Hey! It's my 5 year anniversary at Dragon Woman's Kitchen!!

And the angels are dancing!!    lol

  The Actual Anniversary was January 13, 2009. 5 years and exactly 2 weeks ago (on a Tuesday).  I can't believe I've been writing this for 5 years.  Not a lot.  Not enough.  But still, suiting up and showing up enough to keep it going. And loving it.


  This picture is a pot pie that I made tonight to take to our vegetarian potluck out at the La Vista Ecological Center, where we are part of a discussion group that meets twice a month.  We have random potlucks, and the food is always heavenly.  This one is a vegetable pot pie with a rosemary biscuit crust. I got this recipe for biscuits from a dear friend.  (Thanks Mary!!)

 I didn't feel like making pastry, which is how I usually do pot pies: top and bottom crust.  I just happened to have buttermilk. Voila.  I used a Xmas  cookie cutter to make the angel shapes. I patted this dough out a bit thinner than I do when making regular biscuits, so there was a leftover pan of little rosemary angels that I took along as well.

 I rummaged around in the fridge and pantries and came up with:

2 stalks of celery
1 nice onion
3 medium carrots.

  In my big cast iron skillet, I made a mirepoix of these three vegetables in a small amount of olive oil.  This sauteed for about 10-15 minutes on low while I peeled a smallish  butternut squash.  I scrubbed and cubed 2 medium red potatoes, skins on.  I rescued the end of a head of garlic that was about to be on it's way out and minced that.

 Put these things all into the skillet together and stirred them up and let them cook a bit. I had some crimini mushrooms in the fridge, so I sliced up about 5 of those too.  I had some lacinto kale all cut up in the vegetable drawer that I use for smoothies, and so I threw in a couple of handfuls of that.  I pulled an organic gala apple out of the fruit bowl as an afterthought, and washed, cored and chopped that into the mix. A little sweetness, and I love both apples and onions AND apples and squash together, so how could I go wrong?  I seasoned this with a little salt and black pepper, some hand crushed dried basil from my garden, then added a little water and put a lid on it.  (Right before putting the biscuits on, use a little thickener of your choice and make a bit of a gravy with those vegetables. Add about 2 tablespoons of butter make it a rich gravy)


  The biscuit dough is easy peasy...

  2.5 cups flour
  1 Tbsp. sugar
  3.5 tsp baking powder
  1/2 tsp baking soda
  1 tsp. salt
  1 tsp. finely chopped rosemary (I used dried)
  1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  1  1/4 c.  buttermilk


Stir together the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until it's all fine and crumbly. I slice the stick of chilled butter into 3 pieces lengthwise. Flip it over and cut it 3 times again. Then slice it into tiny cubes and put into the flour.  It mixes easier this way. Once that's done, stir in the buttermilk, mix well.

 I use a piece of waxed paper on the counter, sprinkle it down with corn starch, and dump the ball of biscuit dough on it. Knead it 5 or 6 times and no more.  Pat it into a circle about half an inch thick. Use the cookie cutter (or a biscuit cutter, or a drinking glass) and cut the dough shapes.

Put the vegetable mixture into an oven safe baking dish.  Arrange the biscuits on top and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the biscuits start to turn golden brown and the vegetable mixture is all yummy and bubbly.  After it's done, bake the rest of the biscuits on a baking tray.  I melted some butter and brushed the hot biscuits with it as soon as they came out of the oven.

 I wanted to make star biscuits, but couldn't find the cutter.  lol  So--angels it was  (either that or snowmen). lol 

  And here  it is, fresh out of the oven, biscuits brushed with melted butter.  It was sooo good--everyone loved it.  The apples added just the perfect touch of sweetness. It was rich and satisfying and oh-so-tasty.

  And pretty.  Did I say pretty ?  lol

  And healthy. All the vegetables were organic. The squash, potatoes, rosemary and carrots all came from my own organic gardens. This dish is easily made with whatever you happen to have on hand...the possibilities are endless.




Bon Apetit !

2014...here we go !

