Posts Tagged With: soup

What I Did Today

Posted on January 15, 2025 by pauldelancey

I got up and did finances.

I started soaking pinto beans for Beans Soup. I diced and minced lots of things, mostly cabbage though, for Chow Chow, a Southern relish. I then let it marinate.

I did all sorts of grocery shopping, ate lunch, and worked on my latch-hook project with the Crochet Club. I drove home.

I defused the Filipino-Icelander border dispute by pointing out to them that they didn’t share a border.

I washed a lot of dishes. Worked like a maniac making Chow Chow and Beans Soup. These dishes were a bit hit with the natives. I cleaned more dishes during lulls in the preparation.

I’m going to lie down for a while. My back hurts from all that standing.

Behave yourselves while I’m resting.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

Categories: about me, food, what I did | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Today’s Feast Plans

Posted on January 14, 2025 by pauldelancey

I worked up this moring filled with the cooking spirit. But first I went to the bank. Then I made spaghetti for lunch with homemade pasta sauce and homemade meatballs.

I cleaned up the kitchen. I received my mini-cake pans in the mail. They came with mini-parchment papers.

I’m going to start on making chow chow, a Southern relish and Soup beans. I have all the ingredients.

My shoulders are starting to hurt a lot, so is my back. So I don’t know how far I’ll get. The pinto beans are soaking for the Soup Beans. I’ll need to process the veggies for the Chow Chow. Oh I don’t know how much I’ll do. The problem is that taking it easy doesn’t help much. I’ll see. They hurt either way, so I might as well do something.

If I don’t get far enough on the Chow Chow  and Soup, I’ll try out my air fryer and make some air-fryer fried eggs.

Good loving. Good eating.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

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Tomato Soup

Posted on September 20, 2024 by pauldelancey

American Soup

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TOMATO SOUP

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INGREDIENTS
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3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bay leaf
1¾ cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
2½ pounds tomatoes
3 tablespoons butter
2½ tablespoons flour
½ tablespoon fresh basil
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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large food processor or electric blender
colander
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Serves 6. Takes 40 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Dice garlic and onion. Add garlic cloves, onion, and olive oil to large pot. Sauté at for 5 minutes at medium-high heat or until onion softens. Add bay leaf, broth, oregano, salt. and tomatoes. Bring to boil using medium-high heat. Stir frequently. Cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until tomatoes begin to disintegrate. Remove bay leaf.
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While tomato/broth mixture simmers, add butter to pan. Melt butter using medium heat. Add flour gradually, stirring always. Cook for 1 minute or until mixture turns brown.
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Add ingredients in pot to food processor. Blend using puree setting until ingredients become tomato soup. (You might to blend in batches.) Strain soup through colander into bowl. Discard bits in colander. Gradually stir in brown flour mixture. Stir with fork or whisk until any lumps disappear.
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Dice fresh basil. Garnish soup with fresh basil. Other garnishes that go well with this soup are: croutons, parsley, and Parmesan cheese.
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TIDBITS
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1) Writing first appeared 5,400 years ago in Mesopotamia. But the land had no tomatoes, so no tomato-soup recipes. Humans first domesticated tomatoes in South America on April 12, 4976 BCE, but the natives didn’t write, so again no tomato-soup recipes Then one glorious day in 1832 saw the first published tomato-soup recipe. Culinary historians say this is humanity’s greatest deed.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Five Layer Chicken Florentine

Posted on February 5, 2024 by pauldelancey

Italian Entree

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FIVE LAYER CHICKEN FLORENTINE

