eG Foodblog: lovebenton0, Pam R, snowangel - North of the 30th paralle

[Hiroyuki]

I'm really enjoying this soupy blog, and in keeping with the spirit (and because of the cold weather), I had some delicious soba soup that included fried eggplant and ground duck (can't remember the name of the soup) at Soba Koh a couple of blocks from me.

Judith, feel better!

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Is that the restaurant's original dish? The only similar dish that I can think of is kamo nanban, which is a bowl of hot noodles (udon or soba) topped with negi (Japanese scallion) and thinly sliced duck (not ground).

[Pan]

I'm really enjoying this soupy blog, and in keeping with the spirit (and because of the cold weather), I had some delicious soba soup that included fried eggplant and ground duck (can't remember the name of the soup) at Soba Koh a couple of blocks from me.

Judith, feel better!

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Is that the restaurant's original dish? The only similar dish that I can think of is kamo nanban, which is a bowl of hot noodles (udon or soba) topped with negi (Japanese scallion) and thinly sliced duck (not ground).

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I have no idea whether it's their original dish or not. It was my first time at Soba Koh.

[lovebenton0]

anyone else remember that old beatles song... i'm so tired, couldn't sleep a wink...

just thought i'd check in. can't breathe, can't stop coughing, can't sleep... geez, might as well see what's up on the blog.

thanks to everyone for your well wishes. maggie dear, hope you're feeling better than this kat is.

so, due to this cold/flu crud i have to change my plans for some soups this week. nothing thick or creamy. no chicky and dumplings, no split pea. but i was thinking a posole would be mighty nice and i have everything i need for that. having ingredients already on hand will be another deciding factor this week. don't think that quinn and i will be hiking the three mile round trip to the grocery store any time soon for major stuff. green posole would sure wake up the nose, maybe help clear my head.

i'm thinking tex-mex style chicken tortilla soup; ginger chicken soup with saffron rice might be an alternative also.

anyone have ideas for clear broth soups you want to throw out...

i've got head on shrimp, bay scallops [which i actually prefer for soups/chowders], chicky, pork loin steaks and hot italian sausage for protein. oooh, and that nice proscuitto i got on monday from the deli. i also have eggs, various rices, noodles, pasta. vegs are onions, carrots, corn, peas, broccoli, green beans, potatoes, dried black beans [i was thinking cuban black bean soup for those], and various hot dried peppers. i have about two cups of chicken stock already in the freezer. also, of course, the winter staple of canned tomatoes.

i actually like the ramen type noodles, but yuck, not the ''flavor packets'' which are way too salty and gross to me. but this might be a good time to make use of some i have stashed. maybe saute some scallops with a bit of garlic, onion, peas, proscuitto and toss in the noodles with chicken broth, a touch of white wine vinegar and have po' girls noodle bowl soup.

ok, i have definitely rambled enough. chalk it up to fevered brain and no sleep. gonna try to sleep again now. see you guys as soon as...

[lovebenton0]

The bread was great, but on to the soup.

I went ahead with the slow-cooker borscht. 

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pam, this borscht looks great. i thought i'd had good borscht before, but nothing i've had looked as good as yours. yes, usually one gets the deep purple, but this was lovely and as you said it had the flavor. i'll have to try this later. thanks for posting explicit directions.

[Chufi]

snowangel your bread is just gorgeous, and like I said before, your son gets handsomer with each blog! where will it end! ?

Pam that borscht with the lovely marrowbones looks so good. And I do love your pictorials with all the little pictures.

judith I am so sorry that you are sick and not able to enjoy the blog fully! Feel better soon and hopefully some nourishing soup will help..

Edited January 31, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[snowangel]

Good morning, and thanks for the compliments on the bread and the boy. My mom and Paul keep saying that he should get a haircut, but Peter and I are holding off!

This morning started as they all do. My radio goes off 15 minutes before the alarm, and the first words I heard were "12 below wind chill." That and how dark it is sure make it hard to want to crawl out of the sack. I long for those summer days when daylight wakes me up!

But, as I do every morning, I rise, grind the beans, start the coffee maker and hit the shower. Then, it's get the kids up and on their way. Heidi does not eat breakfast at home (she breakfasts at school; part of her OT). Peter likes cold cereal (sugary) and Diana either eats fruit, peanut butter toast, or a granola bar.

Once the kids are all gone, and it is light, I do as I do every day of the year I'm home -- a cuppa on the deck, home of my outdoor fridge, gazing at my garden.

