They're all couples...duh...

Things accomplished since 2007:

- Bought our plane tickets to Rome (May 16th-June 6th) - Hurray!

- Wrapped all of my "Christmas" gifts that I still need to send...even though it's past New Years. Okay, I admit it, I still have a few more to wrap

- Wrote "www.RACHAELandGREG.com" on the back of our Save The Date / Invitation cards for what feels like the 1000th time (it's not), because we hadn't the foresight to get the website before the invitations

- Realized that we're inviting about 100 people and so I ordered 100 invitations and 100 envelopes and 25 insert cards for the 20 people coming to Italy. Even though... they're all couples... and we only need 50, 50 and 10. Duh. Let me repeat that. Duh.

- Watched a truly startling and provocative movie that I would encourage you to go see: Crash

- Made some uber-fantastic Red Snapper (see below)

Remember the drained whole tomatoes from last time I said I'd use in something else? Well I made a dinner out of it that was so delicious I actually surprised myself. And the darn thing is, I didn't take a single photograph of what I made. The risotto, while certainly good, was fairly traditional with white wine, crimini mushrooms, dried porcinis, asparagus and quite a bit of patience. Nothing too new there. But the red snapper was the best fish I've made in a long time, and the desert was... oh so perfect. I think what I loved so much about the whole thing was that, sans risotto, this romantic dinner was incredibly simple. I wouldn't say the individual components go together so well (creamy risotto with tomato-ey fish? Tomato-ey fish with chocolate desert? Eh, not the best combos), but on their own I really enjoyed these dishes.

Being vegetarian, I have a general obsession with All Things Slow Cooked, since it introduces a depth of flavor I don't get elsewhere. When I get a craving for beef or chicken, the only way to fill it is with something like 40 minute caramelized onions in broth. Yet this week, all I wanted was something fresh. Something broth-y and flavorful, salty, fishy, and tasting of the sea. The solution? Capers, olives, garlic, and onions and fish poached in liquid rather than in a pan. Oh, I can still taste it, and it was good.

I'll reconstruct the recipes for these last two items without any photos:

Red snapper in a garlic, caper and olive tomato broth

2 fillet red snapper
32 oz whole tomatoes, drained
2 cups fish stock
2 cups white wine (something lemmoney and dry... I used chardonay, which was a little too sweet)
1 sm onion, chopped
1/4 cup capers
1/4 cup whole black olives cut in half
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp crushed red pepper
Salt and black pepper

1. Crush the tomatoes (I used a pastry cutter to do this) until they are in ~1/2" pieces
2. Add tomatoes, stock, white wine, onion, capers, black olives and garlic to a wide chef's pan
3. Bring to a a rapid boil and add fish on top
4. Cover, lower to a slow simmer and poach fish until flakey and tender (I used frozen snapper, so it took about 30 minutes)
5. Add red pepper flakes and season to taste

The only thing I missed in this was a handful of chopped fresh parsley, or maybe a little lemon.

Bailey's and Chocolate Coffee Cream (for 2)


1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant coffee
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp heavy cream

2 shots original Bailey's liquor
1 cup 2% milk
Ice

Add heavy cream, instant coffee, cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla to a small food processor. Process until the cream it whipped. Shake Bailey's, milk and ice until chilled and frothy. Remove ice. Pour into appropriate glasses and top with the chocolate coffee cream, garnishing with a little extra cocoa powder or some chocolate curls.

Soup is way under-rated

Introducing...Nitro!


She is the most recent addition to my tank at work, and unfortunately I have not gotten a good photo of her yet as she scoots around the aquarium very quickly and is shy. Nitro is short for Nitrogen, and she is a Pleco, an algae eater who keeps the tank spotless. Carbon was a little weary at first: he kept sneaking up behind Nitro to observe her and then dashing away when she moved. They seem to be settling in just all right.

On to more important things... like cooking!

Soup is way under-rated.




What do you think of when you think of Soup? Everytime I think of Soup, I think of The Classics: tomato soup, chicken soup, vegetable barley soup, and matzoh ball soup (if it's around Passover). The Classics have endured for good reason - they're simple to make, have very few ingredients and are guarenteed to warm the soul. Everytime I make Soup from scratch, it's always the same reliable recipe: a little onion, a little carrot, some mushrooms and potato. Vaula. Classic Soup A-La...a little dull.

