Is There A Better Job in the World Than Cookbook Recipe Tester? Besides Professional Pinner?

I think not.  

I love steamykitchen.com.  and so do thousands of other people.  Do you already follow it? I love Jaden's recipes as well as reading about her family life, particularly their adventures in raising their own chickens.

When I read that Jaden's compensation for testers is she will "forever owe you my eternal love and gratitude," I was so in.  Put it on my card: Will work for eternal love and gratitude.  

Really, it is easy Asian cooking and if you know me, or you are my husband, you know I love Asian food.  And if you are, indeed, my husband, you only like Chinese, but I love Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Vietnamese, too.  Oh, and I drive you crazy because I like to go for foodtainment (teppanyaki) -- the hibachi style Japanese where the chef prepares the food right in front of you. And throws shrimp in your mouth and makes a volcano of fire with the concentric rings of a halved onion. 

Back to recipe testing.  The other night I made this. Note that it was night, therefore the picture has terrible color, but the soup in real life was much prettier -- filled with healthy fresh veggies.

In my favorite blue dish that I carried back from Japan.

I made this dish, too, another soup, in a miso based broth -- Loved this one! (below)

Gratuitous cat shot.  One of my useless feline assistants.  They provide entertainment. When they aren't sleeping.

Back to food.  Dish number three, eggs with oyster sauce -- holy moly, it was delicious.  Proving that it doesn't have to look perfect be super tasty.

These first two photos (above and below), the eggs look a bit mangled, but they are the better photos.

Oh, yummy.

Here the eggs are prettier but the photo isn't as good.  Take your pick and start fantasizing about Jaden's new cookbook!

In the meantime you can check out her other recipes and if you don't already read her blog, you definitely should add it to your rotation -- her photography is beautiful and writing is just right and very accessible.

Off to meet one of my blogger-girl-crushes this afternoon.  More on that later, taters. (Edit note:  We missed each other today, bummer but I look forward to us stalking each other another time)

Yours, in blogger bliss,

JPV

Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup -- My Favorite

I love this soup.  It is based on this Cooking Light recipe I found two years ago.  I say based on it because I only guesstimate the measurements and it always turns out great.

The three main ingredients are:  Carrots, sweet potatoes, onion.
The secret ingredient is:  ginger.
And it has special super powers:
1.  It can survive just fine for a few hours without refrigeration (read:  sit on my desk til lunch);
2.  Awesome way to get my veggies rather than a side of broccoli;
3.  It's a puree so it can travel well (see # 1, to the office without seeping out);
4.  Freezes well.

All veggies from Del Ray and Old Town farmers' markets except small onions which are organic from Trader Joe's.

These are the enormous carrots from Lopez Farms at the Old Town farmers' market.  I asked a nice fellow shopper to model the monster carrot for me. Amazingly sweet for being so large.  Probably because they are organic and fresh out of the ground a few miles from where I bought them.

One carrot, chopped, weighed 13 ounces!  (My million year old scale is on the left.)

Two sweet potatoes, peeled, chopped into big chunks. (BOWL: Blue and white dragon design purchased in my favorite supply store in DC's Chinatown.)

Toss potatoes (peeled and chopped), onion (one medium or a few small  ones) and carrots (1/2 - 1 pound, washed, but no need to peel if they are organic) with a few drizzles of olive oil to coat. 13x9" in baking dish (any size is fine, so is a cookie sheet, or in tin foil on the grill).

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.  Roast for 30-45 minutes.  Toss once at 15-20 minutes (these are just going in the oven).

Perfect!  Just out of the oven, browning around the edges, olive oil prevents everything from drying out.  House smells awesome.

Add four cups of low sodium chicken or veggie stock. More or less by half a cup depending on whether you use more or less vegetables.

I love this stuff.  I grew up on Wyler's bouillon, could eat it straight (Gross, I know, but I used to make a salt pile and dunk my fries in it, too, when I was a kid). While I don't always have my own broth on hand (not much room for it in the tiny kitchen), I always have some of this stuff on hand. USDA organic and it is the perfect way to stock stock in a minuscule kitchen.  I use 1/2-3/4 teaspoon per cup of water.

Fresh ginger made easy. 

Everybody in da pot.  Bring to a boil.

Turn down to low and simmer for 20 minutes.

I've done this step in a blender, in batches, many times. It works for sure, and is totally worth it. I just started making soups often enough in the tiny kitchen that I invested in a nice stick blender. I love concocting soups, and especially in the tiny kitchen, the immersion blender saves my space, time and mess.  It took about 90 seconds.

 

Perfection!

Back on the stove* for serving and measuring out for freezing.
* Our incredibly well laid out tiny kitchen does not have an outlet on the stove side, so I put the pot on a trivet on the opposite counter, blend it (very fun) and then move it back to the stove top.

Yours, in soup joy,

Julia

Click here for printable version

Preview -- One of My Favorite and Easiest Soup Recipes

Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup Puree -- low cal and fat, super high in amazing flavor, healthiness and sheer beauty. 

Ginormous carrots at the Old Town Farmers Market (Lopez Farms, of course). 

Main ingredients.

Glamour shot -- veggies hanging out on the back porch under the pretty changing leaves of the pear tree.  All the cool trees on the block have already changed.  Our little straggler is just catching up, we're so proud.

 Editing (aka, shrinking) the soup photos and will post the whole thing with recipe shortly.  I brought this soup to Thanksgiving last year at Mary and Stilly's (our friends/DC parents) house.  Big hit.  Can even serve in shot glasses.  I just put it in the fridge and bring to work every day and throw in feta or goat cheese, and sometimes rotisserie chicken for a full meal.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Yours, in gratefulness for the sunshine in December,

Julia

Sunday Night Slice and Dice: Lazy Girl's Chicken Soup with a Side of Dexter

So lazy that I didn't even get around to making it.  Busy, actually.  So busy that I broke down and bought pre-cut chicken breast slices instead of doing a whole chicken.  I'll do a veggie stock from scratch then put in some organic chicken stock and the chicken. Then I guess it is veggie broth with some chicken thrown in (and ginger, love fresh ginger in my broth).  I did watch Dexter, with my Sunday night TV/cooking friend, Ms. Ellen [awesome all around friend, really, but on Sundays, we watch some whatever Sunday night cable show we are into -- and she will eat anything I cook.  THAT is a good (and trusting) friend.] 

I call her Ms. Ellen because when she tells hysterically funny stories about the students she teaches, and quotes them, I hear her say "Mees Ellennnnn" frequently.  We religiously waited for JRM (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in the Tudors every Sunday night. (*sigh*) And now we are into Dexter, though it stresses the heck out of both of us way too late on a school night.  Next week is season finale. Our nerves will get a break.  We''stick to me cooking, and both of us eating.

Back to chicken soup, or veggie broth with chicken in it (and soba noodles, maybe, hmmmm).  Monday night. Hubby will keep calling my mother in the hospital to make sure she stays awake for the Patriots game (football?  hockey?  ;)  while I make soupie soup (as favorite neighbor Donna calls it.  Even though she's about to move far far away, a whole ten minutes and I am very sad.  til then, my favorite neighbor).

Be back with magical busy girl soup!

Til next time, fair reader (and I do mean singular, because I believe there is only one.  And it is my mother)