At the back of the garden are some herbs, most of which will winter over. This is an odd garden because of the trees which means part full sun and part shade. I'm going to re-do this garden this spring because when I planted it, I planted based on how it looked when I was at ground level, and it's just not right from the gazing spot.

I also grow basil and tomatoes, but those are on the side of the house where it's full sun all day long.

My list. Note how much stuff I crossed off of yesterday's list!

Oh! After I took this picture, I realized that I should have crossed off the note about Goodwill. About the plastic recycling. We have curbside recycling for certain kinds of plastic containers, glass, cans and newspaper. The grocery store has containers for recycling plastic bags, which I acutally sort into two piles. The shopping-type plastic bags (and paper bags) to to Goodwill because they don't buy bags but rely on donations. The other plastic bags to to the grocery.

[snowangel]

I have had breakfast. 1/2 grapefruit, served ala Pam -- halved. Gave me an excuse to use those serrated grapefruit spoons which I think must have been a wedding present.

But, here we have a few of my favorite kitchen things

Toast. I could go on for hours about toast. I love toast, and like it fairly dark. My euphoria about my bread continued as I saw the butter pool into the holes, and oh, the crunch of the crust and the tang of the interior. My bread kept well overnight!

The "thing" in the white package is vension, one of the last little bit from 2005's season, and I know I need to use it soon. I love venison. Unfortunately, 2006 was not a very good hunting season. My FIL says it was too warm, and it's much easier to hunt when there is snow on the ground. He was so desperate to get venison that he even bought a muzzle-loader to extend the season. He got one small buck which we will share.

I absolutely adore the wooden spoon with the whole in it. It was an Xmas present from my MIL long ago, and it is the favorite cooking spoon in the house.

The "spatula" thingie. It is great for stirfrying and sauteeing. I got it at Crate and Barrel years ago. I don't think they carry them any more, but if they do, buy one. It will become a favorite.

Although I have a serious love of power tools, every kitchen needs a screwdriver. Paul gave me this the first Xmas we were married. The handle holds more bits -- flat ones and phillip's head ones of different sizes. Magnetized. Anyone who removes this from the kitchen pays a price!

Ruler. Every kitchen needs one. I have one that I like better, but it seems to have deeveloped "legs." Hmmm. One of the things that happens when one has kids.

[Pam R]

Good morning! It's a bright sunshiny day here. -20 C (-4 F) and -32 C (-25.6 F) with the wind. (We're very big on the windchill here.)

I'm on the run this morning - just got into work and am on my way out for a meeting. But look what greeted me when I left the house this morning:

It may be cold here, and it may be flat - but it's crisp, clear and beautiful - and every once in a while you're greeted with a winter sun dog.

Breakfast this morning - 2 scrambled eggs that didn't get photographed. They actually got overcooked because I answered the phone while cooking them. This happens a lot. And I had a pear in the car.

Thanks to everybody for their lovely comments. Sorry if I/we are missing anything. If you've asked a question that hasn't been answered, give us a nudge!

[Priscilla]

Wonderful to see all the bread being made in this blog.

Pam, that rainbow shot is beeyootiful. Our borscht tradition doesn't include marrow bones, but oh my goodness do I want to include them next time.

Judith, are more Sheltie pix in our collective future?

Susan, I am adamantly, not to say militantly, in favor of children being able to do what they like with their hair. And your perfectly knitted potholders--I am envious, as knitting has successfully eluded me my whole life. I esp. like that soft cotton yarn.

[snowangel]

Sometimes, it takes a long time to move into a house. We moved almost 4 years ago, but it takes a long time to find one's place in a new home after 18 years in an old home. I must add that my former kitchen was about 3 times tge size of this one. The old kitchen would have required 110 knobs or drawer pulls to replace them all, and this one requires but 25.

But, this morning, I had a hankering to get my recipe box in a place where it wasn't stuffed in a cupboard I could better use, so...

My recipe box is ugly. Yes, it's harvest gold, but it reminds me of my old kitchen before I moved (you'll see my harvest gold kitchen floor soon, but the HG appliances were replaced with white not long after we moved!).

But, the box is filled with stuff clipped from newspapers, recipes from the boxes of my grandmothers, great grandmother and great aunt Laura. So, newsprint, magazine recipes, and those on the cared from thos who came before me -- in that wonderful cursive handwriting, some in ball point pens, some in fountain pens. My recipe box is near and dear to my heart, and I'm glad it's now mounted. Note that the recipe you are making fits nicely in that slot on the handle.

