Parsnips are a hugely under-rated vegetable. My mother never served them. In fact, until I was an adult I thought a parsnip was another one of those root veggies like turnips and rutabagas, i.e. round, globe shaped, which I didn’t like, really. But parsnips are a completely different animal. They look like anemic carrots, but they’re very firm. But also extremely tasty. I forget to buy them. But then, my local grocery store doesn’t carry them except on an occasional basis. Probably because lots of other people THINK they don’t like them, either. Or, they don’t know how to prepare them. Parsnips have a lovely, sweet taste when cooked, kind of like carrots do. They blend beautifully into soups, as a matter of fact, and add another layer of flavor if you’re making a carrot or potato soup. They also make a very nice vegetable (a carb, albeit) to serve with a roast or a grilled piece of meat. You can mash it just like potatoes once they’re cooked. Just peel well, simmer and mash with a little butter and salt and pepper.

I’ve had parsnips several times when I’ve visited places in the United Kingdom. The Brits know all about parsnips. I think our friend Pam once served us a parsnip soup as a first course for a lovely Sunday dinner. Sometimes you’ll see them in long quarters beside a big juicy roast – like we’d serve carrots.

So, when Cherrie and I were served this apple and parsnip soup the other day (at a cooking class at Our House, South County in San Juan Capistrano), we both did our best to lick the inside of the cups clean. We couldn’t quite, but we tried. It’s a simple soup, really, with a nice gentle undercurrent of curry powder (eliminate it if you don’t like curry). This would freeze well, except for the garnish, although you could toast the pecans and put them in a small plastic bag inside the soup bag.

Everyone at our table raved about the soup too. It was a stunner. The winner in my book, if there was one, of all the recipes in the class. It was served with a cheddar and apple panini (pictured with the soup, above). My hats off to Sarah, the chef at the cooking school (who reads my blog, she told me!). Well done, Sarah! I’ll be making this soup next week without a doubt.
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At the brunch we had last weekend, I asked Susan L. to bring some kind of pre-brunch nibble. Her choice. She brought a scrumptious soup, that she served in her grandmother’s beautiful bone china teacups (see picture above). You can’t see the interior of that teacup, unfortunately, with the soup nearly to the top, but it’s just lovely, as were all the others. She had 10 different ones. No spoons needed, since we just sipped it from those cups. And she served the cutest little rolled up nibbly bites along side – a dough with a piece of apple inside. Delish also.

And the soup, called a Tomato Bisque Sip Soup, was so very tasty. It came from Sunset Magazine, she said. From the taste, I wouldn’t have known that it was such a super-quick one, merely using canned tomatoes and a few ingredients, heated up and served. 1-2-3. Done. Don’t you just love those kinds sometimes?
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Depending on your leftovers, here was my solution last night, before we knew what our night would be like:

• Open refrigerator and scope out everything that is still usable (dispose of slimy, moldy, smelly and questionable items)

• Line everything up and do an overview of the situation

• In my case, this meant look, smell and taste the following: chicken and onions topping from the pizza last week, the twice-baked cauliflower take 2 from a couple of nights ago, the raw carrots languishing in the produce drawer, the lemon crusted chicken from another dinner and the butternut fries.

• To the pot add a quart of boxed chicken broth, and add raw carrots. Cook for awhile, then add any cooked vegetables and a few cups of water. Use an immersion blender once the soup has reached simmering.

• Add 1 cup or so of milk, taste for seasonings, add the meat (chicken) and heat through. Scoop into bowls and serve.

The next order of business was to turn on the television and watch approaching wildfires in our area of Southern California. At about 6:30 pm last night my DH spotted a huge, black smoke cloud as it spread east and south of us. He’d been watching football games, so we switched to news, only to find the only fire they were reporting was the very serious one in Malibu (which is still raging out of control as of this morning). It was at least an hour or more before they began reporting our fire, by then raging out of control, virtually no firefighters on tap because they were mostly sent to Malibu.

We’ve known that our area is a potential tinderbox after the very dry spring. Throw in a relatively hot summer, and only one day of showers a week or so ago, and you have a potential for disaster.

