

10/05/2011 | Leave a comment! | Topics: DaVinci Wine, Italian food, salad, soups

Zuppa e Insalata. 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,… [more]

tomato soup.

02/18/2011 | 7 Comments | Topics: 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… [more]

Ribollita!

02/20/2010 | 9 Comments | Topics: Italian food, 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). 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,… [more]

Tex Mex Cuisine

03/20/2009 | 5 Comments | Topics: culinary school, just talk, soups

I took a class called American Cuisine. Each week we would focus on a different region of America, to familiarize ourselves with its flavors, historical influences and topography, and how they informed the table tops in this part of the country. One week was all about Tex Mex. Texas is its own unique state, unlike any other. ‘Tex-mex’ cuisine was born out of poor man’s Mexican food and includes corn,… [more]

a perfect soup to usher in fall: sherry brie & mushroom

10/21/2008 | 8 Comments | Topics: food., recipes, soups

If ever you had a spoon, and could insert it into the computer screen with optimal effect: this would be the time. If you like mushroom soup, you should try this one. If you aim to embrace fall’s earthy flavors and welcome the changing season with seasonal menus, look no further. I have been making this mushroom soup for years. I often serve it to guests. And now that… [more]

beige in a bowl.

05/28/2008 | 2 Comments | Topics: food., recipes, soups

It isn’t very summery is it? Smooth beige soup in a bowl. Though this soup has deep, earthy flavors, and beckons your deliberation of forest undergrowth and fertile mounds of earth, it may not pass as summer fare… you can almost taste the forest floor when a spoon of this mushroom soup settles in your mouth. But to be fair, I did just receive cremini mushrooms in my [more]

good soup. of the pumpkin ginger variety.

02/17/2008 | 18 Comments | Topics: food., people to see, recipes, soups

I love good soups. When a good soup meets my lips and warms my throat down to my belly, even my toes get a wiggle. This is a perfect time of year for soups; and for using my favorite kitchen tool: an immersion blender. You don’t need one for this soup, of course, but if you do then your kids will come running when you power it up: can… [more]

Start Thanksgiving with: Fennel Pear Soup

11/14/2007 | 3 Comments | Topics: food., soups

I was in a slump: I admit it. I cooked impressive-sounding things like pinot noir braised red onions with roasted chicken, and soy braised beets with salmon in arugula cream sauce, and bruschetta with rosemary white bean puree. But things—these recipes—were just not going my way. Some of them took too long to make, involved step upon step upon step and the end result while good, wasn’t worth the… [more]

Alcohol Cabinet Soup.

10/04/2007 | 7 Comments | Topics: food., soups

First, empty entire contents of alcohol cabinet to counter top. That should have been the first instruction in this fennel soup recipe, seriously. I had to search the ingredient list to ensure there was actually some form of broth in this soup. Sure enough, there was. But I was already taken: any excuse to eat Gruyere cheese and I am all in. (Recipe from Barefoot Contessa, Parties). …So I walked… [more]