Oh, and note the power tool! This was a Mother's Day gift some years ago. It's neato keeno, and came with also a flashglight, circular saw, and one of those skinny saws. And, two rechargable batteries! It's a toss up as to whether that, my Bose bookshelf speakers or my Ryobi orbital sander is a favorite gift.

Off to the Asian market. Reminder to self: take camera!

(edited to replace a photo)

[lovebenton0]

Wonderful to see all the bread being made in this blog.

Judith, are more Sheltie pix in our collective future?

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good morning all, late as it is.

i do need to talk more about quinn and i will post more pics. he is my essential kitchen helper. quinn is a rough collie, about 60 lbs. easy to confuse with a sheltie as people are more used to seeing those these days than collies and i didn't give you a good comparison shot in the pics. in my avatar you can kinda see how big he is.

but i just got up, after finally getting some sleep. we are on our way out. will post more when we return, about quinn and bread.

edited for spelling, those dang braces again.

Edited January 31, 2007 by lovebenton0 (log)

[Priscilla]

Wonderful to see all the bread being made in this blog.

Judith, are more Sheltie pix in our collective future?

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i do need to talk more about quinn and i will post more pics. he is my essential kitchen helper. quinn is a rough collie, about 60 lbs. easy to confuse with a sheltie as people are more used to seeing those these days than collies and i didn't give you a good comparison shot in the pics. in my avatar you can kinda see how big he is.

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Oh, sorry! Collie, even better. He just seemed so fine-boned I hazarded a guess. I can see in your avatar his relative size. Very pretty and sweet.

[MarketStEl]

Now, to the crackers, we've tried the major brands.  There's Nabisco's Saltines, Keebler's Zestas and Sunshine's Krispys.  We like the Krispys the best.  What do you prefer?  Anyone but Peter and I like them with butter?  (This type of cracker is essential for thickening soup for Heidi.)

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I prefer Sunshine (=Keebler now) Krispy to Nabisco Premium, Premium to Keebler Zesta, and Red Oval Farms Stoned Wheat Thins to all of 'em. I usually keep a box of Krispys on hand as well as the Stoned Wheat Thins, though.

Being a confirmed cheesehead, one thing that upset me when Keebler acquired Sunshine Biscuits was that they discontinued the Mild Cheddar flavored Krispys.

I've never eaten saltines spread with butter. Peanut butter, yes, usually topped with a slice of Cheddar. (I guess that if I were to add another cracker and press down on the PB side, that would be "Brownstone Park"?)

One problem about buying foods for people who must limit their sodium intake is that most of them are incredibly bland. Premium Unsalted Tops taste like sawdust, for instance. (Though my partner managed to find a brand of organic "saltines"--they looked like pale Ritz crackers--at Whole Foods that tasted even blander yet had a higher sodium content! He has since found an all-natural oyster cracker at the same place that is lower in sodium but not bland.) The low sodium Stoned Wheat Thins are an exception to this rule.

American slurpees and Canadian slurpees are not the same thing.

Yours are frothy, ours are icey.  Much better here.  Maybe that's why we drink so many more!

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Slurpees never caught on in Philly, probably for two reasons:

--Wawa dominates the convenience-store market in the region, and they have nothing that even resembles a Slurpee.

--Most folks around here eat water ice (pronounced "wooder ice") during the warmer months. Water ice (aka "Italian ice" elsewhere) is very close to a Slurpee in consistency, only not quite as liquid.

[dockhl]

Now, to the crackers, we've tried the major brands.  There's Nabisco's Saltines, Keebler's Zestas and Sunshine's Krispys.  We like the Krispys the best.  What do you prefer?  Anyone but Peter and I like them with butter?  (This type of cracker is essential for thickening soup for Heidi.)

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i do... my two fav simple smears for krispy crackers are butter and jalapeno mustard.

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Just butter ! With hot tea. Saturday memories with Mom...........

[snowangel]

I am back from the Asian Market:

Now, there is a story here. This is a great Asian market, and I'll get back there and take some photos. But, to the story. I have a cell phone, which I often forget that I have, so I rarely take it with me. But, today, I called my cell phone (so I could find it). I'm figuring that when I actually remember to take it with me, there's a reason.

Bingo! As I'm shopping, and getting ready to take pics, the phone rings. The long-hair has horked twice at school. So I hustled butt and got my stuff paid for and rushed to school to pick him up.