Yet the amazing thing about Soup, given how ho-hum its obvious form tends to be, is that it is a type of food with amazing versitility. Here are my praises of soup:

1) It's cheap
2) It can be lunch, dinner, side dish or main dish
3) Cooking Soup be a long, slow process (like French Onion Soup), or it can be put together in less than 20 minutes (like today's Soup)
4) It's a vegetarian's dream come true: vegetables, protein and whole grains all in one pot
5) People will accept flavor and texture combinations that they would never ordinarily allow (case in point below)
6) Talk about healthy
7) I live on the East Coast and it's Winter


I've been itching to make some soup these past few days, ever since Greg surprised me with a wonderful Christmas gift: a Le Creuset enamel cast iron french oven. Enamel cast iron cookware pieces are designed to do one thing exceptionally well: slow caramelization of natural sugars. This talent can be applied to three things: meat, risotto and soup bases. The only problem is... we have to wait for the right color to come in to the store. Until then I'll have to fulfill my soup cravings with a normal pot, all the while dreaming of the depth of flavor I'll soon be able to make. This got me thinking about Soup, and suddenly Soup was all I could think about. I had to make it. This recipe started off with a dream about vegetarian French Onion, which morphed into a chickpea soup in a clear broth with grated onion, which suddenly became chickpea soup in a light tomato base with carrot and cellery... which then took an unexpected culinary twist.


Recently I've talked (typed?) quite a bit about flavors that I don't like (all-spice and chipotle being two such Normally Offensive Flavors). Ginger's the third flavor that I don't like in my food. It always reminds me of holiday sweets, and it's just too spicey for my taste. I will even go so far as to ignore a cookie if it has ginger in it. But as I was concocting this recipe, the broth was just lacking something. It was so blah. I added carrots, onion, cellery, tomato juice, garlic, potatos, garbanzo beans, and still... it was really, really boring, and I was getting irritated that I couldn't figure out the right flavor. Then I saw the ginger. Having been encouraged by my recent encounter with chipotle chilis, I figured, "what the heck", and I started experimenting.




All I can say is that the flavors of this soup exactly fit my craving for something flavorful, filling and healthful. Grated onion mellows the flavor substantially. Using tomato juice with water lightens the stock. Garbanzo beans, bulgar wheat and potatoes provide hearty depth, texture and a little starch to thicken up the base. Finally, the ginger balances everything out (you can't tell me I'm crazy until you try it yourself). I topped mine with ginger cream and toast sticks; Greg chose grilled cheese for dipping. No one flavor is overpowering, yet somehow this soup manages to have a full taste all the same.



Soup Base:
1/4 c olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
Juice reserved from a 32 oz can of whole tomatoes (save the tomatoes for something else)

Vegetables/Beans:
2 md onions, grated
2 carrots, grated
2 cellery stalks, grated
3 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed very well

Whole Grains:
1 cup bulgar wheat
2 red potatoes, cubed

Spices:
Plenty of salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cayanne
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp poultry seasoning (blend of rosemary, sage and other spices)
3 tbsp dried parsley

Topping:
3 tbsp nonfat yogurt
1 tsp ground ginger

1. Combine the soup base ingredients and turn on the heat to medium
2. Add the vegetables/beans
3. Add the whole grains
4. Simmer for 20-30 minutes (meanwhile, toast the bread if you're me or grill the sandwich if you're Greg)
5. Add the spices and season to taste
6. Assemble and enjoy!

At Least She Didn't Get the Cookies

According to my mom, my first word as a baby was “cookie”. Somehow, being all grown up now, I’m not surprised. I have a major weakness for cookies. My obsession with all things buttery-sugary related extends beyond any normal food vice that I might have – like good pasta, Mexican food in Connecticut, or a vanilla latte – above all such impressive indulgences, cookies reign supreme. Soft and chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside, dense and full of chocolate or oatmeal or almonds, buttery and doughy, oh, they are a wonder.


That is, of course, if the cookie is made right. And that’s what makes me sadder than anything else: when I see a delicious looking cookie sitting in a glass case at a coffee house or bakery, order it up, and find myself disappointed with something dry, pasty, flavorless, or otherwise lacking. There’s just no excuse.



Until about two years ago, I never really made my own. They were always…uninteresting. I left baking to one of those precise arts I didn’t understand. Then I met Becky (Becky, are you reading this? ;) ), my roommate in CT before Greg and I moved in together. She’s a pretty amazing cookie baker and taught me a trick or two. That got me interested: could I make the ultimate cookie?


