Cheesefondue is a kind of soup

This week I ate my soup, but unfortunately I do not have enogh time to post.

Yesterday we had guests for a lovely swiss cheese fondue, it was very cosy and there has come snow as well.

Cheesefondue

Ingredients|

You need 250 g cheese per person, we already get it in small grinded in the shop, we use half Vaccherincheese and half Gruyerecheese, garlic, maizena, nutmeg, white vine and kirsch, bread

First you need a ceramic pot for the fondue, a caquelon, you rub garlic at the bottom and the sides of the pot, put in the cheeses with some vine and kirsch, melt them and bring to a boil, add pepper and nutmeg. Put the caquelon on a rechaud and dip your bread in your cheese soup. Serve with white vine or tea.

Enjoy with some friends,

have a wonderful sunday, Charlotte

How to get my children into souping

I hope you had a nice weekend. I cooked several soups for the week ahead and my husband, too. Yesterday I had a soup from the local vegetable soup with a vegetable called sunchoke or Jerusalem artichoke. It looks like gingerbbut has a sweet nutty taste, well, although I like sweet, I did not enjoy it to much.

Day 22

Creamy Sunchokesoup

Ingredients:

sunchokes, cream and sunfloweroil.

Recipe secret of our local veggie shop.

I rated it **.

Today I made a child friendly soup, at least partly.

Day 23

Bellpepper soup wth pasta

Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, some tomato concentrate, water, paprika spice, 1 onion, pasta, sour cream

Cut onions into pieces and bell peppers, saute in olive oil, add boiling water, tomato concentate, salt, pepper and mild paprika spice and some pasta, let simmer for 20 min. Serve with a spoon of sour cream.

My children wanted to eat the soup, at least they fished the pasta out of it, next time I will puree the vegetables so that they become invisible !

I did not find it spicey enough.

I rated it **.

No more soup left, all gone, but tomorrow there will be a new bowl.

Charlotte.

Celerysoup with clams

Last bowl of creamy cheesy selerysoup. Today I added clams. Hmmm, I love seafood.

Day 21

Celerycreamsoup with clams

Ingredients:

Leftover celerycreamsoup, clams

Bring the soup to a boil, add clams, let cook for about 10 min, only eat the clams that have opened.

Enjoy.

I rated it *****

Have a wonderful weekend.

Charlotte.

Celery aux deux fromages

The initial celerycreamsoup was made with blue cheese. Today I aded to it some parmesan cheese.

Day 20

Celerycreamsoup aux deux fromages

Ingredients:

Leftover celerycreamsoup,ginger, grated parmesan

Warm the soup up, bring to a boil, add ginger and grated parmesan cheese, stirr until melted, let simmer for about five minutes.

Enjoy.

This soup is getting better and better.

I rated it ****

and there is still a bowl left for tomorrow.

Charlotte.

Spiced up celerysoup

Yesterday I was unfortunately not able to post, but I had soup. And soup today. I had some celerycreamsoup in the freezer and spiced it up.

Day 18

Celerycreamsoup a la persillade

Ingredients:

Leftover celerycreamsoup, quite a lot of parsley

Warm the soup and add the parsley.

Voila.

I liked this soup more then the first one but it was not spicy enough

I rated it ***.

Day 19

Celerycreamsoup with ginger

Ingredients:

Leftover celerycreamsoup with parsley, quite a lot og ginger

Bring the soup to a boil and add the ginger, I had some in powder, let simmer for five minutes.

This mix was nice.

I rated it ****.

There is still some celerycreamsoup in the freezer so come by and have another bowl tomorrow,

Charlotte.

a la persillade

Today I spiced up the Fennelsoup with...
parsley. Parsley was a sacred plant in the old greek culture and is referred to in the tales of Odysseus. It Is also known as a healing plant, because it is full of vitamines and helps the kidneys to work.

Day 17

Fennel estragonsoup with parsley

Ingredients:

Leftover Fennelsoup, Parsley

Bring the soup to a boil, add chopped parsle, let simmer for five min.

Enjoy

I rated it *****

Charlotte.

Monday greens

I had some more of the fennel estragonsoup from yasterday, but no prawns. But it tasted still fantastic, a little like anis and this combined with estragon is very nice.

Day 16

Pure Fennelsoup

For ingredients and recipe, see in yesterdays post.

I rated it ***** and there is even some left for a little spice up tomorrow.