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INGREDIENTS
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 FIRST  LAYER – BOTTOM SAUCE
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1 10.5-ounce can of cream of celery
½ cup mayonnaise
¾ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
⅛ teaspoon salt (⅛ teaspoon more in FOURTH LAYER)
⅛ teaspoon pepper
⅛ teaspoon Mediterranean rice spice
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
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SECOND LAYER – RICE
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1 cup rice
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THIRD LAYER – CHICKEN
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2 chicken breasts
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
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FOURTH LAYER – TOP SAUCE
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1 10-ounce package creamed spinach
½ cup milk
¼ cup grated Swiss cheese
1 small onion
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
⅛ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon coriander
¼ teaspoon Poultry MagicTM spice
⅛ teaspoon salt
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FIFTH LAYER – BREAD CRUMBS AND CHEESE
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½ cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
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SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
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large casserole dish
medium casserole dish
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Serves 6. Takes 1 hour 30 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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The five layers are from bottom to top:
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First: bottom sauce
Second: rice
Third: chicken breast
Fourth: top sauce
Fifth: cheese and bread crumbs
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FIRST LAYER – BOTTOM SAUCE
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add celery soup, mayonnaise, Cheddar cheese, lemon juice, Mediterranean rice spice, ⅛ teaspoon salt, pepper, and rice vinegar to baking dish. Mix thoroughly with fork or whisk. Bake in large casserole dish for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Set aside. (You can save time by preparing the fourth layer and putting in the oven after you have put this layer in the oven.)
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SECOND LAYER – RICE (Above bottom sauce)
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Cook rice according to instructions on package. Spread evenly over FIRST LAYER in large casserole dish when both are done.
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THIRD LAYER – CHICKEN BREAST (Above rice)
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While at the bottom sauce is baking and the rice is cooking, cut each chicken breast into 12 pieces. Add chicken and vegetable oil to non-stick frying pan. Sauté chicken on high heat for 10 minutes or until it starts to brown. Stir occasionally. Put chicken breasts on top of the SECOND LAYER of rice when all 3 layers are done. (Resist the temptation to drive to KFC.) Set aside,
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FOURTH LAYER – TOP SAUCE (Above chicken breast)
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Dice onion. Add creamed spinach, milk, Swiss cheese, onion, Dijon mustard, thyme, coriander, poultry spice, and ⅛ teaspoon salt to medium casserole dish. Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove and set aside. Put sauce on top of the THIRD LAYER of chicken breast when all 4 layers are done.
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FIFTH LAYER – BREAD CRUMBS AND CHEESE (Above top sauce)
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After you have taken the casserole dishes out of the oven, and have placed the first four layers in order, spread the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese evenly over the FOURTH layer. Pour the melted butter evenly, as always, over everything. Put the five layers in the large casserole dish back in the oven.
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Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees. The sauce layers should be set and the chicken cooked through.
Grab a cold mug of root beer. Sip it slowly. Savor the taste. Grab the frying pan with your other hand. Use the pan to threaten anyone who complains about the wait for this dish. Then eat it all yourself. It’s great.
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TIDBITS
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1) Spinach was cultivated 2,000 years ago in Iran. Now, Iran may very well be contemplating building a nuclear bomb for dubious purposes.
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2) The ancient Romans and Greeks cultivated spinach as well and never built a nuclear device.
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3) So maybe we shouldn’t worry about Iran.
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4) After all Popeye The Sailorman always consumed cans of spinach in times of crisis and always fought for the honor and welfare of his beloved Olive Oyl.
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5) California produces half of America’s spinach.
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6) Did Popeye’s spinach come from California?
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7) Did Popeye ever marry Olive Oyl? I’d like to think so, even if they had to elope to do it.
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8) I had a Yogi The Bear lunch box in first grade. I don’t believe I ever had Five Layer Florentine Chicken put in it.
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9) This recipe originally called for 10.75-ounce can of cream of celery soup. The recipe uses a 10.50-ounce can.
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10) Why?
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11) Shrinkflation. Inflation describes how prices rise over time. Companies know we don’t want to keep paying more for the same thing. So, they shrink the size of their products. They still get the same amount of money from us, but smaller amounts of ingredients, means their products cost them less to produce. They make bigger profits as they think we aren’t clever or observant enough to notice.
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12) Shrinkflation is rampant, especially in times of higher inflation. The size of cans, bottles, jars, and packages in most of my recipes have decreased since press time. Bastids.
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13) It makes me wonder about the opportunities for shrinkflation outside the food industry.
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14) Instead of raising the price of basketballs, make them smaller and smaller. Would this affect basketball games in the NBA? Yes, it would.
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15) Car tires. The price of these tires are already high. Why not make them smaller? And smaller tires will slow your car. You’ll receive fewer speeding tickets. Note, there’s a limit to tire smallness. If the tires become so tiny that they can’t reach the road, the car won’t more. No more shrinkflation. Yay!
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16) Lens size for glasses. Why pay more for a pair of glasses, when you can shrink the lenses? After a while others and you won’t be able to see them. (See what I did there?) No more self consciousness about your appearance.
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17) There should be three more lines of tidbits, but I shrank this section’s size.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nepali Chicken Thukpa

