OMG a Recipe: Ramen Soup - Free to Be You and Me

We're into the early stages of summer, so what do we all want to eat? Spicy Hot Ramen! Probably not likely, but there is something to be said for eating hot food and then experiencing the benefits of evaporative cooling as you become a human swamp cooler, hunched over a giant steaming-hot bowl of noodles. Soup's on -- let's get ready to sweat.

Spicy ramen... there's soup in there somewhere - Photo by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe: Who's Joe Mama?

A friend told me this story about how he was sitting in on the first day of a college class and the professor jokingly introduced himself by writing his name on the board as "Joe Mama." And then some girl asked in a dead-serious/dead-stupid tone, "Who's Joe Mah-mah?" And with that note of ridiculousness, I dedicate this special Mother's Day post to My Mama and all the Joe Mamas (or Mah-mah's) out there.

This ain't Joe Mama's stuffed cabbage - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: The Misanthropic Cook

I know it's a new year, full of promise, potential and hope... but holy $%*&, there are days where you don't want to leave the house. You're sick with the flu, it's been a crazy work week, or more likely, it's cold outside and the effort it would take to get your lazy butt off the couch feels like a request to summit Mt. Everest while wearing deep-sea diving gear. Seasonal Affective Disorder to the Tenth Power with a side of Sad Horns. The post-holiday hangover doesn't help things when you're staring at those Christmas lights you know you're just going to leave up until sometime mid-March. And then it hits you... damn. You're hungry.

Emergency Taco Button - hit it and don't stop! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Yes, you could go grab a burger. Or order a pizza -- those show up right to your door. I hit the Pizza Button already over the holidays when I was sick and couldn't leave the bed. Even as miserable as I was, I knew I could not live off takeout food. Therefore, in times of illness or just not wanting to deal with the world, I rely on a cache of goods stashed in our freezer/fridge and pantry.

Just call me the Misanthropic Cook. Be it benefit or detriment, since I work from home, a full week can go by where I can get away with not leaving the house except for picking up the mail and the occasional trip to the grocery store -- but even that's optional. Having produce delivered to the house is a bonus -- we're still living La Vida Kale with Full Circle Farm's CSA every other week. But it always ensures you have some fresh produce to combine with whatever you've hoarded in the freezer. My go-to is always soup. I try to always have frozen poultry stock in quart-sized yogurt containers and I'll defrost two if I'm making soup. What goes in the soup? Whatever the heck I have, veggies, meat and all. If I have a lot of starchy things like potatoes, I'll use the hand blender to buzz that down into a creamy, thick consistency, but if I have a random mix of vegetables, I cut them small and keep the soup looking "rustic" so that you can see everything that got put into it. The flavoring is typically salt, pepper and some dried herbs like oregano and thyme, but the soup can easily get a Southwest flair with cumin and chili powder. This is why Whatever Soup is top on my list when I can't or just plain won't leave the comfort of my abode.

Soup and tacos are a hermit's best friend - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I discovered that tacos are the Misanthropic Cook's new BFF. Corn tortillas freeze like a boss. And you can buy them in staggering bulk amounts, which you can separate into handfuls, wrap in plastic and foil to protect against freezer burn, and store until needed. I've also taken to buying up chorizo and freezing that as well. It's funny to say you have a collection of frozen meat tubes, but hey, it is what it is. I prefer the pork chorizo, but you can find beef just as easily. That marvelous mix of ground up, well-seasoned mystery meat (it does say stuff like "lungs and intestine" on the packaging, if you don't want to live in mystery), gets fried up with some finely chopped onion and in the last couple minutes of cooking, crack in a few eggs. It tightens up the mix and it's easily spoonable onto a warmed corn tortilla. It's fine on its own. Or you can add fresh sliced avocado. Or a dollop of sour cream -- plain, unsweetened yogurt in my case. Maybe a sprinkle of cilantro and a squeeze of lime if they're handy. If you're lucky, you have some roasted tomatillo and fresh herb salsa verde sitting in the freezer that can easily be defrosted. Yes, I'm a bit of a freezer nerd, but it's so nice knowing you have a surplus of homemade stocks, dips and sauces in your personal freezer aisle. Hungry Man dinners, this ain't! Even without all the accoutrements, a basic chorizo and egg taco meal is quick to make, and it's incredibly satisfying.