There are indeed a few things that always help in making cookies, no matter what form:

1) Start with really soft butter – as in, leave it out the night before. Cream the butter. Cream the butter. Cream it a little more. Keep creaming!!
2) Then add sugar. Cream the butter and sugar together. Longer. Longer. Keep creaming. Go on: cream some more. Okay.



Properly creamed butter becomes light and airy, and it takes on a subtle yellow color. When creamed with sugar, the resulting mixture should be smooth and fluffy. If you feel a bit between your fingers, there shouldn’t be any grittiness – if there is…keep creaming… I usually let my butter and sugar cream for 5-10 minutes in the mixer.


3) Eggs should be warm. Room temperature. This allows the butter to stay creamy and mix with the eggs
4) Add the eggs one at a time. There’s only so much egg a mixture can hold before it separates. Then vanilla.
5) Sift the flour. It does help!
6) I recently learned this one: weigh the flour, don’t measure it. 1 cup = 120g for white flour, =140g for wheat flour. I was shocked when I saw how much my cup measure varied, and I found that my cookies started coming out so much better.



Okay, I admit, I’m usually in much to big of a rush to follow this step, but “they” (the cheffing powers that be), claim this is the secret to a crispy cookie, in the same way it is the secret to a flaky pie crust:

7) Refrigerate the dough for several hours prior to baking

And finally

8) Keeping them the same size really does help, because they cook evenly
9) A good cookie sheet is the key to not burning the bottoms


Here are my two absolute favorite cookie recipes, neither of which I can take any credit for. The chocolate chip cookie recipe is truly amazing without fail and usually exactly what I am craving in a cookie: a dense, moist and chocolatey center with crisp edges. The sugar cookies from Alton Brown are very simple. They remind me of a shortbread more than a sugar cookies: light on the sugar, heavy on the butter.

Alton Brown's Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe
Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe




I usually double or triple the espresso powder for the chocolate chip cookies, and I always double or triple the vanilla for any other kind of cookie. I also add 1 tbsp milk per egg in the recipe - this lets the cookies be a little more shelf stable (ie, not dry out) if you are using butter instead of shortening (which you should!!)


The checkerboard cookies are made by splitting a batch of basic sugar cookie dough in half. The first half gets lots of cocoa powder. The second half gets mint extract. And then, with hours of chilling in between each, the logs are squared off, cut, stacked, cut again, frozen, and sliced.



The frosting is very simple, as well. I use dried egg whites, available at crafts stores like Michaels, wipped with water (1tsp powder : 1 tbsp water + dash of cream of tarter) until soft peaks form. Add in powdered sugar a half cup at a time. It forms a room-temperature stable fluffy frosting, that dries relatively hard with a nice crunch.


Also pictured are chocolate with white chocolate chip cookies, originally from the Nestle Tollhouse recipe + Becky’s substitution (minus ½ cup flour, plus 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, no nuts and white chips instead of semisweet).


Lastly, I tried my hand at making caramel corn (sometimes you just get the craving, right?). This was easier than baking cookies, though it does come with an insurance risk. Measure the ingredients, let it boil for 15 minutes and pour molten liquid over pre-popped popcorn with almonds and pecans on a baking sheet. I would recommend you avoid pouring it over the index finger on your right hand, as I did, because it the pot of caramel is really quite hot. The caramel recipe is pretty simple:

2 sticks butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup




- Boil until it forms a crunchy thread in cold water; add 1 tsp baking soda, stir vigorously and pour over popcorn



And after I finished baking all of these cookies (it literally took all day Saturday), I cleaned up and put the few excess things in the still-mildly-hot oven, so that I could leave Tori out and about while I went and delivered cookies to our upstairs tenants. This is what I found when I returned:



The oven door had closed on her, though somehow she escaped “unharmed” (if 4 hours of nearly passed-out whining counts as harmless), with about $30 worth of pesto lasagna in her belly. At least she didn’t get the cookies.

I can't help it... I'm enjoying the food blogging...

I’ve heard all the hype. I’ve seen it on menus and read about it on the internet food blogs. I’ve even indulged in an occasional Mayan Mocha when the mood was right for something spicey and sweet. But until now, I’ve never cooked with chili and chocolate together in a savory dish. It’s not that I’m bothered by messing with the chili powder, but it’s the perception of chocolate flavor that I’m worried about. What if my taste for chocolate is forever tainted by a flavor of something savory? It’s almost like cooking with vanilla – some things just aren’t meant to be paired with salt, pepper and tomatoes. Yet the culinary combination of chili and chocolate is an old, old choice, and a popular one at that. There must be something to this spicey duo.

