Life or Soup?

Terribly sorry we fell behind on the soup experiment. Last weekend my parents came to town and my super hero friend KT has been leading the improve pack with an event every Sunday night and soup just became a little less important.

Life has gotten a little nutso lately. I continue to work in the opera-development office but my employer's family has suffered a major medical emergency and therefore much of the week it is just me and my intern. Since my employer likes to have final say on all business dealings it has been more stressful at work than it probably should be. But her emergency is working out and hopefully by the time I leave at the end of the month she will be ready to take back the reins full time and enjoy her newly cleaned, organized and procedure ready office.

On the larger family homefront we are welcoming the arrival of 2 new babies. My cousin and Ryan's cousin both had the first newborns of "our generation of cousins" within the past 3 months. Couple that with my wedding, cousin Amber's wedding, my brother's wedding and Ryan's brother's wedding all happening within a year of each other and we are a busy group. We can also add Ryan's best friend's wedding in Jan 2011 and our friend Aaron's wedding this summer only one week before Brad's. It's next generations time people. Apparently we are taking over.

And in our tiny NYC homefront the main focus is on finishing the paper, getting jobs and trying to plan with little or no direction a move in May. I've had 2 phone interviews and applied to 8 or nine positions within the past month. We spend a little time each week on craigslist looking at houses but to actually move we will need a location. Ry and I are both ready for a more focused life that includes actual income.

we will see.

The Soup Experiment- Not Soup

So usually I make soup on Sundays and then try to remember to blog about it while I am eating that warm yummy liquid heaven. Well, the delicious French Onion Soup took so much effort on Sunday and yielded so many meals that Ryan and I aren't really in the mood for soup this weekend. (although it is wet and cold and perfect weather for soup)

Instead I made a Ratatouille. Let me correct myself. I faked making Ratatouille.

Ingredients-

onion- we used one chopped

oil- a bit

garlic- a spoonful

squash and zucchini- 2 zucchini and 1 squash chopped

peppers- half a red one chopped

celery- 2 stalks chopped

parsley- fresh

thyme- fresh

pasta sauce- ours had mushrooms and black olives - about 1/3 of the jar

rice- we used uncle ben's 90 sec Long and Wild Rice

saute onion and garlic in oil for 15 minutes

add pasta sauce and peppers and celery

simmer 15 minutes

add squash and zucchini

simmer 15 minutes

add thyme and parsley

serve over rice with grated cheese (we used the leftover gyere from the French Onion Soup)

Outcome-It was delicious! The taste is really complex and it fills you up for a long time but has lots of good nutrients. We rarely have fresh herbs and it makes all the difference.

I love making up recipes!

Side Note- watched Food Inc last night on Netflix. Makes me want to shop at farmers markets or grow my own food. Too bad we are poor and the greenmarkets in NYC are so expensive! But... I'm going to see what I can do to eat better for the planet.

The Soup Experiment- French Onion Soup

From: David Morgan

Times Prepared: this is the first!

Recipe:

4-5 med onions sliced into rings about 1/4 inch thick- used red and white

1 TBS butter

Some oil- I used EVOO

1 Cup Red Wine- we used Malbec

1 veggie bouillon in 3 cups of water or 3 cups veggie/ mushroom broth

Crusty Bread

Garlic

Melty Cheese- We used Gyere (sp)

Put Oil and Butter in big deep skillet and put on medium heat. Layer on Onions sprinkling salt on top of each layer to draw out the water.

Once the bottom layer onions are brown (about 15 minutes) you can start turning them over.

Let all the onions turn brown and let a good rue happen on the bottom of the pan.

About an hour later add the cup of wine and scrape all the rue into the liquid.

Add 3 cups of broth to skillet and simmer with a bouquet of bay leaf, tyme and parsley for an hour.

Remove bouquet. (this thing has a fancy name but I forgot it)

Cut bread into pieces, rub with garlic and lightly toast. Place in bottom of bowl, cover with soup and the add cheese.

Put under the broiler until cheese is golden.

Comments: Was really yummy. I think that Malbec wine added a deep flavor. As we have eaten more of it, we have added more water then another bouillon cube to keep the flavor high.

Tools note: small crocks for the soup that are oven safe.

Overall: Easy to make and yummy ! It took a long time but was worth it. Our oven doesn't broil and we don't have oven safe dishes so we were not able to melt the cheese on top but it was still very good.

Next up- Not sure but probably something from my new book- Simple Suppers given to us by Teran and John.

Not very pretty but it tastes amazing!

