Saturday, February 11, 2006

on the days I don't succumb to Popeye's....


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Saturday is the day of the week when my dad eats vegetarian only. Please don't ask me about the religious reason for this because I do not know. But anyway, it was a good day to make this version of the spinach & tofu soup that I remember KM making during the college years. As the handy illustration shows, the main ingredients are spinach, tofu, scallions and water. I also used crushed garlic cloves, minced ginger, a splash of mirin, a splash of olive oil, two splashes of soy sauce, a dash of sea salt, and a wee handful of crushed black peppercorns. I know you're loving the measurement system I created. I felt it was important to move beyond "smidge" and "scoche". I basically just threw everything into a pot of boiling water and then let it simmer for a while. And thusly, my dad was very pleased.

Yesterday I attended a baby shower for my cousin (who is a yoga instructor), which was thrown by some of her students. It was maybe the poshest daytime home-party I have yet attended. Let's just say I was glad to have worn some sabrina heels instead of my dusty old Pumas. Also, closest thing to a Newpsie (yes another O.C. reference, yet the show continues to wrangle with my soul and keep introducing really boring secondary characters who cannot compare to Anna or Lindsay...and how gross is it that Sandy's co-worker is pretty much drooling over Marissa? Ewwwwwww.) function I have ever been to. The cookies were low-fat. And yet, mostly untouched. But even better than the cookies was this chickpea-kidney-bean salad my cousin made for the lunch. She's 8 months pregant and made two dishes for her own baby shower. She rules. Anyway, the salad was awesoooooome. It was basically this super super complicated recipe, only this was her ingredient list: chickpeas, kidney beans, diced tomato and bell peppers, lemon juice, scallions, and minced garlic (no vinegars, at least I don't think so). There may have been a touch of cilantro, but I can't remember. But it was damn good, very flavorful and colorful, and how can you go wrong? Chickpeas are as cute as babies' butts.

In random news, please remind me how gross SUVs are. I recently saw the most gorgeous Cadillac Escalade and I don't know what paint color it was, but it looked like it was carved from freaking mother-of-pearl. Since then I may have ogled a pristine white GMC Denali. *Smacks own wrist*

7 comments:

aging cowgirl said...

1. The spinach and tofu soup sounds so good--- and not complicated to make. the splishing and splashing of the recipe seems like you may be on your way to your own cooking show, with KM as recurring guest star.
2. What was the scene at the party? Bobo long island moms or younger people? i might need to make that salad for a dinner i am having on tuesday.
3. zuppe, i think you are sublimating your eye shadow/ nail polish desires into a lust for SUV's. this is not healthy. the rest of the country is finally starting to learn that perhaps paying $40 to fill up a tank that barely lasts a couple of days is not worth it, we can't have people like you promoting the Denali just because they have shimmery colors.
4. a cool link: www.pandora.com is a music site that makes a radio station for you based on preferences you enter. they include the artist you chose along with others that they think you would like. it also gives you a clue about how they organize the site by telling you some of the qualities of that artist (melodic spanish dance, staccato acoustic guitar etc.).

zuppe said...

It was very very BoBo LI mom scene. Everyone does running, spinning and yoga. Yikes.

OK you aging cowgirl must then help me sublimate my desires for bling into making jewelry like this: http://www.bingbang88.com/buy/index.html. I know I had absolutely NO patience learning the wire loops, but I think I can work with jump rings and chain (that is, if we ever manage to find a good affordable selection somewhere).

And I just made a Jay-Zed radio station on Pandora.com. I'm amazed they could get that domain name.

zuppe said...

I'm dangerously tempted by this site:

http://www.firemountaingems.com/

aging cowgirl said...

I remember Fire Mountain from my time in the industry. We used to order wholesale from them and direct people to their site. I was tempted by their hexcut glass beads in the seed beed section. The stuff at bingbang88 is cool and you're right that the hardest thing is finding good chain to work with.
I made a necklace yesterday inspired by this site: http://www.pashupatina.com/necklaces/home-bysize.htm
that was a discovery of urs'.

zuppe said...

Those are cute! They are sort of like the bing bang chains, only happier :P

So I think I may have to patina my own chains, man. Should I get a blow torch?

starbright oogi said...

can i have a real recipe puleeeze-- is it 8 lbs of tofu and 4 kegs of spinach? #s lady, i need amounts. the soup sounds tasty.

zuppe said...

Ok, Ok.

I used one package of tofu (cubed), one bunch of spinach (chopped) and maybe 7-10 scallions (chopped). All of those usually come in the same size everywhere.

I would guesstimate I used 8-10 cups of water.

3 garlic cloves (crushed); 1 tsp of minced ginger; and I'd guesstimate that a splash is like 1.5 tablespoons. I think maybe I ended up with 1/2 tsp. of salt (but I'd add it to taste, to make sure it didn't get too salty).

You can add a dash of red pepper too :P