While we’re talking about spices… there are a few spices that I just don’t like. All-spice is one of them. Chipotle chilis are another. Yet when I went grocery shopping on Saturday, they were calling to me – smokey, deep, earthy, flavorful… if the peppers smell that good, they must taste good too, right? I threw caution to the wind and brought home a small box of the dried and shriveled shells, figuring with a light touch on the seasoning maybe I could enjoy the flavor. Turns out I could.

And while we’re talking about flavors… my favorite secret ingredient for chili is beer. I love beer in chili. I don’t love beer. I don’t even like beer. But put it in a tomato base and it transforms typical flavors into something amazing.

Thus a recipe was born. Half jalepeno, half chipotle for a smokey spiceness that wouldn’t overwhelm me. Including plenty of canned tomatoes and light on the veggies equals a sweet broth, so the beer was used for a little bitter contrast. Finally, as I was tasting the soup / stew in its final stages, I thought “this needs a little something else…something to match the smokiness of the chipotles”. Chocolate and coffee powder it was.

This was a really, really yummy bowl of chili. The flavors all balanced so well: the bright spiciness of the jalepeno, the smokiness of the chipotle and dried chili powder, the bitter fresh taste of the beer and the smooth, mellow depth from the coffee/cocoa powder combo. I actually ended up using substantially greater amounts of all of the dried spices than what I listed below (twice as much, to be exact)– but I provided the more conservative amounts in the recipe as a starting point to season it to your own taste.

I would highly recommend a little cocoa powder or coffee next time you make chili at home. I promise you that you won’t be able to taste the chocolate specifically, you’ll just now that the chili flavor is whole and complete. The only change I would make to this recipe next time would be a little chopped fresh cilantro and maybe some more veggies (this is a very broth-y chili). I’d say this was easy as pie, except pie crusts aren’t easy for me. Let’s just say it is a quick with very few ingredients.

1 large red onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 generous tablespoon tomato paste
1 fresh jalepeno pepper, scraped of the seeds and chopped
1 dried chipotle (rehydrate in a small amount of very hot water, scrape the insides and finely chop)

1 28 oz can stewed whole tomatoes with juices
1 16 oz can cannelini beans, rinsed well
1 16 oz can kidney beans, rinsed well
1 bottle of beer (the darker the better)
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped roughly

Seasoning
1/4 cup chili powder
1.5 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Cayanne pepper for spicey heat
Salt and Pepper

1. Heat oil in soup pot and add onions, bell pepper and tomato paste; cook over medium heat, stirring, for about 10 minutes or until softened
2. Add chopped peppers and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes
3. Add tomatoes, beans, beer, garlic and an extra 16 oz of water (stir carefully from now on to avoid breaking up the beans)
4. Allow to cook over low for at least 45 minutes. Uncover, pull apart the whole tomatoes with two forks and reduce to a desired consistancy (for me that was about 15 minutes). Then season to taste.

According to photo #10,948 (AKA IMG_0948)

(If you need wedding updates, skip the photos and scroll down!)
















Photos taken in the two years I owned my Canon Elf (AKA The Point and Shoot): Maybe 500

















Photos taken in the two years that I have owned my Canon Rebel SLR: 11,000





















Approximate photos taken per day in past two years: 15
















Photos taken in the past two months for Mark's book: 3,000





















Approximate photos taken per day taken in last two months: 50





















Photos edited in photoshop and submitted for book: 338















Photos chosen so far: somewhere around 70, I think















Gratitude towards famliy and friends for helping with setting up, posing for and thinking about these pictures: so much!





















Result of above work: some very numb wrists and fingers, but happy eyes

This is a wedding blog, right?

(**Note: those people who are "carrying the chuppah" - this is the same thing as "standing up". )

Everybody has been asking for wedding details. There's not too much that I haven't said already... but it's scattered throughout this blog. I'll summarize what we have decided so far. Feel free to ask questions.

Also...I sooooo got a wedding dress while I was in Arizona : ) But I can't talk about it here, because Greg checks this blog.