I'm going to start off by saying that it's been a bit of a rocky start to the new year. And by "Rocky"  I mean ...blizzards,  MINUS 35 degree wind chill temperatures, bird murders,  2 guys who forgot it was my birthday who live in my house, days with the real time temps in the negative double digits (like -14) and all around craziness.  Today is Wednesday, and the last time I was off the plantation (as it were) was last Saturday. Which isn't really that big a deal, but I like the dramatic sound of it.  We went to a city about 2 hours northeast of us for New Years Eve and came back home the next day, just ahead of a serious snowstorm that dumped about 6 inches of snow on us. About 3 days later, the Polar Vortex came through and hit us with another 13 inches.  The temps have been unbelievably cold for us, and none of that snow is going anywhere. Today is back up in the mid 20's, and might even hit 28. We'll see...

  They finally got my road semi-plowed. The Irishman got out yesterday for work, but not Monday. He got out today too, and the boy is out as well. Both have trucks. I have a little Ford Focus, and it's not going anywhere.  lol Even though they have run the plow down the road, it's treacherous, and I am not going to risk running off the road and getting stuck.

  Okay, that said...there has been some cold weather cooking going on around here.  I made a big pot of Vegetable Beef soup the day the storm was coming and we finished that off.  Then I made a big pot of white chili last night and it's about gone, between supper and lunch.


  Today I am going to make a crock pot Thai Garlic Chicken dish...and I'm going to start it as soon as my camera battery charges up.  lol  I have reached that place where I cannot cook without my digital camera at my side.  


It starts like this:

 The recipe called for 6-7 cloves of fresh garlic, minced. So...I used 13.  Right ??

  I looked at several recipes for this dish and finally picked one and then reworked it to suit me. Which is what I often do, and probably what everyone doers.  Here's the list of ingredients:

  5-6 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
  Ground black pepper
  3/4 cup low sodium tamari (or soy sauce)
  3/4-1 cup honey
  1/4 cup pure molasses
  4-6 cloves fresh garlic minced **
  1 tbsp. crushed basil  (or you could use fresh leaves, rolled and sliced thin, if you have it)
  1/2 - 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  1 tsp ginger (I used ground ginger because I don't have any fresh)
  1/2-3/4 cup catsup--(I used my home made and canned bbq sauce.)


  So, we start by peeling and mincing all the garlic your little heart desires.  My little heart desired a LOT today, so I minced about 13 cloves. I mixed all this up in a 4 cup measuring cup, to keep it simple. Put all the ingredients EXCEPT the chicken and black pepper in the bowl/measuring cup and mix it well.

 Looks pretty yummy, doesn't it ??

  Then take your cutting board and cube all the  chicken.

  I used my big crockpot today for this (because I can't find my little one.  lol)  I sprayed it with olive oil  to help (hopefully) with the cleanup.  I put all the cubed chicken in and then peppered it good, stirring and stirring it until I distributed it evenly.

  Then, just pour the mixture of goo over it and stir until all the pieces are well coated.  Turn the crockpot on high and go do something else for a few hours.  Me??  I just got 3 new huge Rubbermaid totes that I'm going to put all the Xmas decos in.

Now, I've put the lid on, will let it cook on high for about an hour (as my chicken was partially frozen) and then turn it to low. It should be done in about 4 hours, maybe 5, depending on how big you cut the chunks of chicken. Mine are probably 1x1 inch cubes. Mostly.  :)  When the chicken is done, make a thickener with cornstarch and water and pour it into the crockpot. Stir it in well, turn it back on high and let it go until it thickens. Shouldn't take long.


 See you later...before it's all done,. I will cook some brown rice and steam some broccoli  and that will be supper.  I have to make bread today too, and granola.   I'll be back with pictures of the finished project and platings.   See Ya !!!!


***************************************
  Okay...here it is.  Thai Garlic Chicken served over brown rice with a side of beautiful steamed carrots and broccoli (with a half an onion thrown in).  Lordy, lordy--was it ever good.  I will definitely make this dish again.  Easy, healthy and delicious !!

Bon Apetit !

One last post for 2013

  Looking for a simple elegant dessert for the holidays (or any time) ?  My all time favorite is Creme Brulee.  The very first time I had it was 22 years ago in a lovely restaurant in Northern California called Larrupins. A magnificent little place out in the middle of nowhere on the coast, north of Eureka on Humboldt Bay. Their menu  changed daily with entrees from whatever was available and fresh that day. They had an appetizer board you could get that had several cheeses and roasted garlic and homemade whole grain baguettes, toasted just right. And some kind of fruit...pears maybe or apples.  Ahhhhh...even thinking about that place gives me the goosebumps.  My friend Craig was playing jazz there a few evenings a week, and I went along and we had some dessert there, and he suggested the Brulee, and I had never tasted it before. 


