Winter White

It snowed last night in Vancouver, which caught us all by surprise. Our part of the city doesn't get much snow, and it's early in the season for what we do get. We were out last night having a drink with friends when it started coming down, and boy was that pretty. The city was frosted with it today, cold and crisp. It was a great day for soup and fresh bread.

I'm still adjusting to life as a -- dare I say it? -- housewife. Things that I love to do in smaller doses, like cook, play with children, go marketing, or putter around tidying up, get tedious or aggravating when it's day after day. All jobs are like that, I guess. Getting dinner on the table every night is becoming one of my frustrations. With a team of picky eaters, each picky in his own way (one eats three fruits but no vegetables, one eats a moderate variety of vegetables and beans but no fruit, one theoretically eats most things but will reject a piece of bread for having brown "skin" on it), I often feel like no matter what effort I put in, somebody is going to complain about it and nobody is going to be happy. Mid-afternoon rolls around, and if I haven't figured something out already, I start to panic.

Mr. Gateau and I are flirting with the notion of just making whatever we like, and essentially daring the kids to eat it or nothing. There is always a supply of decent alternatives in the house (cheese, bread, peanut butter, yogurt, mac & cheese in a box, edamame, fixings for cheese quesadillas, eggs) and kids with increasing kitchen competence to prepare it. Still, something nags at me, making me want to produce a meal that is nutritious and appealing to everyone, and frankly, the idea of an 8 year old scrambling eggs while I'm trying to get dinner on the table isn't that attractive.

Tonight, quite by accident, I managed to produce an entirely white (or beige, I guess) meal that concealed some decent nutrition and flavor. I recently got a recipe for a Thai red curry roasted cauliflower soup. It's a great recipe and right in my wheelhouse -- tons of flavor, huge amount of vegetables crammed in there, silky texture, and all made in one pot. I was planning to tell the children it was "White Mulligatawny" and thus capitalize on the fact they have tasted and found acceptable a white bean soup I make and a Mulligatawny. 

I had decided at about 2 in the afternoon to put together a batch of homemade pita. This is something I recently discovered I could easily make, and it really is a pleasure to do, well worth the little bit of time it takes.

I pureed the soup and popped the pitas in the oven, and then it happened. I tasted the soup and found that the red curry paste had packed a serious wallop and the kids would certainly not be able to eat it. I ended up rounding out the meal for them with some hummus and a batch of Annie's Mac & Cheese. To my surprise, they actually liked the soup, though they found it too hot to eat more than a spoonful. My anti-vegetable child even told me it was perfect in every other way, and I should make a mild version very soon. He has no idea he was enjoying a cauliflower soup.

I suppose there is hope.

Really, I Meant to Post

Honestly, I did. It's just that stuff kept happening, such as I had another little Gateau. Lucky me, with each pregnancy my experience of morning sickness got worse and more prolonged, this time coupled with a freaked-out sense of smell that sometimes made it very dangerous to go into the kitchen, so my cooking (and writing about it) fell off sharply.

But now I'm back. It's sometimes hard to cook with a babe in arms, but on the upside, I've pretty much mastered the art of quick vegetable soups that then get pureed into oblivion with a stick blender. They're delicious and good for you, and since they get pureed smooth, it really doesn't matter how nice the chopping job is, as long as the pieces are relatively even in size so they cook at the same rate. In addition to a family favorite White Bean Soup with Red Pepper Swirl from Jeanne Lemlin's Simple Vegetarian Pleasures, one of my recent successes has been with carrot soups. Nobody in our house likes sweetened carrot soups -- and there are a lot of them -- but we all liked this Moroccan Carrot Soup from Epicurious and I recently did another deliciously spicy one based on this chilled soup with curry and coconut milk, though I served it hot. I think the addition of Thai yellow curry paste was a great addition.*

Actually, now that I'm poking around on Epicurious, this one sounds worthy too.

So very much looking forward to the summer cooking ahead of me. A few herbs are in the garden, we have strawberries that actually look like they might turn into something, and I recently planted blueberry bushes. Tomato seedlings are due to arrive soon. The Bobcats are kicking off tonight with a margarita-laden group cookout, and next week we take on Greek mezze. Stay tuned.

*Special thanks to Chef Jane at the Institute of Culinary Education, who taught the Thai cooking class Ms. Cake and I took together. She encouraged us to think of the numerous ways that Thai yellow, red, and green curry pastes can enhance other dishes, and ever since then I've been incorporating them all over the place. A few of her great idea were red curry in barbecue sauces, yellow curry anywhere you'd use curry powder, and green curry in guacamole.

Hot Stuff

OK, so it's cold in temperature, but I made a kickass batch of very spicy gazpacho the other night, and as it's sat in the fridge for a few days, the kick has become really pronounced. I used a whole variety of the tomatoes that have overtaken my yard, a cucumber from the garden, and my own herbs, plus the usual peppers, red onion, tons of garlic, and of course tomato juice. I used a jalapeno for heat, and it didn't seem too spicy, but it really bloomed, which is fine with me. Seasoned with lemon and lime juice, a touch of honey, salt and pepper. It's goooood.

Byoo-tee-ful soup

I made this red lentil soup from the New York Times tonight for dinner, and it's a keeper. It's very very quick and easy to prepare, and it packs maximum taste value. If you have a stick blender, and I am constantly delighted I bought mine a year or two ago, this is a one-pot preparation, so the only things to clean up are the pot, the blender business end, a cutting board, a knife, and a spoon to stir it. It's soup, so it's nice on a cold night like this, but with it's bright orange-red color, its lemony taste with a spike of fresh cilantro, and its spicy kick, it brings a taste of spring and wouldn't be out of place in warmer weather.