My New(ish) Job

So at Thanksgiving I became unemployed. Luckily my wedding kept me pretty busy but after all that hustle and bustle and crazy traveling I came back to NYC and started freaking out about not having a job. So I started working on that problem and (as usual, Ryan says) had a job before 2 weeks were up. How, What and Where, you ask?

I emailed one of my old bosses about being a reference and she emailed me back saying that her company had been without a managing director since August and would I like the position. I met her for coffee, we talked about what needed to be done and I showed up that next Monday. Unhappily it was the Monday after they went to IPAY, but such is life.

I am currently the Interim Managing Director for FOI/Ardea Arts Inc. I handle all the money issues, which includes logging the sea of invoices and bills that haven't been entered into Quickbooks going back to August. I plan events such as Open Houses and this summer's Southampton Benefit. I handle social media; blogs, facebook, twitter and linkedin and I run the office. Running the office includes setting up and documenting procedures for everyday tasks, handling the ordering of supplies, phones, email, fixing technical problems, fundraising, grant writing, cleaning and making sure the trash and recycling goes out. I am also creating budgets for touring and future productions and in March I probably need to start interviewing and training at least some summer interns if not a new managing director because Ryan and I move away from NYC in May.

Oh and the office includes me, my boss and my intern. Very cosy.

Very exciting and exhausting stuff-

(add us to your twitter! familyopera - my goal is to double the followers by May. Please help!)

The Soup Experiment- Pumpkin Curry Soup

From: Patricia Torpis originally from Karen Shepard

Times Prepared: this is the first!

Recipe:

1 med onion finely chopped (1/2 cup)

2 TBS butter- to saute onion and mushrooms

2 TBS flour- add to onion and mushrooms before adding broth

16 oz of pumpkin- NOT pumpkin pie mixture

8oz of whipping cream

1 veggie bouillon in 3 cups of water or 3 cups veggie broth

1/2 lb of sliced mushrooms

1 TBS curry powder

dash of hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion and mushrooms with butter in a large saucepan till tender not brown.

Stir in flour. Add veggie broth, pumpkin and curry powder.

When all are well-blended add hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Add cream- do not let soup boil! serve with croutons.

Comments: Currently smells amazing but I haven't tasted it yet- ok I have, but just a sip. We actually sorta doubled this recipe by adding more pumpkin and 2 cups more broth and then more curry.

Tools note: no special tools for this one.

Overall: easy to make although it was difficult to find pumpkin.

Next up-not sure but probably something from my new book- Simple Suppers given to us by Teran and John.

Snow Day!

All week the forcasters have been telling us that we are going to receive a monster snow on Wednesday. NYC cancelled government and schools on Tuesday morning when it was dry as a bone and in the mid 30's. Walking through Times Square last night you could pick out the tourists because they were the only ones bundled up. Last night Ryan and I went out to dinner and walked back in dry clear weather that wasn't even cold.

I woke up at 2am and there was no snow. I woke up at 5am and there was a light dusting. At 8 I conferenced with my employer and she was willing to let it be a snow day but didn't understand what all the fuss was about. At 9... HOLY COW! We currently have about 4 inches or so outside our building and it is coming down like huge fat rain drops.

Snow Day!!!

The Soup Experiment- Chili and Corn Chowder

From: Better Homes and Gardens- Vegetarian Recipes

Times Prepared: this is the first!

Recipe:

1 med onion chopped

2 TBS butter

2 TBS flour

1 large potato diced

2 cups water

2 cup milk

10oz of corn- they ask you to use frozen or fresh but we had to go with canned.

1 veggie bouillon

1/4 tsp ground pepper - we had to use regular table pepper

1 4oz can green chili peppers

2 tablespoons cilantro or parsley- we had to do without

Saute onion with butter in a large saucepan till tender not brown.

Stir in flour. Add water, peeled potato, corn, chili peppers, bouillon and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes till potatoes are tender.

Stir in milk and cilantro- heat through and serve in individual bowls decorated with cilantro or parsley springs and fresh chili peppers

Comments: We've been waiting on this one. Veggie Bouillon is very expensive and hard to find so my mom sent us 3 packages. I ended up squishing some of the potatoes to get a thicker soup.

Tools note: no special tools for this one.

Overall: We had to do without a lot of the special ingredients that would have added a lot of flavor but even with the subtractions the soup is good and filling for the cold weather we've been having. All in all- good stuff.

Next up- a recipe that we received from Patricia Torpis at our recipe/ornament shower this winter. Pumpkin soup with curry!