Pear soup!

I am (obviously) on a soup kick lately. No lamenting lack of pictures for this one, because it is nothing exceptional looking...it is, however exceptional tasting. I was inspired by a soup I had as an amuse-bouche at a restaurant near my parent's house when I was home in April. They bring out a little shot glass full of soup and a little spoon, and it wasn't nearly enough. I tried to recreate it from memory-not entirely the same, but still good enough to share.

Parsnip-Pear Soup
1 medium sweet onion, peeled and quartered
2 large shallots, peeled and halved
3 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
2 lbs parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
4 medium ripe pears, peeled and cut into chunks
~4 cups vegetable stock* (chicken is fine if you want a richer soup)
1 small spring rosemary
1/4-1/2 cup whole milk or heavy cream
olive oil
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp cardamom
fresh nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 F. Toss Onion, shallots, garlic, and parsnips in olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread on a cookie sheet and roast for 35-40 minutes, until vegetables are soft and browned. Remove from oven, and let cool enough to handle. Peel garlic, and chop other vegetables into small pieces. Place vegetables in a pot with chopped pears, and cover with broth. Add rosemary sprig and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until pears and parsnips are very tender. Remove rosemary,and puree soup with an immersion mixer or in batches in a blender. Add more veggie stock if neccesary to thin soup to desired consistency. Stir in milk or cream and cardamom. add fresh-grated nutmeg to taste.


* Don't buy vegetable stock from the store! It is so easy to make on your own, and makes a HUGE difference in the taste of soups-much more so than canned vs homemade chicken or beef stock. Just save all your vegetable leftovers-carrot peels, the tops and leaves of celery, leftover onion and garlic, broccoli stalks, outside leaves of brussels sprouts, etc-pretty much everything except tomatoes-in a gallon ziploc bag in the freezer. When it is full, toss it in a big pot, add an onion cut into quarters, maybe some shallots or leeks, and a couple cloves of garlic. cover with water, shake in a bunch of salt and ground pepper, add 3-4 bay leaves, a couple sprigs of rosemary, several shakes of dried thyme and tarragon. Bring it to a boil, cover, and simmer for a few hours. Add salt and pepper to taste, let it cool, strain, and you have fresh homemade veggie stock! Use right away or freeze.

I wish I had a better camera

So I could take pictures of this delicious and beautiful soup! I followed the recipe pretty closely (for once), adding an extra jalepeno, using regular soy sauce and a splash of fish sauce instead of tamari, an extra teaspoon of curry paste and an extra sprinkle of garam masala. It's super tasty, a little sweet from the squash, creamy from the coconut milk, and has lip-tingling spice offset by cilantro-mint pesto.

It's also the prettiest shade of light orange, with little beads of red from the curry paste and a dark green swirl of pesto. If I only had a camera other than my 3 MP piece of crap from 2003, I would share with the internet. For graduation I am buying myself a new camera.
For tonight, I am eating my soup!

sisters discuss drugs and science writing

me: I am such a bad writer

Elizabeth: I'm sorry

Elizabeth: maybe you should take some cocaine*.
it helped lewis carroll

me: I'd probably be a better writer if I had a smidge of LSD
"yes the third chapter of my thesis is narrarated by a talking mushroom WHAT OF IT?"

Elizabeth: hahahaha
that would be so happy
there is not nearly enough batshit crazy imagery in science writing
also, use cocaine when you meet with XL to discuss this.
science writing is the coolest



* she means LSD. We come from a small town and are also the only two children to ever be influenced enough by the DARE program to be completely terrified and ignorant of drugs well into our twenties. I am a completely lame person. My friends and I went to a concert (Matchbox20 and Train, rock and roll!) when we were seventeen and vaguely considered trying to find some alcohol, decided we had no idea how to do that(note to my teenaged self: all you need to do to get get alcohol when you are a busty seventeen year old at a concert is walk your jailbait self to the nearest pack of college-aged guys where you will promptly be offered alcohol), responsibly remembered that we had to drive home (we carpooled. only one person had to drive home) and split a giant cup of diet pepsi. lame, I tell you.

I like:

1. This list, a crowd-sourced compendium of the best of magazine writing. I think magazine pieces are the perfect form for non-fiction for me. I really like learning new things, but rarely have the patience to sit through a whole book of facts.

2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I am two years behind the cool kids on this one, but the YYYs have really grown o me. They struck me as a little weird at first (kinda shouty, they're headlined by a tiny korean girl who looks like Johnny Weir and styles herself like Michael Jackson), but I am loving their music the more I listen to it.


3. Blood Bank by Bon Iver. I'm in awe of this guy's ability to write lyrics-they're so strange and sweet and evocative.


4. fresh sweet cherries, candied in whiskey and a little vanilla and a dash of cardamom, about to go over ice cream while I watch mad men:)

Accomplishment a lot.

1. Yesterday I vomited in three different airports.*
2.  Today I tripped over my own feet, resulting in a fist sized scrape on my knee, a tear on the hem of my dress, lilttle pieces of gravel i my palms, and most impressively, a 4-inch streak of bruises and petichiae ON MY NECK. It looks like a giant hickey. Fail.





*also got offered an awesome job!

Speaking of betty draper

I mad-menned myself!

I always think of myself as Joan, but that is mostly because of my ultracurviness.  When I think about it, I am ambitious, kindof insecure, a little obnoxious, tragically uncool, and I really want to be Joan. yep, I am  Peggy Olsen.

probably should both sleep and eat more

I feel like betty draper on quaaludes today. It is so hot, and I am so tired and listless.  I just want to lay on my fainting couch/futon and stare wistfully through the window and watch the rain start.

weather.com now informs me that there will be no rain. So.

Book club update:

Today we decided that, at least according to Milton in Paradise Lost, God is a real douchebag

Having issues with rage today

Hmmm

A month went by and no blogging.  Naturally, I am spurred back to writing by the opportunity to change the way the old blog looks rather than any specific desire to express myself.  At any rate, a hail of bullets...

• My wistful last Alabama spring has melted into my miserable last alabama summer. I have spent considerable time lying on my floor in front of the air conditioner and lamenting ever moving to this terrible land. I will remember these days and bring them to mind come december when I start getting sad about leaving. 
• For Sister Book Club we are currently reading Paradise Lost. It is difficult. Good, and we have a lot of really good discussions about it, but hard. 
• I have not cooked anything remotely interesting in a month. I don't know if I've turned the stove on in a month. It is summer, who needs to eat when you can sustain yourself off whining about the heat. 
• My future seems to be shaping up-I'm almost certain to defend in October. After that, I'll finish up some stuff in the lab and then head off to a postdoc, most likely in either rhode island or dallas. Very different places. Maybe more thoughts on that later.