By Your Intrepid Substitute Blogger
If you’ve read Fish Wednesday the last couple weeks, you know I don’t like fish. But I have to admit that this Wednesday, there was little chance of me sweating over the idea of eating fish or cooking fish: I was deep in preparations for our much-delayed Soup Swap. We planned it for after the caucuses, which were, to quote a neighbor, a “meet your neighbor hug-fest”. It was amazing to hear how crowded our local precinct was — four years ago, it was a sparsely attended event. Eight years ago, our neighborhood was so Republican that I was afraid to put up a Gore sign for fear of vandalism (and four years ago, a lot of Kerry signs were, indeed, vandalized in our immediate neighborhood; but not our signs). Things have changed over here.
This year, I opted not to caucus. I could tell you it’s because caucusing is a really stupid way to choose a winner — my brother likens it to a temple board meeting; if you’ve never been to one, it’s a bunch of Jews with more opinions than there are people trying to accomplish something. But really it was because Husband and I would have canceled each other’s vote out, and I knew that Obama was going to take Washington, so my vote wouldn’t be missed. Plus there was more Soup Swap preparation to do.
I planned a tea with sherry and wee things to eat. I made rosemary shortbread, and crostini made of bread from Bakery Nouveau, which NEV has written paeans to before. I put homemade ricotta on them, drizzled half with honey from last year’s pull at Moonshadow Farm, and the other half were drizzled with peppered strawberries in a reduced balsamic glaze. That stuff is addictive; I hope I can make it again.
Yes, homemade ricotta. It’s surprisingly easy and tastes divine. Just take 2 1/2 cups of cultured buttermilk add to a half gallon of milk in a pot over medium heat. Stir every three or four minutes until it reaches 170 degrees. Don’t stir it again, but watch the thermometer. When it hits 190, remove from the heat and strain through cheese cloth. The more you strain it, the firmer it will be. You can add salt to it, but I don’t think it needs it. It tastes amazingly fresh and is great on raisin toast in the morning with a cup of tea.
I had some problem with my lemon meringues, so Neighbor M brought over some cheese triangles she made with her Greek mother-in-law. I’m sure there’s some official title for them, but I don’t know what it is. They’re made with feta and egg and encased in filo and baked. Yum. We had two kinds of sherry and many types of tea. Only H drank the tea. She’s a law student and pled a need to read boring law texts.
It was all served on one dead grandmother’s china, in another dead grandmother’s crystal, and stirred with a third dead grandmother’s silver.
At one point, we wanted a picture taken, so Neighbor S went outside where Dan the Man was playing football with his son. We determined he was Cute, and since two of us were single, we thought we’d ask him to take the photo so the Single Girls could better Check him Out. He was a real sport. He took the photo, we gave him some cookies and soup and off he went. I’m supposed to check on his interest this week. I think I’ll have S do that instead. We had a blast. We all agreed that we should do it more often. The sad thing is that working moms, working wives, we have a tendency to take care of everyone but ourselves. Husband and Son went to the Crumb exhibit at the Frye so it could be a real Girl’s Day. I want to do it again, but I have a great fear that it will be months before we can all find the time and inclination to really give ourselves two hours of time. It’s kind of sad.
We had soup tonight for dinner (needless to say). Our choice was between Persian chicken and vegetable, vegetable beef, gingered carrot, winter vegetable, leek and sorrel (I made that one), and ham, white bean and chard. We chose the latter. My little guy is getting a bug and I thought the chicken broth in the soup would be soothing.
The leek and sorrel soup came of a desire to do something with the sorrel I have growing in my garden. It’s a lemony herb. You can find it sometimes at farmer’s markets or in small clamshell herb packs. It’s a cinch to grow and is impossible to kill. It tastes great in a salad with other greens, like a little surprise of lemon. The recipe requires a lot of sorrel, so find some seeds, plant them, and next fall you can enjoy the soup.
Saute two leeks (the white a light green part, sliced and well rinsed) in olive oil. Or butter if you’re feeling decadent. When they’ve softened, add a good pinch of salt and some ground pepper. Add a quart of chicken or vegetable broth, or water in a pinch. Use the low sodium stuff if you didn’t make you’re own. Add two chopped red, yellow, or white potatoes (waxy type, not baking type). I suppose you could use purple but who knows what color the soup would come out. I don’t peel mine, but you can if you want. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Mash the potatoes in the pot and add in six cups (loosely packed) of washed sorrel leaves removed from any big stems. Sorrel is one of those herbs like basil that turns a blackish brown when cooked. Oh well. When it’s cooked down, take a stick blender and puree, or put it in a blender in two batches and blend. Adjust the seasonings. It freezes magnificently.
If you have a ton of sorrel in your garden, you can freeze it. It looks awful after you take it out of the freezer, but no different than when cooked. That way you can enjoy it without having to spend a fortune buying a dozen clamshells of the stuff.
“Eight years ago, our neighborhood was so Republican that I was afraid to put up a Gore sign for fear of vandalism (and four years ago, a lot of Kerry signs were, indeed, vandalized in our immediate neighborhood; but not our signs).”
Where the hell in Seattle are you living?!?! Doesn’t sound like the Capitol Hill that I know & love. 😉
V, that’s guest blogger Lisa that wrote that. She lives on The East Side.