Garlic Soup- my week of soups

I just got in the mail a book I have been wanting for many years- Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Vicor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette. Why haven't I bought it sooner? I have about a 100 cookbooks, so it would seem that I have enough. But since most are from the publishing house I used to work for, this book should have a different flavor profile.

Since I am in the second week of the flu... hopefully the tail end, and the start of Autumn. I thought I should get this soup book, finally, and do a week of soups to soothe this lingering flu/cold.


Now garlic soup may seem like a real vampire killer, but when you cook it, and this is cooked quickly in the oil and then boiled, the heat and flavors mellow. It still tastes like garlic. However it is not the brash teenager garlic- all fiery and cocky, but the suave, sophisticated garlic that reads the newspaper, owns antiques and trades stocks for fun.

I photographed the recipe from the cook book that includes my half recipe notations. I find it easier to note the half amounts of the ingredients before I start the recipe and I like to make a half recipe when I try something new, in case I do not like it and would feel guilty throwing out a large quantity of food.

So, I changed a few of thing... or added steps that I thought was not clear.

1. I used Costco brands organic chicken stock and tomato sauce, organic eggs and olive oil.

2. I cubed the bread and used a morter and pestle to "mince" the garlic. (I find the marble easier to clean the garlic smell from that a wooden cutting board.)

I also added the salt at the stage to make the garlic grinding easier.

steamy image of whisked soup

3. I whisked the soup instead of puree in the blender- saved an extra item to clean.

4. I used crushed red pepper flakes from Penzeys instead of cayenne, because I like them.

soup pre-whisking, the bread swells up a lot!

New Technique for Me~

I have never added a whisked egg into a soup, but it made the soup go from just good to rich and creamy.

I think the key to this process is, "slow and stead wins the race" and it will taste the same if it doesn't work just perfectly anyway. After all, you are not serving it to the queen, just your family and friends. So, unless they are all chefs, don't worry!

So, a cup of the soup slowly whisked into the whisked eggs- slowly means that this should take about two birthday songs worth of time to do. You are warming the eggs.

Adding the eggs to the soup is a little scarier to me- because this is the part that could make egg drop soup out of the dish. Again slow- like 3 birthday songs or more.

Finally the finished soup! A perfect light lunch especially for the sick and sore of throat.

I went all TV chef and added a little olive oil to the top to serve. It's the little things...

I hope you will try this rich, creamy soup, it can even go vegetarian, if you opt for vegetable stock instead of chicken. This half recipe makes about 4-5 of the mugs I used for the photographs. So, for me, it's a stock the freezer item! It will be a great alternative to tomato soup to go with a grilled cheese in the future. 

Life hacks- fried okra and fried green tomatoes

Whenever I drive to my college town, I always stop by the produce stand at the "Crossroads" where the gentleman calls me Darlin'. Today was one of those days!

He had watermelon, okra, green and red tomatoes, onions, peaches (of course) and cantaloupe.  With this array of local goodness, I decided dinner would include fried okra and fried green tomatoes with watermelon for dessert. Once home, I realized that I was tired from meetings and the long drive.

So, dinner plans needed to morph somewhat to not include standing at the stove and frying batches of things, which brought me to this Life Hack... also known as a hoe cake. A hoe cake with benefits!

Like many of my recipes, and the way many Southerns cook, this is a flexible recipe, more of a guide, really. If you do not know how to cook, or can only follow strict instructions, my recipes are not for you. Life is about risk, chance, and change- so are my recipes!







Okra and Green Tomato Hoe Cakes

about 3 cups of washed okra, chopped
2 green tomatoes chopped fine
2 tablespoons finely diced red onion
1 egg
1/2 cup of White Lily cornmeal mix (self rising) and brand is important!
1/2 cup buttermilk
Salt and pepper to taste!

beat egg and mix with buttermilk. Add the chopped okra, tomatoes, onion then mix. Add cornmeal mix and mix. If mix looks too dry add buttermilk, if Okra looks too naked, add more cornmeal mix and buttermilk. Once you have it where you want it, drop by serving spoon sized dollops into a hot lightly greased skillet ( I used a non-stick) and flatten some to make an even layer. Flip when first side is browned, about 1-2 minutes and keep cooked hoe caked in an oven on 275 degrees until all are cooked.


So, I had my fried okra, my fried green tomatoes and my cornbread all in one handy little cake! Leftover can even be heated in the toaster. As you can see from my hoe cakes, I wanted a lot more veg then cornbread. When I look at these pics, they look like jalapenos... which would be delish! Maybe next time will have a little heat.

Some days... I'm a scientist

I always loved science... it was the math that kept me away from being a scientist. I loved the process, the making of things for something else, the discovery... but math... well it seemed to live in a world of absolutes. There is no creativity in math, unless you run a company and are trying to meet Wall Street expectation. But that is not really creativity in math, it's a bit more like creative writing and story telling.

However, I do love an experiment, which is really what cooking, art and design are based on. However, it is also what beauty products are based on. All start with raw ingredients, a plan and offer an assumed outcome. Sometimes they yeild a happy accident! This weeks experiment was Lotion Bars. I received one as a Christmas gift and the thought of making them spoke to the little girl in me that liked to mix lotion and baby powder together and call them beauty cream... I was a very pretty little girl based on all of my beauty creams concotions.

I searched the Internet for recipes and then improvised with what I had at hand and who I wanted to be my testers. With my Shea butter (latex)-allergic sister coming into town. Shea butter was out. I was afraid to venture too far with Miss Sensitive as a tester, because what is an experiment without testing!



Here's my recipe-

3 ounces beeswax
3 ounces coconut oil
3 ounces cocoa butter
3 ounces almond oil
(all of these are equal parts and for that reason you can use any measurement unit or device you like as long as it is the same one for the entire recipe section.)

15 drops of lavender essential oil (because that is my fave scent)
10 drops of Vitamin E oil (it acts as a preservative)

tools- double boiler or chocolate melter, soap molds or silicone molds, spoon


The Wilton Chocolate Pro has a removable
 vessel for easy mold pouring!

Heat first 4 ingredients together in a double boiler or a chocolate melter on high. I have a Wilton chocolate melter for this express purpose- this is not my first beauty product experiment rodeo!

Once the wax, oils, and butters are melted remove from heat and add essential oil and vitamin E oil, then pour into molds.

Because I like an extra experiment, I added 10 drops of carnation scented oil (not for internal use) to one of the bars. This was going to be my bar, so I want not as worried about sensitivity.

The house is rather cold; so the bars set up in about 20 minutes and were firm in an hour!

The mold I used was one I purchased years ago when it seemed like silicone bakeware was brilliant. wrong. But, I kept it thinking there was something I could do with it. I was right!

To use the lotion bars, simply rub the bar on your skin, then rub the lotion in. Easy and much less "drying" time than standard lotions.