other

by

Soup Swap 2019

Soup Swap 2019 has come and gone.  I’m currently unable to find online evidence but I think I attended my first swap in 2008.  Holy cow!

I haven’t managed to go every year but I’ve been to a lot of them.  And I think there was a year or two where there was no swapping to be had because the host was working on a master’s degree.  

This is the earliest mention on this blog that I could find:

https://awesomesauceeats.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/chinese-black-sesame-soup-dessert-soup/

 

But I know the first thing I ever made for Soup Swan was French onion soup.  I remember crying through 5 pounds of onions and vowed “never again!”

For those not in the know, Soup Swap is a gathering to boost our spirits in the heart of the winter season. All of the attendees bring six quart-sized containers filled with a frozen homemade soup/stew of their choice. If you’re really ambitions, you can bring twelve quarts and secure yourself two picks per round.  All of the soups are lumped together in a spot in the room. Attendees pick out a random number, and proceed, in their numbered order, to explain what they brought in. The dear host likes to call this the “Telling of the Soup.” You can also win bragging rights for best telling.  Once the telling completed, the guests then take turns, in same numbered order, picking out a new soup container to bring home. To be fair, the dear host likes to run backwards during the last two rounds. So, you bring over six quarts of your soup, and you bring home six quarts of someone else’s soup.  It gets a bit competitive and a lot of strategic after the first round because there’s usually 12-14 flavors available, only 6 quarts per flavor, and some flavors are extremely popular.

And true story, I’ve been enough times to soup swap that I printed out my own inventory sheet this year.

I am proud to announce that this was the very first year where I got ALL THE FLAVORS I WANTED!  This was probably definitely only made possible by my severe dislike for cilantro. (A couple of the very popular flavors had cilantro in the ingredient list.)

This year, I made a pumpkin curry soup with black beans.

And here were my “winnings.”

 

I’ve had the Green Monster and the Porq-ue soups so far.  Tonight, I’ll be having the Eatin’ Big Time. I can’t wait.  🙂

If you want to make the pumpkin curry soup that I did, it’s a Libby’s Pumpkin recipe.  The only difference was that I added canned black beans, rinsed and drained, at the end of cooking.  If you want to make six quarts of it, just multiple the recipe by 3.  I will say that I think your results will heavily depend on the quality of your spices.  I am personally fond of Penzey’s house curry blend.

https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/28476/pumpkin-curry-soup/?recipeSortBy=Relevancy&keywords=pumpkin+soup

https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/penzeys-curry/c-24/p-3037/pd-s

by

Recent food adventures

 

 

:: Did a koji and miso fermentation workshop with OurCookQuest.  I really enjoyed it, and it was fun being around other food nerds.

:: I’ve attended a few of this semesters Science and Cooking lectures, presented by Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.  So far, I’ve seen Margarita Fores, Wylie Dufresne with Ted Russin, and Vicky Lau.  I’ve learned that the nipa palm looks like a torture device, and don’t make donuts unless you’re crazy.  lol!

:: And most recently, I attended a lunch at Juliet in Somerville, MA.  It was a stop on Yvette Van Boven’s Homemade Christmas book tour.  The lunch menu was inspired by the book.  Both Yvette and her husband, Oof Verschuren, are wonderful people, really friendly and down to earth.  I’m so glad I got to meet them both.

by

Having a little seltzer fun

I learned at the last Gastropod live event at the Museum of Science that Polar is 1) a Massachusetts company, and 2) releases five limited edition flavors every season.

This led me to go looking for this seasons flavors.

(They also have super limited edition flavors sometimes, ie. the infamous “unicorn kisses” but I’m not that crazy.)

I can smell the mango, but I really only taste berries.

Watermelon margarita I like.  Strawberry Sunrise… just tastes like some generic fruit to me?

Strong on the pineapple flavor.  I decided in the end that I wasn’t into it.

Raspberry Rose just tastes like raspberry to me.  Oh well.

Long story short, I suspect I’m drinking the watermelon one all summer.  (^_^)

by

Nüssli118° day tote unboxing and review

First of all, what?  Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re asking yourself right now.

Nüssli118° is a raw foods store in North Cambridge, Massachusetts.  They sell a variety of snacks, smoothies, and juices.  It’s not fancy shmancy (or is the correct description “celebrity hip”?) like Sakara Life.  Their website isn’t filled with slick sounding product descriptions like Splendid Spoon (which I might try some day because they do make their soups sound very tasty!).

Now, I’m not vegan or a raw foodist (I’m not even vegetarian) in any way, but I do get curious about the raw food culture.   I guess it’s because I do like diversity in my meals, and healthy is always appreciated.

I’ve had a some Nüssli118° products in the past.   There was some sort of ginger round, chocolate pecan squares, and their chocolate cashew smoothie.  All of which were delicious.  So, I’ve been really curious about the Nüssli118° day tote for a few months now.

