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

[Pam R]

OK folks. I am heading to bed.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow. I have a lovely bunch of swiss chard, all of the ingredients for a pea soup, a pear soup, a coconut milk/lemongrass/chicken soup, a garlic soup - and probably a few more soups.

Any thoughts? Anybody have a soup that uses swiss chard?

Goodnight! Sweet dreams and a warm night to you all!

[lovebenton0]

Lovey, I don't make noodles nearly often enough, and with the KA pasta attachment I have no excuse. I am in awe of your hand-rolled, hand cut noodles -- Batali would give you big props.

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maggie dear, i should make them more often myself. i'd be buffed. rolling out those noodles is a workout, but oh so worth it.

told you guys we were feeling like wimps down here. it's only -10f tonight and up to 2f tomorrow. and we can't feel the -30 windchill until we go out in the morning. then we'll be awake.

[lovebenton0]

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow.  I have a lovely bunch of swiss chard, all of the ingredients for a pea soup, a pear soup, a coconut milk/lemongrass/chicken soup, a garlic soup - and probably a few more soups.

Any thoughts? Anybody have a soup that uses swiss chard?

Goodnight!  Sweet dreams and a warm night to you all!

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pretty basic, but i love swiss chard in lentil and in mixed bean soups.

i'm also intrigued with the pear soup idea.

pam, your dinner table and meal was luscious last night [um...tonight].

tomorrow may be a little tex-mex for us, not sure yet either.

we are really going to bed now, been a long day. confession... wouldn't still be up if we hadn't napped while the camera was charging. sweet dreams, or warm dreams if you wish.

[miladyinsanity]

Susan, regarding the creme fraiche, can I use yogurt instead of buttermilk, do you know?

TIA!

[Dejah]

Dang, Pam! It's cold in Winnipeg! We went in this morning and had planned to stay overnight. But, my daughter's apt. complex doesn't have visitor's parking with plugins, so we came home - got in an hour ago. Brrrrrr.....-47C windchill.

My daughter was invited to the Tu Bi'Shvat dinner - but had to miss it. She was kicking herself after she saw your pictures.

Do you shop at Sun Wah in Chinatown? Inspite of the weather, the place was packed and you can imagine what the parking lot was like. They were lined up at the BBQ counter, and the 2 cash out lanes.

I was checking out the tabletop burners like the one you used for your hotpot dinner. Do you like it? Does it give off fumes?

[Chufi]

snowangel, my guess is you're making potstickers!

Judith, you're so brave to hand-roll your noodles! Your soup looks lovely.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow.  I have a lovely bunch of swiss chard, all of the ingredients for a pea soup, a pear soup, a coconut milk/lemongrass/chicken soup, a garlic soup - and probably a few more soups.

Any thoughts? Anybody have a soup that uses swiss chard?

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I love a chard soup with potatoes, onions, a bit of canned tomato, and spicy sausage (I use chorizo), and then an egg yolk cracked in just before serving because I'm addicted to the combination of chorizo, potato and runny egg yolk.

picture here

Edited February 4, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Peter H]

I love shopping at this place, and they all know me as the Farang (who knows what that means?) who buys odd stuff.

Susan, Farang is a Thai word for a light skinned foreigner. Great blog from all of you - it's making the London weather seem almost tropical!

[CaliPoutine]

I had to take my glove off so that I could get my loonie into the shopping cart - and it was painful!

Loonie? Wow, its only a quarter here.

Btw Pam, the kasha and bows( ditalini?) look great. I'm totally craving that now

[suzilightning]

susan-

looks like potstickers for today...

isn't prince from minneapolis? (your connection to the stupid bowl)

[snowangel]

Susan, regarding the creme fraiche, can I use yogurt instead of buttermilk, do you know?

TIA!

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I've used yogurt, too! When it sits on the counter, it is covered and you'll know when it is done because it is thick!

Correct guesses on the potstickers and the word Farang.

It's 15 below with a 35 below windchill. Drinking coffee, and when Heidi's done with her bath, I'll contemplate breakfast.

Oh, as to the car last night. Diana went to a sleep-over, and the car would have had to sit out, so another mom picked up the girls and Paul will do the coming-home transportation.

[judiu]

it's almost soup at my house.

just not thinking right this week, not enough oxygen. i should have made noodles the night before. i shouldn't have taken the camera into the sub-frigid weather, even for a shot of frozen lake michigan, then waited to do the soup and noodles until camera was charged.

so, for a look at what has been happening here this evening.

first, yes, yes, yes, the bread machine does knead dough like a champ and whipped my noodle dough right up. [it needs a name. can't keep calling it the bread machine and nope, bm just doesn't work for me. ]

With apologies to Stephan King, how about the Kneadful Thing?

