I have some girlfriends from church coming over tonight to play cards. We get together once a month for dinner, drinks or a fun activity, and inspired by my hours of card playing with the grammas over Christmas, that's what we're doing.
And, being at the top of my organizational game, in my second trimester, I spent much of yesterday preparing two soups for my family and girls game night. I have several learnings from this endeavor.
Do not make two soups you have never made before when you are expecting company. You're liable to be disappointed. Do not try using new kitchen electronics for the first time to make said soups. Enter the immersion blender. Purchased with coveted William Sonoma gift cards several months ago and just taken out of the box yesterday, only to find it needs to charge for 5 hours. But, being at the "top of my game" I had plenty of time and plugged it right in, expecting blending magic later that afternoon. The first soup was a Curried Corn Soup. The first four or five steps were simple. Chop. Drop. Stir. Simmer. Maybe I should go to cullinary school? Step six...immersion blend! Didn't go so well. It made a cool noise. And I looked just like my favorite contestents on Top Chef, but my concoction hardly looked like a silky smooth puree. I blended and blended and blended anyway. Next step....pass puree through fine mesh sieve. My puree looks like corn oatmeal and.... I don't have a sieve. I've been meaning to get one of those for quite a while. I have a 1/2 cup size hand held one, maybe that will work (for about 2 gallons of soup!)....maybe not. Plan B. Let me start by saying that 1. Ben was sleeping so my resources were limited and 2. I've tried this trick with wine before to strain out the cork. Enter: thigh high stockings. I mean, pantyhose (although a creation of the devil) are kind of similar to a cheese cloth, sort of, which can be used to seperate solids and liquids. And although my old roommate Karin and I had a ceremonial "burning" of the pantyhose when business casual went out of fashion, I did manage to find one pair of black thigh highs deep in my under things drawer. Which I most certainly NEVER wore to work but rather were a gift from my husband who I'm sure wishes I actually wore them once. Where was I? Oh....pouring hot lumpy corn "puree" into the top pantyhose...obviously! Let's just say it didn't work. Liquid too hot to work through hose. Hose too thick to allow soup to strain out as I'd imagined. Abort mission. Throw away thigh highs. Never to be worn!
About this time, Ben woke up and we ventured to target to buy a sieve. Strained the soup, and he loved it. After straining, it was really thin. Which I should have anticipated. I usually like a little thicker soup. Anywho, good flavor, especially after I embellished with shrimp.
Second soup, black bean. Also required the blender. Didn't blend well. Watery, chunky, black bean yuck. I put 1/2 cup of sour cream, lots of cheese, lime juice and fresh cilantro and served it to Greg for dinner. :)
PS. I have yet to find a household use for garter belts.
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1 comment:
Like I said - RESOURCEFUL. You need to set up a video camera on this situation next time. Please save some soup for me. The corn one, not the other goopy one :-)
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