What I'm cooking
Yay! It's fall again! The season of socks, sweaters, and soup! My favorite!
I absolutely love making soup. It's like the most creative thing you can do when cooking, because you can make soup out of anything. And I totally make soup out of everything. Whatever is on sale in the produce or meat departments, I'm all over it. Then it's just a matter of adding broth and more...stuff.
This is a soup I made just this past weekend, thanks to a sudden downturn in the temperature. I fiddled with a recipe I found online and made it truly my own. Which, hey, is pretty much what soup making is all about. This is fast and easy, and it can be made vegan with the substitution of olive oil for the butter and vegetable broth for the beef broth and omitting the half-and-half. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. (And, hey, feel free to fiddle with it and make it truly your own!)
Mushroom Potato Soup
I absolutely love making soup. It's like the most creative thing you can do when cooking, because you can make soup out of anything. And I totally make soup out of everything. Whatever is on sale in the produce or meat departments, I'm all over it. Then it's just a matter of adding broth and more...stuff.
This is a soup I made just this past weekend, thanks to a sudden downturn in the temperature. I fiddled with a recipe I found online and made it truly my own. Which, hey, is pretty much what soup making is all about. This is fast and easy, and it can be made vegan with the substitution of olive oil for the butter and vegetable broth for the beef broth and omitting the half-and-half. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. (And, hey, feel free to fiddle with it and make it truly your own!)
Mushroom Potato Soup
- 5 tablespoons of butter
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/2 pound assorted mushrooms, sliced
- 1 pound baby yellow gold potatoes, quartered (but not peeled)
- 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
- 6 cups of meat or beef broth
- 1/2 cup half-and-half
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill
- 1 bay leaf
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt (but I make my own broth with no salt added, so you might want to use less)
- Melt butter in a dutch oven. Add onion, garlic, carrot, and mushrooms. Cook till tender, stirring frequently, about five minutes.
- Add broth, salt, pepper, dill, bay leaf, and potatoes. Heat to boiling, then lower to simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
- Remove bay leaf. In a small bowl, mix together well the half-and-half and flour. Add to the soup and let simmer a couple more minutes. Garnish with more fresh dill.
What I'm reading
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Gail Honeyman
Because I'm writing general fiction these days, I'm trying to read a lot of general fiction, too. But I like to read (and write) books that have quirky characters and left-of-center situations, and the bestseller lists these days seem to be teeming with mystery and suspense. Don't get me wrong. I love reading mystery and suspense. Writing it? Not so much.
Enter Eleanor Oliphant. I'm really loving this book. It's one of those stories, with the kind of characters, that makes you laugh and cry and cringe, and then laugh some more. It's the kind of book I hope I'm writing. Of course, when I read something this good, I kind of wonder why I bother...
What I'm watching
The Great Interior Design Challenge
I've always said that if I didn't become a writer, I would have liked to become an interior decorator. So I guess it's no surprise that I love, love, love watching shows like this. But this one is even better than the stuff I used to watch on HGTV (it's probably the only channel I miss, now that we've cut the cable cord), because it also has a architectural history thrown into the mix. And not just any architectural history. No, this show has British architectural history.
Be still my heart.
Each episode features amateur designers redoing rooms in everything from castles to thatched cottages to mid-century modern condos. And all with designers who have accents from all over the British Isles. It's all just so incredibly...Anglican. And wonderful. And charming. I really need to renew my passport.
I've always said that if I didn't become a writer, I would have liked to become an interior decorator. So I guess it's no surprise that I love, love, love watching shows like this. But this one is even better than the stuff I used to watch on HGTV (it's probably the only channel I miss, now that we've cut the cable cord), because it also has a architectural history thrown into the mix. And not just any architectural history. No, this show has British architectural history.
Be still my heart.
Each episode features amateur designers redoing rooms in everything from castles to thatched cottages to mid-century modern condos. And all with designers who have accents from all over the British Isles. It's all just so incredibly...Anglican. And wonderful. And charming. I really need to renew my passport.
What I'm listening to
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Bare Necessities - "English Country Dances" This is my go-to Autumn music, always and forever. Traveling Wilburys - "The Traveling Wilburys" Revisiting an old favorite is always way fun. Wynton Marsalis - "The Midnight Blues" Autumn is also the time for jazz. Really, really good Jazz. The Shins - "Wincing the Night Away" Something about Fall requires moody music. |