Posted on September 23, 2023 by pauldelancey

Nepali Soup

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CHICKEN THUKPA

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INGREDIENTS
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½ pound rice noodles
2 garlic cloves
¼ cup fresh cilantro
2 green chiles
2 green onions
1 small yellow or white onion
1 bell pepper
2 carrots
⅔ pound boneless, skinless chicken parts
2 tablespoons olive oil
⅛ teaspoon asafoetida* or ½ teaspoon dried chives
1 teaspoon minced ginger
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon timur powder* or Szechuan pepper* or red pepper flakes
½ cup chopped tomatoes
½ teaspoon turmeric
5 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon lemon juice
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* = These can be found online. Use sonic obliterator on those who complained if you substituted.
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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sonic obliterator
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Serves 4. Takes 1 hour.
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PREPARATION
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Cook noodles according to instructions on package. Be sure to stir occasionally so noodles don’t stick together. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Mince garlic. Seed green chiles. Dice cilantro, green chiles, green onions, and yellow onion. Julienne bell pepper and carrots. Cut chicken into strips 1½” long and ¼” wide.
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Add olive oil, garlic, and yellow onion to pot. Sauté at medium-high heat for 4 minutes or until yellow onion softens. Stir frequently. Add chicken strips. Sauté at medium heat for 3 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Stir frequently. Add asafoetida, bell pepper, carrot, cilantro, minced ginger, green chile, green onion, pepper, salt, timur powder, tomatoes, and turmeric. Stir until well blended. Add chicken broth. Bring to boil using high heat. Stir enough to prevent burning. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add lemon juice and stir. Divide noodles into bowls. Ladle chicken soup over noodles.
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TIDBITS
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1) There are reasons why the Nepalis love Chicken Thukpa so much. It’s soup. Who doesn’t love soup?  It has chiles in it. Who loves chiles? People in hot climates, such as Mexico and Kenya.
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2) But just because you love to put spicy chiles in your food doesn’t necessarily mean you can abide your land’s hot, sweltering weather. You leave your homeland in search of cooler climes and you take along with you the seeds of your beloved in chiles.
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3) In fact, culinary historians and anthropologists say the first such migration occurred when Lucy of Olduvai Gorge, a hominid, butterfly* collector, persuaded her tribe to search out cool, pleasant pastures where chicken herds teemed. * = Butterfly fossils are hard to find.
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4) And so Lucy’s tribe trekked north. They got lost many times as their GPS didn’t work and the men refused to ask for directions.
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5) They continued their march to the European-North American land bridge, evolving along the way and relaxing with a good game of bridge during rest stops.
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6) A long time later, give or take a year, the Evolving Hominids–Isn’t that a great name for a rock ‘n’ roll band?–found Mexico where they naturally united with the Polloan Pueblo. The combined chile-seed-carrying Oldupo People crossed over the North American-Asian land bridge and eventually found themselves in what is now modern-day Nepal.
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7) The Oldupo loved the cool breezes coming down from Nepal’s Himalayan mountains and decided to settle down and finish their evolving there. So, we’ve explained the Nepali’s love of chile, but what about chicken? Chicken Thukpa has chicken it. What about that?
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8) The meteor of 66 million years ago that wiped out nearly all dinosaurs, did not result in the extinction of the gigantic Pullumosaur. This dinosaur chicken stretched to 90 feet in length and stood 80 feet high. It’s very size intimidated the heck out of the predators, who noted the Cretaceous maxim, “There’s nothing more dangerous than colossal giant chicken.”
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9) The pullumosaurs managed to dodge the extinction of its fellow dinosaurs with the simple expedient of burying their head in the sand until the meteor event ran its course.
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10) More than a bit skittish, the dinosaur chickens departed for a new home free of meteors. By a strange coincidence, the pullumosaurs–after many exciting adventures–found themselves in modern-day Nepal.
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11) Unfortunately, Nepal simply didn’t have enough food to support countless herds of gigantic chickens. Over time, evolutionary pressures shrank the pullumosaur in size to our current chicken.
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12) When the Oldupo of tidbit 7) arrived in Nepal, they naturally wondered if chickens would be tasty. Would they go with chiles? They wondered and wondered until Juana Lucy first ate one. “They taste just like chicken,” she shouted. “I bet they’ll make a great soup mixed with chiles.” Ever since, the Nepali descendants of the Oldupo have loved Chicken Thuka Soup. And so do I.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Saoto

