As I prepare to build an ark for the next downpour, forecast for Tuesday, my husband suggested that instead of visiting the lumber yard I should visit the grocery store instead.  Since I’m not very good with the whole ‘measure twice, cut once’ thing I decided to divert my attention to ‘building’ a great, soul warming soup.  And to be truthful, I had wanted to prepare the well-known Italian Wedding Soup for some time.

I have read 2 recipes for the soup, both of which sound delicious.  The Barefoot Contessa (Ian Garten) has a recipe in her recent Back to Basics cookbook and Pioneer Woman had a similar version posted this past week on her website.  I’m certain the internet has lots more versions of this soup.  It’s a little more involved than some soup recipes because, as the name implies, weddings are important events and so there should be no ‘time expense’ too great to prepare for them (weddings and food served).  The soup has bite- sized meatballs that you must prepare in advance.  Believe me, its worth every step the recipe asks for.

I hope you are staying dry/warm this winter.

As Southern California is enjoying our wettest month in years, I begin to look for ways to wrap up loose ends and possibly simplify my life.  This is usually a result of “cabin fever”.  The rain has restricted my outdoor activities and has fostered this urge to organize and tidy up loose ends.  This goal of simplifying and weeding out are always on my ‘to do’ list and the funny thing (maybe not that funny) is that no matter how much I eliminate and de-clutter there seems to always be more and more stuff!

That said, I had visited the website Taste Book http://www.tastebook.com/ , a brilliant site affiliated with Epicurious http://www.epicurious.com/ (an equally brilliant site) some months ago.  I diligently uploaded recipes that I had either cut from magazines, gotten from friends, or printed off some of my favorite food websites online.   I selected a cover from an incredible array of beautiful choices and ordered the first 50 pages.  This left me with a credit of 50 pages more that could be ordered any time and added to my customized Taste Book.  If all this sounds confusing let me explain.  This website allows you to create a very professionally published-looking cookbook with all of your favorite recipes.

The pages are high quality card stock that can be wiped clean when necessary.  There are tabs included for each of the categories i.e. appetizer, salads, soups, meat, chicken, dessert, etc.  The cards are sent with the cover (a 3-ring binder) and voila, you have a cookbook that can be titled anything you want—Mom’s Favorite Recipes, Holiday Entertaining, Cookies, etc.  WARNING:  This site is seriously addicting!  Especially if you are looking for something to entertain you when inclement weather has taken the region.

Anyway, back to my ‘clean up, simplify’ story…Taste Book is my weekend, Saturday, rainy-day morning project.  Try it, I think you’ll have fun.  Don’t worry, it’s not too complicated and the folks at Taste Book are very user friendly with their video tutorial and additional FAQ section.  Stay dry!

Wemberly, Texas

New Years Eve used to be one of those holidays that I felt obliged to participate in.  I never really thought staying up until midnight lived up to what I felt it should.  Then about 6 years ago my husband and I were invited to join 3 other couples, who happen to be very good friends here in our neighborhood (our kids all went to grade school through high school together), in a ‘progressive dinner’.  For those  of you who have never heard the term—each couple are assigned a course of the meal and then, beginning with the appetizer course, we move from house to house as the meal progresses.

This happens to be a really compatible group with similar interests in wine and food.

This year I was assigned the appetizer.  I prepared Roasted Shrimp Cocktail using Ina Garten’s (Barefoot Contessa) Back to Basics cookbook.  This is easy and delicious.  I also prepared Cheddar Puffs from Pioneer Woman Cook’s site.

http://the pioneer worman.com/cooking

The nice thing about the Cheddar Puffs is that you can make them well in advance and freeze them and then just place the number you plan on eating on a cookie sheet and bake.

The picture attached to his post doesn’t really have anything to do with New Year’s Eve but because of our visit to Austin at Christmas (with a side trip to Wemberly, Texas in the hill country) I thought I would post it—we were shopping in this quaint little town before our visit to the Salt Lick, a famous BBQ restaurant, in Driftwood, Texas

Menu planning is next on my list of things to do.  My friends enjoy main course salads and I think Ina Garten’s Roasted Butternut Squash salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette, with a few additions, will work perfectly.  Because I want to make this a main course salad I’ll grill some chicken tenders, cut them in bite sized pieces and add this to the salad.  I marinate the chicken tenders for about 30 minutes using a packaged herb marinade that is available in most markets.  This gives the chicken extra flavor and keeps the tenders, which are much smaller than a typical chicken breast, moist.

I also want to add some apples (the apples can be sliced and will keep their color if you put them in ice water with a squeeze of lemon), and substitute candied pecans instead of the recipe’s walnuts.  The squash is perfect for fall and the dried cranberries make it very festive.  I will serve a warm baguette (cut into individual portions) and serve it with a crock of butter.

The salad and bread are filling and I’m preparing carrot cake for dessert so I will keep the menu simple.  The cake can be made the day before the lunch and the salad can be assembled the morning of.  This will make things easy.  I like to allow time to set up the beverage station and to put any finishing touches on the house.

I set the table Wednesday evening so I am ready for my guests.

To be continued…