Feel Better Soup

After a whirlwind weekend of traveling in Oklahoma, my husband and I finally landed back in the Bay Area yesterday; I'm happy to report I gathered a handful of recipes from both grandmothers, aunts and foodie friends. But today I'm posting "feel better soup" because the four-day trip has battered my immune system and left me with a sore throat. (Stay tuned this week for posts on lentil burgers and lentil leftovers).

While eating soup for breakfast may not seem like a revelatory act, it's significant for me, because breakfast food is nearly always the first thing that crosses my lips, despite the actual time of day when I am eating. (Look out for a variation on "overnight oatmeal" a recipe adapted from the Whole Foods blog).

I woke up craving warm liquid, but was dismayed to find out our ginger root is more suited for the compost heap rather than hot tea. My mind then gravitated to plain vegetable broth, which is as simple as boiling water in the tea pot, and stirring in a mug with a few tablespoons of the powdered broth I bought in bulk from the Berkeley Bowl.

This grocery store is most well-known for its vast selection of produce and fierce battles for an elusive parking space, but what I love about the Bowl is its selection of bulk foods and cosmetics. In addition to the staples you might find at most bulk food aisles in natural foods stores, Berkeley Bowl has staples for vegetarian cooking--chili mixes, textured vegetable protein, and non-chicken powdered mix that is a great base for any soup, stew or homemade meat substitute calling for water. Buying in bulk is the easiest way to save money at the grocery store, even if you are buying organic.

Today I wanted a little more substance, and could feel the need for protein and carbs. So I whipped this up in about 10 minutes, by grabbing a few things in the freezer and with little imagination needed.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. water, boiling

1/2 c. pasta (about a handful of fusilli, rigatoni or macaroni)

1 green onion, chopped

3 frozen meatballs (I used Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs)

3 t. veggie broth powder (or one cube of bouillon)

dash of salt to boil the water quicker

The vegetarian broth calls for 3 teaspoons of powdered stuff for every cup of water, but I suggest using it to taste, depending on how salty you want it. I dropped three frozen meatless meatballs into a small pyrex bowl and popped it in the toaster oven--> 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Then I boiled the water and dropped in a handful of pasta, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat down a bit, but keep the water boiling (follow package directions to determine how long you need to boil). About 5 minutes into the 9 minute boil, I added a few green onions and the veggie broth, continuing to stir. After the toaster oven dinged, I carefully dropped the meatless balls into the pot and continued to stir until the pasta reached the end of its 9 minute tenure. And you're done!

The reason why this was so quick and easy was because I chopped the green onions and froze them last week, before I left on the trip. Some may argue whether frozen food is more nutritious than fresh food, but I chose the freezer over the trash can--those onions would've rotted after a few more days in the vegetable drawer. Meatless meatballs can, of course, be made from scratch, but the ones TJ's makes are pretty tasty and cheap AND packed with protein. A one-pound bag is about $3.50, and a serving of 6 meatballs has 16 grams of protein.

Today the soup was a bit saltier than I usually like, but I didn't have the patience to add more water and onions and get it to the right temperature again. I feel better and now have the gumption to go to my neighborhood corner store and grab the ginger I need for my hot tea.

Enjoy!

Farm Fresh-Giada-Oliver Marinara

I LOVE TOMATOES! I don't ever remember my mom making marinara sauce from scratch, but she did always add bay leaves and rosemary, which I called "leaves and sticks," and would always pick them out in disgust. She reminded me then that is what brought out the flavor. Now rosemary is my 2nd favorite herb. Tomatoes are almost always accompanied by rosemary in my cooking now (except for Mexican food).

Until recently, we subscribed to a CSA that delivered organic, locally-grown food to our doorstep. Sometimes the tomatoes would arrive fully ripe and ready for eatin' and other times, they needed a few days to ripen.

Sad to say, I didn't always get to them before they were too ripe. But I found this recipe for roasted tomatoes in one of the newsletters we got in our box from Farm Fresh to You. Basically, it is for tomatoes that are too soft to slice for sandwiches and burgers, but before they're moldy!

I do not advocate trying to cook spoiled food to save money. I do advocate using all of the fruits and veggies even if they are "less-than-fresh," which was the case with the tomatoes.

After three attempts to make marinara sauce, I eventually combined several recipes: one from the Farm Fresh newsletter, one from a Jamie Oliver cookbook, and one from the Food Network's Giada De Laurentiss website.

Ingredients:

tomatoes

garlic

basil (fresh is best, but dried will do)

oregano

rosemary (if you use dried, use less than you would if you picked it fresh)

bay leaf

crushed red pepper (or one fresh red pepper)

salt & pepper to taste

yellow onion

white wine

red wine vinegar

olive oil (extra virgin is the tastiest, but you can use light if you have it)

First, cut out the stems and any bruised or ugly spots from the tomatoes. Lightly drizzle olive oil in a baking dish and put in the tomatoes. I smash one garlic clove and stuff into each tomato, but use the garlic at your own discretion. Now sprinkle tomatoes with a bit of white cooking wine, salt & pepper, and a handful of oregano and rosemary. Roast in the oven @ 200 degrees for 8 hours +/- (this is best done at night before you go to bed). The skins should be browned and carmelized by this point.

Take out the tomatoes and let them cool. Carefully spoon the tomatoes, herbs and juices into a food processor or mini-food chopper and blend until they are an even consistency.

In a saucepan, sautee 1/2 c. (about a handful, chopped) of yellow onion, a smashed clove of garlic, and a few tablespoons of olive oil (medium-high heat) until onions are translucent. Add 2 T of crushed red chili peppers (in a pinch, you can use leftover packets from the pizza delivery place). Stir for 5 mins.

Add yummy tomatoes and reduce heat to low.

Stir in 1 T crushed oregano, 1 bay leaf, 1 T crushed black pepper and pinch of salt. (if you like a sweeter marinara, halve the salt and add two Ts sugar or honey). Add 1 t red wine vinegar and a handful (or two!) chopped fresh basil (if you are using dried basil, i would add 2-3 Ts).

Simmer uncovered on low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy!

(note, depending on how many tomatoes you use and how long you simmer, this sauce may be pretty watery. If you prefer, add 1-4 oz. can of tomato paste to thicken it up.)

Recession Cooking from a California-Okie

Welcome to the Recession Cooking blog!

As a recently graduated, newly unemployed journalist, I'm looking for ways to practice my craft, but not give away my best stuff for free. Writing about food is the best way to do this, because we all have to eat, cooking from scratch saves money, and using less-than-fresh food is one way that my relatives coped with the Great Depression. Hopefully this will give you new ideas about cooking, encourage you to try something new or different, or at least give you a chuckle or two.

I currently live in California, but I was born and raised in Oklahoma. While I lived in the Sooner State, having ancestors that endured the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl was a source of pride, but something I never really thought about in depth. Living in California, I often meet people who say, "my grandparents moved here from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl." Now I take great pride in knowing that even though some family members came to Bakersfield for the oil boom, most of them returned to their home state.

This is inspired by all of the wonderful people in my family (mostly women), who have spent so many years cooking and creating amazing concoctions for holidays, birthdays and Sunday dinners. In addition, I have to give credit to my friends that inspire me: Sindya, who lived on a food stamps budget for a week as a food-writing experiment; Novella, who raises farm animals, grows fruits and veggies and cultivates bees in the gritty West Oakland neighborhood known as Ghosttown; and Caesaré, a social/food justice advocate and vegan chef.

I'll be posting at least once a week, and I encourage you to post comments or submit your own creative food creations. Hopefully I can convince a few of my friends to write guest blogs every now and then. Enjoy!