Going Green: Mostly Pureed

It's another installment of our recent favorite vegetable recipes. This post's winners: Roasted Asparagus Soup, Carrot Soup, Summer Squash Soup, and Fried Teriyaki Tofu.

Roasted Asparagus Soup: 1 head of garlic, 1/2 an onion, 1 celery stick, 1 carrot stick, 1 bunch of asparagus, 1 and 1/2 cups chicken broth, 3 Tbsp Olive oil, and a little butter and salt.

We took one bunch of asparagus and chopped the bottoms off of each stalk. We chopped the stalks into 4 pieces, and chopped one carrot stick. After dousing the asparagus and carrot in olive oil and salt, we roasted them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees F. We stirred them half way through roasting. While that simmered in the oven, we chopped the garlic, onion, and one celery stick, and sauteed it in a little butter until soft. We added the roasted ingredients to the pan with 1 cup stock and simmered it for 5-ish minutes. We then combined all of the ingredients, plus another half cup of chicken stock, into the blender and pureed it until it was really smooth. We set aside of few of the asparagus tips to garnish our soup. 

It's way yummy. We licked our bowls clean....

Carrot Soup: 4-5 carrot sticks, 2-3 celery sticks, 1 onion, 1 head of garlic, 2 red potatoes, 2 cups of chicken broth, 2-3 Tbsp oil of your choice, and salt to taste.

We chopped all of the ingredients and sauteed them in the oil and a little salt for about 5 minutes. Then we added the broth, brought it to a boil, covered the dish, reduced the heat, and let everything simmer for 20 minutes. We let the concoction cool, and then pureed it in a blender until smooth.

The Best dish by Far?
Summer Squash Soup: 1 Summer Squash, 1-2 carrot sticks, 1 celery stick, 1 onion, 1 head of garlic, 1 and 1/2 cups of chicken broth and 3 Tbsp oil of your choice.

  We minced the garlic and chopped the onion and celery. These ingredients were sauteed in about 3 Tbsp of olive oil for 2-3 minutes. We peeled the summer squash and carrot sticks, chopped them, and added them to the pan. We then added the broth, brought the pan to a boil, and then reduced the heat, covered the pan, and cooked the veggies for about 20 minutes. Once the veggies were cool, we pureed all of the ingredients in a blender until smooth. This dish was surprisingly very flavorful. We did not need any seasonings. And yes, we definitely licked our bowls very clean. We added dashes of nutmeg to the soup before consuming it.

Time for an old family favorite from the wife's side.
Fried Teriyaki Tofu: One block of Firm Tofu, 3 Tbsp or more of olive oil, 1/2 cup or more of your favorite brand of Teriyaki sauce (mine is Very Very Teriyaki Island style), Basil to taste, Onion (either 1/2 of an onion or about 1 Tbsp of onion powder), and 1/2 a head of garlic.

I mince the garlic and onion (when not using powder) and saute it in the oil. I chop the tofu block and add it to the pan, along with the ground basil. I fry the tofu until it begins to get golden brown spots. Then I add the teriyaki sauce. I continue to cook the tofu until it looks golden brown all over.
Tofu is an acquired taste. I grew up with it. But I just thought I'd share this recipe for those who would like to try it. It's an excellent source of protein.

Edible Monsters

Once again, the two peas ventured out as country bumpkins to an After-Halloween party. They brought mummy dogs to share. And they turned out pretty awesome.

It takes two packages of hot dogs. Cut each dog in half and set them aside in a bowl. Open two packages of Pillsbury cooking dough. Use your pizza cutter to get thin strips of dough. Wrap each half of hot dog from one end and a little past its middle. Then wrap the top. Cook on a greased baking sheet at 350 degrees F for approximately 8 minutes. You can make eyes with drops of mustard, but wait until they have cooled after baking.

 

 

It was tough saying goodbye... but they tasted so good!

