Escarole & Anchovy Soup with Garlic Crostini

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Escarole & Anchovy Soup with Garlic CrostiniI’ve been trying to take it fairly easy on myself in the kitchen lately.  You see, I have this dream of one day carving out time to finish painting my cupboard doors, getting them rehung, and putting an end to my drawn-out painting project.  I thought I was being clever and made this super quick, super tasty soup for dinner, thinking I’d free up my evening to deal with doors.  But, in typical Sarah-fashion, I opted out of the tedious housework and into making an apple cake instead.  Yeah…

We’ll cover the apple cake later in the week.  For now, I’ll show you my easy escarole and anchovy soup so you can get yourself fed quickly and spend the rest of your day being productive.  Or baking.  Your choice.

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Celery Root & Apple Soup with Crispy Pancetta

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Celery Root & Apple Soup with Crispy PancettaThis celery root soup seems like the type of thing a cooking magazine would suggest as an elegant way to begin your family’s Thanksgiving feast.  I can picture it, served tableside out of a gorgeous soup tureen, as a family of beautiful people gather around a beautiful fall table.  The mood is festive, but serene.  They’re all so happy just to be spending the holiday together.

But that’s fantasy-land and your family’s Thanksgiving is probably more like mine (at least that’s what I’m telling myself).  Dogs will be racing around the house, adult siblings will be fighting, wine will be spilled, and someone will be having a nervous breakdown over a turkey that just won’t cook.  As you look around and realize half of the group hasn’t bothered to change out of their pajamas and the opulent table you had imagined is actually covered in dirty mixing bowls, you’ll wish it was just a quiet Monday night and you were sitting down to a bowl of this soup with a hunk of bread and a glass of red wine.

And that’s how I enjoyed my celery root and apple soup.  In perfect family holiday land, it would be a wonderful Thanksgiving first course, but in reality, it’s better appreciated at the kitchen table on a weeknight, garnished with a couple crispy pieces of pancetta and a mess of roasted Brussels sprouts served on the side.

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Sweet Corn Soup with Ricotta & Basil Oil

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Sweet Corn Soup with Ricotta & Basil OIl

“It’s bi-color, super sweet, ma’am.  $3 for a half-dozen–you’re going to love it.”

Those words must have passed my lips hundreds of times a day the summer I worked at a farm stand selling sweet corn.  But, I said it with heart and I still would; good, fresh sweet corn on a summer day is something special.

You know what else is special?  This soup.  It’s special in its simplicity, just the pure essence of mid-summer corn, in a bowl.  I look forward to making it every summer, preferably from sweet corn bought off kids on the side of the road.

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Hvarska Gregada (Croatian Fish & Potato Stew)

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Gregada at Robinson

Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!

Let’s have an adventure on a secret beach.  Okay, maybe it’s not a secret, I mean there’s a restaurant 2 steps away and someone else motored us to it, but no one else is here, so it feels secret!  Let’s bake under the sun and float in the clear, turquoise water.  When all of  that gets too exhausting, we can unwind in the shade with a carafe of white wine and eat an amazing fish lunch.

A Beach on Hvar, Croatia

Let’s pretend this day isn’t going to end.  We’ll sit and appreciate the breeze coming off the sea, the smell of pine trees and rosemary bushes.   We’ll admire sailboats in the distance and hunt for the smoothest, whitest pebbles.

But, sadly, the sun sets, perfect days always come to a close, and vacations have to end.  We’ll do what can though to bring the vacation feeling home.  I’ll look at the pictures and think about the clear water, the perfumed air, and, of course, I’ll remember the food.  I mean, come on, it’s me.

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Spring Vegetable Soup with Poached Eggs

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Spring Vegetable SoupAfter single-handedly consuming almost a whole batch of potato, leek & artichoke soup last week, I thought I had soup out of my system for a while.  That was, until yesterday at breakfast.  As I flipped through the latest issue of bon appétit, I kept landing on the same few pages–a gorgeous spread of recipes featuring fresh spring produce and daydream-inducing photos of lush green farmland.

Of all the recipes in the article, it was the simple bowl of spring egg drop soup that really caught my eye. It looked so lovely, charmingly green and everything spring has to offer spooned into one bowl.  Seems I hadn’t quite had my fill of soup after all.

Breakfasting [Read more…]