From the category archives:

Soups & Stocks

Squash Soup with Cranberry Dollop

The Gourmet Club tries to meet four times a year. That’s four couples, each responsible for a theme, a date at their home and wrangling the calendars of the rest of us. We’ve had some luscious eats: Cuban, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Men’s Meal (Hawaiian is upcoming) in the three-plus years this has been [...]

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Guest Post by Kelly, at The Pink Apron: Broccoli, Apple and Peanut Soup

From Kelly:  Patti graciously asked me to pen a post while she is away on vacation. She will be helping me out by sharing a post on mine as well. I write for the blog The Pink Apron, which I consider a marriage of from-scratch techniques and modern flavors. I wanted to share with [...]

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Andersen’s Pea Soup

Pea Soup Andersen’s is a California classic for road trippers up beautiful Highway 101. Heading to our Santa Ynez wine country, setting for the movie, Sideways? Visiting the showstopper Hearst Castle? Blasting thru from LA to SFO? Pull off in Buellton for a bathroom break and incredibly luscious all-you-can-eat split pea soup.
First, I just [...]

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Chicken Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup

  Things to cook with pumpkin were getting boring here, so I thought an Asian flavored soup would be different. I took this ‘n that from about five recipes and came up with a pot of flavorful, thick Chicken Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup.
What gave it Asian oomph was fresh-cut lemongrass from our patio. And juice from [...]

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Patti’s Noodle Bowl for Two

Another name for the recipe could be, “What’s in the produce bin that needs eating NOW?”  With a teensy bit of leftover meat, Asian-ish veggies and some noodles, Noodle Bowl is served.
One challenge to this dish is ~ it makes you sweat.  Not spicy sweat, but steamy sweat.  Great for winter, but we eat [...]

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Light Tortilla Soup

Larry takes me on some pretty interesting dates, like last week’s Laserium Beatles Show (remember the LA Griffith Observatory?  Now it’s in Hollywood).  As we left the theater, Larry noticed that Beso, Eva Longoria’s uber hip restaurant was across the street, so we stopped in for a wildly expensive glass of wine and some [...]

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Egyptian Tomato Soup

This is a shout-out to a terrific collection of Aussies and Kiwis (plus a few Americans and one Canadian) from our trip to Egypt.  Together, we covered long distances, soaked up history, rode camels, climbed pyramids, got our Sphinx fix, and ate lots of mediocre food.
Egyptian food is not so great.  Don’t drink the [...]

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Fresh Onion Soup for One

Not French Onion, FRESH onion. This recipe turned out about a thousand times better than I anticipated, and also rendered a masterful little recipe that serves one. Picture this… you are at the beach house, a solo traveler. By Yourself. ONE person. Who wants to be alone. And who hopefully wants to cook because [...]

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Homemade Chicken Stock

I’m not a slave to homemade stock, but I make it when I have the “stuff” that goes into it.  Once you do a batch, you will LOVE it.  Today’s is earmarked for Vietnamese Pho Soup which requires a special (but totally worthwhile) trip to the local Asian market for “sticks and leaves,” as [...]

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Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup

This recipe post is being updated for our current almost-winter season. The weather here in LA only got cold this week, so last night’s dinner was steaming homemade chicken noodle soup in the attempt to warm us from the inside-out. If you own a crockpot, print this frugal, filling recipe.

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Chilled Gazpacho

Somebody tell me:  why does any vacation now result in me coming home with a “muffin top” (aka pot belly)?  I’m technically a lean-ish person, but lately, yikes.   Even places with not great food, I channel Miss Piggy.  Thus, when we get back home to our “grind of choice” (as my friend, Cathi calls [...]

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Funeral Soup

My grammar school friend, Val, lost her mom to cancer and the service was held at Holy Cross Cemetery, where my father-in-law is also buried.  Being there made me think about the circumstances of his death, and my pot of Funeral Soup.   This is a meatless version, but after I photographed it, leftover Turkey [...]

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