Important Dates

Villa in Italy rented for: May 19-26th (Saturday to Saturday)
Wedding Day: likely May 23rd
Reception Date: set at Sept 1st

The Villa

You can find a description of the villa here

We will be grouping people as follows:

Linda/Rob + Nancy/Paul
Nancy/Jim + Jen/Pete + Grandma
Rachael/Greg + Jessica/John + Michael/Leslie + Andy/Leslie + Bryan

There is a fourth building available to rent with two bedrooms and a third large open space that someone could sleep in. It runs about $900 for the week, which is cheaper than any hotel (in case other relatives are interested in attending).

There are kitchen's in the main building where Greg and I are at and in the building where Nancy and Jim are at. The Linda/Rob + Nancy/Paul building does not have a kitchen. There is a pool. There are large outdoor grounds. The weather should be gorgeous, as described here

The villa is 3 miles outside of historic rome and very close to public transportation. I encourage you not to rent a car unless you plan on travelling extensively outside of Rome. I'll be assembling a packet for everybody describing how to use the public transit system (it's of course very good)

At some future point I will post about various attractions. Here's what I've heard so far. Venice is incredible and a must-see. Florence is good for art, but not as interesting as some of the other places you can go (unless you're really really into the art). I've heard the amalfi coast is some of the best siteseeing, and coming from a friend that studied abroad and spent time there, that the little towns will probably hold a lot more interest than the super touristy areas. But that's all just opinion. As far as cuisine goes, think lighter/fresher along the coastline and more "traditional" (i.e., closer to what we americans call italian food) further inland.

The wedding party

Andy and Leslie + Jen and Pete will bring out the Chuppah, to be replaced by the parents (and in case you've never been to a Jewish wedding, this is a Chuppah). Bryan is the Best Man. Jessica is the Matron of Honor. Michael will be standing up on Greg's side.

The day before the wedding (Tuesday): We'll all go wine tasting to pick out a wine for the reception dinner in Rome

The day of the wedding (Wednesday): In the morning, I'll go with other people to pick out flowers. The guys will find some excuse to leave the villa for a few hours, then they'll come back and get ready. Wedding ceremony in the afternoon. We'll all go into the city to take photographs, and then we'll come back for a reception dinner at the villa

The day after the wedding (Thursday): Anybody who wants to go to Florence will go to Florence (my family has been talking about a trip there)

Other Things To Know:

Our general colors are brown, blue and sage green. Kind of like that, except the sage green is really sage green (am limited by text colors). Not bright green!

People in the wedding party will not be asked to wear anything in particular, except maybe something that goes along with the general colors if you're standing up.

Here's a copy of the email I just sent to everybody describing a few good fares

Originally we were hoping to group a book flight for everybody. This will not work for various reasons, so it is up to individuals to find good tickets. Do not pay more than $1000 for tickets. If you plan to arrive ahead of time or stay extra, the best deals for hotels are found in what are called "self-catering" (i.e., has a kitchen) apartments outside of the city. You can rent small villas for as cheap as $500 per week if you hunt online, though generally these are far away from the city with gorgeous views. Within the city, check out this site for short term apartment rentals -great apartments in rome can be found for $120 a night. That's only if you're planning to stay outside of the dates that we have rented the villa for

These are the best ticket prices I have seen, but some of them must be purchased by Nov 30th. Some of the flights are already sold out. I would really encourage visiting this site ASAP:

http://www.1800flyeurope.com/spring-airfare.cfm?c=2172

For instance, Logan-->Rome = $750 roundtrip (Greg, can you forward this email to Bryan?)
Phoenix-->Rome = $920 roundtrip
NYC --> London = $540 (nonstop), roundtrip
NYC --> Rome = $880 (nonstop), roundtrip

>From SanFran-->Rome, my friend Jessica already purchased her and her husband's tickets for $840 round trip.

Keep in mind two things:

1) Short connecting flights within the US are often cheap
2) Short connecting flights within Europe are often even cheaper (Madrid --> Rome = $120, London-->Rome = $160, and they often go on sale)
3) Flights will be cheaper from the east coast

The prices to Rome are still pretty good, but if you buy the major segment of the international flight and wait a bit, it is likely that you can find good deals for the shorter leg (e.g., from london to rome, phoenix to NYC, or from hartford to phili)

I have been searching through www.kayak.com and found very good prices for NYC-->Rome. 1 stop on the way in + nonstop on the way out = $720 roundtrip

Roundtrip tickets from NYC to Madrid can be found at www.airpluscomet.com for $450 including all taxes. Do not let them believe you can fly from NYC-->Madrid-->Rome through their airline (the flights do not connect properly), but you could think about booking the Madrid-->Rome flight separately through a different airline (the NYC-->Madrid flight is nonstop).