[lovebenton0]

it's almost soup at my house.

just not thinking right this week, not enough oxygen. i should have made noodles the night before. i shouldn't have taken the camera into the sub-frigid weather, even for a shot of frozen lake michigan, then waited to do the soup and noodles until camera was charged.

so, for a look at what has been happening here this evening.

first, yes, yes, yes, the bread machine does knead dough like a champ and whipped my noodle dough right up. [it needs a name. can't keep calling it the bread machine and nope, bm just doesn't work for me. ]

With apologies to Stephan King, how about the Kneadful Thing?

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love it, you win. i think even king would appreciate that. and i can live with kt for short.

will show you all what else the kneadful thing helped me with last night. but i was just checking in for a moment before quinn and i must venture out. he's so good with me, knows i've been sick all week and is at my heels constantly, either awake or asleep. and he has the good pup sense to know it's friggin' cold out there. he usually loves the cold, it's a collie thing... but even collies sense when it's time to cut this short and get home. so we should be back soon, with some brunch and more about kt.

[snowangel]

First order of the day was breakfast.

I think those sausages are sort of nasty, but Peter loves them, so I indulge him every so often. Another favorite is fried eggs on toast. Both Peter and I like to put the egg to one side of the piece of toast, fold it over and eat it like a sandwich, dunking it into all of the runny egg goodness that oozes out!

Next order of business is laundry (think about it. I do laundry constantly, but when you think about it, I do 70 socks per week. It amasses fast! And, clean the kitchen floor, and get ready for a party, which is growing in size. I think I'm having about 20 over.

I love to entertain, and I have a great house for entertaining.

Sorry for the quality of the photos, but it is really bright outside! In the first photo, I am standing by the dining room table looking to the living room which opens onto a sunroom. Second photo I'm in the sunroom, which opens onto a huge deck. And, as you saw a uptopic with the Big Ass TV, we also have a very large family room. Lots of big open spaces make for great entertaining. Last summer, in fact, I had two parties for between 60 and 80 and another one for 45 (not to mention a lot of smaller gatherings.

[little ms foodie]

I may have missed someone answering snowangle but the half time show is Prince and he is from MN I think???

edited to say I just saw Suzi guessed this too

Edited February 4, 2007 by little ms foodie (log)

[snowangel]

I may have missed someone answering snowangle but the half time show is Prince and he is from MN I think???

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Correct!

[ruthcooks]

[it needs a name. can't keep calling it the bread machine and nope, bm just doesn't work for me.  ]

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They are usually referred to as ABMs, the A standing for automatic.

I bought mine a year ago last Christmas and still haven't used it. (Severe case of procrastination when it comes to instruction manuals.)

Enjoying your blog. I try to keep several types of soup in individual freezer portions. Cream or pureed soups are great to drink from a mug; I'm thinking carrot and cheese for today, while everyone else is having their Super Bowl dips.

[lovebenton0]

So, on the way home from buying a bird feeder, we stopped at my local Asian market.  The Twin Cities has tons of Asian markets; there is a huge Asian immigrant population here, and the markets and pho shops are thriving. 

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i didn't get the chance yesterday to say how much i covet this market. that you can just pop over to shop anytime, well... the envy runs deeeeep.

and looking forward to seeing potstickers today. drool.

[Pam R]

i'm also intrigued with the pear soup idea.

I am too! I love the pear soup - served with toasted pecans, reduced balsamic and crumbled feta or goat cheese. But I woke up feeling not-so-great myself and decided to go for a basic split pea. Maybe pear tomorrow.

Dang, Pam! It's cold in Winnipeg! We went in this morning and had planned to stay overnight. But, my daughter's apt. complex doesn't have visitor's parking with plugins, so we came home - got in an hour ago. Brrrrrr.....-47C windchill.

Is it much warmer in Brandon??

My daughter was invited to the Tu Bi'Shvat dinner - but had to miss it. She was kicking herself after she saw your pictures.

That's too bad. There's always next year!

Do you shop at Sun Wah in Chinatown? Inspite of the weather, the place was packed and you can imagine what the parking lot was like. They were lined up at the BBQ counter, and the 2 cash out lanes.

I shop there occasionally, but I really don't get to Chinatown often. I don't really go downtown often

I was checking out the tabletop burners like the one you used for your hotpot dinner. Do you like it? Does it give off fumes?

I do like it. We got two of them when we had to do an omelet station for a brunch a few years ago, and I've since used them for cooking demos and on Breakfast TV (they have no kitchen setup at all - you have to bring your own stove to the TV station!). They don't give off any fumes at all.

I love a chard soup with potatoes, onions, a bit of canned tomato, and spicy sausage (I use chorizo), and then an egg yolk cracked in just before serving because I'm addicted to the combination of chorizo, potato and runny egg yolk.

picture here

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That sounds soooo good. Unfortunately I put the soup on before I logged on - I figured I wouldn't have the energy to cook once I had a chance to relax! But if I can get my hands on some spicy kosher sausage, I will keep this soup in mind.

Loonie?  Wow, its only a quarter here.

It's a loonie at Superstore, a quarter at Safeway. Superstore has loonie-shaped tokens that you can buy (for $1) that clip onto a key-chain. Everybody in the family has one - that way I don't have to remember to have a loonie with me. Works well.