Charlotte.

Fennel and prawns

Today the weather was lovely and we all went for a walk on the beach. It was beautiful. Sun, waves, but quite cold.

I made a very nice aromatic fennelsoup

Day 15

Fennelsoup with Prawns

Ingredients:

Giant prawns, herbes de provence, garlic, estragon, fennel, onion, potato

First marinate the prawns in olive oil, garlic and provence herbs, then saute dem in olive oil and put them afterwards for about 10min in the oven at 180 deg C, they must be red and cooked. Chop the fennel and the onion and one potato, saute in olive oil with garlic, add 1l boiling water, add dried estragon, let simmer for 30 min. and add the cooked prawns.

Enjoy

Delicious

I rated it *****

Tomorrow I might serve the soup without the prawns as there is still some left. But all the prawns were eaten.

Charlotte.

Roots

I like soup because it brings me into contact with nature. No I do not grow vegetables in our garden, but I like rootfruits. Like carrots, celery, pastinak. I feel more grounded then. I had still some celery left and I asked the vegetable shopkeeper, a lovely little shop with organic and mediterreanean vegetables and fruits with what it would be nice to combine.

Day 14

Celerysoup

Ingredients:

Green celery, pastinak, parsleyroot, water, cream, blue cheese

Cut the vegetables in small pieces, saute in olive Oil, add water, bring to the boil, add salt, pepper and nugmet, simmer for 30 minutes, mix in a blender, add cream and a little blue cheese, bring to the boil indtil cheese is melsted.

Voila.

It was a little Think in the consistence and not spicy enough.

I rated it ***

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend, Charlotte.

Thyme, Rosmarine and other herbs

Today I had the rest of the fantastic lentil chorizo chowder and I spiced it up with some spoons of dried herbes de provence. They were thyme, savory, basil and rosemarine. The whole kitchen had this fantastic aroma of wonderful spices in the air.

Day 13

Lentilchorizochowder with herbes de provence

Ingredients:

Leftover Lentilchorizochowder, dried thyme, rosmarine, baseil and savory

Warm up the soup, add the dried herbs.

Enjoy.

Delicious.

I rated it *****

I do not know yet what soup to make this weekend so join me tomorrow for a surprise,

Charlotte.

Not for vegetarians

My husband made soup tonight, a chorizo chowder. As I undestand it a chowder is a kind of thickened soup. Often with sea food, clam chowder being legendary.

But he made it with spanish mild chorizo sausage.

Day 12

Chorizochowder with leftoverlentilsoup

Ingredients:

1 mild chorizo sausage, 1 onion, 1 leek, 2 potatoes lentils from leftover lentil soup

Chop the chorizo, the leek and the onion and the potatoes into small pieces, saute in olive oil, add water, bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 min, add the lentils for the last five minutes.

Enjoy.

We rated it ****

Tomorrow we can serve the pure chorizo chowder but there are no lentils left.

Charlotte.

Did I mention that I really like lentils

I still had lentilsoup tonight, so I spiced it up with some parsley.

Day 11
Lentisoup A la Persillade

Ingredients

Leftoverlentilsoup, parsley

Warm the soup up and add a lot of fine cut parsley.

Enjoy.

Delicious, I noticed today that my mum had added some italian milan Salami.

I rated it *****

And there is still some left for tomorrow at lunch.

Charlotte.

Lentils

Lentilsoup is one of my favourites.

Day 10

Lentilsoup

Ingredients:

Lentils, vegetable stock made with very little concentrate,  som drops of balsamic vinegar

Bring the lentils in the vegetable stock to a boil, add vinegar, let simmer, this is a soup that needs some observation, it might be necessary to add more stock, if not you will get a lovely salad. We use small lentils that do not need to be soaked in water before use. Let simmer for about 40 min.

Voilà.

Thank you mum again for a lovely soup.

I rated it ****

There is quite an amount of lentilsoup left, I will see how to spice it up for tonight.

Charlotte

Spiced up day

My mum made a lot of her potato soup and so today I had some more, we gave it a little twist and spiced it up.

Day 9

Potato and Leek Soup with Marjoram

Ingredients

Leftover potato and leek soup, bring to a boil, spice it up with Marjoran and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Enjoy

I rated it ****

Tomorrow I can invite you for a bowl of lentilsoup. I really really love lentils.