Finally, based on these prices, you can also visit www.priceline.com and have a sense of how much to bid. Though you won't get to choose your departure time, you can get very good deals this way.

Beautiful Boullabaisse

Cooking in someone else's kitchen (albeit my mother's) is always an adventure. Today I found myself missing my wonderful walnut cutting board, the knife that fits my hand just right, and the pepper grinder that's set to the perfect grind. Shopping for my favorite brands in a new market was even more of an adventure... yet, it was fun, and ultimately I can satisfy my tastebuds just as well in foreign territory. This is Greg's absolute favorite recipe. He jokes that this Boullabaisse Soup is the reason he's marrying me, or, at least, the reason he'll stay married to me when everything else goes bad. As long as I make this soup, we'll be golden.


This recipe takes quite a while to prepare, but it is well worth the effort. It is fishy, comforting, hearty, and bursting with earthy flavor. Sometimes I think an entire bottle of wine is overkill, but then I spoon up this soup and know it's worth it. Sometimes I ommit the carrots and add mushrooms. Sometimes rosemary instead of thyme. As the saying goes, it's all good. For a sweeter soup, use more carrot and celery. For a drier, sharper soup, reduce the vegetables and add more lemon. If you need something lighter, use less garlic, omit the wine and add vegetable stock to compensate.


The onions/garlic must be minced very, very finely (lots of surface area to caramelize and lovely morsles in each spoonfull). The more patient you can be in caramelizing the onions and reducing the wine/stock base, the more intense of a flavor you will get. Simmering the tomatoes for a longer period of time will also sweeten their flavor tremendously. I have found I like a bitter, unsalted vegetable stock (as opposed to sweeter versions) to balance out the carrots and tomato in this dish.


Whatever seafood you feel like - throw on in. The list I had here is a bit overkill. This produces a thick, hearty stew more than a soup! The scallops are very easy to overcook; best to finish cooking them in the soup base while you prepare the shellfish (usually I slice them in half or quarters after searing them).


I think it helps to wait to season the soup base until after the vegetables are done. Adding salt before this will draw out moisture from the vegetables (toughening them and preventing caramelization). I like lots of fresh parsley, lemon, and cayanne pepper in my soup, but others might prefer it plain. If the fishy taste is too much, first take out the clams and crabmeat - without those, the fish flavor is very, very mild.


Sometimes I make extra garlic/shallot/butter (eventually used for the scallops) and reserve it to dunk chunks of bread in. Hope you enjoy. Oh, and both your house and your clothing will smell like fish - beware!! :)

SOUP BASE (easy to make ahead of time)

4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, minced
1 head of garlic minus 3 cloves, minced
3-4 ribs of celery, minced or chopped
2-3 med carrots, minced or chopped
3 cups vegetable stock
3 cups dry white wine
35 oz. can of whole tomatoes, juice drained, tomatoes pulled into strips
2 small bay leaves
2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
salt, pepper, and cayanne pepper

1. Mince onions and garlic together
2. Melt butter with olive oil in pan and add onions and garlic. Caramelize for 20-30 minutes
3. Meanwhile, mince the cellery and carrots. Add to soup base and cook for an additional 20 minutes
4. Deglaze with white wine and reduce by 25%
5. Add vegetable stock, tomato strips, bay leaves and other spices
6. Simmer gently for at least 30 minutes with seasoning to taste



FISH PORTION

1 can clams with juice
1 can crab meat
1 lb flakey white fish (Cod works well)
12 medium scallops or several large ones
12 shellfish (muscles or clams)
1 cup white wine
3 cloves of garlic
1 Shallot

1. Mince shallot and garlic; add to a separate fish pan with olive oil and cook on low heat for 10 minutes
2. Meanwhile, prepare the fish:
- soak the scallops in milk to clean
- scrub shellfish and clean well; place in fresh brine with corn meal to flush out
- slice the white fish into bites and add to simmering soup base (simmer soup base until done!)
3. Turn fish pan to high heat; sear scallops until crispy on the outside and nearly done on the inside; add to soup stock
4. Deglaze with 1 cup wine and immediately steam shellfish. Cook for 6 minutes at most (remove any unopened ones) and add shellfish with cooking liquid to soup

Add chopped parsley. Serve with wedges of lemon and crusty bread.

(Unfortunately my family is not big into shellfish, so there aren't any in the photos I took today!)