Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Bossy-boots

So remember when I demanded that you make white chili? There may have been some threatening involved....Anyway, as an oldest child, I reserve the right to boss you around again. And once more, I shall force you to make soup.

Hmmm.....must be a soup thing. Interesting, considering when I found Husband he said he "didn't like soup." To which I responded, "Bullshit. You can't not like soup. It's like not liking beverages. There are so many textures, tastes, even temperatures. You can dislike minestrone or chili or cold soups. But you can't hate soup as a category." And you know what? I was right. He likes soup. (Side-note: I figured out why he didn't like soup, and a myriad of other things. But I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings posting about it here. Let me know if you'd like the answer.)

Anyway, he liked this Chilled Avocado-Cumber soup. I loved it, despite the fact that I often don't enjoy cold soups. The one-year-old liked a few bites, the four-year-old categorically refused it- but that has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with being four.

You. Must. Make. It. It's for your own good, trust me. If I were queen, I'd mandate it.

I doubled the recipe, so as to take some on my girls' weekend. But I still only used one jalapeno, which left plenty of kick....enough that the baby only wanted a few bites. And I added a third avocado to up the creaminess. So if I were to make a single batch, I would use half a pepper, and one and a half avocados.

Aaaaaaaand, now I'm salivating. The left-overs might not make it to the girls' weekend.....

Friday, June 17, 2011

Strawberries

So I finally went to the farmer's market. Last summer I had an excuse....he was a bayyyyybeeeeee. Everything was haaaaaarrrrrdddddd. This summer - I am just lame.
But I went! And I found these!

I picked the four-year-old up from camp and said, "We got lots of strawberries this morning. Do you want to make pie or jam?" The answer: "STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!!"

So I went here!

My mom's well-thumbed, yellow-paged, butter-filled (the recipes, not the pages) Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. The cookbook of my youth. The cookbook that defines "making cookies" for me.

But there are problems with this recipe...


For instance, if three teaspoons equals a tablespoon, then why doesn't the recipe just say a tablespoon? Also, I don't sift. And finally, I  am butter cutting impaired

Ok. Most of these are actually my problems. Hrumph. But anyway. That might be why my shortcake looks like this:

But, luckily, Auntie B the Canadian was there to walk us through the process via Skype. She watched the four-year-old roll out the dough. Then she was treated to a show in which the four-year-old implied that maybe Auntie B and 'Abriel should just get married already.

Auntie B is posing for her meta-technology moment, because, quote, "That's what Auntie B does."

Anyway, turns out if you put enough ice cream and strawberries on it, it doesn't matter if your shortcake is hard, dry and burned on the bottom.

However, the four-year-old who wanted STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE to start with changed her mind without even taking a bite. Instead she wanted to save it for Christmas, because "Santa might want to eat her." Apparently all Strawberry Shortcake, not just the doll, is female. Who knew?? Whatevs, Kiddo. More for Mommy. Peace out.