COOKING COMFORT FOOD

I am in the mood for vegetable soup and have a lovely pound of meat in the freezer. However, the family expresses extreme interest in having quiche and salad for dinner tonight. We do the bacon-green onion version which is my favorite, and MK made a wonderful salad--Romaine, shaved carrots, diced apples, and chopped pecans with Ken's raspberry-pecan salad dressing. YUM!

And in the midst of making two quiches and taking a phone call from a long-lost friend, I whip a batch of beef vegetable soup from memory and with innovation. It's maybe the best I've ever made, or at least it's been a very long time since I made it this good.

The innovation was adding fire-roasted tomatoes, and because I don't have any beef stock on-hand I use some organic chicken stock and it certainly works well. I think the chefs would call this layering flavors...

VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP

1  lb. Beef sirloin, lean (1" chunks)
2  T. Olive oil
2  tsp. Salt
1/2  Cup Sweet onion, diced
1/2  Cup Celery with tops, chopped
1  Cup Tomato juice
1  Can Fire roasted tomatoes
1-1/2  Cups Beef or chicken stock
1  lrg Potato, peeled and diced
1  bag steamable mixed vegetables (I used WalMart's Great Value brand and the carrots are lovely.)
Salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil to a searing temp.
2. Add stew beef and sear on all sides.
3. Salt generously.
4. Add onions and celery, stirring to mix with beef juices. Cook until onions approach translucence.
5. Add tomato juice, fire roasted tomatoes, and stock.
6. Bring just to a boil and add potatoes. Turn flame down to high simmer and cook until potatoes are just starting to be tender.
7. Add frozen mixed vegetables and continue to simmer until potatoes and carrots are tender chrisp.
8. Taste and adjust seasonings by adding additional salt and pepper, as desired.

We are back to ordering a few items from Market Day--beef stew meat, pork tenderloin, and tilapia or yellow-fin tuna. The quality is outstanding and it's a short distance to the pick-up point at a local grammar school. In fact we have a choice of 3 or 4 pick-up locations within a 5 - 10 minute drive, so we choose the site that has the most convenient pick-up day.

I don't think Market Day is available outside of the Chicago suburban area, and I'm really amazed this hasn't been franchised throughout the country. It is a great source of fund raising for local schools and as I said the food quality is always amazing.

FAMILY FUN

DM+MK tell the little girls that they will go to the McDonald's Playland today, and immediately LG pushes the envelope and begins campaigning vigorously for Monkey Joe's. KF talks alot for just 2-years, and she begins babbling non-stop--interjecting a few discernable words along with the appropriate hand signals, head shakes, and gestures.

It turns out that she doesn't want Monkey Joe to high-five her or to hug her!

No problem because there will be no Monkey Joe's today.

WHILE WE WERE OUT

MK needs an inexpensive solution to window coverings for LG and KF's bedroom windows. The windows are identical, actually a window and a doorway to a small balcony in each room that are slightly inset totaling 78" of width and 94" of length.

Since DM+MK are planning on moving their family back from Slovakia to the U.S. within the next 18 months and since these windows are in the rooms of very active and creative little girls, we need to keep the options fun and cheap.

We purchase these 54" x 90"opaque panels at TJMaxx for $5.99 each, and we'll need three panels per room. I'll sew ribbon tabs on the top edge and trim out the outside edge and bottom of each end panel, and just the bottom of the middle panel.

I found the brown bubble ribbon at Hobby Lobby at $6.00 for three rolls, and RvH gave me the two checkered ribbons to use for Merci Beaucoup. After pressing and sewing, I'll post the results.

Oh, and while we are out LG makes a pillow fort on my bed. She manages to carry the pillows from all over the house, but doesn't have the strength to put them back alone...

CHILLING: Would you care for a bag of ice?

It's been more than a year since I planned to post a few photos of our kitchen. It's almost never presentable enough, or if it is we are in the midst of entertaining and who has times for photos then? So here are a few before with our mismatched white frig.

And, as these things go--in the middle of emptying the frig, I migrate into the pantry and completely clean and reorganize it, ending my first big 2010 procrastination. Voilà! It's now ready for the Container Store photo shoot! If only they'd ask...

rice is stored in a large vase

Rubber Maid lids make perfect floor trays

With amazing speed, we have our new frig. Yep! It was such a DEAL that we didn't really explore all it's options while at Lowe's and when I was reading about it online I refused to believe/take in a significant feature--it has TWO ice makers! Who in the world needs two? One in the upper French Door (!!!) frig and one in the pull-out-drawer freezer. I am considering establishing an ice delivery service for catering events...

           

                spices from a Paris grocery store - Shopi in Levallois

ENTERTAINING

Just family tonight, so we kept it simple. CA makes his special bolognese with angel hair pasta, I pick up an antipasto salad at Georgio's in CL and bread at Panera. LA, EG, and the effervescent Emerson Sophia join us for dinner and to see new tiny baby NJ.