But, I did do some shopping:

One of the dark green bunches is that basil that has the purple stems, and the other green bunch is cilantro. Rootless cilantro. I've noted that we only get cilantro with roots when the season is such that we can grow it outdoors. I also got a bahn mi.

This one could have been heavier on the cuke, but was divine. The bread, the peppers, the whole nine yards. Usually when I go, The Lady makes one specially for me, but she was sick today. They love me -- The Farang -- at this market.

But, they had all manner of whole fish at the market, as well as blue crabs and head-on shimp. Would blue crab have a place in cioppino?

Dinner tonight will be venison kao soi for Diana, Paul and I, something else for Heidi (she doesn't do spicy at all), and the long hair will eat what seems right, I'm thinking. BTW, my good intentions for hand pounding my curry paste for the kao soi went out the window when the cell phone rang.

More later. The Boy Wants to snuggle with The Mom on the couch and watch Hawaii 5-0. Book 'em Danno!

[Abra]

Pam, a sun dog! Haven't seen one of those since I lived in Regina many years ago.

Judith, this Garlic Soup rules all ills!

And much as I love kao soi, Susan, I'm having a hard time imagining it with venison. I look forward to seeing that.

[Pam R]

I've had an uneventful day so far. Gone for a couple hours this morning, I was hungry when I got back to work. From the freezer I pulled some chicken soup with rice and popped it into the microwave. It was a little heavy on the rice (approaching congee-ness) - but it hit the spot.

Please excuse the fancy dish and cutlery (silverware to most of you?). Don't even look at the place-mat!

I ate that while going over one of my Passover orders. I've spent hours and hours working on this order - I think I'll be able to fax it in to my supplier this afternoon. (If anybody wants to see some pictures of my store - let me know and I'll post some.)

Another sample I received a couple of weeks ago was a bag of Latke Crisps. I wasn't really taken with them, but brought in a case last week to try. There are only a couple of bags left, with more on the way. So I thought I'd sacrifice a bag for you.

First - I love the fact that the company is called "Thou Shall Snack". The package says that they are potato pancake crisps - they don't really taste like any potato pancake I've had. The are a potato version of a rice cracker (very thin) - with a hint of onion and more black pepper than I would have expected.

They are growing on me - but I'll take a real latke over these any day.

[Pam R]

PS - to the right of the latke crisps is another sample I was sent (though I already sell them). These are the best sugar-free candies I've ever had. They're made with splenda and come in about 8 flavours. This bag has half banana and half orange candies. (They're called MUST and are made by Elite.)

[snowangel]

Pam, isn't part of latkes the fact that they are fried? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around "baked latke snack" (which I've never seen!). Ixnay on the "sugar free" candy here. Heidi's AED's preclude anything sugar-free.

Abra, given the origins of Kao Soi, I'm hard pressed to imagine that it wasn't originally made with wild game. As you will see later this evening, it is a good and worthy meat for the soup. An interesting thing about kao (khao?) soi is that everything one sees now on the internet about it involved poultry, but back in the early 70's in Northern THailand every place that was serving it used red meat.

[Pam R]

Pam, isn't part of latkes the fact that they are fried?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around "baked latke snack" (which I've never seen!).

Definitely weird. But healthy (or, healthier)!

[Pam R]

Hey, ladies?

I showed you mine, now you show us yours. Fridges, that is. (Please?)

[snowangel]

Hey, ladies?

I showed you mine, now you show us yours.  Fridges, that is. (Please?)

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Ahem. You'll see my fridge tomorrow or the next day.

Dinner is simmering, the long hair has quit horking, and the teen has a migraine (she things; let's just say it's an awful headache). The sun turned to snow. Photos soon! Today was also report card day. We have much to celebrate!

[Pam R]

Looking forward to the fridge shots!

I am on my way home to make dinner. Curried potato soup - just entered into RecipeGullet - pics and links to come after dinner.

[snowangel]

A snowangel blog would not be a snowangel blog without some sort of disaster. Be it a flood or a dead camera...

Stay tuned for dinner. It might not be soup. And, you'll see a new and non grocery item on the list tomorrow. The long haired boy has quit horking and the teen's headache is better, and we've used all manner of tools (some from the kitchen) to help alleviate the appliance problem so that the middle child has clean clothes for tomorrow!

Oh, and Pam, you'll see before and after fridge shots. Something spilled.

[prasantrin]

Pam--if you'd like to show us another frozen treat from Winnipeg, the gelati at that place next to your store is pretty damn good. I like it much more than the Italian places, and they have halvah-flavoured gelati!