From their website:

The Nüssli118° Kitchen Share Day Tote is a day’s worth of delicious meals, drinks, and snacks delivered to your home or office once a week.  The products are ready-to-eat right out of the mason jar or to be gently warmed, served, and savored.  Either way, they will nourish, satisfy, and energize you throughout your day.  Each Kitchen Share Day Tote includes 2 drinks, 3 meals, 1 savory, and 2 sweets.  We look at what’s in season, combine fresh, great tasting, high quality ingredients, and create delicious nutrient-dense meals.  They are all organic, plant-based, and ready-to-eat, just enjoy!

Note, you can save money on the delivery fee by picking up the tote yourself.  The tote I picked up was this:

Week of April 10, 2017  Kitchen Share Day Tote:

Pineapple Turmeric Fresca
Vanilla Chai Smoothie
Chia Pudding Topped with Kiwi, Orange, and Apple
Butternut Squash Soup
Taco Salad
Garlic & Herb Crackers
Super Dark Chocolate Rounds
Lemon Ginger Square

If you go through my photos, you’ll notice that I didn’t get the taco salad.  That’s because I’m allergic to raw celery and raw carrots.  So, the store provided their mango kale salad as a substitute.

Overall, I liked this salad.  I just wished that there had been a bit more of it.  Besides kale and mango, there was jicama, lemon juice, olive oil, maple syrup and red pepper flakes.  And since I was still hungry, I went ahead and had the soup.  (Afterward, I remembered that each jar in my tote was technically a meal. Oh well.)

You can have the soup hot or cold.  It was a really nice warm spring day in Boston, so I went for it cold.  I liked this meal too.  The cranberries and parsley helped to jazz up the otherwise plain tasting squash soup.  I might have forgotten that cashews were in the soup and topped it with a tablespoon of hemp seed from my pantry.

Regarding the snacks, this is where Nüssli118° really shines.

No surprise, the super dark chocolate rounds were my favorite from the tote.  The rosemary crackers were a close second.  The lemon ginger squares were my least favorite only because it’s a little too sweet for my personal preference.  But the texture is great.  It’s got crunch from the nuts but it’s not hard on the teeth.  The brightness of the lemon flavor shines through, but I’m not sure I could taste ginger much.  At the end of the day though, I’m always pro-chocolate.  The rounds are quite dense, but the chocolate flavor satisfies quite nicely.

Finally, I had the chia pudding for breakfast the morning after I picked up the tote.  I was unsure if I was going to like it.  Generally, I stay away from chia seeds because they get stuck in my teeth too easily.  Maybe because I had let the chia pudding sit for so long, I didn’t really have an issue.  It would have been boring if it hadn’t been for the fruit topping – apples, kiwi, and oranges – even though the pudding says it was spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove, and nutmeg.  I could tell that the pudding wasn’t just chia, cashews, and water.  However, the spices were really muted.

As for the drinks?  The cashew vanilla smoothie was good.  Not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly not the worst.  It’s just a basic cashew smoothie.  The tote list says vanilla chai, but the bottle I had was just vanilla.  The ingredients were water, cashews, dates, coconut oil, vanilla, and Himalayan salt.  The pineapple turmeric was probably my least favorite thing in the whole tote, and that’s just personal preference.  I found the turmeric flavor to overpower every other flavor.  The ingredient list is pineapple, water, mango, orange, lemon, maple syrup, turmeric, and cayenne.  I could barely taste the pineapple.  I really couldn’t taste any mango or orange.

So, would I do this again?  Quite possibly.  It’s not cheap.  It’s $65 and then there’s a $10 deposit for the tote and the mason jars.  If you return the tote and mason jars, you can get a $10 credit toward your next purchase.  I like that the packaging is reusable, and am not against the deposit.  Overall, the quality of everything is great.  (And it had better be!  Everything is organic, and some ingredients have been sprouted.)  The experience has definitely given me ideas on things to make at home.  It also makes me want to work on snack recipes.  But chances are pretty high that I’ll probably be lazy and swing by Nüssli118° when I’m hankering for healthy crisps and sweets.  (^_^)

Links:
http://nussli118.com/

Disclaimer – This post was not sponsored in any way.  A family member purchased the tote for me as a gift.  I just wanted to share my excitement.

by

Recent shopping finds

I went to Trader Joe’s yesterday.  I picked up a couple of things that I hadn’t seen before and so far like.

But much more affordable than buying Taste No. 5 Bomba paste… since that gets imported from England.  I’m tempted to stock up on this out of fear.  I hope TJs never stops making this!

 

It’s a smidge sweeter than I like.  Not really a surprise, since sugar is the first ingredient, but it’s much tastier than buying hot cocoa packets.

by

Return to Deacon Giles Distillery

Deacon Giles was fully operational and open on weekends to the public at the end of October, but I didn’t have a chance to visit them again until today.  Everything looked great.  I could not be happier for founders Ian and Jesse.

Screen Shot 2015-12-11 at 9.41.54 PM

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-11 at 9.42.05 PM.png

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-11 at 9.42.17 PM

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-11 at 9.42.31 PM

There were glasses on the table with aromatic samples of the herbs and spices that went into the gin.  I’m not sure if I can remember them all, but I remember: juniper, lemon peel, orange peel, cardamom pods, angelica root, rosehips, and mace.

