un-cream of caulifower

When I go to the grocery store, I like to check out the remaindered vegetables. If there is something there that's a bit spotty or less than perfect, and discounted by 50%, and I can use it in a soup, I'll usually talk myself into buying it. I like the cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower for this. For whatever reason, I won't spend full price to make a soup out of a vegetable, even though I won't have to work as hard for it.

Anyway, cauliflower was in the stack at the RCSS. Two for the price of one! A few brown spots, but otherwaise in fair condition. Not too wilted or slimy. I bought them both. I brought them home and promptly forgot about them for a week. They were still good a few days after that. Whew.

It was lunchtime on a schoolday, which means there was only me, H and K. H wanted noodles. I can do that. In the time it took the noodles to cook I made soup(ish).

1 head of cauliflower, sliced thinly
2-3 cups of water
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
1 T dried onions
2 T bulk Barn dried veg medley
1 T Vegeta ( I know, it has lots of salt, but if this is all I put in, that's not bad)
2 T whole wheat flour

In a big pot, covered, bring water and cauliflower to a boil on med-high
Add everything else but the flour. cover and let boil for about two minutes, maybe three.
Remove from heat.
Use handy dandy immersion blender and blend the soup to a fine puree. It will be kind of thick-thin, a thick layer of veg, a thin layer of water.
Add the flour and blend again.
Return to burner on med-low. Give it a minute or two to thicken and serve.

Really. That's all it was. I started the water for the noodles and the soup at the same time. The soup was done before the noodles were. OK the noodles were whole wheat alphabets, but still. H and K each had a bowl of veg before they got their noodles and sauce(more soup).

cabbage

MMMM. I like cabbage. raw, cooked doesn't matter. It's just sooo yummy. It also makes you toot! How can you go wrong?!?
I have a few favourite cabbage recipes, but if I don't write down last night's it'll fall out of my head and I may forget how I made it. That would be sad as B liked it enough to take it as leftovers today. That's a rarity. B does not like cabbage as much as I do, but then again, can anybody?

1/2 shredded green cabbage
8 cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 T veg oil
1 T cornstarch
1 T rice vinegar
1 t honey
1-2 T dark mushroom soy sauce
1 glug fish sauce
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4? 1/2? c water

heat oil in skillet. I always start my cooking on medium and adjust from there. Sometimes pots distribute the heat differently, just to annoy me, I think.
I used my cast iron because I worry about how much iron we get in our diet.
I added the cabbage and mushrooms, tossed it lightly to coat with oil and put the lid on for a few minutes to steam the cabbage a bit.
I wandered away, put away some playdo, came back, tossed the cabbage a bit more. It was wilting nicely but still not perfect. I couldn't smell it yet.
I took the ham out of the oven, mashed the potatoes(saving the water for my sourdough starter)
Oh, starting to smell a bit sticky, like it was thinking about burning, which is just about perfect, stir, stir, stir.
I mixed up the other stuff in a lidded jar and dumped it in, stir, stir, stir. The first addition was too thick when the heat hit it, so I added more water. Had I had it, I would have used veg stock to round out the flavour, but I didn't. maybe next time.
I put the lid back on, reduced heat to low and let the starch cook down, about 3 minutes I think. stirring about once a minute.

the beginning

A dear friend has recommended that I begin keeping track of our family's cuisine. Some days we eat better than others. Some days I wonder what the heck I was thinking. Some days are better than others.

Yesterday for lunch we had a, well, food?
box of ww rotini cooked and drained.
can of cream of celery soup
can of water
6? 7? pieces of leftover breaded cod. It didn't brown well and was kind of dried out and overcooked.
scoop of grated parmesan
squirt of vidalia onion salad dressing that no-one really liked.
a few twists of the pepper mill
a dash or two of garlic powder.

I mashed up the fish, added the soup and stirred til smooth, added the water and everything else till it was a nice texture, then dumped the hot noodles on top. I stirred til the cheese was looking melted, served in bowls with salad on the side. It was yummy.