Beet, Carrot and Onion Soup with Garlic and Herbs

I have been wanting a Vitamix machine for some time. A few weeks ago, our old Hamilton Beach from the 1970s died. This is a machine that Nick brought to our marriage, 25 years ago, and he doesn't remember from where it came. It was probably one of those 'donation' items familiar to college aged-people - it goes like this --- grandma (or whoever) has two blenders, and gives you one of them. This blender was the only one we've ever had until now. I know it is an old blender, because one time, I toured Ike and Mamie Eisenhower's house (it's on National Park property) in Gettysburg, PA. They had the same blender Nick and I did, and Mamie died in 1979. (Ike died earlier).

Our Hamilton Beach died because I had some old parmesan cheese, and I was trying to use the blender to pulverize the cheese so I could sprinkle it on something I was cooking. You know the hard little bits of cheese you have left over from some long-ago culinary escapade? Not moldy, but hard. Well, that was the cheese I was trying to pulverize. The cheese, instead, knocked a hole in the plastic blender container, so that was the end. Besides, the Hamilton Beach was tired.

So, I debated for two weeks before spending a LOT of money (well, a lot by my standards) on a Vitamix.

This baby cooks. Literally! Mostly, I've been using it to make breakfast type smoothies (I experiment with flavors and textures I think will work). This morning, I tossed in 5 frozen strawberries, a half banana, about 10 dried cranberries, 2 oz each cranberry and orange juice.

So at lunch today, I made some soup. Just thought the recipe up as I went along. This machine is so powerful that ingredients COOK through pure friction. Friction is so powerful if you let the machine run long enough, that the ingredients get almost boiling hot, and steamy.

Beet, Carrot and Onion Soup with Garlic and Herbs (serves 2)

1 large beet, peeled and roughly chopped.
1 carrot, same as above.
1 small onion, same as above.
1 clove garlic, same as above.
2 sprigs parsley. 2 more, reserved for garnish.
1 large sage leaf, 2 small ones in addition, reserved for garnish
1 cup chicken broth.
2 T sour cream(for garnish).

Put all ingredients except for sage and parsley garnish, and sour cream into Vitamix. Whirl that baby. Bombs away...the cat scuttles out of the kitchen due to jet-engine noise simulation.

Let pulverize for 5 to 7 minutes, until liquid is steaming. (hot). Watch the liquid go up and down and round and round. Hypnotic red-orange color. Beta carotene and good stuff is practically transluscent in the autumn sunshine.

Pour into bowls and garnish with sour cream and herbs.

Although this was good, it wasn't fantastic. A little 'raw' tasting. Next time, I will soften the roots and garlic in a tablespoon olive oil on stovetop first. A little conventional cooking and carmelization would take this food from good to fantastic.

And if you conventional cook the ingredients before blending, you could make this soup with a regular (non Vitamix) machine.

French Onion Soup

Years ago, I bought a set of four ovenproof bowls, at a factory outlet store in Flemington, NJ, with the idea that I'd make french onion soup. Eight (or so) years later, (yay) I made it!


My first French Onion soup!

It's not hard to make, which makes me wonder (as I do from time to time) what took me so long!

There is some time involved, mainly in making the caramelized onions that serve as a base for the soup. This step turns out to be easy if you use a crockpot.

Caramelized Onions

Peel, cut in half lengthwise, and slice (getting rid of the roots) about 5 pounds onions. I used regular (huge) NY "Bold" onions (the usual kind, not the sweet ones).

Throw these onions in a large crockpot with 1 stick butter. I used salted butter, so did not add salt.

Cook on low 14 hours. Cool and store in refrigerator, where they keep for weeks. Add salt later, as you use them, if you want. These will be beautifully brown and naturally sweet. But if you think they're not sweet enough, just add some sugar. I've been making these onions for a while.

These onions are great more than making soup. Use them for topping hamburgers, serving alongside any beans or meat, baking on top of a pizza, and so on. At our house, we can go through a batch of these onions in about 2 or 3 weeks. And it's just the two of us.

