I Can't Help Myself

Is there anything better than chicken soup? I mean more pure or more straight to the soul of your stomach kinda soup? The broth, when you make it from scratch, mmmm. And then the way the vegetables, subtle as they may be, bring all this authentic homey taste. I love chicken soup, I LOVE chicken soup! My grandmother on my dad's side used to make the simplest but bestest chicken soup with big chunks of cabbage and she'd add a little vinegar. It was clear and wonderful, very delicate. You could see all the individual ingredients. I can still smell it in my head.


I have a hard time keeping to basics though. With soup especially because I like so many things in it! Onions, celery, carrots, potatoes and whole tomatoes, then why not add corn or green beans...cabbage? This time I added some wild rice and stepped away from the pot.

Fried Steak and Cabbage

Because The Night Belongs to Us

After a solid breakfast, thoughts turned to dinner. Isn't that something? Sometimes this girl has got to fill some voids with food. I know P will be writing all night. I needed something. I needed creamy but also a bright taste. Arugula pesto pasta with baby spinach!



I used a whole wheat noodle but as we all know, the flavor is very different. You can't just put a great sauce on those and it all works out. Sometimes the after taste is way off. It doesn't compliment every sauce like regular pasta does.

So I boiled the pasta in chicken stock. This served two purposes. It gave me thickening cooking liquid to add for the sauce and that reduced the need for milk or cream and it also flavored the whole wheat itself.

Then I lightly sauteed the garlic for the pesto to concentrate the oil and also to give it a mellower tone. Lots of toasted walnuts and grated Parmesan cheese went in as well.

When I see green, I automatically get excited about food. So lots of fresh baby spinach went in at the end to give even more brightness.

At nightfall there was nothing left to do but shower this with more Parmesan and be happy.