A Good Old Fashioned Celery Soup

What do you do with a bunch of celery? Use it in salad? or as a crunchy snack. However it's winter and that calls for soup. I decided to try an update of my Mom's recipe.

Unfortunately I didn't have it. Mine is a mashup of improvising on a recipe I found on The Daring Gourmet blog. I varied it and add whatever I could remember of the family recipe.
It starts with celery which I had in abundance from making lobster salad with the lobster balls I made last Monday.

I sliced the stalks and the heart into chunks the way my Mom did.

It was sauteed in organic butter (I know I shouldn't have this on a cirrhosis diet. but I felt it would add a rich flavor to the potage)

Half went in, (about  a quarter cup)

A third of a cup of a flour was added to create a roux with the celery. This thickens it. The Daring Gourmet called for a whole onion and garlic to also be sauteed. I nixed these and added a heaping tablespoon of onion powder by McCormick.

I let all this cook down for about ten minutes before adding an entire container of vegetable stock.

This is Acme's Signature line and it's a rich broth. Then it was Almond Coconut milk

And three cups of Almond Breeze's almond coconut blend. 

It was cooked down for another ten minutes as another dash of onion powder was added for more flavor and an extra three teaspoons of flour was added to thicken it. I didn't add salt but freshly ground pepper for more flavoring and bite.

It was a delicious hot bowl. The celery chunks cooked down for still crunchy on the inside , soft on the outside texture. There was also a lovely buttery aftertaste and a smoothness to the soup.

This celery soup, a mashup of recipes, is the perfect dish for a cold February night. Make it for dinner to ward off the chill. It's lovely and green, a reminder of Spring and summer to come.

Impromptu Cuisine

Inspiration is all around if you're a home chef. A bag of frozen veggies could turn into a salad. Leftovers can be elevated to a tasty meal.It just takes  creativity and the willingness to try to make a delicious meal.

This happened to me tonight.It was just going to be a simple cup of soup for a Friday night. However the leftover soy chicken strips from the other night looked too beckoning. I decided to crisp them up in margarine with a heady dash of Sylvia's lemon pepper seasoning.This is a great seasoning to have around.It elevates the real thing and the faux poule too with a rich ,lemony flavor and a hint of salt.The flavoring would be good on barbecued chicken too. What goes with lemon chicken?  Any kind of veggie.I opened my freezer to find Stop & Shop's frozen broccoli. I had been saving the package for a broccoli salad but saw it and thought why not make it now. These are steamed florets so they needed some oomph.All it took was a toss in olive oil flavored with minced garlic. It turned into the perfect hot salad, amped up by a good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. What started out as a blah idea for a Friday supper turned into something much better and much tastier.I just looked into the fridge, assessed what was there and let creativity take over.. It's amazing how the fridge can act as a canvas.

Anyone can create a meal like this.Leftover London Broil can be chopped up and added to an already mixed salad to make it more substantial. Add a mushroom gravy to the slices and serve over rice for another hearty meal. Chicken can be repurposed into a yummy Mexican dish with the help of a home made mole sauce.I like the idea of frying it up into crispy pieces and flavored with spices.I could have used a mix of rosemary and garlic too for a Mediterranean vibe. Sliced grape tomatoes would have been added for color and kick.Tomatoes are another ingredient in creating an impromptu meal. Slice them and then saute them in a mix of butter, olive oil, and garlic.Cover with breadcrumbs and more minced garlic and you have the mouth watering tomatoes Provencale.They are also good in a lunchtime pain bagnat,, the Southern French sandwich.This could be an impromptu meal , because besides tomatoes, it also has hard boiled eggs, any veggies and tuna stuffed into an oiled loaf of French bread.If you don't have tuna, sub in anchovies.Serve with a good red wine for a truly Gallic feel and end the meal with grapes.

Impromptu cooking is a fun way of testing a home chef's creativity. It makes you assess what you have and  the possibilities. It just takes a spark of creativity to make a meal with what you already have in the kitchen and the fridge.