Screen Shot 2015-12-11 at 9.42.42 PM

Above:  The “Chief Alchemist” pouring tasting samples to guests.

Deacon Giles rum and gin are slowly making their way into Greater Boston.  So far, they have a decent distribution around the North Shore area.

If you ever visit Salem, MA, I highly recommend visiting the distillery too!

Reference Link:
http://www.deacongiles.com/

by

Deacon Giles Distillery teaser, and a Naumkeag review

If you head over the 75 Canal Street in Salem, Massachusetts, you’ll find a car transmission place and a day care center.  Not very exciting stuff, I’ll admit.  However, if you pop your head around the Gardner Street corner, you’ll find that the building also houses the upcoming Deacon Giles Distillery.

I got the opportunity to check out the distillery as construction is still being finished.  Simply put, I think wonderful things are in store for its future.

Screen Shot 2015-08-17 at 9.23.50 PM

One of the walls of the tasting room features an illustration from The Dream, or, The True History of Deacon Giles’ Distillery and Deacon Jones’ Brewery: Reported for the Benefit of Posterity, which is the inspiration for the distillery name.

And the tasting room is very cozy!  Co-founders Ian and Jesse have worked really hard on it.  It features a lot of gorgeous salvaged wood.

Screen Shot 2015-08-17 at 9.24.06 PM

If you look very hard, you can see that we got to taste samples of the gin which had been made in a small tester batch.  The still hasn’t made its way to Salem yet (but it’s en route!) so mass production is on hold.  I don’t even drink, and I have to say that it was a pretty fantastic gin.  I can also tell you that the other product is rum, and it’ll be made with molasses.  100% molasses.  No cane sugar.

The distillery hopes to open in October, and I hope so too!  Ian and Jesse are a couple of really nice guys with a dream and a whole lot of determination.  I plan to have a follow post when everything is open to the public.

Continue reading →

by

Boston Public Market

My city finally has a building dedicated to act as an all year farmers’ market.  And yes, I went on opening weekend.

It was busy.  Not everything is open yet.  Some vendors were hidden between other vendor booths (hello Soluna Garden Farm!), but I did my best to explore.  I didn’t buy anything today but I’ll probably come back next week with my sister so I didn’t want to stress over it.  (Plus, there are things in my freezer that I should defrost and cook up before I stock up on some locally raised meats.)

(I miss having a meat farm share.)

Overall reaction, I am very happy to have this building in the general area.  I commute by public transit mostly, and Boston Public Market is right next to Haymarket station.  The Kitchen entrance is closest to the station but I didn’t see any demonstrations going on.  Looking at their calendar, it looks like it’ll be a few more weeks before that space sees any real use.

There’s a wall in the market area called the Cookbook Exchange.  The idea is to take a cookbook/magazine, and leave a cookbook/magazine.  Writing in the books is encouraged!  Then the next borrower will know what people tried out.

Taza chocolate wasn’t open yet and neither was the wine vendor.  But there was a beer section, two meat sellers, cider donuts, Union Square donuts, a honey seller, a seller of bowls and boards from local trees, etc.

Anyway, have a mini-tour:

Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 9.33.40 PM

Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 9.33.27 PM

Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 9.32.54 PM

Screen Shot 2015-08-01 at 9.33.13 PM

https://bostonpublicmarket.org/

https://bostonpublicmarket.org/blog/848/boston-public-market-cookbook-exchange

by

No, I’m not dead… but yes I kind of suck

Between school and the craziness that my day job has become, I’ve been neglecting my blog.  I have a backlog of pictures and things I want to write, and, if I’m lucky, something will go up this weekend.

One of the things that I wanted to write about was my brand-new-to-me high speed blender.  One of the things that I plan to do with said blender is experiment with the recipes from BLEND.  What is BLEND?  It’s a series of e-books for smoothies by Simply Artisanal that I think sounds really promising.  I’ve purchased, from my own pocket, the Basics e-book and Summer, Volume 1.  They’ve started an affiliate program, and I thought that it couldn’t hurt to join.  Here’s my affiliate link:

Click here to visit Simply Artisanal.

What else?  Oh!  Graze box invite codes.  I don’t think there’s a limit anymore?  Anyway, if you would like an invite code, please comment with your email address.

I think that’s it for now.  I just wanted to let you know that I’m still around!  (^_^)

by

A moment of silence for my BlendMaster, Jr. # 5972B

To my much loved Hamilton Beach BlendMaster, Jr. # 5972B,

You were given to me by my second oldest sister back in the days when I was not such a food nerd. I bet you were just a $15-$20 product, but I felt like I was on the road to cooking awesome food when I unwrapped your box. (It was Christmas, I think.) You only had a two year warranty, and, to be honest, I didn’t think you’d last past it.

You were mine before immersion blenders were on everyone’s wedding registry. I think we were at around ten years together. You helped me through dental surgery, *several* times, and I am forever grateful. I thought we’d last into February at least, but it was not to be.

Rest in peace.

 

Please don’t hate me for replacing you with a colorful Cuisinart.