Spinach...no caterpillar soup!

 

Week 17 (April 28, 2010) 

 

This week we were in the mood to try a new soup recipe, so Geoffrey chose a Lentil-Vegetable soup recipe. I noticed that Geoffrey had purchased about a million bags of spinach (ok, more like 2, but that is a lot of spinach!), so I inquired about how much actual spinach was needed-- 6 cups! Wow! Healthy recipe!

 

Geoffrey got the soup started and simmering on the stove.

Then he took out the spinach to start chopping it up.

Since Ting had blogged about a recent bug incident she had with packaged salad, I advised Geoffrey to inspect and wash the spinach before chopping it up. It was quiet in the kitchen for a bit and then Geoffrey asks me "Would you eat the spinach if I found a bug in it?" I replied "Huh? What do you mean, did you find a bug?" He hesitated to answer and finally said "Yes, I found a tiny caterpillar." What to do? We went back and forth trying to decide whether we should use the spinach or not. Not only was it a major ingredient of the recipe, but bagged spinach isn't cheap and most importantly I HATE wasting food. In the end, we decided to not include the spinach in the recipe. It was a very difficult decision, but both of us couldn't get past the thought of the bug in the spinach.

The soup came out delicious anyway, but it would have been nice to have the spinach in the soup. We'll definitely try this recipe again, with the spinach. 

Our rating for this recipe is 8.25 (Mayra: 8, Geoffrey: 8.5).

P.S. Geoffrey contemplated not telling me about the caterpillar (bad, bad, bad), but he said he didn't want to "torture" me by making me eat something that would gross me out. Plus, he said he probably wouldn't eat the spinach part and that I would notice and start asking questions. Well played, Mauer.

Comfy Chicken Noodle Soup

Week 12 (March 31, 2010)

I wanted to make something quick this week and use up leftover ingredients from last week's Asian night so I found a recipe for Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup with Sesame and Green Onions.  Geoff was also starting to feel under the weather and SF was colder than usual, so this was an easy choice!

Geoff had purchased these ingredients last week (with the exception of the noodles), so they came in handy for this week's recipe.

I did the usual veggie chopping. Good rule of thumb for healthy cooking is to use colorful fruits/veggies. We find that most often we cook with greens (avocados, lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, celery, cabbage, green onions, spinach),  whites (onions, garlic, potatoes) and red/orange colors (carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, radicchio). For this recipe I added bean sprouts, since I love them but don't often get to eat them.

Note I did not use tahini or cilantro, mainly because I didn't have either on hand. I also didn't use the dry sherry because we were still on our "no alcohol" thing. The soup was easy to make and came out pretty good. Next time I will use less sesame seed oil (I didn't think it added much to the soup) and try not to omit too many ingredients.

Our score for this was 7.5 (Mayra 7; Geoffrey 8).

Albóndigas!

Week 3 (January 20, 2010)
After a very wet and windy San Francisco day, Geoffrey decided that what we needed for dinner was soup! My favorite! He picked out a recipe for Poblano Albóndigas with Ancho Chile Soup. As soon as I was banished from the kitchen--Geoffrey doesn't like it when I hang around and "judge" him while he cooks-- Geoffrey got to work on the soup. And since I could not be anywhere near the kitchen, I am narrating using the pictures that Geoffrey took while he was cooking.

This soup required quite a bit of fancy techniques for a soup (and for a Wednesday night dinner). First he had to roast the poblano peppers and then put them in a paper bag.

Then he had to make the albóndiga (meatballs) mix and start the soup base.

Next he rolled the albóndigas into their proper shape and dropped them into the soup to cook.

Lastly, he fried tortilla strips for garnish.

Two hours and various cooking techniques later, we had our soup! Overall, this recipe got an average rating of 7 (Mayra & Geoffrey: 7 each). Geoffrey loved it, but he thought the recipe was a little too complex for a soup. I thought the soup was OK, but could have used more veggies to hearty it up a bit.