Sweater Weather Recipe

I am currently sitting with a cup of hot tea, next to my space heater, and wearing two shirts and long trousers. It's cold out.

There are lots of things I enjoy doing when it's cold out: smoking, sleeping, walking on campus, wearing sweaters/scarves/knit tights/etc, and making good, cold weather food.

A few months ago, a friend of a family member had a death in their family and, as is proper behavior, I was asked to make some food to bring the family because they were largely vegetarians and I am one, too. I decided to make some soup using what I had around. It turned out fabulously and is now one of my favorite things to have when it's cold or rainy (or, if I'm lucky, both!). It's easy to make but it also makes a mess. It's also really customizable (don't like something? Substitute something else!).

Best Vegetarian Soup:

You'll need:

1/2 cup (or more depending on how much you like beans, I sometimes use a whole cup) mixed beans. You can buy a pretty big bag for cheap at Wal-Mart with, like, 15 varieties
3-5 Potatoes (I like to use more beans, less potatoes but this also depends on the size of the potatoes)
1 large-ish onion
2 carrots (or more, I like more)
2 celery stalks
2 cups of vegetable stock (or, if you aren't vegetarian, chicken broth should be fine, too. I, obviously, haven't tried it)
Vegetable Oil
Salt & Pepper

1. Cover the beans with water in a pot. Bring the pot to a boil and cook the beans for about 10 minutes. After that, put the whole thing on a back burner on medium to low heat and let them simmer whilst you're doing everything else.

2. Peel the potatoes and cut them up into about bite-sized pieces. Put them into another pot and boil them until they're soft with a little bit of salt. Should take around 10 minutes unless you have a lot of potatoes. When they're done, drain them and set them somewhere to the side.

3. Peel your carrots and then slice them up into bite-sized bits. Ditto the celery. Next, peel and chop up your entire onion. Pour some vegetable oil in a skillet (I like to use my wok) and let it heat for a minute or two before adding your onion. Cook the onion until it becomes transparent and then add the carrots and celery. Cook that for about 7 minutes and then add the vegetable stock. Cook this mixture for about another ten minutes.

4. Check your beans. Are they soft or at least soft-ish? If yes, go ahead and add the beans (bean-water and all) to the vegetable stuff. Then add the potatoes. Put it all in something oven-safe and add salt and pepper. Then put the whole thing in the oven and cook it at 400° for about 30 minutes or until it bubbles. Take it out very carefully and serve.

I think it goes well with some fresh bread (the crustier, the better) or multi-grain Club Crackers. It also stores really well in the fridge or freezer.

Recipe for Midterms

You all know that I want to be a baker, right?

It is mid-term time and I am constantly asking myself why I'm wasting my time, my life in academia when I could be studying the culinary arts. Each paper, exam, you-name-it and I'm thinking, "Wouldn't it be great if I were learning how to make pain au chocolat?" Or something similar.

Today I had to do my Polish Society & Culture midterm. I'm sure it's utter shit as in one of the essays I started comparing Germans to ducks. Whatever, it's done.

Anyway, I don't do well with stress. I break out, my back starts to hurt, I drink way too much coffee and chain-smoke. I don't like deadlines and I don't like word counts and I just, in general, don't like having to think about stuff about which I just really don't give a damn. What do I do to relieve stress?

I create.

Depending on how bad the stress is depends on what I create. Day-to-day stress creates poetry and painting and weird songs. Heavy exams, family issues, money problems creates food. The more complicated, the better. I can have the worst week and then make a truly marvelous soup or bake some fuckin' awesome muffins and then I feel so much better.

Today I created White Chocolate Pomegranate Mousse and, oh, my motherfucking lord, it's splendid. I'm going to post the recipe because I think maybe some of you would like it?

White Chocolate Pomegranate Mousse

You'll need (for four servings):

1 cup of heavy whipping cream (hint: Publix carries many sizes. The smallest is one cup)
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
4 ounces of white chocolate (I used just one bar of the Ghirardelli)
2 egg whites
1 pomegranate, seeded*

1. Melt the chocolate. You can do this in a pan but I chose to do it in the microwave. If you do it my way, break the chocolate into pieces and put them in something microwave safe. Next heat them on half-power for about a minute and half. Take it out and stir it. If it's not quite done, put it in for another 30 seconds (again, on half power!). Set it aside to cool.

2. Pour your whipping cream into a mixing bowl. If you have a kitchen-aid, I suggest breaking out the wire whisk. I, however, just used a hand-mixer (and a broken one, at that!). Whip the cream at a very high speed. After a few minutes it'll start to get thicker (you'll know this because as you're whipping, the mixer will start to make shapes in the cream but feel free to stop it at times to see). Keep mixing until it gets to be like the whip cream that comes in a can, not coolwhip. Add the sugar and mix for a little more. It should be thick enough to stick to the mixer, if not, keep mixing. Stick it in the fridge.

3. Beat the egg whites with a teensy pinch of salt until it forms peaks. This takes a while and if you're doing it by hand, you're going to get tired. Just sayin'.

4. Fold the egg whites into the whipped cream and then do the same with the chocolate. When it's all together, you can start putting it in whatever you're serving it out of. I chose some wine glasses. I also opted to put a few pomegranate seeds at the bottom just because the glasses were, well, glass and it looked pretty. Put some of the mousse on top and then throw a few more pomegranate seeds on top. Voila! Stick the glasses in the fridge for about a half an hour to firm up the mousse and then serve.

*How to seed a pomegranate:

I don't know if there's a correct way so I can only tell you how I did it. It's kind of messy and time-consuming but hey, if you don't like it, make the recipe with something cleaner / easier that goes well with chocolate (Bananas? Strawberries? etc?).

Cut the crown off of the pomegranate. The seeds are in kind of pod-like things so peel the skin around them. You can pluck the seeds out or kind of brush them out, if you're good. Some will pop and the juice does stain so wear an apron or be really careful. Do this until you've peeled all of the skin and freed all of the little red seeds.