The Experiments Continue

Hey, wanna guess what THIS is?

Come on, I bet you can’t guess. I bet you have NO IDEA.

If you guessed dog puke (or people puke, for that matter), you are wrong.

It is soup. Broccoli Cheese Soup to be exact.

I decided this season to be a bit more adventurous with soups. My old standards, which are all pretty darn good, are: Maryland Crab Soup, Beef Vegetable Soup, Chicken Corn Soup (that’s a PA Dutch thing) and, occasionally, Bean Soup.

Recently, I have tried French Onion Soup (the recipe in the Joy of Cooking Cookbook makes DELICIOUS soup), Cream of Crab Soup and now Broccoli Cheese Soup (a copycat recipe I found online for Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup).

Here’s a shot of the Broccoli Cheese Soup in the pot.

And here it is in our giant soup mugs. I served it with toasted rosemary focaccia bread. Oh. My. God. The soup is good. With the bread it was tres magnifique, which I think means really damn good. The recipe is here.

Speaking of recipes, I forgot to share the link for that Cream of Crab Soup recipe that I tested. It is really, really, really good. And super easy to make.

According to my mother-in-law, it is “to die for.” If you make it, go ahead and use the cheaper crab from Indonesia or China or wherever the “blue swimming crab” comes from. The more-expensive meat from blue crabs should be reserved for crab cakes. In my opinion.

I just remembered that I took pictures of the French Onion Soup the last time I made it. The recipe called for Gruyere cheese, but I used Asiago and it was delish. It takes almost two hours to make this soup, but it is so worth it. Someone else transcribed the recipe for their blog, so here’s a link for you. I usually use more than 3 tbsp of cheese and I put the bowls under the broiler to melt the cheese. So make sure you use oven-proof bowls!

I’m going to have to get more creative. All of my soup pix are starting to look alike!

Here’s my (New England) clam chowder post from 2008. It shows cooked blue crabs, too. And a pissed-off cat. That recipe from the Joy of Cooking was time-consuming, but so good.

I keep threatening to make the clam chowder again. Hubby doesn’t like clams, but this chowder is extraordinary, so maybe I can convert him. I’ll let you know if I am successful.

Homemade Goodness

I have an awesome Hubby. It’s been awhile since I told you that, so I think it’s about time.

Wanna know what inspired this particular gush of Hubby-gloat? If you are still reading, you must. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll show you…

I jumped to this photo on purpose. I think it’s a cool shot AND I wanted to keep the suspense going, at least for some of you. Others, I know, probably know where this post is heading. (Like Shannon, who I should just apologize to now, because there’s a pretty good chance this post might make her a teeny bit homesick. Or hungry. Or both.)

Let me back up a bit…

Does this shot help? I doubt it. I mean, I took the picture. I know what this is, but you can’t really tell just by looking at this shot, which I think sort of resembles a mud pit.

How about now? Is this better?

That amazing Hubby of mine made CINNAMON ROLLS yesterday. From scratch.

His cinnamon rolls are quite tasty. Very. Heck, they’re downright delectable.

As I was taking these pictures, I was thinking to myself, “My blog is going to end up looking all Pioneer Woman-ish.” Which is cool, ’cause I love the Pioneer Woman. That wasn’t my goal, though. I just love the way food pictures turn out when shot with my 50mm prime lens (if you are at all into photography, there’s a good discussion on the lens thing here).

Hubby didn’t even complain that I was all in his way as he carefully rolled the buttery-cinnamon-sugar-laden dough. He’s nice like that. Or he knows that after almost 17 years of marriage it’s best to just shut up sometimes (i.e., often) and humor your wife. Maybe it’s a little of both.

Look at that focus!

Yes, this image is a repeat. But I like it. Not only do I think it is sort of artsy, it’s a great example of where the “roll” in cinnamon rolls comes from. If you’ve never seen them made, you may not have known that.

Let’s say you knew that the dough is rolled as part of the cinnamon-roll-making process. Did you know how the soft, squishy dough is cut without being all smushed? A knife would totally smush the things so you’d end up with oddly misshapen ovals instead of circles.

The cutting tool of choice for this particular baker (aka Hubby) is dental floss. Not the minty kind either. Just plain, ole dental floss.

See how neatly it slices the dough?

Here’s another artsy shot. Click on the image so you can see the big version if you really want to appreciate the artiness of the shot.

See how nice and round they are?

The next step is baking. You may need to let the rolls sit for a while first. I’m not sure. The baker is not downstairs yet, so I can’t ask. But it doesn’t really matter because this isn’t a how-to post, it’s one of my I-bet-I-can-make-you-hungry posts.

Because I had to leave, I was not able to get a shot of the steamy, fresh-from-the-oven rolls. I missed the whole making of the cream cheese icing, too. In all honesty, I even forgot to take a picture of the finished product until after I’d consumed one (okay, two) and was going through these pictures.

However, knowing at least some of my faithful fans would want to see the end product, I did what any good blogger would do and made sure I got at least one good shot so I could include a shot of the ready-to-eat cinnamon rolls in today’s post…

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go grab myself a cinnamon roll. Or two.