The Soup Blog
Recipes, Culinary Insights & Humor Spooned Up Fresh Every Week…………………(Now in its Ice Cream Phase)

As I sit at my computer thinking about this next post, I can come up with any number of credible reasons why I chose to make Pear and Pepper soup this week: The nearness of Valentine’s Day inspired me to create a soup out of bell peppers as red as roses. Because my youngest daughter […]

Categories: Dairy-free, Parsnips, Pork | Comments Off on Midwinter Grill: Barbecue Pork & Parsnips Soup

  We had our first false spring last week, only to have the weather turn cold again on the eve of Chicago’s mayoral election.  I’m sure by the time the new mayor takes office, he’ll have us on the road to a prolonged thaw.  Rahm won’t officially take office until May, but he is liable […]

I saw a cabbage in the store today. Sorry if that sounds like a bad Emily Dickinson parody.  That’s just how this week’s soup got started. I began with a head of red cabbage and proceeded to free associate.  It wasn’t the most direct route to a wonderful entrée, but c’est la vie.  Actually das […]

We held our annual holiday party this week.  Although since we hadn’t hosted the party since ’07†, calling it annual is something of a stretch. But enough dwelling on the past.  We’re back. Actually, I’m not quite through dwelling in the past. Because the holidays (well, just Christmas, really) have a lot to do with […]

I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to do my taxes yet. I’ve got the Turbo Tax software sitting on my desk along with a Ziploc back full of receipts. I’ve written a check to the state and the feds in case I somehow under withheld, but I’m just not quite in the […]

This week’s soup, which isn’t a soup at all, came about because I felt like pandering to my kids.  Or, if you have a less sardonic outlook, I made turkey chili because I knew my kids would like it and I felt like treating them. The answer lies more in the notion of parental mood […]

Categories: Bok choy, Dairy-free, Garlic, Ginger, Herbs, Poultry | Comments Off on Leaks Not Leeks: Chicken Bok Choy Soup

It was one of those weeks when things just went wrong. I thought we’d already gotten through the rough part of the month what with taxes and the big 12-course wine dinner. This week was supposed to be all fun: My daughter’s birthday party, softball games, Easter, warm weather. I’d even bought a big box […]

From what I always understood, second childhood was supposed to be that time when I lost control of my faculties and could no longer take care of myself. (As opposed to now?) Well, forgive me for nitpicking but that sounds more like childhood number five, or at the very least, three.  Second childhood is what […]

We didn’t eat a lot of Chinese food when I was growing up.  There was one take-out place near where we lived as well as the “Chinatown” just east of downtown LA, but we were hardly regular customers. Nor did Chinese cuisine figure into my mom’s home cooking.  She made Italian, French, and Mexican food, […]