Soup and Bread for a Rainy Day

As I'm watching the Seattle v. San Francisco game after a long weather delay, we in Colorado are experiencing our fifth or sixth day in a row of rain.  Seattle and the rest of the non-Mountain States might wonder at our insane flooding and general inability to deal with a few days of rain.  But we normally live in a constant state of drought and have received an entire year's worth of rain in the past few days. I've heard that if this was winter, Boulder and some areas of Denver would be buried under ten to twelve feet of snow.

In case you don't actually know me or live in Colorado, I am safe and dry inside my undamaged home. However, my friends a few blocks away had to bail our their basement and pretty much everyone I know in Boulder has been getting around in waders and canoes.  Also, if you don't live in an area with forest fires, you may not realize that burn scars make flash flooding that much more intense and dangerous. It's bad combination and it's a really, really bad situation.

Food-wise, it's the first time in months that my apartment has been in the seventies and will serve as an opportunity for reacclimatizing before the first frost.  In other words, it's pleasant to be in a warm kitchen and soup is on the menu.  Plus, it's football Sunday as I'm writing and cooking, so I thought an American classic - Broccoli Cheese Soup - sounded especially good.  It was.

A couple of notes about the soup I made:

- Turmeric is completely optional.  I have some in the crisper and I like the trompe-l'œil of the yellow hue without having used yellow cheese.  If you're cheese is yellow, that's fine, too.

- I actually did not eat bread with my soup, despite the title of the post. I had some to eat with the soup, but it tasted off.  I replaced it with rye crackers, which I'm really getting into these days.

- After I finished making the soup, I remembered that I have a really good ale in the fridge and I should have used it as an ingredient.  If that sounds good to you, increase the milk to 2 1/2 cups and replace the water with a bottle of medium-dark beer.  I know much more about wine than beer, but I suggest a red or brown ale.

- For my extra-pungent cheese, I used Beehive's Barely Buzzed cheese.  It is a sharp cow's milk cheese with a coffee-lavender rub.  It is very good.  I decided to use the last couple ounces I had for the soup because I have already had a homemade cheese plate and wine for dinner one and a half times in the past three days.

- Please don't leave giant chunks of things in your soups (maybe unless it's ramen or pho).  It's just not nice to have to cut up things in a bowl of soup.  Or bite into chunks of things while they are dripping broth, which is rather unbecoming.

BROCCOLI CHEESE SOUP

• Large head of broccoli
• 2 T. butter
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 inch piece of turmeric, grated
• 2 T. flour
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups water or broth
• 2 oz. extra-sharp, hard cheese of choice (see note), grated
• 6 oz. sharp, melty cheese of choice (like cheddar or Monterey jack), grated
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• Good bread or rye crackers

Carefully chop broccoli into a mix of small dice and bite-sized pieces (see note).

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Once hot, add onion and grate in turmeric with a microplane. Stir occasionally until onion is soft.  Stir in broccoli and let sit for a couple of minutes, to encourage a little browning.  Stir a few times, cooking until just soft.  Add in olive oil.

Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir until absorbed.  It's okay if it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan and brown.  That's flavor.  While stirring, add in milk bit by bit.  Once fully incorporate, add water or beer.  Once the soup just reaches a boil, add cheese and stir until fully melted and incorporated.  Heat until just reaching a boil and turn off heat.

Because the cheeses and broth can really vary in saltiness, season with anywhere from a half teaspoon to two teaspoons salt.  Grind in lots of black pepper.

Serve with bread or crackers to dip into the soup.  Feel cozy.

Serves 4 to 6.

Eating Well

Well, maybe.  We humans can't quite figure out this very basic survival instinct, can we?

Having read multiple books and watched documentaries and listened to lectures and so on, it seems that we are very confused what how to eat well.  No matter how much we praise things like flax today, tomorrow it will be deemed over-estrogenic and out out out!  And it is generally well-known these days that low-fat diets lead to weight instability (and inhibit healthy brain function) and that once-vilified butter is way better for you than trans-fatty margarine. It seems to me that keeping it simple is the way to go.

