what's up?

As I've mentioned before, this is such a busy month for us here at the 4 Pear's household. Lots of fun visitors and two trips to Disneyland have made it hard for me to post as often as I' d like.

tea cups...

yay!

On top of visitors and trips a few other things have been taking up my free time.  I'm working on this cute "lapghan".

I've actually never crocheted an afghan  before, and I've never changed colors within my work before either. I think this is a great pattern if you are a newbie to crocheting like I am and want a project to give you lots of practice on stitching evenly and changing colors of yarn.  The stitches are all basic and repetitive but add up to pretty looking "waves".  You can find the pattern here.

I've also discovered a new author that I really like.  I first read The Passage by Justin Cronin and while on the library e-waiting list for the sequel, I read his other novel Mary and O' Neil.  Two very different books (vampire apocalypse vs a novel about two normal people) but I just love Cronin's writing style. Really great reading.  I'm onto that sequel now (The Twelve) so that makes me less productive in other areas, sorry!

As far as cooking, I've made two soups from this month's Food Network magazine (well actually my MIL made one of them) and both were great.  The Tortilla-Chipolte soup is quick and yummy but a bit spicy!  I stirred in a half cup of cream at the end to mellow the spice a bit.  The Chicken and Quinoa soup was really tasty too and it has a surprisingly huge amount of flavor for a chicken and vegetable soup.

image from FoodNetwork.com

And, lastly, instead of eating breakfast or lunch like I should, most days I've been chowing down on these oatmeal cookies.  No need to refrigerate these or flatten them, just scoop them onto sheets and bake at 350 F for about 10 minutes.  Delicious.  My second batch I tossed in some Reese's Pieces...whoa yum.

Soup Night

I've mentioned before that we made up some new "rules" to govern our food shopping and menu planning.  The gist is that we are eating local and/or organic whenever possible and having 2-3 vegetarian dinners per week.  The vegetarian meals help us cut down on the grocery bill, because organic meat is expensive, and we believe eating less meat is good for our bodies too.

But now we are adding a new "rule"... Soup night!  We love soup at the 4 Pears house and even though it still isn't out of the 80's here yet, we've got to figure it will get chilly around here sometime soon.  Mr Pears is starting up his Tuesday night soccer league this week so having a Tuesday soup night works out great for us.  Soups can be made up during the day and reheated whenever someone is ready for dinner.  They are also easy to double and freeze to give myself a break from slaving away in the kitchen. ;)

Last week I made a really simple tomato soup with some grilled cheese sandwiches and this week I'm going to try another tomato-based soup, this one with Indian spices and pinto beans.  And soup night isn't complete without some homemade french baguettes.  If you haven't tried these yet, you should!  They are so quick (2 hours start to finish) and easy to make.

Some of my other favorite soups include:

Lobster Bisque - super super easy and really good!
French Onion- time-consuming but totally worth it

Spicy Pumpkin Soup - pumpkin....soup....delicious
Minestrone - a vegetable soup that is anything but bland (but does include some bacon)

image from foodnetwork.com

Visit my Recipe Index page for a few more soup recipes and stay tuned for plenty of new soups this fall/winter!

Roasted Corn Soup with Tomato

Hi there!  I'm back home again from a little mini family vacation.  Over the weekend we took the kids to the beach for the first time.  We headed over to Huntington Beach in California (only 4 hours from here) for some fun in the sun/sand.  Unfortunately, though the kids seemed so excited when we first got there, they were tired of being covered in wet sand after about 2 hours.  Ah, toddlers.  So instead of trying the beach again, the next (and last) day of our trip we went to Disneyland instead!  We had a great time.  The kids enjoyed themselves and we enjoyed ourselves in the happiest place on Earth. :)

 Doesn't Alex look happy on his very first amusement park ride?  Don't worry, he got happier. ;)

 Aaron loved every minute.

Mouses Ears!

Twin sleepyheads in their rental-rides.   

Before we left for our trip, another momentous thing occurred.  It rained...in Las Vegas.  Woo hoo!  I took advantage of the rare occurrance and made a soup I had seen in the Williams-Sonoma flyer. Click here for the recipe.

I rarely make soup in the summer  (except for Gazpacho of course) but this one is full of great summer ingredients so it is perfect for a nice rainy summer day.  It may seem a bit labor intensive to you but believe me, roasting tomatoes is simple and easy, and you can buy roasted red peppers in a jar if you want to cheat.  I made up my veggies ahead of time (nap time) so I could throw the soup together 10 minutes before dinner.  Serve with bread or a yummy grilled cheese sandwich....enjoy!