After dinner, we lost power. Quick hunt for candles and candle lighters. Knowing the fire was within about a mile of our home, we began packing up our most precious belongings (using flashlights), evacuated our station wagon full of valuables, mostly paintings and artwork. We took turns driving to a ridge near us (along with dozens of other lookie-lous) to watch the fires as they whipped more our direction from the further ridge. Scary. Very, very scary. Our firefighters are taxed beyond comprehension with fires that are blazing all over Southern California. As I write this, there are 10 fires, major fires, here and the winds have already picked up now that it’s dawn. Today we’re expected to have continued very high winds and temperatures in the high 90’s. Bless the firefighters for holding the fire line beyond our homes.

Spent a very wearying night, listening to these Santa Ana winds just whip around our home, toppling potted plants and trees, leaves everywhere, the pool a mess of dirt and leaves. We lost power for about 11 hours, so only had battery operated radios. Power was restored at about 5:45 this morning, so we now have TV reception again. It’s going to be a long day. The fire is far from contained (5% contained at 6 am this morning), but at least it’s not burning our direction. Thank you, Lord, for sparing our home.

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Soup season lasts about 8 months around our house. I’ve even been known to make soup in the heat of the summer, although not very often. So now that the weather has really turned cooler (we’ve even had some rain) I was anxious to make some soup this week. My recipe started out with a small package of Italian sausage (bulk grind type) that I found in the freezer, and I just built the recipe from there. I looked on Epicurious and found a leek and sausage soup to start from, then I embellished it with other things from the pantry and the refrigerator. Having made a trip to Costco yesterday, I had a package of pre-cut butternut squash. Some of that went in the soup too as well as a package of fresh chanterelle mushrooms. Once put it front of us, we all just tucked into it with relish. Delicious.

There was only one thing I did differently here, that I’ve never done before: once I chopped up the Kielbasa, I browned the cubes in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil. The sausage rendered out some of its fat, a good thing, and it got browned edges all over them, so not only did the soup have the smoky flavor of the sausage, but the chunks were crispy. I did not cook the Kielbasa in the soup very long. Whenever I do that, it seems like all the flavor is leeched out of the sausage and it doesn’t taste like much. This way, the sausage is still full of flavor. If you like the smoky taste to penetrate all through the soup, add part of the sausage to the soup while it cooks, then add the browned cubes at the last.
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The soup library is running a little low these days. I have 3-4 soups lined up on my freezer shelf, but the one I wanted is all gone. I thought I had some left from last winter, but no such luck. Two recipes for butternut squash soup stand out amongst my recipes. This is one of them. This happens to be the more time consuming one to make. The other one, Butternut with Jalapeno, that I posted back in July, is a quicker soup because it’s made with C&W frozen squash cubes. Nor is that one roasted, as in this case.

This recipe requires you to buy fresh butternut squash, because you roast the squash halves with onions, carrots and apples. So, no short cuts on this one. But, I guarantee you, you’ll be pleased with the results, providing you have the time. I always make this in double quantity (8 pounds of squash to start with) because, well, why not? It’s wonderful leftover and easy to freeze.

Previously I’ve mentioned Penzey’s, the herb and spice company from whom I buy many of mine. If you order from them (or request it) they send out a catalog periodically, and usually there are 3-4 recipes contained in each little brochure. This came from one of those, a few years ago. Credit goes to a cookbook (that I don’t have, in case you’re counting) called The New England Cookbook, by Brooke Dojny. She’s one smart cookie when it comes to soups.

So what’s involved, you ask? You cut the squash in halves, remove seeds, lay them in a large roasting pan (a really big one if you’re making a double batch) and add onions, apples and carrots and some fresh rosemary. Dot it with some butter, brown sugar and add a bunch of APPLE JUICE, cover and roast for about 2 hours. The vegetables become succulent, and somewhat sweet because of the apples and apple juice. Because I’d rather not peel the squash, I leave them unpeeled and scoop out the flesh after it’s baked. Same with the onions – cut in half and remove skins later. The other little trick to this is the fresh rosemary. I do not like the rosemary to remain in the soup for eating, so I try to use a fresh sprig or two or three and leave them intact while baking, then toss it out, retrieving all the little pieces floating in the apple juice. Or, you can strain the whole mess to get them out.

Once the roasted vegetables have cooled a little (and you scoop out the squash flesh, remove onion skins, etc.), you can add it all to a large soup pot and use an immersion blender (or put it in batches in the regular blender or food processor) to puree all of it. Then you add a few other ingredients, taste it for seasonings, simmer briefly, then add milk (I use fat-free half and half) or cream to smooth it out.