Of course, I'm not the first person to notice this (thank you Michael Pollan, personal idol).

And I mean simple in a variety of ways.  Unless we have diagnosed health problems, our nutrition should not be so complex that we cannot figure it out for ourselves - after learning the basics, of course. It should also not be so strict that we can never indulge.  I call this the Mental Happiness-Body Forgiveness Principle (actually, I don't and just made up that term right now).  If I don't feel like a bad person for enjoying a slice of birthday cake or poorly planning my day's food plan, I will probably feel good and healthy afterwards.

And our food should generally be simple, too.  Limiting pre-packaged and processed foods makes a huge difference, which throws a wrench into the simplicity of planning meals. Now, understand that I make complicated foods at home, like gumdrops and marshmallows.  Each of these require a couple of processed ingredients that I wouldn't suggest eating all of the time, like carageenan gel and boxed pectin, and well, sugar, albeit organic and fair trade.

People tend to make the assumption that I have a sugar addiction, which is not true.  Sure, I enjoy sugary treats, but for me candy works perfectly. If I want something sweet, a couple of pieces of candy quenches the desire and I'm done with it.  I understand that having candy around doesn't work like that for everyone, though.

So why am I offering this diatribe?

I just finished with the main phase of testing my food sensitivities.  And speaking of simplicity, this was an inordinately complex process. Each day started with a large glass of water and liver-support tea before eating anything.  And before coffee.  I also tend to skip breakfast normally, so I had to get on schedule.  Breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner were all planned and balanced and, thankfully, good.  But I did have to make and pack all of my food, every day.

Water is calculated on individual body weight, daily weather, and activity level.  It's a normal amount of water, but I needed to drink steadily throughout the day and not save it all for the evening like I tend to do.

I also needed to take a probiotics supplement.  I should start by stating that I feel weird about supplements - or anything that is expensive and takes weeks to work, if it does at all, and offers no proof of success. And the whole Butter-Margarine-Butter Problem (also just made that up), in which a wonderful new supplement is considered poison a year later (fish oil, I'm looking at you).  But probiotics are awesome.

Without getting too detailed, taking a program of probiotics does wonders if your systematic yeast is off.  I will try to keep this short, especially if you've seen Gentlemen Broncos and would rather never hear the word "yeast" again. Basically, because I've taken antibiotics a couple of times in the past year, my bacterial balance was thrown off.  I cannot believe how much better I feel after the probiotics.  It worked within two weeks and now I'm done with them until the next time I notice symptoms.


Anyway, I felt great for the duration of this process.  I'm currently taking a three day break to enjoy the holiday weekend and eat some treats, but now I have a common sense plan to go back to.  Here it is:

• Eat three meals a day, plus a snack and a small dessert.
• Lunch and dinner should be mostly vegetables, some cooked and some raw.  Don't eat anything raw that doesn't sound appealing raw.  (That's my takeaway, since raw zucchini sounded gross and it was gross and it made me feel gross.)
• Remember to include protein. Fat, too, but I was already on board with that.
• Remember to eat fruit (I'm notoriously bad about actually eating fruit).
• Stop drinking water a few hours before going to bed.
• Stick to olive oil and butter for cooking fats.
• Weigh oneself every morning to collect data on weight gain.  This is for checking water retention (read: inflammation), not actual weight.
• Keep track of other negative responses to food, like upset stomach, increase in seemingly-unrelated health issues, traditional allergic reactions, or skin irritation.
• Continue to make meals look appealing and attractive and enjoy them.
• Don't worry about it.

These guidelines allow me to feel well and determine if a new food is something I react to.  Or that something that is commonly reactive is fine for me, like wheat or dairy (YES!).

So here's a balanced meal that makes me feel good.  Hopefully it makes you feel good, too.


