Make this Soup!!!

I too, have been bad about posting to the blog lately. I don't even really have an excuse to offer up, but I have been cooking. Actually just last night I thought I'd wait it out another week or so and then make a giant post about everything I tried to make out of the September issue of Everyday Food Magazine, which we all know I consult regularly. I'll still do that -- but until then -- you should all make this soup!

Perhaps my extreme affinity for it has come about as a result of the fact that it was exactly what I needed last night. It was rainy here in NYC, I'd had an exhausting weekend, and just wanted to curl up on the couch with something warm, healthy, and yummy. In addition to being all of that, this soup was incredibly easy to make.

A couple notes:

-I halved the recipe, though when doing so, I felt like I need to add a bit more tomatoes. I probably ended up using 3/4 of a can rather than 1/2.
-I added a bit extra Orzo.
-I'd prob just the zucchini in quarters so the pieces are more bite sized.
-In the last minute or two before it was done cooking I added a few shakes of crushed red pepper to give it a tiny bit of an extra kick. Definitely a good idea.

More regular posting on GastroFab

Okay, okay.

We've been a little lazy lately on this site.

Props to Louisa and Cheryl for having posted really great looking recipes lately. But as for me, it was somewhere between the moving-to-a-new-house and the-impending-launch-of-our-new-product at work that cooking kind of fell by the wayside. In fact, I was floored looking at my recent credit card bill by how much we've been eating out (and honestly, those little $7 meals can really add up!)

This realization, combined with the fact a few of my dear friends have also taken to a cooking blog (Check out My Vegan Wife: a new blog about vegan recipes), I've been inspired to return back in the saddle. This past week was an exercise in creative cooking, especially when you have not much in your kitchen and don't know which box has the pots and pans.

So, now that I've unpacked and found the camera, we'll have more recipes up soon. And, I can't wait to read yours. =) Off to the grocery store!

Ratatouille

Ever since the movie came out last year, LZ has been wanting to try Ratatouille. I don't know why but he brought it up again recently and today turned out to be the day we made it. It's definitely good, though doesn't seem like anything so special. Though I guess that's really the point of it - home cooking just like mom used to make. If you're French? Smitten Kitchen's recipe looked good and simple so I went with that. Mine didn't come out nearly as pretty as this one so I'm borrowing her photo. The best thing about it is it's going to make two days' lunches for me!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

This morning I thought maybe I'd make pancakes but I didn't have any milk and I wasn't sure you could make them without it. So then I thought about muffins and I did have sour cream so I looked for recipes that used that. I didn't have any berries though which would have made great muffins, so I had no choice but to make chocolate chip muffins! This recipe matched my ingredients and that was that. Not healthy in any way, shape or form, and not appetizing at all in the picture, but it made a nice Sunday breakfast.

First you take the chicken

So my co-worker said to me, "What is one thing you have always wanted to cook, but have been afraid to." Without hesitation I answered "Roasted chicken." We recruited another co-worker and made it happen, and it was one of the best meals I have had in a long time (our turkey burgers notwithstanding). One of those long slow dinners where you savor every bite, sip your wine, and have great conversation.

First we used, a version of Julia Child's Roasted Chicken Recipe which used..no surprise salt and lots of butter. We roasted parsnips and potatoes. We tried a fun trick with the potatoes. After par boiling, we drained the water out and then put them back in the pan. We then vigorously shook the pan until the potatoes looked fluffy. We put them in the oven along with the chicken. Apparently the fluffy factor makes them nice and crunchy. We also had a delicious green bean recipe with red onions, cherry tomatoes and mead (honey wine!). Incredible! We washed it all down with mead and Cabernet Sauvignon.


For dessert we made a very simple pear tart! Which leads me to a new food blog I learned about. It's called Smitten Kitchen. The tart recipe was adapted from here.

This website also offers some advice about photographing food!

A meal I won't soon forget!

Turkey Burgers

Cheryl came over the other night and we were trying to think of something relatively healthy to make. We ended up making these turkey burgers with tomato corn salsa and they were pretty good! I dumped a lot of cumin in there with the turkey, possibly too much, but it was still tasty. And it turned out to be quite cheap too! Cheryl took this picture which came out much better than we thought it would. Good work!

Peach Shortcake

We are moving!

The best part of moving is that we are moving down the street from a farmer's market. Which is extremely awesome. We started with a bucket of peaches ($4)

The skins went into a cup of water, cup of sugar and sprigs of mint to boil up and simmer down into a nice syrup to cover the peeled fruit.

J made shortcake. Having made a special trip to the store to get ice cream and whipped cream, we forgot a round cookie cutter, but he found that the large star one works just as well.

Combine all and then eat. Yay!