Charlotte 

Nice potato leek soup, made by my mum

Today I did not cook, it was a beautiful quiet sunday, I managed even to do some decluttering in the boy's rooms and to start a familycalendar for 2012.

But my mother is here for a visit, she is a fabulous cook and made me a very nice soup so I will share it with you.

Day 8

POTATO-LEEK SOUP

Ingredients:

Some potatoes, peeled and dices, 1 leek in rings, boil in water with a tiny amount of vegetable stock concentrate, spice with some caraway, simmer for 20 min, make a puree and pour in some greek yoghurt.

Enjoy.

It was a nice veloute style soup. Thank you mum.

I rated it ****

Tomorrow a 2nd week of lovely soup is starting,

Charlotte.

Would you like some raspberry cream ?

Yesterday was our youngest son's birthday. We had family in the house. And a really lovely day, full of joy and happiness for our lovely boy.

No real time for making soup. It was his day and his menue, and there was no soup ordered, we had pancakes for breakfast, the nice american one's with canadian maple syrup, then som tortellini, then the birthday cake, a typical scandinavian birthday cake with three cake layers and lots of cream and raspberrries and even more cream on top, delicious and simple and done by the big brother and the cousin and the mother and the uncle, and Lasagne and Ice cream but no soup.

But I had a little cup of leftover fantastic carrotcream soup and to make it a new soup I added som persillade parsley.

Day 7

Carrotcreamsoup with Parsley

Ingredients:

Leftovercarrotcreamsoup , Parsley

Warm the Carrotcreamsoup, add chopped parsley

Enjoy.

To be honest I prefered the soup without the parsley.

I rated it ***

If you would like some creamy raspberry cake as a desert, I will share this easy recipe from my sister in law with you, I am very grateful to know it, because it is quite simple but still delicious.

Scandinavian Creamy Raspberry Layercake

Ingredients:

three cakebottoms (we buy them as a package of three in the store, premade)

500 g whipped cream

300 g Frozen Raspberries

Icing Sugar

Mix half the whipped cream with the rasberries for a nice pink cream, put half of the raspberry cream on one of the cake bottoms, put the 2nd cake bottom on top and layer the rest of the raspberry cream on top of this one, add the 3rd and last cake bottom on top. Put the rest of the cream in a small freezing bag and applique it on the sides of the cake, put icing sugar on top.

Voilà

Have a wonderful weekend

Charlotte

Comfortfood

I love carrots, I have to admit that I do not really love Broccoli but I love carrots, as long as they are cooked. I do not like them raw and cracky, I like them when they are soft and well cooked. I was very lucky today, my mother came for a visit, and she made soup for me.

DAY 6

Gingery Carrotcreamsoup

Ingredients:

Some carrots

700 ml water

salt and pepper

ginger

sour cream

Cut the carrots into small pieces, put them into boiling water, add spices, let cook for approx. 20 min, when soft, puree the soup and serve with sour cream

Enjoy

It was pure delight, although easily made, it is delicious.

I rated it *****

A warm and sweet taste, the best comfort food for a long wintery night.

Charlotte.

No more Broccoli this week

Last day of Broccoli soup for this week. Although it is the superveggie, three evenings in a row is enough. And I had so much leftoversoup from the other days that I made a

DAY 5

BROCCOLISOUP CARNIVAL

Ingredients:

Some leftover salty Broccoli-Fennel soup

Some leftover Broccoli Leek soup

1 potato in small pieces

bring to a boil and let it simmer for 10 minutes

voilà, enjoy.

It was of course a little to salty. But I liked the potato very much, it gave the soup another kind of texture.

I rated it **

I promise tomorrow no Broccoli, I am thinking  about carrots and maybe some ginger...



Broccoli can be addictive

Broccoli is a very old vegetable, it has been cultivated in more than 2000 years and was imported from the middle east to southern Italy where it was used as a vegetable already in the Roman Empire. It is part of the cabbage family. In the roman days it was cooked with olive oil, with white vine and with garlic (this sounds like a fantastic new soup recipe...) The famous roman chef de cuisine Apicius prepared it with spices and emperor Tiberius' son was addicted to it.

Broccoli is one of those superveggies because it contains lots of vitamines and other fantastic substances that are difficult to spell. The newest studied of them are Sulforaphanes that might be even powerful in fighting some kinds of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attack.  and to pronounce. But it is said to prevent cancer and heart disease. It contains also a lot of chrome, that might be important reducing fat and might even have antiaging properties.