 OH. MY. GOD.  I thought I had died and gone to food heaven. Every bite nearly made me cry with joy. And for a long time, I was sure that the only way you could reproduce that experience was to go to Larrupins and order it from their menu.  lol  That only a true culinary genius could produce that marvel of cream and sugar and whatever other magic was in there.

Not so. I started nosing around when I had bought too much heavy whipping cream one year at Christmas, and to to my delight found tons of recipes.  And they were varying degrees of simple.  The very easiest and one I use mostly came out of a low carb cookbook. They made it with splenda, which I would never do, but it is a really good easy recipe.

 I made it for our little Christmas Eve supper this year, because I knew it would WOW! my guest, but mostly because I wanted some.  lol  We don't eat a lot of dairy, but this is the exception. So--let's go!

 You'll need (for this size recipe) 4  oven safe custard dishes.  I use a Corning 7 oz dish, some recipes call for a smaller shallow ramekin, but we don't mess around when we eat Creme Brulee.  lol  I bought them in a set of 4 and they work great.

 You'll also need:

 2 cups heavy whipping cream
5 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
Brown sugar to taste


First, put the cream and vanilla in a heavy saucepan and heat until warm. Watch it and don't overheat.

Next, put the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. I use a whisk or a fork.

Then pour this into the saucepan and mix together thoroughly, Use a whisk.  Divide the mixture into the 4 ramekins. Take a 9x13 pan and put about 1 inch of hot water in it, place the filled ramekins in it and put in a preheated 300 degree oven and cook until set.  This will take about 45-50 minutes.

When they're done, you have 2 options.  Personally, I like mine cooled completely, chilled and then topped at the last minute before serving. But you can serve them, right out of the oven too...sprinkle a little brown sugar on top and put under the broiler until the sugar crystallizes. Unless you're me.  Of course, for Christmas one year, Santa brought me a lovely little Brulee torch that runs on butane and I have a ball torching the tops of it, just like Julia Child.

 You could also top it with raspberries or caramel, but I like the purist version of it with just the smidgen of caramelized sugar on top.  And every time I have ever served this, people thought I walked on water...and you KNOW I always like that.  lol  It is incredibly rich and silky and an absolutely beautifully elegant dessert to serve to anyone who is NOT lactose intolerant. 





  Bon Apetit !

Home Grown, Home Made Tomato Soup

 Mmmmmm...I love tomato soup.  Since I was a little girl it was my favorite, summer winter spring or fall. Tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.  When I was a kid (circa 1950's) that meant Campbell's Tomato Soup out of a can, with a grilled Wonder Bread and American cheese sandwich.  Things have changed some since then (my palate, for one) but I still love those two paired up.


 Since I grow and can all manner of tomatoes,  and I love making soup, it stands to reason that I would make my own tomato soup, just like every other soup I eat.  A friend asked me recently if I had a recipe for tomato soup and I said "Sure" without even thinking.  The truth is, I make soup by the seat of my pants (doesn't everyone?)  and don't really have a recipe per se... but like any good con artist, I can come up with a plausible story in the blink of a eye.  LOL

Any soup worth it's salt starts the same way: chopped onions and celery and garlic.  This is the secret of a solid soup base, in my book. I usually "sweat" the onions in the heavy bottomed pan first by themselves.  Then add in a little butter or olive oil and the celery and garlic. Stir them about and let them cook a little while you finely chop a couple of nice carrots. Cook the carrots with the onions and stuff for a dose of magic.  That taste and smell is out of this world. PLUS--carrots tone down the acidity of tomatoes and make them a little easier on your gut.

  For this batch of soup I used a pint jar of tomato sauce, a quart jar of diced tomatoes and a small can of tomato paste (because I wanted to).  I also used a quart of my own canned vegetable stock.  I can stock (chicken, turkey, vegetable) every year.

4 Tbsp butter**2 onions, thinly sliced ** 1 carrot, peeled and chopped** 2 stalks celery, chopped** 6 cloves of garlic (or less) coarsely chopped** 2 -3 quarts canned tomatoes** fresh or dried basil, about 2 tsp.** pinch of sugar** salt and pepper to taste** 4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock** 1/2 tsp Allspice ** 2 cups heavy cream or half and half.