Halloween Fun

This year the two peas had barely any time to sit down together for a few seconds, let alone think about what to wear for a costume. So, during the few second they had just before the annual trunk-or-treat, they put their heads together and...

Voila!

They became hicks using stuff they had sitting around the house: a little make-up here, some flour and spaghetti there. And with a few other things tossed into the trunk, they had a small farm with plastic spiders crawling around all over the place.

Going Green: Stage Two

The two peas started on their green journey a few weeks ago by mixing spinach into several dishes. Then they advanced to trying new recipes. This week's winners are parsnip soup (a mix of recipes from foodnetwork.com and epicurious.com) and a green smoothie.

Parsnips are part of the carrot family. They are devoid of color unlike carrots, though. The soup started out as four chopped garlic cloves, one half of a chopped onion, and two chopped celery sticks sauteed in two tablespoons of oil. Then we added five chopped carrots and three chopped parsnips. The entire contents simmered in about one teaspoon of ground ginger root, a dash of basil, a dash of pepper, and two cups of chicken broth for about 20 minutes.

After being pureed in a blender it took on a beautiful pumpkin-orange color. We pureed half of the original mixture of vegetables at a time and added a little more water, or some cream, until the soup barely moved continuously in the blender (we didn't want it to become watery).

We added salt and nutmeg to taste. We added a few pieces of turkey bacon and a tablespoon of sour cream as well. Very yummy! The recipe makes about six servings.

Our green smoothie has one and a half handfuls of spinach, about a half a cup of cranberry juice, two bananas, a can of peaches (in pear juice, not drained), and a cup of blueberries. We pureed it in the blender until it was really smooth and frothy. The contents will settle after it sits for a little while. It tastes delicious! If you'd like to try another green smoothie recipe, you can visit my sister's blog at togetherforeverinlove.blogspot.com.

 

Family Home Evening

The two peas are finding that simple family activities are the very best, and taking some time to practice their talents helps them to unwind. So this week they decided to combine these two ideas and pull out their violins, which have been collecting some dust. It always amazes this wife how the hubby can play as if he hadn't taken a break!

Halloween Decor

The wife loves paper. Give her some paper and she'll build castles. 

She was recently thinking about how to decorate for Halloween on a low budget when it occurred to her that the two peas owned construction paper, glue, and scissors. And that got her reminiscing about elementary school craft hour. So, with some orange and green construction paper, and a few short pieces of pipe cleaner, she decided to make a family of pumpkins as a table display. 

 They are fun and easy to make.

For the tall lantern-looking pumpkins, fold a piece of paper in half and cut strips into it every inch or so, without cutting all of the way through the paper. Unfold it, and glue the ends perpendicular to the fold together.
For the small round pumpkins, start with strips of orange paper. Glue them together at the middle of each strip and lying perpendicular and all different directions from one another. After 15 minutes, glue the ends of each strip together. They make a sphere. Take a smaller strip, glue it's ends together, and glue it to the bottom as a stand.

With how simple these are to make, and the wife's obsession with paper, the two peas might have a paper pumpkin epidemic on their hands very soon....

Sewing Disaster, eh?

The wife was finishing an exciting project - a kind of sweater she's had her eye on for a long time - and then suddenly in a moment it was gone! (The front of her sweater folded underneath the next cut she was to make...and the rest is self-explanatory.)

"Ugh!" she exclaimed and her head went right into her hands. There she sat not making a sound. She was feeling dumb, dumb founded, and forlorn all at the same time. What happened next, you ask? Well, it'll never be the same. She can't wear it as it is with that big hole; it won't keep her warm that way. But she'd just been reading again about being creative and finding solutions to unexpected every day catastrophes, and it wasn't going to change the eternal nature of things, so why not! Let's patch it up with some hearts and flowers!

Here's the lucky little winner of a sweater:

1. She cross-stitch the hole closed.

 2. She added small hearts right over the cross-stitching.

3. She added a flower rolled and stitched together from some left over fabric.

 Et voila! 

Different sweater than she planned, but still nice looking in the end.