If you don’t like soups with a hint of sweet, pass this one by. But if you don’t mind the sweeter flavor from the apples and apple juice, this one’s a winner.
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Okay, friends. Listen up. I’m sharing today one of my very favorite recipes ever. I’ve been making this soup/stew since about 1966. That’s 40 years. Wow. Even surprises me! So why have I waited 6 months to tell you about it, you ask? Simple. It wasn’t soup season. This is one of those dishes that sticks to the ribs. Hearty. Hot. If I had a restaurant, say, Carolyn’s Country Kitchen, this would be at the top of the menu as Carolyn’s signature soup. Or stew. Or stoup, as Rachel Ray calls these kinds of concoctions.

This is so much of a favorite that it’s going onto my Carolyn’s Fav’s , a tab at the top. Now, you need to love soup and stew to like this recipe. And vegetables. And cumin (although you could leave that out). To me, the cumin is an important component, however, even though it wasn’t in the original recipe; that was one of my additions. And you need to like mashed potatoes.

Many of you know how much I like soups, and that I keep a regular stock of soups in my frozen soup library.

Here it is in the pot, stewing away. Note the thickness to it – I had just added the cabbage. Over the years I’ve adapted it with my own additions (garlic, cumin, shrooms, some heat, etc.) but the basics are the same. A ground beef (or turkey or chicken) and vegetable soup (cabbage, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and kidney beans) with a mound of buttermilk-enhanced mashed potatoes on top. As you eat it, the mashed potatoes just begin to kind of melt into the soup. This recipe is very forgiving. You don’t like cabbage? Fine, leave it out. Same with mushrooms. Add corn. Or substitute something else or just leave out the things you don’t care for. But, when you prepare it, it needs to have a thick consistency – not a lot of liquid, in other words, but mostly veggies. Here, below, it’s in the bowl, ready for the mound of mashed potatoes. The soup mixture is not thickened (like a creamed soup where you’ve added flour), but it’s “thick” with vegetables.

I make this in a very large quantity when I do it because it’s a real winner for freezing. I make the mashed potatoes too, and pile them into smaller Ziploc freezer bags (doing the same procedure, flattening them out so they freeze and defrost easily), then the soup goes into a larger bag. When I want a quick dinner I just take out one soup and one potato bag to defrost.

Now mashed potatoes become a weird duck when you freeze them. They lose all their form and become mostly a liquid. So just a warning here – don’t be alarmed and think the potatoes are ruined. Once you heat them up, the starch firms them right back up again. Amazing, but true. Sometimes I even put the potato bag (smaller) into the larger Ziploc bag, then pour the soup around it. Then it’s all contained in one package. But then you can’t get so much soup into the larger bag, so I usually separate them.

About 7-8 months ago, before I had my own blog, I was reading Tummy Treasure, Erika’s blog. She was trying to make some thrifty meals, so I emailed her this recipe. She liked it so well she wrote up a blog post about it. I was so thrilled! Wow, my recipe in lights! If you’d like to read it, click

If soup season has arrived at your house, I highly recommend this one. A lot. Our son-in-law, Todd, is visiting us at the moment, and he ate two full bowls last night and would have licked the bottom if he could. My suggestion: you need to order up a bowl right away.
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Who’s he, you ask? Well, Jack Orr was my Dad. And he made an extraordinary soup when the mood struck him. It didn’t strike often, and only when he was away from home. This is the only cooked thing my dad ever made except for grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and an occasional steak. And those were all on the outdoor grill. At home, if he had a hankering for this soup at home, he insisted my mother had to make it. But when he was on a trip visiting relatives or friends, and it was the right season, he’d offer to make “his” lentil soup.

My Dad was an engineer. He liked things to be lined up just so, whether it was transistors on the workbench, ohmmeter manuals on the shelf, pencils in his pocket (you know, those little plastic sleeves? yep, he had them) or vegetables on the cutting board. When dicing and mincing for this soup, each vegetable also needed to be cut “just so” in size. And he didn’t like to make this alone. He always wanted somebody to be there to fetch things for him. When my parents would come to visit over Christmas, this soup was a standard event one evening for sure. I did my best to have all the ingredients on hand every year. My Dad would pamper this soup for several hours, although once you add the lentils, they do reach a point when the texture of the lentil may go over the hill if it continues to cook.