Melt the butter in large pot. Saute the onion, carrot, celery and garlic--about 10-15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice. Add basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the stock and allspice and simmer for about an hour.

I use my stick blender to then puree everything. Sometimes I add a can of tomato paste. Taste it and see. Then add the cream and adjust seasonings (salt mostly, because I never know how much I put in the canned tomatoes. lol) Heat it through, but do not boil.

That's about it. Oh...and sometimes, instead of half and half or heavy cream, I will melt a half a box of cream cheese into the soup. It makes it so rich your head will spin.

***************************

 When I make grilled cheese sandwiches, I use homemade whole grain bread.  2 or 3 kinds of sliced cheeses (my favorites are Havarti and Muenster) .  Butter the bread on one side, lay butter side down. Arrange the cheese on both slices of bread. Thinly slice an onion, a tomato, black olives--put on top of cheese. Close up sandwich and grill to golden brown on both sides.

  Eat with a lovely bowl of that tomato soup and you will be thinking you've died and gone to heaven.


 You'll never buy canned soup again.




Bon Apetit !

Ah...December !!

 The big bad storm that was supposed to be coming through here was a big bad Zero.  This was about the extent of our snow.  lol

 After loosing the chickens this morning and slowly and carefully climbing up the back steps to come in, I noticed this old metal folding chair sitting up against the wall of the house and thought it looked so pretty I had to get a picture of it. I got this set from someone who got them at a yard sale. I admired them so much, she sold them to me for what she paid for them. They are old and painted in bright primary colors--orange, yellow, blue and red. Holes punched in the seat and back in a diamond design--simple, but pretty.

  No snow, but great cold. It has climbed up to 20 degrees finally  (1 PM now) but the WCF still has it at 9 degrees.  I've been out to check the chooks twice since early morning and can testify that it is cold out there. lol


  So, here we are. The frantic rush of planting and harvest is over. The canning/dehydrating/freezing is all finished.  Time to sit back and relax...get some odds and ends done that don't seem to get done if there's ANYTHING else to do. lol   It's not like things come to a standstill, they just change form. I've redone one bathroom, complete with doing a decoupage thing to all the light switch and electrical outlet plates to match the wallpaper border that goes along the ceiling.  Installed a new (to me--c'mon, you know I'm the queen of scrapping and recycling!)  porcelain sink in there too. Painted the walls a nice golden beige color. Bought a new shower curtain and liner.  Scrubbed the bejeezus out of that handicapped shower stall--looks better than new.  That was project number one.

As you can see, the wallpaper border is of sailboats and sky. This was my first attempt at this--it was fun and I learned a lot.  I had looked at decorative switchplates and they want a fortune for them. I had a thought...and googled decoupage projects for the home or something. Voila !  I had leftover border and it was perfect. All it cost me was about 7 dollars for the big bottle of decoupage glue, called ModPodge. I put 3 coats on it, to keep it shiny and waterproof.   


  The next project is the other bathroom.  I had my handyman son come in and tear out the old ookey brown cabinet and sink and replace it with one my neighbors gave me when they remodeled their bathroom. It was a sweet little oak cabinet with a big sink and beautiful hardware.(It's been sitting in the garage for 2 years. lol  But I KNEW I'd use it one day).  Because it was smaller, the boy had to tear out and replace some of the ceramic floor tile, which he did, and the re-grouted the entire floor.  (It needed it...8 years after he originally did that floor).  It's ready for me to paint now, so that's that part of it. I might get to it today...maybe.   :)  I have the paint, all I need is the motivation and time to do it.


  Little winter chores that need doing but are not  an emergency:  Taking things out of the cabinets and wiping down the shelves.  Cleaning the outsides of my cabinet doors thoroughly--after canning season they are a mess.  Cleaning under the sink.  Rearranging the shelves up over my laundry area...things tend to get flung up there a lot.  And then there's the mother of all projects.  One I shudder to think about, but am going to have to get done. One that is on my list every year for the past 4 winters and still remains undone.

ORGANIZING AND PRINTING/REWRITING ALL THE SCRAPS OF PAPER, FOLDED PIECES, HANDWRITTEN OLD...RECIPES.  I have a huge box of recipes and can barely find things any more. I scribble things down and tweak them and try new ones and print them off the internet and have old recipe cards from 45 years ago that are faded and barely readable...