Btw Pam, the kasha and bows( ditalini?) look great.  I'm totally craving that now

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Sometimes you just have to make a big pot of kasha! I had a bowl for breakfast before leaving this morning. Good breakfast.

[srhcb]

Weather-wise, I'm located about half way between our blog hosts in Minneapolis and Winnipeg. Right now, at 2:20 in the afternoon, we've probably reached our high for today of -13 (feels like -35), and are looking forward to an overnight low near -30 (feels like, well, it doesn't matter, because you'll be too numb to feel!).

Here at my shop, in an older building, the poor furnace has only managed to raise the indoor temperature from 62 to 65 today, and to make matters worse, my car's heater is malfunctioning!

One nice thing an extended cold spell does is foster a spirit of "we're all in this together", which is pretty much impossible to come by otherwise these days. Dealing with the cold is so overwhelming, both physically and emotionally, that all distinctions and differences become secondary.

You know you're a Northern Native when you can say, "It's supposed to get up to three below zero Tuesday", and make it sound like you're going to add, "so let's figure to grab a case of beer and head for the beach!"

SB (finally on-topic) is (heading home to bake bread and use up some broken grain "soup rice" and chicken broth....

Edited February 4, 2007 by srhcb (log)

[MargyB]

I am in awe of what you all have to go through to live in that climate! I had no idea. My husband lived in Winnipeg as a teen and I've seen the family pictures with the snow drifts up to the roof line, but that bitter cold is just so hard for me to imagine from here in Northern California.

I won't complain one bit about being chilly today when it's 63!

Thanks so much for sharing the beautiful breads and soups. I can't wait to see what you do with the dessert bread!

Margy

[Pam R]

Steve - thanks for reminding me. When I left the house this morning it was -38 C / -36 F and -42 C / -43.6 F with the wind. Invigorating! We were all talking about the fact that the weather channel is telling us it'll be -15 C / 5 F by next weekend. Slushes all around!

MargyB - Does your husband miss it? Apparently some people do when they leave.

I just want to point out that though it is bitterly cold, we do have ways to deal with it. We wear lots of layers, big puffy jackets, scarves and tuques, plug the cars in and park in the sun at work (it's amazing how much the sun helps to keep the car a bit warmer), and of course, cook lots of warm, steamy soups! And we complain a lot. But it gives us all something to bond over.

Anyhow...

Started the morning with the bowl of kasha - and then off to the synagogue to help get the food ready for a funeral. When I got home I was hungry, so I followed the advice of a wise man and made some french toast with the remains of the challah I baked on Friday. A quick blueberry sauce made with blueberries I froze last summer, orange zest and juice and maple syrup. It was really tangy.

Challah was dipped in a mix of eggs, half and half, salt, vanilla, a dash of cinnamon and a dash of allspice.

[lovebenton0]

I won't complain one bit about being chilly today when it's 63!

Thanks so much for sharing the beautiful breads and soups. I can't wait to see what you do with the dessert bread!

Margy

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margy, i can relate to that. last year i still lived in austin tx as i had for many years before that. winter 2006 was an exceptionally warm season even for us. i was begging it to get down to low 60s. when it would first hit 60 though after the tx heat, i'd be chilled. then i'd adjust. as i think i said yesterday, right before stepping out into the -30 wind chill, i like cold.

on to the dessert bread, which ended up being toasted and buttered as a brunch offering about noon today.

chocolate bread with dried cherries and toasted almonds. not overly sweet... one tbsp sugar, two oz slivered semi-sweet baker's chocolate in dough for a lb and half loaf.

simple scrambled eggs and literally read-through thin proscuitto crisped on the side. and worth mentioning... my first cup of coffee in a week.

now that i'm caught up on brunch, i've got to feed quinn his chow and get us out for a walk. more on dinner soup later.

[Pam R]

Oh - I forgot to mention. Pea soup is still simmering. I turned it down too low, set the timer for 75 minutes and returned to find that it wasn't simmering at all . Will report back when it's cooked.

[snowangel]

Pam, did you pick the blueberries yourself?

[lovebenton0]

i'm also intrigued with the pear soup idea.

I am too! I love the pear soup - served with toasted pecans, reduced balsamic and crumbled feta or goat cheese. But I woke up feeling not-so-great myself and decided to go for a basic split pea. Maybe pear tomorrow.

Loonie?  Wow, its only a quarter here.

It's a loonie at Superstore, a quarter at Safeway. Superstore has loonie-shaped tokens that you can buy (for $1) that clip onto a key-chain. Everybody in the family has one - that way I don't have to remember to have a loonie with me. Works well.

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pam, how are you feeling... better, i hope.

the pear soup sounds fabulous. from your brief i may have most ingredients on hand.

and... ok, i passed up asking yesterday, but i'm too curious now. way outside the loonie loop here [haven't lived close to canada since 1972], what did you need it for...