Posted on August 4, 2023 by pauldelancey

Surinamese Soup

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SAOTO

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INGREDIENTS – BROTH­
1 pound chicken breast, boneless
1 small onion
3 garlic cloves
1 lemongrass stalk
1″ galangal root
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
3 berries allspice
1 Indonesian bay or bay leaf
2 teaspoons soy sauce
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INGREDIENTS – REST
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1 stalk celery
½ pound rice vermicelli
6 hard boiled eggs
½ pound bean sprouts
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 teaspoons sambal kecap, sambal oelek, or sriracha
½ cup shoestring potatoes
½ cup crispy fried onions
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SPECIAL UTENSIL
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spice grinder
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Serves 6. Takes 1 hour 45 minutes.
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PREPARATION – BROTH
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Cut chicken into 2″ cubes. Dice onion. Mince garlic cloves. Mince inner green part of lemongrass. Use spice grinder to grind galangal into little bits. Add chicken broth and water to large pot. Bring to boil using high heat. Add chicken cubes, galangal, onion, garlic, lemongrass, allspice, bay leaf, and soy sauce to large pot. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. Remove chicken cubes with slotted spoon. Shred chicken using two forks.
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PREPARATION – REST
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Which broth simmers, dice celery. Break rice vermicelli into manageable lengths. Slice eggs in two. Add 2 egg halves to each soup bowl and an equal amount of bean sprouts, celery, cabbage, rice vermicelli, sambal, and chicken to each bowl. Ladle an equal amount of broth into bowls. Garnish with shoestring potatoes, and  crispy fried onion
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TIDBITS
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1) Once upon a time lived three squirrels called Berry, Onion, and Galangal.
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2) They all lived in their own tidbits in the far-off land of Surinam.
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3) They loved to eat Saoto.
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4) But the soup, Saoto, required chicken broth.
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5) But this was long ago. (See tidbit 1.) There were no supermarkets. So they couldn’t go down Aisle 7 and fill up their cart with chicken broth. What to do? What to do?
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6) “Why not encourage that roving herd of feral chickens to take baths in our little tide pool?” said Berry.
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7) “Yes, yes.” Onion flapped her little wings in excitement and actually flew 239 feet. This would be a record that would stand for millennia.
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8) Onion flapped her way back. Berry and Galangal spent the time looking for worms.
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9) “Well,” said Onion. “If the chickens spend enough time in the tide pool, we can use the water as chicken broth.
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10) It was at this time, Berry and Galangal pointed out to Onion, that he was, indeed, a squirrel and couldn’t have taken to the sky flapping chicken wings.
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11) “Well,” squeaked Onion, “you’re not chickens either. You’re squirrels. You shouldn’t be eating worms. Shame on you.”
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12) Stronger words were soon squeaked. Fur flew so freely that it blotted out the sky.” This was the first solar fur eclipse.
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13) There have been exactly sixteen such eclipses since then.
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14) The author is taking advantage of the squirrel fight to find out if squirrels are vegetarian.
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15) No they are not. Although they primarily nuts and such stuff, they will chow down on meat if the opportunity arises.
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16) However, I suppose a squirrel could remain a vegetarian for life. It could even be vegan. I mean how, on Earth, are squirrels going to milk a cow?
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17) Anyway, Berry, Onion, and Galangal having established themselves as omnivores, secure once more in their squirrelness, and realizing that their time in Tidbit Land was nearing the bottom of the page, made themselves some yummy Saoto soup.
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18) And they all lived happily ever after.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Pepper Soup From Nigeria

