Frozen vegetable soup

When my husband threatened to get sick, too, I decided to make a batch of chicken noodle soup for him.

Then I realized I didn't have any chicken.

So I decided on vegetable soup instead.

However, my vegetable supplies were a little puny. I had to supplement with frozen veggies.

Fortunately, that's not a problem. Vegetable soup is more a guideline than a recipe. I ended up adding an onion, several carrots, one old zucchini, a can of whole tomatoes, a bag of frozen green beans, a bag of frozen corn, and two bunches of radish greens, along with a handful of dried macaroni. Oh, and I got to use up a bunch of homemade broth. With seasonings, it was a very delicious soup.

It's similar to refrigerator soup, except without meat, and with frozen veggies.

Nutella muffins

It's been a long few days, recovering from that godawful stomach bug. I spent a couple of days feeling weak and puny, with no real appetite at all. Yesterday, my husband started to feel bad, and I had a terrible vision of him getting this thing too. Fortunately, he hasn't so far, and my appetite has come back.

I celebrated by making a batch of Nutella muffins.

From Kirbie's Cravings, reprinted below:

(Note: I halved this recipe.)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of Nutella
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 stick butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line oversized muffin molds with liners. You can also line regular muffin pans. Makes about 12 oversized or 24 regular. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, Nutella and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, then the chocolate chips, stirring until all ingredients are combined. The batter will still be a little lumpy.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin about 2/3 full. Bake the muffins for about 25 minutes for oversized muffins (about 18 minutes for regular), or until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Ugh

I spent the Fourth of July in a fetal position.

Not because of fireworks or anything. I got a vicious stomach bug that has apparently been making the rounds at work. I think I threw up more times that day than I ever have cumulatively in my entire life. Seriously. I think I pulled something.

Fortunately, it was short-lived. I spent 12 hours in absolute agony--I couldn't even keep water down--and then as quickly as it hit me, it was gone. I managed to go to work last night, though I was operating at about 40% capacity. My stomach is fine now, I'm just still recuperating from not having eaten very much in the last couple of days.

Also, I lost four pounds in 48 hours. Yay?

So I'll be doing my Fourth of July grilling tomorrow, assuming my recovery stays on track.

Anyway, at least I got sick on an already-scheduled day off, so that I didn't have to miss any work. And better now than on the road trip, right?

Speaking of which! I will be taking my hubs and stepston to revisit some of my favorite parts of the Great 2009 Cross-Country Road Trip: namely, Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. We'll see Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. It'll be an epic 10-day car loop through some fantastic scenery.

I've already been accumulating some of the things we'll need: updated summer clothes, sunscreen, new water bottles, beef jerky, a catsitter. You know, the basics. I got a bunch of travel guides from the library and new tires for the car (we needed those anyway).

T-minus two weeks and counting!

Mt. Rainier National Park, WA

I've been waiting for a Monday and a perfect weather day to coincide for a while, so that we could finally get to Mt. Rainier National Park. Why Monday? Because it's one of my two days off, and because the park would be far less crowded than on a Sunday (my other day off).

Yesterday dawned a perfectly clear, hot day. Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures in the high 80s (I had to run out and buy three fans this weekend). The last of the park roads had been opened--there are still two feet of snow on the ground at the higher elevations, and that's on July 1--and there were a fair amount of people in the park, but I'm sure not nearly as many as the weekend.

 It was gorgeous, naturally.

The only downside was having to drive back on two-lane mountain roads behind a bunch of slow-moving tourists. I get super-aggravated, stuck behind someone like that. I really have to find a way to not be aggravated by that, or else I'll spend the entire road trip in three weeks in full bitch mode.

Oh yeah, the road trip!

Ten days of driving through Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. At least five national parks and several national monuments. Some of the most breathtaking scenery on the continent. Ten days of sitting in a car, not working.

Stay tuned...

Corn and goat cheese salad

Aaaaand yet another make-ahead cold salad! Perfect for hot days.

Note: the recipe calls for grilled roasted corn but I used plain old thawed frozen corn. And I left out the tomatoes, because I didn't have any.

From The Healthy Foodie:

8 ears of fresh corn on the cob, silk removed
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup grape tomatoes
2 cups haricots verts, ends removed and cut into 1" pieces
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and very finely chopped
the juice of 1 lime
1 tsp Himalayan salt
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
75g unripened goat cheese, crumbled
½ cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat your outdoor grill to high heat (around 400-450). Place your ears of corn directly on the grill without removing the husks (remove the silk to avoid burning). Close the lid and cook the corn for about 20 minutes, rotating the ears every 3-5 minutes, to insure even cooking on all sides. Remove corn from the grill and allow to cool for about 10 minutes then remove the husks. Remove kernels from the cobs and place in the fridge to cool completely, preferably overnight.

Of course, you can also use leftover corn or even frozen corn. When corn is good and cold, add it to a mixing bowl along with the rest of the ingredients. Blend to combine. Serve immediately or leave in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow for flavors to combine.

Quinoa and white bean salad

Another one of those cold salads that can be made ahead, and eaten either cold or at room temperature. (Also good as a wrap filling.)

Reprinted below:

1 cup quinoa
2 cups cooked white beans of your choice or 1 14 oz can butter beans or cannellini beans, drained of all liquid
½ lb green beans
1 red bell pepper, diced
½ small red onion, finely diced
2-3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper


Place quinoa in a medium sauce pot with 2 cups water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook about 10 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork and set aside to cool (You will want to assemble the salad when quinoa is still warm, but not hot). In a large pot of boiling salted water, blanch the green beans for about 5 minutes (they should be cooked, but still crisp), then transfer them to an ice water bath. When cool, drain them and cut into 1 inch batons. In a large mixing bowl combine the quinoa, drained white beans of your choice, green beans, diced onion, diced pepper, lemon zest and juice, vinegar, and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley.

Effortless bacon

Sometimes you don't want to stand over a hot skillet for 20 minutes, dodging hot bacon grease, you know?

I like to cook whole packages of bacon at a time, then save them in a Ziploc bag and use them in wraps or as a quick breakfast boost throughout the week. This is a great way to cook a lot of bacon at once, with a minimum of effort.

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Fold the edges up so the bacon grease won't drip over the sides.

Line the foil with strips of raw bacon.

Put the sheet in a cold oven.

Turn the oven on and set it to 400 degrees.

Come back in about 20 minutes. At that point keep checking the bacon every couple of minutes until it's done the way you like it.

Remove the sheet, remove the bacon immediately onto paper towels, and fold up the foil so that you can easily pour off the bacon grease and save it.

Put the cookie sheet away and throw away the foil.

All done!