02.10.10

Soup to soup.

Posted in General at 7:06 pm by Janet

I was asked to chair the next RS quarterly activity.  Each quarter we have a meeting where food is served and the classes taught are more organized and formal.  I was told to plan soup for the meal, and, would I also like to teach a class on soup.  Of course I said yes to both.  I got a committee together and we planned the dinner and then I have been busy planning my class.  You can do some planning on paper.  I did some research on the Internet.  But the main part of class prep has been…in the kitchen.

I found about 19 different recipes that I wanted to try, and I only had two weeks, what to do?  I should tell you that I have plenty of soup recipes that I already know and love, I just wanted to add to my repertoire.  I have been going through the list, one per night.  I let Leslie fix one for her family one night and I fixed another one for Dale and I.  Hers said it served 8 to 10, and I just didn’t want that many leftovers.  As it is I am sending leftovers home with whoever comes here. 

One I tried I have already decided not to include.  Kurt said it was “okay”.  Faint praise. 

Two or three nights ago (the soups are running into each other now) I fixed split pea with ham.  As I was sauteing the vegetables with the ham my mouth was watering.  It was the best split pea soup I’ve had in a while.  Tonight I made roasted butternut  squash soup.  It was the best soup, honestly, we would have been thrilled to eat it on the cruise.  I was going to make loaded baked potato soup, but it serves 8 and it has 8 slices of bacon, a cup of sour cream and 4 cups of cheddar cheese, not good for the diet.  I will have to make that on a night when Kurt will be here and Dale W. will not.  Don’t worry, I have two yummy sounding low-fat soups coming up very soon. 

The recipes that I have been thrilled with have come from the Cook’s Country website, which is one of America’s Test Kitchens sites.  They have all been incredibly good.  The one that I wasn’t thrilled about came from another website.  Which goes to show sometimes something that looks good can be deceiving.  Anymore if the recipe doesn’t direct me to saute the foundation vegetables I am going to be leery about the outcome.

I wonder if I am going to be tired of eating soup before the class comes?  When the soup was as good as tonight’s probably not.  Ahh, velvety smooth and delicious.

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