Posted on July 22, 2023 by pauldelancey

Nigerian Soup

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PEPPER SOUP

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INGREDIENTS
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2¼ pounds chicken, beef, or goat
3 whole nutmegs or calabash nutmegs, or 2 tablespoons nutmeg
1 onion
1 Scotch bonnet, habanero, 2 serrano chiles, or bird’s eye chile
2 MaggiTM** bouillon cubes, flavor should match the meat
4 cups water
2 teaspoons ginger powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shrimp or crayfish powder (or omit)
2 tablespoons scent leaves*: Thai basil, or tarragon
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* = Scent leaves can be hard to find.
** = Doesn’t have to be the Maggi brand, but Maggi is extremely popular in Nigeria and much of the rest of Africa.
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SPECIAL UTENSILS
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spice grinder
sonic obliterator
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Serves 4. Takes 1 hour 20 minutes.
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PREPARATION
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Cut chicken into 1″ cubes. Grind whole nutmegs into powder. Dice onion. Seed and mince Scotch bonnet. (BE SURE to wash your hands thoroughly after touching the Scotch bonnet or its seeds. If however you touch your face after handing the Scotch bonnet or habanero, you will remember the pain it caused for a long time.)
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Add chicken, bouillon cubes, onion, Scotch bonnet, and 4 cups water. Bring to boil using high heat. Stir enough to prevent burning. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
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Add ginger powder, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, salt, and shrimp powder. Simmer on low for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add scent leaves. And simmer for another 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. Use sonic obliterator on any guests who gives your any guff over any ingredient substitutions. You don’t need that negativity in your kitchen.
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TIDBITS
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1) Culinary art historians will tell you, if you have the misfortune of being cornered by a feral gang of them, that the progression of European art can be summarized in the following eight stages.
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2) First stage: Pre-prehistoric art.. How do we know it existed? We don’t. That’s why most of us cross the street to avoid a culinary art historian. (CAH.)
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3) Second stage: .Prehistoric art, such as the wall paintings in the Lescaux Cave. Sadly, because this art comes from a prehistoric time, there are no written records of its history. Bummer. But it also gives rises to the age-old riddle, “Did prehistory inhibit written records or did the absence of written records spawn prehistory?” It is a contentious subject among the fractious CAHs.
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4) Third stage: Roman art. Mosaics and wall paintings of geometric patterns, scenes from mythology, and pastoral landscapes. The Romans really liked the color red. Although when they really let their hair down, they would add black and yellow, hence the many mosaics at Bromidium depicting enraged wasps stinging tomatoes.
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5) Moving onto the Fourth stage; (We really have to cover a lot of ground quickly as we only have one page.) Medieval art: Paintings depicted people of status in incredibly rigid poses. The current planking craze derives nearly all of its inspiration from Medieval nobility. Many Medieval artists made many Medieval medallions and incredibly expensive golden statues. Unfortunately, these stupendously valuable works got robbed by enterprising thieves. All gone. This explains why so few people study Medieval art. This six-sentence review is one of this period’s longest art studies
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6) Fifth stage: Renaissance art. Really, an overall flowering of artistic ideas and techniques. The whole Renaissance era burgeoned with beauty. People love to study Renaissance art, their numbers limited only by the difficulty of spelling the word, “Renaissance.”
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7) Sixth stage: Brown Gravy or Fifty Shades of Beige. Every freaking painting was painted in brown. It really does resemble brown gravy. Museum curators will tell you with admirably straight faces that post-Renaissance teemed with other colors. They say the painted walls, portraits, and tapestries of Hampton Court and the Louvre blazed with vibrant colors and only faded to brown over time.
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8) Rebuttal: pish.
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9) Brown’s supremacy derives from the massive importation of Nigerian Pepper Soup into Europe. Pepper-mad Europeans couldn’t get enough of this dish. Artists thought of Pepper Soup during every waking hour. Then dreamed of it every night.
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10) This dish in this recipe is light brown and dark brown. So, is it any wonder that all Brown-Gravy artists worked only with brown? Where did the European artists get the funds to afford so much Pepper Soup? From the gold stolen in tidbit 5).
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11) Seventh stage: Eventually artists went off feed and discovered other colors, such as can be found in fried eggs and split-pea soup. This naturally brought on the many-colored Impressionistic era.
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12) Eighth stage: Modern art. It’s chock full of modern art. There, you are now an art expert.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tuscan Sunset Soup

