Souper Saturday!

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
-Albert Einstein


Hello and Welcome! Today I have another wonderful soup recipe to share with you! Enjoy!


"Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie."
-Jim Davis


Vegetarian Potato, Leek, and Spinach Soup

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

*2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
*1 1/2 Cups potatoes diced
*1 Cup leeks cleaned and diced
*1 1/2 Cups mirepoix (carrots, celery & onion) diced
*2 Cartons vegetable stock
*1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
*1 Cup light Cream, at room temperature
*1 Pkg baby spinach cut into fine strips (chiffonade)
*2 tsp lemon juice
*1 Tbsp thyme, finely chopped


Equipment Needed:

* Stock/soup pot
* Hand blender (you can use a regular blender)
* Saute' pan

Directions:

1.) In a soup pot, soften vegetables in olive oil over medium-high heat, about 5 min. 2.) Stir occasionally, do not brown.
3.) Add vegetable stock to pot and bring to a bring to boil on high.
4.) Reduce heat and simmer 30-40 min.
5.) Carefully puree soup with hand blender in pot until smooth (or carefully pour into blender, puree and return to pot).
6.) Salt and pepper to taste.
7.) Add nutmeg and stir well.
8.) Remove soup from heat.
9.) Temper light cream (pour cream into bowl and slowly add 2 cups of hot soup to cream).
10.) Add cream mixture back into pot.
11.) Quickly saute' spinach.
12.) Add sauteed spinach to soup.
13.) Just before serving stir in lemon juice.
14.) Ladle into bowls and garnish with thyme.


"Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?"
-Author Unknown


Joke of the Day:

Little Emily was complaining to her mother that her stomach hurt. Her mother replied, “That’s because it's empty. Maybe you should try putting something in it." The next day, the pastor was over at Emily's family's house for lunch. He mentioned having his head hurt, to which Emily immediately replied, "That's because it's empty. Maybe you should try putting something in it."



Have a great weekend and remember: Go Ahead & Indulge!

Friday Food Facts!

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Friday Food Facts. I aim to stimulate not only your brain cells, but your taste buds as well!

Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate.
-Sandra Boynton

The Four Classes of Vegetarians:

1.) True Vegetarians: Does not eat anything from animals, cooked or processed.

2.) Lacto-Vegetarians: Eats dairy products.

3.) Ovo-Vegetarians: The only animal product eaten is eggs.

4.) Pesco-Vegetarians: Do not eat red meat, but will eat fish, chicken, eggs and dairy products

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!
-Author Unknown

Coffee Facts:

1.) The world's rarest coffee, Kopi Luwak costs $300 a pound. It is grown in Indonesia.

2.) It takes almost 2,000 coffee cherries to provide enough beans for one pound of
roasted coffee.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love chocolate, and communists.
-Leslie Moak Murray

Rice Facts:

1.) There are thousands, perhaps as many as 40,000, varieties of rice grown on every continent except Antarctica.

2.) In the USA, the average person consumes around twenty-five pounds of rice per year, with about four pounds of that attributed to the rice used for brewing beer.

Look, there's no metaphysics on earth like chocolates.
-Fernando Pessoa

Candy Facts:

1.) The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after the daughter of U.S. President Grover Cleveland in 1921.

2.) The Dutch consume the most candy, 65 pounds per person a year; Americans eat about 21 pounds a year.

I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts.
-Graham Kerr

Have a great day and until tomorrow:

Go Ahead & Indulge!