Before I get into the recipes for soup shooters and grilled cheese bites, I want to say Happy Anniversary to David, my husband of 26 years. xoxo  And I want to tell you the story of the cute shooter glasses I found.

I was in Pier 1 Imports about a month ago and saw a great display they have up with an wide and wonderful assortment of mini glasses for a “Tasting Party”. They have mini cordials, mini parfait, mini trifle, mini wine, and mini martini glasses. I was immediately in love with the whole concept and had to hold myself back from buying at least one set of each. Part of what prevented that happening, was the price. Most of the sets were $29.95 each. That would not have been a “mini” amount to spend! So I resisted and just purchased one 24-piece set of the mini parfaits to use as soup shooters.

Once I got home, I looked more closely and saw that the 24-piece set was actually only 12 glasses and included 12 mini spoons. Darn it! That meant I’d just spent $2.50 per glass. But this mistake lead me on the hunt for comparable mini shooters at a reasonable price.

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I helped arrange the food buffet at a dear friend’s funeral on Saturday.  On such a sad and heartbreaking day, it is so joyous to see the best in people shinning through. Everyone wanted to help, be involved, and just be there for the family. One of the lovely neighbors brought a large spiral ham for the buffet. There was quite a bit of ham left, so I cut it off the bone, packaged it up for the family, and quietly snuck the ham bone into my stack of platters and chaffing dishes to bring home. On Sunday I made ham bone soup that I’ve packaged up, froze, and will bring back to my friends to enjoy once all the leftovers run out… which won’t be for quite a while!

One family member is gluten-free, so I separated and packaged a special batch for her before I added the macaroni.  This recipe is a bit of a departure from the standard ham and bean soup. It’s also substantially quicker with the assistance of canned beans.

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This is meal #2, using the idea of “Cook Once – Eat All Week”. Yesterday we cooked a prime rib and used two of the ribs for dinner, refrigerated the rest for more meals. Today that meal is a hearty and filling soup.

In other news…. the summer cooking classes for kids are now posted here on the site. Check out the “Classes” page to the left and use the “Registration” page to sign up for classes, if you are so inclined.

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More comfort, more soup, enough said!

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Well, while my posts have been all about cheese the last three days, we’ve been in the middle of a big-time cold spell and we’ve been having soup every single night! Don’t love the overnight freezing temps (poor plants!) but I do love having the perfect excuse to have soup all the time.  Here’s a hearty favorite.

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One of my most loyal and longest followers requested this recipe by email. Sharon C. has children who attend LPG every summer and she and her daughter, (along with another mother/daughter duo who are their BFF’s) always leave lovely comments, which I appreciate immensely! So this is my shout-out to Sharon and Sydney C. & Debbie and Kelsey Q! Thank you, and I hope to see you again this summer!

Tip: One of the downsides to asparagus soup can be the color. When asparagus gets cooked this long to make it soft enough to puree, it fades a bit. The solution?  Add a few handfuls of fresh spinach to the pot a minute before blending. The spinach will not be noticeable in the taste, but will boost the color by leaps and bounds.

My mother-in-law was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and is a life-long Green Bay Packers fan. She arrives next week, on Super Bowl Sunday, for a visit. I think I’ll freeze some of this lovely green soup and serve it while we watch “The Pack” bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy!

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Marissa made dinner last night! It was wonderful, and so was the food! To have someone cook for me is pure heaven, and she is a turning into a very good cook, so that makes it extra special. Marissa found a recipe on allrecipes.com for something I probably would never have made, a melon soup. I was a bit skeptical, but I didn’t tell her that, and I’m so glad I held my tongue, because it was a delightful surprise.  She also made a delicious Guacamumus (avocado hummus) she found online. I will link you to it here on my site, once she gets it posted on her blog…

The original soup recipe called for Chinese winter melon (dong gua). She could not find that, so used honeydew instead, it worked perfectly. Also she added the 1 cup of Panko after discovering that the meat mixture was too watery. Finally, I advised her to bake the meatballs first, to brown and flavor them more, and that also worked just right.  Even if this doesn’t seem like the sort of thing your family would like, give it a try, and thank us later!  Plus this seems like the perfect soup to make vegetarian, just substitute tofu for the pork.

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Who in the world would have a party the day after Thanksgiving, coming off of a cooking marathon? Me! Crazy, I know, but I am still really looking forward to seeing my friends at an impromptu get-together before the holiday rush. In fact, it’s sort of a kick-off to the madness of the Holiday Season, called a Black Friday Cocktail Party.

I’m making about half dozen appetizers and serving darling little splits of Freixenet Cordon Negro; the brut champagne in the little black bottles. Here is one of the dishes we’ll be slurping on, I’ll post more recipes and pictures tomorrow and for a few days to come. All will be more than appropriate for your own holiday party or to bring along to the ones you’ll be attending.

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Today’s recipe is another one of the many scrumptious creations we made during our week long stay at La Pitchoune. It is adapted from Simon Beck’s Marmites of Seafood with Creamy Leeks from her cookbook, Simca’s Cuisine.  A marmite is a French covered crock, by the way.

Simon Beck was Julia Child’s friend and co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Simon (also known by her nickname, Simca) and her husband, Jean Fischbacher, owned the property that Julia and Paul built their Provençal home on in 1963, near the town of Plascassier, in the hills above Cannes. Julia and Paul named it La Pitchoune – affectionately know as La Peetch. Pitchoune is a Provençal word meaning “the little one” which is apt since it is a small house, just up a small hill from Simca’s larger home.

You can read all about those wonderful years in Julia’s final book, the autobiographical My Life in France, published posthumously in 2006 and written with Paul Child’s nephew, Alex Prud’homme. The book recounts Julia’s  life with Paul in post-World War II France.

The film, Julie & Julia, directed by Nora Ephron, was adapted from Julia’s memoir My Life in France and from Julie Powell’s memoir, Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, the film was released in the summer of 2009.

If you would like to learn more about possibly taking the week long cooking classes at La Pitchoune, you can visit Kathie Alex’s website, Cooking with Friends in France, and download the brochure to get all the details. Above is a pretty little watercolor picture I found of the La Peetch, on the site… great memories, good times!

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After yesterday’s long “birthday” post, I thought it would be nice to post a quick and easy soup for today. Since it’s still scorching here in the desert, I serve this soup at room temperature rather than hot. The avocado just seems to make it more “cool” and summery. If you haven’t already commented on yesterday’s post, be sure and do so to be in the running for the grand prize for a baker’s dozen of fabulous cookbooks. You can easily make this a vegetarian soup, just use all water instead of chicken broth. The carrot and avocado flavors actually come through better that way.  I’m just not a huge carrot fan, so I prefer the broth to tone that flavor down a little.

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