Posted on May 4, 2023 by pauldelancey

Italian Soup

TUSCAN SUNSET SOUP

INGREDIENTS

FIRST BATCH

2 cups garlic bread
2 garlic cloves
½ avocado
½ green bell pepper
1 7 ounce can red beans
1 7 ounce can pork and beans
1 7 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15 ounce can condensed tomato soup
15 ounces water
½ cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
½ cup grated Romano cheese
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon chopped chives
¼ teaspoon coriander
¼ teaspoon parsley flakes
⅛ teaspoon ground mustard
⅛ teaspoon tarragon

SECOND BATCH

½ pound ground turkey
⅛ teaspoon white pepper
⅛ teaspoon rosemary
⅛ teaspoon sesame seed
2 eggs

SPECIAL UTENSIL

Large soup pot or saucepan

PREPARATION

Cut the garlic bread into 1-inch cubes. Mince the garlic cloves. Remove the skin and pit of the avocado, and cut the yummy remaining part into ½-inch cubes. Mince the green bell pepper.

Add all ingredients listed under first batch to soup pot. Cook on medium heat. Stir frequently enough to keep soup from burning on the bottom before the top gets hot.

(Take a break to consider how beer saved the world.)

Use clean hands to mix second batch of ingredients: ground turkey, white pepper, rosemary, and sesame seed. Cook on medium-high heat. Transfer to soup pot after turkey meat changes from pink to white.

Add eggs after soup gets hot. Stir thoroughly with fork so eggs blend in. Cook on medium heat for 3 minutes. This soup is great.

TIDBITS

1) This was originally called “Paul’s Refrigerator Soup” as many of the ingredients came from my refrigerator, but it tastes so good that I went with Tuscan Sunset.

2) Garlic bread, in particular, was taking over the fridge and blocking the view of everything behind it.

3) The food behind the garlic would have spoiled and eventually mutated into all sorts of new life forms.

4) Who’s to say these life forms wouldn’t have evolved into ravenous carnivores?

5) So, I might have saved my family with this soup. And my goodness, it’s tasty.

6) The food of the ancient Romans was simpler. They were often called “porridge eaters” after the blandness of their cuisine.

7) In their defense, these Romans possessed no refrigerators.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Word Haikus

Posted on April 23, 2023 by pauldelancey

Haikus are little three-line poems. The first lines has five syllables. The next line has seven, while the last lines reverts back to five.

See the following traditional haiku. It evokes clumsiness, mess, iredeemable loss, and hunger.

LOSS

I dropped my soup bowl.
Soup went all over the floor.
I shall go hungry.

 

Sure, that’s brilliant but, in general, writing good poetry is hard. That’s why today’s aspiring poets are flocking to one-word haikus.

The following one-word haiku evokes tacos.

TACOS

Tacos.

 

See great one-word haikus are easy. Give it a whirl. Please send me what you come up with.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

 

Categories: haiku, poems | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pow Mex Chicken Noodle Soup

Posted on March 26, 2023 by pauldelancey

Mexican Soup

POW MEX CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

INGREDIENTS

2 10.75 cans of condensed chicken noodle soup
¼ cup crumbled Cotija cheese
4 turkey dogs
3½ ounces diced green chiles
⅓ cup grated Four Mexican cheeses

PREPARATION

Pour the condensed chicken-noodle soup into a saucepan. Fill the soup cans with any water. (You may use Norwegian glacier water if you feel the need to impress gourmet friends.) Pour the water into the pan.

Don’t read this sentence.

Cut turkey dogs into ½” slices. Add hot-dog slices, Cotija cheese, green chiles and Four Mexican cheeses. Heat to boiling and serve. Stir frequently to keep the cheese from burning on the bottom.

This is a family favorite and also death to nasty cold bugs lurking in your throat or sinus.

TIDBITS

1) “Pow-Mex” is a fusion between Powegian food and Mexican.

2) Poway is the name of my fair city.

3) At one time Mexico owned the land on which Poway stands.

4) Green chiles spice up and spiff up any food.

5) Poway has its own train park complete with a 1903 Baldwin steam engine.

6) How many of us survived on condensed soups in college?

7) Poway has two live theaters and one bowling alley. It also boasts a low crime rate and a superb school system. I don’t know if that is a coincidence.

 

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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