  I contemplate the magnitude of this project and I nearly pass out from the thought of it. 

  I'm not sure how to even start. I think a 3 ring binder and a 3 hole punch is the basic starting point. And I have those.  It will be data entry from there.  lol 

  You might find this funny. I really don't want to lose these recipes, even though I am notorious for not following recipes.  I have hauled some of these things around the country with me since I was about 15 years old.  Many are recipes from women who have died, including a couple that were my mom's...her biscuit recipe, her cheesecake recipe...  When I got married, one of the requirements for the wedding shower was that everyone bring their favorite recipe and at least one of the ingredients to make it. To help the newlywed cook for her husband.  I thought it was hysterical at the time. I remember it fondly now.  And as I look through some of those cards, it makes me a little teary for that young girl perched on the brink of life...so full of high hopes and a sense of adventure.

  Here's a snapshot view of part of what I'm up against:

 (Click to biggify)


  It's not like I have a daughter or anything that might be interested in having my stuff. Or about passing these down.  But I would like to be able to find recipes in my golden years (cough,cough) easily and clearly.  lol


 So, here's to the winter of 2013-14. I have a bit of an agenda as to what needs doing, and we'll see if I can  get any of it done. (Now that it's in writing, it's more of a commitment).

 SO that's that.  In between here, I have vacuumed the carpets and furniture during that little window when the dogs were outside,  used the bread machine to bake a loaf of honey flax oat bread, and dusted the tables. Things are clean enough that the health department won't shut us down (lol) and the house smells like fresh baked bread.  I'm almost in the mood to start my Christmas decorating, if only the stuff was easier to get to. I could still put out some festive scarves and candles, I suppose.  I warned the boy today that it would be soon, lol, as all that stuff is in the storage closet in his bathroom.


  Going to make a simple supper of salmon croquettes with parsleyed potatoes and green beans with garlic and onion.  I made a pumpkin crunch yesterday, so there's dessert.   Yesterdays supper was pinto beans and ham hocks, with cornbread and fresh chopped onion. Hearty simple food for a cold night. There's just something about it being dark so early that makes one dish suppers so good....



Bon Apetit !

Build your own granola bars...

  I need to make a batch of granola bars.  And coincidentally, my pal texted me today, asking if I had a recipe. I do, and they're awesome. This is a copy and paste from my other blog...so don't be confused by it.  lol  The italicized parts are copied...just so you know.  

  I started making granola back in the early 70's. I have always made it over the years, and the recipe is rarely the same twice.  That's because I tend to make it with whatever I happen to have in the pantry.  My pantry is pretty well stocked most of the time...with things that I grow and can or dehydrate and with some things that I am forced to buy.  When my husband started wanting granola bars for his lunch, and I started reading the ingredients and seeing what the cost was, I thought, "Hey!--I could do this better!"  I tried several different recipes and settled on the one that I liked the best.

  So, here's the ingredient list. Sort of. The honey mixture is the important recipe to follow, as it has to hold the whole shebang together. 

           2 cups oats
           3/4 cup sunflower seeds
           1 cup crushed peanuts
           1/2 cup brown sugar (or barley malt syrup)
           1/2 cup honey
           4 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
           2 tsp. vanilla
           1/2 tsp. salt
           1 cup + dried fruit --your choice
           1/2 almonds or walnuts,chopped or whole

            
  Heat your oven to 400 degrees. These granola bars are not cooked, but you do want to toast the oats, to get rid of that raw taste.  Put 2 cups of old fashioned rolled oats on a baking sheet and toast for 10-15 minutes, stirring often.

  In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, honey, butter,vanilla and salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. While it's coming to a simmer, take a 9x13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper (or waxed paper that you've sprayed with nonstick spray). Tear your paper long enough that it will lap over the middle of the pan from the ends after you've poured your mix in it (about a foot and a half long). 

  You want to simmer that honey mixture a while, so that when it cools, it will make a crispy granola bar., maybe 15-20 minutes. 

  Take your toasted oats, and mix in all the nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. Mix it up good.  Then pour the hot honey mixture all over it. Use a big  spatula to mix it up real good. You want everything well covered. Then dump it into your paper lined 9x13 pan and use the spatula to spread it out evenly in the pan. Push it into the corners too. Then fold those side pieces of paper over the top of the mixture and press down firmly. You want to compact this mixture as much as you can. Keep pressing until you're sure it's pretty solid.

