I really love making soups and stews. I enjoy the one pot / one meal technique: it's less to worry about (sync multiple dishes so they're all ready at the same time), and less to clean up (Rob is especially thankful for that). Warm hearty soup, a glass of wine and some good tunes are all I need after a chilly ride home and long day at work.
This is one of Rachel Ray's 30-min recipes:
Kal-iflower Stoup. It's healthy and vegetarian (except for the chicken broth, which could, of course, be substituted for veg broth). I really want to like Rachel Ray. I like her TV show (I'm referring to the 30-min meal show, not her daytime one), and I appreciate the short-on-time approach. However, her recipes are hit and miss with me. Some are delicious and some just suck. This dish gets more like a 4-star rating. I love that it's healthy - and let's be honest -- we're talking about KALE. How good can kale really be? So, she did well considering it includes 2 bunches of bitter chewy kale.
Kale. I only love kale for one reason: it's a superfood. It's so healthy that it makes me a better person just putting it in the shopping cart. It's in that awesome-good-for-you Brassica family (e.g., brussels spouts, broccoli), and that group has claimed to ward off cancer. Let's face it - that family needs to bring something to the table other than turned up noses. Warding off cancer and providing a plethora of vitimins (it's an excellent source of iron and calcium), and antioxidants, are pretty good reasons. Plus, it's very
pretty in the garden. So I'm slowly learning to enjoy kale.
I finally made something that I really don't like very much - but it sure is pretty. Tonight was Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry from Food Network Magazine. It was OK, not awful, but not worthy of making again. I KNOW that none of you will be trying it out for one main reason -- Okra. This is the first time I've cooked with okra. Yeah, it's slimy (although it's a great thickener). Rob said 'these peppers aren't very hot' and it took me a moment to figure out that he meant the okra. Poor California boy ain't never had no okra.
For some odd reason, the only cauliflower I could find in the grocery store was either purple or orange. Purple seems slightly more 'normal.' Orange reminded me of a nuclear glow, so I opted for the purple. It tasted the same as white cauliflower, but made for a really colorful dish.