French Onion Soup

Take about 1 cup of caramelized onions from the fridge. In a pan, melt 1 T. butter, and put in about 1 T flour. Make paste, and heat about 4 minutes. Don't let burn. Whisk in about 3 cups stock of your choice. I used a combination of frozen chicken stock that I had on hand supplemented by water and Penzey's "broth in a jar". This Penzey's stuff is phenomenal, in my opinion. In fact, I buy a lot of my spices and such at Penzey's. My mom turned me on to Penzey's a few years ago. What I don't buy at Penzey's, I buy in ginormous bulk quantity at Costco. Put a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and simmer a while. Put the onions in. All told, simmer about 1 hour. Put pepper and salt in if desired.

Meanwhile, slice french bread into 3/4 inch slices (I made some yesterday) and toast it in the oven at around 325 degrees, basting if desired with olive oil.

Get your oven proof receptacles (I used my little bowls). It's nice to make individual type servings, but you can do it in one huge bowl, I guess, and serve it from that. For the individual servings, pPut 1 slice of bread in bottom of bowl. Put on some cheese (I used mozzarella and parmesan because that's what I had on hand but per Julia Child, you're supposed to use gruyere and or swiss with parmesan). Ladle soup on top. Float about 2 slices of bread on top of each bowl, put on more cheese, then drizzle with olive oil (again, learned from Julia Child). Bake at 325 F. for about 25 minutes. This temp browns the cheese nicely, but is not so hot that your soup boils in the oven.

Nick said this soup was as good as any he's ever had in a restaurant. That's good enough for me!

Gad-Zukes!

Anyone who has a vegetable garden inevitably grows Zucchini at least once. I grow it every year. One plant yields a few squash every week. I looked away for a few minutes, and was greeted yesterday by a large one. About nine inches. We normally eat them when they're 4 inches long or less. I don't like them 'alone' when they're that big. So, when faced with a large one, there's always the option of Zucchini Bread.

My mother-in-law, Carol, gave me two family recipe compilations when I joined the family. One of these is a Christmas Cookie book. The other is a blue loose leaf binder, into which she had affixed some of the Bell family favorites. The recipes were painstakingly typed onto loose leaf binder paper.

Along the way, she noted my interest in vegetable gardening, and accordingly, my prolific zucchini harvest. So she gave me several Zucchini recipes, which I added to the binder.

This is one of them:

Zucchini Bread With Dates ("Good", she notes, in pen, on the upper left margin)
My changes are in italics to the right of the ingredients.

3 eggs
1 c. oil (I used only 3/4 cup peanut oil. it worked well. less fat.)
1 tsp vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda1 tsp. cinnamon (I used 1 1/2 tsp.) 2 c. grated peeled zucchinni
2 c sugar (I used 1 cup sugar and 1 cup Splenda artificial sugar.)
1/2 tsp. baking powder (omitted)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. walnuts (I used 3/4 cup grated coconut instead of nuts.)
1/2 c. dates (I put in 3/4 cup.)
Directions:

Beat eggs until light and foamy. Add sugar, oil, zucchini and vanilla. Mix lightly.

Add flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. (Recipe says to mix these separately then add, but I just dumped them in.)

Blend. Add nuts (coconut) and dates.

Pour into two greased and floured (I omitted the flour - no sticking, no problems) bread pans.

Bake in preheated 325 F degree oven about 1 hour. (I baked 55 minutes.)

Can be frozen. (I froze one loaf. The other is almost gone. It may not last 24 hours here at the Bell house!)

Mom and Dad's Barnegat Bay Flounder and Potatoes

This year, the bay is full of large flounder, so when we go to the shore, we often have fresh fish. We catch them in the channel right outside my parents' house.

My mom has a way of pan cooking filets which works really well. First, wet the filets in beaten egg. Then, dip them in corn flake crumbs, mixed with a small bit of Old Bay seasoning. Now, pay attention - following is the secret.

Once the filets are coated in the crumbs, put them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. This firms up the crumbs, and keeps the crumb coating from coming off when frying later.
There are two secrets in frying. Use medium heat, and take the filets out of the pan right BEFORE you think they are done. Also, use a combination of peanut or canola oil and butter. You don't need much oil or butter, really.

