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I made soup tonight. It's good to have soup on a snowy night like this. I feel kind of resentful that I had so much trouble making it. This should be easy! But it really isn't anymore. I know how to cook, I have good recipes and tools, and a strong distaste for spending money on a lot of prepackaged food kits. But my menus and my recipes are often driven by what I can do, more than by what I particularly want to do.
Wordweaver Lynn suggested the recipe for Cauliflower Cheese soup, which involved 4 cups each of chopped raw cauliflower, carrot, onion, and potato. Sunday evening, I stood in the produce section of the supermarket, contemplating the state of my hands and the sight of a whole cauliflower. I said, "yeah, right," and went to the frozen foods section where I could buy the cauliflower already chopped. (It was a little cheaper, for some reason.) Whole baby carrots replaced chopped regular carrots, and 1C potato replaced 4C. I did put in almost 4C onion, though they weren't chopped all that small. What the hell, it's all getting pureed later. There was plenty of garlic, though. I tend to substitute garlic for onion, whether it tastes better or not, because I have a jar of minced garlic in the fridge.
The vegetables got covered with water and cooked on Monday, then pureed. So I could come home tonight and reheat some puree with yogurt, spices, and cheese. Why yogurt rather than milk? Milk hasn't stayed down since I started the latest medication, so I've been relying on yogurt and soymilk. I've had some soymilks that taste ok on cereal or in cocoa, perhaps because they're heavily sugared, but I don't believe in adding sugar to cauliflower. Proportions were 1.5C vegetable puree, 0.25C plain yogurt, teaspoon dijon mustard, heavy sprinkle coriander seed,
and a handful of grated mozzerella cheese on top of the hot soup. I divided out the unseasoned puree in 1.5C portions. Some went to the freezer, and some became soup (one with curry powder and no cheese) for microwaving at work.
Sometimes I'm rather proud of myself for all the ways I manage to work around my hand problems. Did you know a Braun hand blender is designed to be used in a gripping hand, so holding it between two hands that are carefully NOT clenching it tightly makes it very hard to work the power switch? Sometimes it floors me that I need to make so many accomodations, that I can't just DO what I want to do (or even expect to be able to do, sometimes.) But, hey - I made soup! I think the soup will last longer than the whining.
Wordweaver Lynn suggested the recipe for Cauliflower Cheese soup, which involved 4 cups each of chopped raw cauliflower, carrot, onion, and potato. Sunday evening, I stood in the produce section of the supermarket, contemplating the state of my hands and the sight of a whole cauliflower. I said, "yeah, right," and went to the frozen foods section where I could buy the cauliflower already chopped. (It was a little cheaper, for some reason.) Whole baby carrots replaced chopped regular carrots, and 1C potato replaced 4C. I did put in almost 4C onion, though they weren't chopped all that small. What the hell, it's all getting pureed later. There was plenty of garlic, though. I tend to substitute garlic for onion, whether it tastes better or not, because I have a jar of minced garlic in the fridge.
The vegetables got covered with water and cooked on Monday, then pureed. So I could come home tonight and reheat some puree with yogurt, spices, and cheese. Why yogurt rather than milk? Milk hasn't stayed down since I started the latest medication, so I've been relying on yogurt and soymilk. I've had some soymilks that taste ok on cereal or in cocoa, perhaps because they're heavily sugared, but I don't believe in adding sugar to cauliflower. Proportions were 1.5C vegetable puree, 0.25C plain yogurt, teaspoon dijon mustard, heavy sprinkle coriander seed,
and a handful of grated mozzerella cheese on top of the hot soup. I divided out the unseasoned puree in 1.5C portions. Some went to the freezer, and some became soup (one with curry powder and no cheese) for microwaving at work.
Sometimes I'm rather proud of myself for all the ways I manage to work around my hand problems. Did you know a Braun hand blender is designed to be used in a gripping hand, so holding it between two hands that are carefully NOT clenching it tightly makes it very hard to work the power switch? Sometimes it floors me that I need to make so many accomodations, that I can't just DO what I want to do (or even expect to be able to do, sometimes.) But, hey - I made soup! I think the soup will last longer than the whining.