  Then set it aside and let it cool. Once it's good and cool, you want to lift it out by the paper and set it on a cutting board.

 Then  (or, first, actually) I made 2 batches of granola bars, one for my son and one for here.  They are really good too, and chock full of 3 kinds of fruit that I dried (apples, blueberries and cranberries) plus raisins, walnuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, raw sunflower seeds, coconut,  flax seeds,and oatmeal and honey, barley malt syrup and butter.  Thinking I might try using coconut oil next time. They look like this:

 And then get cut into this:

  And wrapped.  Each batch makes 16-18 bars.  I roughly figured it out that it costs about 3 dollars to make a batch. And that's a very rough estimate, since I'm always buying things on sale and stashing them in my pantry and never know from one time to the next what I might have paid...lol

  I cut the thing in half lengthwise first, then I cut it into 9 rectangles.  This picture looks a little dark, but that's the lighting, not the bars. They are a beautiful golden color.  I wrap them in (GUILTY!) small squares of saran wrap, put them in a container with a lid and store them in the fridge.  I know exactly what's in them, no hidden ingredients and no excesses of processed sugar. I bought barley malt syrup once when I was making homemade bagels, and I really like to use that in these bars instead of brown sugar. My husband loves them, and so do I !  They're a great healthy snack.



   Give them a try and let me know.  I often add cinnamon to the oats and nuts mixture too...sometimes I put my roasted pumpkin seeds in there.  Sometimes raw sunflower seeds, sometimes roasted. Sometimes chia seeds or flax seeds.  Experiment--have a ball !!!




Bon Apetit !

The weather is changing, thank God for soup !

  The past few days have been chilly to cold here, depending on the time of day.  Today there was the added bonus of rain and wind. Sigh...at times, it was like a monsoon out there.  It may have actually hit 50, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.  lol  Tonight we have a frost warning until 8 AM, so the covers are back on the cold frame, where my little plot of lettuces, kale, chard and spinach are looking good.  The furnace is turned on, and even though it's set at 68 it's comfortable enough I guess.  Time to get the big flannel blankets out for the couch.


  This soup I made today is an approximation (aren't they all?) of a recipe that I saw somewhere, or maybe a friend sent it to me on Facebook, or--who knows?  I remember being taken with the original recipe, because all the ingredients are things that I have grown., and that I love.  And you get to roast veggies for it. And it is vegan, which is just a good thing to do now and then.  And it's very tasty while also being really nutritious. Are you interested yet?

 It is very beautiful, isn't it ?  It 's a Roasted Cauliflower and  Sweet Potato soup. In fact, it's a roasted almost everything soup. It started out like this:

 I washed and drained a head of cauliflower and then broke  it into florets.  I diced several sweet potatoes from the box that  had cuts from the spade or broken ends that all need using first.I thick sliced a large onion and peeled 7 cloves of garlic. After arranging these all on 2 small baking sheets, I drizzled them with EVOO and then sprinkled Garam Masala on the. Popped them into a 400 degree oven to roast for about 30 minutes.  The house smelled divine...

 Then (for good measure)  I peeled 3 more sweet potatoes and boiled them in about 2-3 cups spring water. When they were soft, and the roasted vegetables were done, the fun started.  I pureed the boiled sweet potatoes and the water in my blender. I poured most of that into the saucepan the 'taters came out of. I left some in the blender and  put all of the roasted garlic, and about half of the onions and cauliflower and sweet potatoes in  with it. Then I pureed all that together.  Just for fun (and extra B vitamins!) I added about 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast. Whirred it a little more, to mix it in. Poured that and all the rest of the roasted chunky vegetables into the saucepan, stirred well and brought it back to a simmer.  Added salt and pepper, tasted. Added more salt, tasted. Hmmm...still needed something, but what ? 

I scoured the spice cabinet and finally found the gomasio I made last month. I went to the back porch and snipped some fresh parsley.  Put them both on top and VOILA !

Isn't that color glorious ?  And it tasted pretty darn good too.

(And that reminds me--we have a frost warning tonight--I better go cover those herb pots on the back deck !!)




Bon Apetit !!