Minestrone Soup

Now that the holidays are over and things have settled down, I feel like we are back to our normal eating/cooking routine.  We are back to cooking a lot on the weekends and making/freezing foods for the kids.  Even though I'm at home all day, I like having simple dinners during the week.  Not only is it less stressful but it also seems to be healthier for us.  Our quick meals during the week are often lighter than the food we indulge in on the weekends.

This weekend I made a minestrone soup.  Mr Pears didn't seem all that thrilled with the prospect of what we called, "a bland soup", but he...umm...ate his words, lol!  This soup is super healthy and packed with a ton of great veggies and beans and a ton of flavor.  It does use a few slices of bacon so it is not a typical vegetarian minestrone, but it could be...and I think it would be just as good.  I just served it with some garlic french bread, and it was a great meal.

This is definitely a weekend recipe, though, in my opinion.  There is lots of chopping to do. But the work does pay off and the recipe made enough soup for us to freeze two batches for later.

So if cutting calories was on your list of resolutions...or if you just want a nice light dinner next week, give this one a try. :)

photo from foodnetwork.com, my darn phone isn't uploading!

Minestrone Soup, adapted from Bobby Flay
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2-3 large carrots, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 head of cabbage, sliced thin, and steamed for 2-3 minutes
1/2 bunch kale, destemmed and chopped
4 cups chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 bouquet garni (1 sprig rosemary, 4 sprigs thyme, 1 bay leaf, tied with kitchen string)
2 cans cannellini beans
salt, pepper, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat and then add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and bacon and cook for about 5 minutes while stirring.  Add in 4 cups of water along with the stock, cabbage, kale, tomatoes, and bouquet garni.  Bring the soup to a boil then turn down the heat and let it simmer together for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, puree one can of beans in  your food processor or blender.  After 30 minutes of simmering add the puree and the other can of beans (drained) to the soup, stir it together and let it all cook 10 minutes longer.  Taste the soup and season it with salt and pepper.

When you serve the soup sprinkle each portion with some Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

Lobster Bisque

I may be one of the only people in the world who isn't all in love with lobster.  I've had it every which way you can imagine, including raw, and I'm just not the biggest fan.  This soup, however, is awesome.

This lobster bisque could be the easiest soup I've ever made.  Since you buy the lobster already cooked from the grocery store, you are literally just making a quick cream based soup and heating it for a few minutes.  With this recipe you can have a homemade seafood soup in about 30 minutes.  Hard to beat that.  The Old Bay and cayenne pepper give it a bit of kick and a lot of flavor for a soup with only ten ingredients...or any soup for that matter.  Try this for a delicious and heart-warming lunch or dinner one of these chilly fall days.

Lobster Bisque, adapted from Wilma Scott
1 cup vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
1 medium onion, diced
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound lobster tail, cooked and roughly chopped

Put both the onion and the stock in a small pan and bring to a boil, lower the heat and allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a medium size pot, melt the butter and whisk in the flour.  Cook the flour about 3 minutes whisking constantly.  Now slowly pour in the stock and onions while continuing to whisk.  Whisk in the milk and then the spices and tomato paste.  Stop to taste the soup now and adjust the seasoning to your liking.  Stir in the lobster then allow the soup to simmer for about 15 minutes or so.  Be careful not to let it burn.  Serve and enjoy!

Cool Summer Gazpacho

I have a confession.  Before making this, I had never eaten gazpacho.  I was missing out!  Lots of my favorite summer things: tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell peppers...and it's a soup!  I love soup.  In the winter Alex and I usually have a soup day once a week.  We make and freeze soups so we have an easy healthy dinner with some nice crusty bread.  But in this 100+ degree weather out here in the desert (and apparently across the country) soup hasn't been on the menu for quite some time.  What a great time to try some cold soup.  (with crusty bread too of course!)

Now, as I said, I'd never had gazpacho before so I turned to my number one most trusted celebrity chef for a recipe.  Ina Garten.  (Sorry Gordon!)  Ina's recipe recommends letting the soup chill and rest for a while before serving so Alex and I knocked this out during nap time.  He chopped the veggies and I (wo)manned the processor.  We were done in a flash.

Gazpacho, adapted from Ina Garten

1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled

2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded

4 plum tomatoes

1 small red onion

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 c. tomato juice (23 oz)

1/4 c. white wine vinegar

1/2 c. olive oil

1/2  Tbsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Chop all the vegetables into 1 inch pieces.  One type of vegetable at a time,  pulse them in the food processor until coarsely chopped and remove to a large bowl.  Once all the veggies are processed and in the large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.  Put in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour but longer if possible. This is great the next day!!

We enjoyed the soup immensely with a few little crostini that Alex made from a baguette, some leftover pesto, and some mozzarella cheese.  A great, light, dinner to beat the heat.  (And the scale after scarfing down so much pulled pork and macaroni salad over the weekend!)