A BALANCED VEGETARIAN DINNER

• olive oil
• onion, sliced hull-to-hull
• carrots, diced
• beet (here I used a candy-stripe or "chioggia" beet), diced
• zucchini, diced
• 2-4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• kale, chopped
• handful of mixed greens per serving
• apple, diced
• 2 ounces cheese, diced (I used blue cheese) (optional)
• 1 ounce goat cheese, per serving (or 2-3 ounces if not using other cheese)
• balsamic vinegar
• dried cherries or cranberries, handful per serving (optional)
• pepitas or sunflower seeds, handful per serving
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat a tablespoon-ish of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and sauté until softened, then add carrots and beets.  Once softened, add zucchini and shiitakes.  Continue to sauté until all vegetables are cooked through and slightly browned on the edges.  Season with salt and pepper, toss, and add kale.  Stir in gently and cook until kale is bright green.  Put about half of this on a plate and top with goat cheese and seeds.

Place mixed greens in a bowl and  top with apple, cheese, and dried fruit.  In a jar, pour in equal amounts balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Add a pinch of salt, cover, and shake to emulsify and pour over salad.

Depending on  your opinions about combining apples and dried fruit with everything, you may want to stick with just goat cheese and mix half of the cooked veg directly into the salad.  Top with the goat cheese, vinaigrette, and seeds and dig in.

(About 2 servings)

And finally, don't forget to enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

Hollandaise Magic

I am not much of a breakfast fan, but brunch... brunch is perfect.

When I go out for brunch, I usually opt for savory dishes.  Any menu item with hollandaise sauce gets priority at ordering time. Think about hollandaise for a minute.  It's buttery, creamy, and if I get my preference, quite lemony.  And while the traditional Eggs Benedict is a great choice, if that's the only way you have had hollandaise, you might not know how great it is with greens.

Yesterday, I was unable to decide whether I wanted to make brunch or go out.  I just could not make the decision, but I had known that I required hollandaise sauce either way.  As I was working and chatting with coworkers and trying to make up my mind about brunch, I eventually realized that I had planned an entire homemade brunch menu.  Love it when my subconscious helps me out like that.

I hadn't made hollandaise sauce in a while and I felt up to the challenge.  Turns out that it's no challenge at all - especially when you use a "cheater" blender recipe that isn't really cheating at all!  The only things that are missing from the process is a lot of whisking and a sore arm.  The result is brilliant - in flavor, texture, and ease.

If you wish to try out my very own version of Eggs Benedict, hmmm... let's call it the Cole Benedict... swap the English Muffins for home fries, the Canadian bacon for sautéed greens (kale always seems to be on sale), and poached eggs for fried eggs.  Serve with a side of (good ol' American) bacon and with plate of fresh fruit.  The strawberries we had yesterday were the best in months! Drain off and save the bacon fat (for something like maple-bacon caramels) and use what's left in the pan for the eggs.

And the hollandaise-greens combo is seriously a perfect pairing. If you just sauté some greens and top it with hollandaise sauce, you have a very good plan.  And maybe just a little bit of magic.


CHEATER'S HOLLANDAISE
(adapted from Eric Ripert's Blender Hollandaise)

• 10 T. butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 medium lemon
• pinch salt

Melt butter over medium low heat in a small saucepan.  Swirl to melt thoroughly.  You may skim off the milk solids if you are so inclined, but it's not necessary.

If your kitchen is cold and the egg yolk is straight from the fridge, you may want to pre-warm the blender pitcher with hot water.  Dump water and dry pitcher.  Blend together egg yolk and the juice of one half lemon.  With the blender running, remove the center of the lid and slowly pour in the melted butter in a thin stream.

Once combined, taste sauce.  It will probably be very thick and I will always want more lemon.  Add a pinch of salt and lemon juice to taste.  Blend again and taste to adjust salt.  Pour all over everything on your plate.

This recipe will serve four well, but will generously serve three.  As a rule, hollandaise does not keep well, but yesterday's third serving is miraculously still in the fridge intact.  Don't use any metal ever when working with lemon juice and eggs.