The first order of business was the bacon. It was minced up fairly small, then allowed to render in a moderately warm pan for awhile. Meanwhile, you began chopping and mincing the onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Part of the fun of making this was the drama my dad made out of it. He really wanted an audience, and because it was my kitchen, that would normally be me as his number one fan club and schlepper. We tasted things often, added this and that, tasted again. Thyme was a necessary addition. I love the herb, so was glad to fetch that. Sometimes a quick trip to the market was required for something – maybe a fresh bag of dried lentils or an additional can of chopped tomatoes. When it was finally done everybody needed to ooh and aah a lot, otherwise my dad’s feelings would be hurt. He wanted his efforts to be recognized. And appreciate them we did.

One visit I decided I’d best write down his recipe. Although I will admit that his recipe was not precise in the least. Unlike the engineer in him, this was adaptable to what you had on hand, or from his whim to add something different.

As the years have gone by I have added the Italian sausage to the soup, and that’s the way I make it all the time. So the recipe below accounts for my tastes (sausage, more dried herbs, always some carrots, sometimes using low sodium chicken broth instead of water).

My daughter Dana doesn’t like soup. Or stew. Still doesn’t particularly like soup or stew, but will eat a few kinds if push comes to shove. When she was young she wouldn’t eat this. My Dad simply couldn’t understand how anybody wouldn’t like his lentil soup. He did everything in his power to cajole Dana to have just a little bit. And maybe she did try a couple of mini-spoons, but she didn’t like doing it. But she’s come around as an adult. Maybe it’s just because it’s her grandpa’s soup. I don’t know, but at least she will eat it now. My Dad has been gone about 11 years now, but his legacy lives on in this recipe. I hope when you make this, somebody will ooh and aah about it. My dad will be smiling from heaven.

Ideally this should be made a day ahead. You know how soups and stews are – they really like to meld their flavors over a 24+ hour period. But most times this was started in the morning and eaten for dinner along with some sourdough rolls. You might want to work this into your fall repertoire so it’s ready for cooler weather when it arrives. Here in So. California it’s going to be 86 today, so I’m not quite ready to slave over a hot stove. But this will be on my list as soon as it turns cooler. I don’t have any left in my freezer, so it needs a new supply.
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Do you know what this is? It’s my soup library. We’re not into soup season yet. I look forward to making soups – lots of soups – when the weather turns colder. That certainly hasn’t happened here in Southern California – the weather turning cooler I mean. It’s been hotter in the last couple of days than it’s been all summer. In the 90’s. Sticky. At least it’s sticky for us. Yet I really love soups any time of year. But hearty soups don’t frequent my table when it’s hot. Except yesterday.
Soups are so comforting. Yesterday, my DH was (and still is today) suffering from a reaction to a drug he was taking, so I thought about defrosting some soup that will go down smoothly. His tongue is swollen. He’s itchy all over. Has a sore throat as part of the drug reaction too. So I said, how about I defrost some soup for lunch? He nodded yes since it hurts to talk.

When I make soup I usually make extra. Usually a lot of extra. It’s basically the same amount of work to make a soup for 4 as it is to make it for 10. Maybe a bit more chopping and mincing, but that’s it. But then we’ve got leftovers for a day or two later AND some to freeze.

My standard operating procedure is to pour hot soup out into a large flat pan (one of those quarter sheets) or anything large and flatish. Then I label the Ziploc half gallon size freezer bags (not the kind with a zipper) using a grease pencil, so the writing doesn’t come off in the freezer. I even write the quantity so I know how many each bag will serve. When the soup has cooled enough to handle, usually within 30-60 minutes, I scoop, ladle, or pour it into the bags, trying to portion out the contents – like getting equal amounts of chicken pieces or other chunky ingredients equalized. When I do this task I make sure there’s virtually no air in the bag. This is do-able with some patience by laying the bag flat on the counter and leaving just a corner of the bag open. Holding up that tiny open corner I slide the air bubbles toward the corner, easing air out of the bag before sealing it tight. Then I lay the bags flat on our cool granite countertop for a little longer to cool some more (maybe 20-30 minutes total, usually about 10-15 minutes per side, moving the bags to a different – cool – spot). Then they’re plopped into the refrigerator to cool down completely.

