Sunday, July 11, 2010

Win Some, Lose Some


Success: Carrot Cilantro Soup

Since Paige is a vegetarian, I try to fix vegetarian choices for dinner a lot of the time, something that doesn't always thrill Kai; but I made carrot cilantro soup the night we got back from the beach that made everyone happy. I did a quick Google search, and found a recipe for Alice Waler's Carrot Cilantro from her book Chez Panisse Vegetables on a blog called Cupckae Punk.  The only alteration I made was that I toasted about 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds, and added them to the soup when I pureed it.


Carrot Cilantro Soup

1 yellow onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch of carrots (~1 lb)
3 potatoes
1-1 1/2 quarts vegetable stock
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and slice the onion and put in olive oil to stew. Peel carrots and potatoes and cut into large chunks.
Once the onions are soft, add carrots and potatoes, salt generously, and continue to stew for approximately 10 minutes.

Add vegetable stock, bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and simmer until the vegetables are cooked and soft.

Take the pot off heat.

Add cilantro and pumpkin seeds to the pot. Puree the soup in a food processor until smooth.

Reheat on stove.



Second Success: Soughdough Bread

I bought some sourdough starter a couple of months ago, and I've been experimenting with it every since. I've mostly made pizza dough, but I thought I'd bake bread yesterday. I used a basic recipe from Sourdough Home. For the final step, you let the dough rise in the pan for up to twelve hours. I let it start rising around 10 o"clock at night, thinking that I'd bake my bread in the morning.  I didn't quite calculate correctly though. I usually sleep straight through the night, but last night, I couldn't sleep and got up around 3:00 to get a glass of water. My bread was starting to fall over the edges of the pan, so....I baked it...at 3 in the morning. I thought for sure someone would wake up and ask where the wonderful smell was coming from, but no one did. They, did, however, pretty much devour it as soon as they got up.





Fail: Felted Holder for Wooden Needles

I've made this kind of mistake before. I had a plan to felt a holder for my wooden knitting needles. I faved a pattern for a felted wine cozy a while back, so I used that idea to knit my holder. I'm not giving up, but I encountered a problem. My nice, fuzzy, cream yarn that I used for a little contrast didn't felt.  I also need to make the inside ridge longer. As it is now, it's just making it top heavy. Maybe I shouldn't call this a failure; it just wasn't a success.

8 comments:

Joansie said...

The soup sounds delicious and the bread looks marvelous. I haven't made sourdough bread in a very long time. If I lived closer, I would have invited myself over :>)

Rani said...

But the pink holder looks really cool. I like the effect of the felted pink and the unfelted cream. It looks cool.

Oh, that bread looks delicious! Not sure on the soup. I'm one of those cilantro people who think it tastes like soap - but other than that - it sounds scrumptious!

TheBlackSheep said...

You should get a medal for just thinking about cooking or knitting in that heat! The bread looks yummy!

Tracy Batchelder said...

Good thing you woke up in the middle of the night to rescue the bread. Looks delicious!

Thimbleanna said...

That's so funny about the bread! I think I would have been too lazy to wait up on it -- I probably would have punched it down and made it rise again. But does that make it tough or rubbery or something? Hmmmm....

Anonymous said...

The food all looks delicious - you deserve a medal for your 3am baking!

Torhild Reidardatter said...

Good for you baking such good homemade bread.Sourdough is perfect.
I have a small bowl in my fridge , which I add to my dough every second day, then when all is mixed in one big wet dough ,I save some spoonfull of the "new"/"old" dough for next time .Smart it is.
:-) I do believe we all discover that we added a row or two of yarn that does not felt.... Good luck next time.

JayJay said...

Yum, that soup looks great! I wonder if my carrot-hating daughter would like it? She might not even notice the carrots with the cilantro flavoring it. And the bread looks so perfect!