We eat mostly the immature flowers and the stem of the plant.

So Broccoli is in fact a not to miss vegetable. My children definitely do not like it. But I would like to have Broccoli more regularly in my diet and have found fantastic Broccolisoup recipes on the web. But today I just had some leftover Broccoli and leeks.

Day 4

BROCCOLISOUP WITH LEEKS

Ingredients:

½ Broccoli

1 Leek

vegetable stock (not to much concentrate, it might get to salty)

nutmeg

Cut the Broccoli into pieces, cut the leek in rings, sauté them in olive oil, add 1 l vegetable stock, add nutmeg and marjoram and cook for 20-30 minutes

Today served lean, no cream

Voilà and bon appétit

I was the only one today enjoying my Broccoli, I liked this soup more, less heavy and less salty.

I rated it **

Tomorrow I can invite you for a bowl of leftover mixed soup with B…

Charlotte

What can you combine with Broccoli

Today was my first day at work in the new year. I ate leftoversoup as a snack. I had prepared the soup for tonight already yesterday.

I had some Broccoli, but no idea what to combine it with, the lady in the vegetable shop suggested Fennel. I really like Fennel, so I went for this combination.

DAY 3

BROCCOLI AND FENNEL SOUP

Ingredients:

1/2 Broccoli cut into small pieces

1/2 Fennel cut into rings

1 onion

After having sautéed these ingredients in olive oil, add 1 l boiling water and some vegetable stock concentrate, if you do not do your stock from stretch, add salt pepper, freshly grated nutmeg (I just love nutmeg) and some marjoram.

Let simmer for about 40 min. Serve with 1-2 spoons of sour cream.

Voilà and bon appétit.

Neither the children nor my husband really appreciated this dish. I found it ok, but it was to salty, probably to much of stock concentrate, I need to experiment on this and see to make my own vegetable stock.

We voted it *

Please feel invited for another bowl of soup again tomorrow, there is still a half broccoli left.

Charlotte

Happy new year or what to do with left over Champagne

Happy new year !

A new year has come, with chances and challenges yet to unfold.

I have made a new year's resolution and I hope that I will be able to keep it for the next 365 days.

2012 will be my year of eating soups.

I really like soups, they are warm and nurturing.

So I have decided to eat 365 soups in 2012. Every day a new soup. This will be a year full of chopping onions and persil, svelting in veloutés and the perfume of wonderful spices from all over the world.

When not eating at home, soups can be found in every restaurant and I might even get some at our friend's houses when invited.

Please do not expect Bocuse or Nigella writing a food blog, I am not a gourmet cook and not very skinny, it will be more everyday cooking spiced up with experimenting and discovering. It will be a truesome story about me trying to get this done besides a busy full time job and being married and having two kids of whom neither is a vegetable enthousiast.

So please feel invited to share with me my daily bowl of soup.


Yesterday I started the new year with style with

Day 1

LOBSTERSOUP

(but I did not buy a living lobster, throw it into boiling water and started to make a bisque.)

Ingredients:

1 package of premade bought freezed lobstersoup

Get the package already in the morning out of the freezer, like this you can use it for dinner,

open the package, verse the content into your marmite, put it to a boil and simmer it until ready.

Voilà and bon appétit

Our youngest boy made the soup, it was delicious, and liked by the whole family, husband and kids included. What a good start for the year.

We voted it *****

Day 2

Champagnesoup with persillade

Today I discovered that we still had some leftover Champagne.

Ingredients:

Left over champagne or other sparkling vine from new years eve party

some shallot onions

at least 250 ml cream

1 l chicken stock

about 15 scallops

Persil

Cut the shallots in small dices, sauté them in a little bit of butter, add half of the champhagne, the cream and the chicken stock, bring to a boil and let it simmer until half the liquid is reduced. Then pass all through a sieb, add the remaining champagne to the liquid. Simmer on very low temperature. In a pan brown the scallops in some olive oil for two minutes. Add the scallops to the soup, add parsley.

Voilà, bon appétit.

In our family we had it as a starter. I found it a little rich with all the cream and could not eat the next course afterwards. The children did not really appreciate the dish, but my husband liked it.

We voted it ***.

Wishing you all a wonderful and happy new year, may you stick to your new year's resolutions and feel invited for a new bowl of soup at our table tomorrow.

Charlotte