A couple of hours later, using a smallish cookie sheet that’s just the same size as the Ziploc bag, I lay a soup bag on the sheet and place it in a level place in the freezer. The levelness is critical because you don’t want to stand up bags later that are heavier weighted at one end. They cause problems in the “library.” I carefully straighten the bag first, so corners aren’t crinkled (wrinkled corners will sometimes crack in the freezer if you juggle the frozen “flats” around now and then. Once frozen solid, another bag goes onto the sheet and I continue until all bags are frozen. Once frozen the bags stand upright in the “library.” Much easier to handle. Much easier to see. Much easier to remove from the shelf too.
I still have 11 soups lined up in waiting, even after removing one today. We had some tomato soup for lunch. Some of that wonderful cream of tomato soup I made in June from the French bistro cooking class in Sonoma. You can spot the bags of tomato soup in the library – all the same color, all lined up like soldiers. Or sardines in a can. Or books on the shelf.

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I know. You’re going to think I’m nuts. Strawberry Gazpacho? What more unlikely combination could there be? Savory tomatoes with sweet, juicy strawberries? Well, trust me on this one. It was served to me at one of the cooking classes I attended in Coto de Caza. And Tarla Fallgatter, the instructor, said we’d really like it. And like it we did. I liked it so much I made a batch the next day. And another batch a week after that. And the week after that.

It makes a lovely little respite on a hot summer night. It’s quite refreshing. It could be served in plastic cups, even, for people to enjoy – standing around before an outdoor meal. Or you could make it a sit-down course, but I like the appetizer idea better. It’s not difficult, although you will likely need to go shopping first – it’s not like you’re going to have all the ingredients on hand. But it’s worth doing so. And this is very low calorie too. Surprising – once you try this, you’ll be surprised too, as it’s very rich tasting.
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Oh, do I have a recipe for you. What’s more summery than a cool bowl of gazpacho? One day soon I’ll post my other, traditional recipe for gazpacho, but this one has a citrus twist. And it’s easier, actually, than the regular one.

Here’s the scoop. Some years ago, on one of the trips I’ve made to Santa Fe, we were a group of 10-12 people on a culinary tour. There were four of us (all gals from Southern California, as it happened) who just hit it off and tried to squeeze in as much fun as possible, in between the spectacular meals, museums, galleries, etc. And we had some really fabulous meals. But eating at Cafe Pasqual’s isn’t something for a group. The restaurant is too small. And maybe they don’t work with groups, even though ours was only about 12 people altogether. So our leader recommended we all go there for some other meal. But if any of you have been there, you know there’s nearly always a line outside the door waiting for a table. Their website says they do take reservations now, for dinner. That would help. They didn’t take them at the time I was there, this particular trip.

Katherine Kagel owns Cafe Pasqual’s, and she’s made a real name for herself with nouvelle Southwestern food. She takes mostly old New Mexican favorites, everything from enchiladas, to stews, to desserts, and gives them her unique touch. So far as I know, she’s never expanded. It’s still the one restaurant, the same, small kitchen they cook in, and the same small dining room. And it’s still going strong. She’s published two cookbooks. (Can you believe it? I don’t own either one of them!) Her first, the earlier book, Cafe Pasqual’s Cookbook, was printed in 1993. I went to the library back then and hunted for this recipe. Nope. That’s why I didn’t buy the book. Plus, we have such good Mexican food here, I rarely cook it myself. I don’t know if the recipe is in her newest book. I may have to order it to find out. It’s Cooking with Cafe Pasqual’s, published in 2006. Address: 121 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Later note: the recipe IS in her 2nd book, and it does differ some. I’ll have to post it one of these days.
So anyway, the 4 of us sat down – squeezed around a table really meant for 2 people, and ordered. Two of us decided to try the Citrus Gazpacho. Oh my goodness was it ever good. I got out a piece of paper and a pen and tried my best to figure out what was in it. We all sampled sips, dissecting it as much as possible.

Upon returning home, I tried to recreate it. We think it was made with canned juice, probably V-8 [wrong on that one]. You can make your own base if you would like to, but we thought it had a greater density of flavor than just pureed fresh tomatoes and or canned tomato juice. It had a sweet side to it – we picked out that there was some fruit in it, but when I tried to make it at home, it wasn’t sweet enough with just the fruit and some of the juice squeezed from the pulp and membranes, so I added the apple juice concentrate [wrong on that one too]. Remember to taste as you make this so you don’t add too much concentrate. I did that once, and learned my lesson. We knew what was in the garnish because it was visible, but which kinds of peppers (poblano and serrano?) I couldn’t tell. You could substitute other types. Be cautious about the salt. If you want, buy the low salt V-8 and salt up as you like. Regular V-8 contains a lot of sodium.

So, even though this recipe isn’t really Cafe Pasqual’s version, I’m quite happy with the result.
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