Super Sweet Soup'n for the Summer'n

So I'm on a roll, I know I know. Two posts in less than 24 hours, what are you going to do with me? Well, this morning I decided to make some more soup(yes, soup again, I can't help it, it's my new love).
Anywho, I made some exciting waves today. I think I have two Italian market boyfriends at Giordani's.
This means free/reduced rate produce. Who am I to hate on that? Plus, one of the guys introduced himself (I think his name is Roman, tough to understand with his strong accent)and I'm looking forward to coming back next week and hopefully getting a hello from him. Nothing like becoming a regular at your local market, makes the city feel so much more homey and close.
So the soup. Today it's butternut squash soup. There's definitely apple and Sauvignon Blanc in it too which is really exciting. I don't have a muddler or a food processor so making butternut squash puree in a blender was interesting. I used the end of a plastic spoon (should have used a wooden one) as a makeshift muddler and got it caught in the blades for a mere second and only once but it still led to a wild hunt for a few bits of black plastic in my squash puree. Ah, the learning curve.
So the soup isn't much to look at but it's currently simmering away in the ole crock pot and the combination of the sweetness from the apples and white wine mixed with the bite of fresh ginger root and buttery goodness of the squash makes for a rather intoxicating summer smell.
Today I used Bestest Best's larger crock and so there's enough to share. I know BestBud Down the Block wanted some so after I run some errands and go to the gym I'm going to pack some up to take to her at work. I'm pretty excited about it.
And now for a not so unheard of scene from my kitchen these days:

While looking at that bountiful rainbow of colors I would like to mention that on my travels today I plan on buying a bamboo cutting board. If you had any idea how excited I am about this you would probably poke fun but hey if you live near me know that you'll benefit because there will be more goodies coming your way!

Grass Anyone?

LEMONGRASS YOU POTHEADS! Yeesh.

Today I explored the world of Thai food and went the distance. Not only do I now have fish sauce and chili paste in my cupboard but I also had my first experience with lemongrass.
Lemongrass is amazing. As I peeled away the first layers of tough skin I was blown away with the smell. I never understood why Lemonheads smelled the way they do, I mean I've never met a lemon that smells like a Lemonhead. Well, Lemonheads must have gotten their stink inspiration from lemongrass! It's incredible. So this stuff is super tough and you have to chop the dickens out of it before it's really edible. I really want a pestel and morter so the next time I don't have to chop it up but rather I can grind the crap out of it! Anywho, I only needed a tablespoon for my recipe so I froze the rest of my prepared grass for future food fun.
So the lemongrass was for a tangy thai marinade for salmon fillets. The marinade involved the slightly scary fish sauce along with the lemongrass, regular and dark soy sauce, honey, vinegar, chili paste and garlic. I let the salmon fillets chill in the fridge with the marinade for about 40 minutes and then I pan seared it for about 5 minutes (no joke, the stuff cooks like whoa over the burner).

I decided to make some rice pilaf to go along with the salmon and I figured I'd make use of some of the super ripe nectarines that I'd purchased at the market and throw those on top of everything along with fresh parsley.
I'm pretty happy with the results:

A Calorie is a Calorie

So last night I totally nerded out and took along with me to work my slow cooker cookbook as well as a "Just 100 Calories" cookbook that was added to the collection care of The Bestest Best. While at work I carefully planned out about 10 meals that we could enjoy over the next week that would be good for us and of course, yummy!
After pouring over my list of things to get at the market and grocery store I finally made up the complete list for todays adventures in foodiness.
Last night I was reading the latest post from my favorite triathlon man, Joe Friel and it was about losing weight prior to race day. It was very interesting and drove home the title of this post. I highly suggest reading it, it was an eye-opener for me and is generally just an interesting story.
Anywho, it got me thinking about calorie intake and how that could effect the way I do or do not lose weight in the coming weeks (did you know that losing 1 lb. takes approximately 10 seconds off of a running time?! HOLY CRAP!).
With calories in mind I decided to try one of the amazingly tasty sounding salads that the "Just 100 Calories" book lent to my liking. It's a combo of fruit (I used cantulope, red grapes and raspberries), veggies (red onions and a spring garden greens mix) and cottage cheese (1% milkfat). The cottage cheese has fresh basil, chives and parsley chopped up and mixed in and the fruits/veggies have an awesome dressing of soy sauce, honey, fresh squeezed lime juice and chiles for a little bite. All that yum for a mere 200 calories yo!