My dad planted Yukon Gold and Redskin potatoes (both varieties) in the side yard, in a small patch near the house. They are ready to be eaten as thin skinned, new potatoes. We simply boiled them whole, and tossed them with butter, chopped parsley and a bit of dill along with salt and pepper. This made a a perfect bayside dinner, served along with green salad and coleslaw.
Below, mom and dad are standing in front of a photo of pound boats. These boats were used on Long Beach Island in the 'olden days' to net fish in the ocean. The boats were sail and oar powered. When my dad was a child in the late 1940s and 1950s, he used to go up to the beach to see the pound boats land with their catches of fish.

American Apple Pie

Apple season has begun! One of the earliest varieties is Yellow Transparent. I was lucky enough to get some of these apples from my mom and dad, who have a tree. I don't ever see this variety for sale in markets - even the small roadside apple stands. The apples we have bruise easily, and I imagine this is one reason we don't see them in markets (hard to transport when they bruise so readily.)

This is an early yielder, and the apples ripened two weeks ago.
Nick and I ate the pie with vanilla ice cream.

Independence Day Potato Salad

Today is American Iindependence day. For our celebratory picnic, I made a 'french style' potato salad. Why French? In my opinion, without the ready assistance of the French (including Lafayette) and others (including genius battlements engineer Thaddeus Kosiuszko), the United States may not have been able to break free of the mother country. Of course, the americans had to want it bad enough to fight. Hard. Without blood and sweat from the famous and obscure Americans, the United States would simply not have been formed. Today I remind myself that american independence was not a 'given' back in 1776. At the time the Declaration of Independence was written, half of American colonists were still loyal to Britain. Those who wanted independence wanted it badly enough to stake their lives and fortunes on it's successful outcome.

Our country still operates on ideals that are emulated by and envied by many in the world today. May we americans always be worthy -- in our actions, thoughts, and aspirations -- of the ideals and actions of our forefathers and foremothers.


So again, chapeaus off to the French, for helping us out back in the 1770s (and later, when we fought the British again in the early 1800s). To honor the French contribution to American Independence, I made today an adaptation of what Julia Child calls a "French Style" potato salad.

This is a simple recipe, and I'll share it here, but credit Julia for the inspiration. First, you have to start with the best possible ingredients, as this is a simple recipe and the quality of the ingredients "make" the meal.I bought some new potatoes (by "new" potatoes, I mean those of this season, freshly dug) last Thursday from a farmer who is in Philadelphia every week. I've mentioned him earlier here, and he and his mom, and sometimes others, are in Suburban Station (SEPTA) every Thursday.

These potatoes, and some fresh garlic chives and parsley from my garden, along with some red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and good quality olive oil are all I needed.
"Thank the French" Independence Day Potato Salad

8 to 10 ounces new redskin potatoes
1 teaspoon salt (plus more if needed)
a few grinds of pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (more or less)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley (or less if you don't like this herb as much as I do)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic chives (or anything from the allium family -use your judgement)

Wash potatoes well, scrub a bit under running water. Cut into 1/4 inch slices (do not peel).

Boil for about 10 minutes (maybe less ) in salted water. Drain. Retain about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Put that and the potatoes back in the cooking pan. Let sit for about 5 minutes, covered.

Take potatoes and water out, and put in large mixing bowl. Lightly mix in vinegar herbs and pepper. Let sit at room temperature another 10 minutes (Covered). Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed. Add olive oil. Toss. Let cool. Transfer to refrigerator. Ready to serve in 2 hours.

Barnegat Bay Flounder

This weekend, we caught some beautiful flounder, in Barnegat Bay, and tonight Nick and I had some filets for dinner.
My sisters, their families, and Nick and me, along with my mom, celebrated dad's 69th birthday yesterday at my parents' vacation home on Long Beach Island.

Dad is a master filet-er. I have taken lessons, and I can approximate his technique, but my filets are ragged. I save the fish frames to make stock. Although Julia Child says to add the heads as part of the fish frame/stock combo, I don't have it in me, so the heads, along with the innards of fish, go to the laughing gulls and herring gulls who congregate at our dock when the fish come home.

As Dad is a master filet-er, my Mom is the Mistress of fine cuisine. Mom cooked dinner, after dinner, after dinner when I was a child, every meal from 'scratch' and every meal a feast, from salad to entree to dessert. From her I learned how to bake the filets with butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper, with a little flour (a la meuniere, s-il-vous plait) sprinkled on top. Served with sauteed spinach (with garlic and red pepper) and pasta, it made a beautiful dinner.