Sunday, November 27, 2011

Improvise

I like fancy tack as much as the next guy. But sometimes one has to improvise.

My improvised crop

L started messing with me and I decided I needed a whip. That was the best I could do. It started off longer than that but I actually had to use it. It broke. Still worked as well as the ones you buy...

Pretty horse!

I'm going to have to clean that bridle.

See how she's all kinds of alert? The chickens were wandering about the yard and, for some reason, that always causes her much concern. I'd love to get in her head even for just a minute.

What a sensational weekend. Mild and pleasant. Well in to the 60s on Saturday. I'd be ok if the winter was like this all season.



I prepared a modest, very light Thanksgiving dinner this year. I was in a little distress over squash. Thanksgiving dinner without squash just isn't right. Then I had an idea!

First course: butternut squash soup

I loosely followed this recipe. I almost always "loosely" follow recipes.

I used vegetable broth. I didn't use cream. I used a little bit (maybe a teaspoon) of finely chopped fresh ginger and I served it with some dried sage. Fresh sage would have been better. It was *delicious*.

Earlier in the week I checked and I had Swanson's vegetable broth in the cabinet. Then I read the label. 1920 mg sodium per can?! High fructose corn syrup?! MSG?! Disodium Guanylate?! What the? I threw it away. Fat free sure I still wouldn't even give that stuff to anyone. America's Test Kitchen taste tested vegetable broth (10 samples!) and said basically, I'm paraphrasing here, it's all crap.

So I made my own. I was very proud of my broth!

Homemade vegetable broth

I chopped up an onion, a couple celery stalks, a carrot, garlic and any other vegetable that looked like I'd probably throw away in the next few days. Some broccoli about to turn yellow. A turnip going a little soft. I sautéed them in olive oil for about 10 minutes on high heat. With a tiny pinch of salt. And some cloves and whole peppercorns. Then I added 8 cups of water and threw in a half a bag of spinach that was just waiting for my next trip to the dumpster. I boiled the vegetables vigorously for about 30 minutes. After straining I had a nice rich flavorful broth. There's some solids in there. Tiny pieces of vegetables and chopped garlic. I could have strained it again but I decided that was flavor and besides, I like "rustic".

It made a delicious butternut squash soup!

But I think the real test will be when I use it to make minestrone.

Product Review!

Hands down - Best. Brownies. Ever.

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful picture of L. Congrats on your veggie broth! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. She's very photogenic isn't she!

    Thank you Wolfie - I was very pleased with myself on the broth!

    ReplyDelete

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