In addition to this salad goodness I'm in the process of making my first puree soup. This is it in it's pre-puree state in my crock pot.

It's a curried broccoli cream soup. It's packed with veggie goodness including leeks, onion, carrots, potatoes and of course, broccoli. I like this curry version, I think it will make for a nice descent from the usual Campbells super creamy milky version. Wish me luck on the whole "then transfer batches of the soup into your blender and blend so that it's just a little chunky." I feel like that could get messy/interesting!

The Life and Times of a Crock Pot Junkie

So the story starts about a year ago in West Philly when my best friend received a crock pot for Christmas that she then brought with her when she moved to our W. Philly apartment. Together we experimented with it and made delicious spaghetti sauce (my mother's famous recipe), incredible Indian delights and various things in between. The love of the crock lasted for about two months and then as we tend to do, we lost interest in spending money on good food and spent too many nights after work bellied up to our favorite bar, The Good Dog.
Fast forward to a year later when the best buddy and I are no longer living together but are still the bestest of best. It's January 10th and I'm turning the big two four and she keeps talking about how she has the best gift ever for me but that I'm going to crack up when I open it. I open it hesitantly and then proceed to, just as she said I would, crack up. It's a crock pot cook book for cooking in a small crock. "The crock pot is at my house" she says, "cuz I didn't want to drag it to Tattooed Mom's for you to open." She got me this amazing cook book:

..as well as a lovely 1.5 qt.crock:

Now that I live in South Philly and the Italian Market is mere blocks away I've started to really explore my crock. In the last few months I've made everything from hot dips to soups and marinated meats. A couple of stand outs were a zucchini soup (a recipe allegedly from a 1950's magazine that was cited as being Katherine Hepburn's favorite---lady's got good taste!) made with curry and cayenne pepper (I added corn to make it a little more robust, it was a good choice!) and a Moroccan spiced chicken over whole wheat couscous. I recently made the latter for my co-workers and anyone who works at the Walnut Street Theatre knows my boss is a picky eater who isn't much for exploring new foods. She loved it so much she was trying to steal bits off of my apprentices' plates!
Today I'm moving onto a bit of a summer plate. I'm making fresh corn risotto in the crock and to go along with it I'm making some "fly by the seat of my pants" citrus chili chicken. I only have one crock so I'm going to marinade and simmer the chicken over a slow flame in a pan but if I had two crocks I can guarantee you that the chicken would be marinading crock-style as well!
Today's ingredients:

Fresh basil, lemons, limes and corn from the market as well as some plum tomatoes. The colors are enough to put a smile on my face!
Check out the marinading chicken too:

and in the pan:

This one I made up as I went: Mild cayenne pepper from the Spice Shop in the market, Adobo, a clove of fresh garlic, one lemon peeled and squeezed, one lime sliced, one lime juiced, 1/3 can of Goya Passion Fruit cocktail and pepper. We'll see how it goes!

Here's the finished products:



The chicken has some good bite and turned out quite tender. This semi-Caribbean style chicken goes awesome with the Italian corn risotto dish thanks to the lightness of the corn in the risotto meshing well with the lime and lemon in the chicken. I'm not sure what sparked my idea to make a lime flavored chicken with a corn risotto but I give it a thumbs up---of course, I'm the chef here so my opinion may be biased. I did, however, make up a plate for the bestest best as she is moving into my place tonight. With that in mind, watch out Philadelphia the Michigan gals are back together and about to cause some serious trouble!