The 2012 Holiday that Was - Photos by Wasabi Prime

After a whirlwind holiday of overly decorated baked brie (our grocery store is so weird) and new cookbooks that are inspiring, but daunting at the same time, just kick back in your new Lebowski Dude t-shirt, start scrapbooking with meat stickers and have a chorizo-egg taco without the concern of facing the rest of 2013 quite yet. Happy days to all, my fellow Post-Holiday Hobbits.

UnRecipe: Kimchee Soup? That's Hot.

Despite the goodly merits of common sense, I've been on a spice-capade all summer long. Even on the days when we were sweltering in the hot, heavy air of 90-plus degrees in our own living room, my mind would still wander to things like, "I'm miserable but hey... a spicy ramen would be really tasty right about now." I even ventured out into the 100-degree hellfire that is Nevada in July to get -- what else -- kimchee saimin. So that's what the season has left me reduced to: a puddle of flopsweat, slowly inching towards a spicy bowl of kimchee soup.

Sweating summer away - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Why? Why?! WHY?? Maybe the addictive qualities of spicy food in summer is like how the Love in Janet Jackson song goes, like a moth to the flame, burned by the fire... but not really any of the rest of it. I've heard there's an evaporative cooling element in sweating over hot food and letting nature turn your body into a giant swamp cooler. Nice in theory but rather unpleasant, and like most swamp coolers, inefficient as all get-out. There's no way to Spock-logic this one, when the Spicy Bug bites you, the heat is on and it's never turning off.  

Which is why it's always number one on my list to visit Aloha Specialties to get their amazing kimchee saimin, on the second floor of the California Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.  Their menu is all local Hawaii food prepared the way people like it -- ono kine grindz with immense portions. Their kimchee saimin is no different, you could easily jump into the bowl and swim a few laps before the spicy heat reduced you to a withered nub. I had the benefit of getting there earlier in the day, so there were more tasty slices of beef, tofu and kimchee chunks swimming about, plus the broth just tasted more hearty with that peppery beef flavor -- it was probably the best bowl yet. I sweated off a layer of skin and smiled with delight at the vanquishing of this spicy hellbeast. It's an adventure to brave that part of Ye Olde Vegas. About the only thing Downtown has over the semi-gentrified Strip is the quotient of scary drunks and cracked-out bums, aka, The Real Las Vegas, but I did notice a new zipline "ride" that you can take which spans the length of the covered Fremont Street. No thanks, I'll take my deep fried Twinkies and creep away with what's left of my dignity. However, I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed I missed Night Ranger.

The heat is on, as is Night Ranger - Photos by Wasabi Prime

To drown my missing-Night Ranger-sorrows upon returning to the not so hellfire-hot land of Washington, I made a spicy kimchee soup of my own. In typical UnRecipe fashion, it was made with pretty much whatever vegetables were left that didn't get prepared before I left on my trip. Which is to say, it was a lot of veggies; so much so that I didn't add any noodles to the soup. I defrosted about two quarts of chicken broth, but any broth would do. I seared some thin slices of pork in a super-hot wok and got a good sizzle going on a mix of vegetables like strips of carrot, onion and even slices of sweet potato. Yeah, everything was going into the soup-pool. Right before I added the broth to deglaze the wok, I added some broccoli, bok choi and mushrooms. Then a whole jar of kimchee, pickling brine and all. Don't be scared, it's what makes this whole soup worthwhile. The broth was flavored with an extra dose of pepper/chili Korean kochujang sauce and soy sauce. I threw in dashes of rice wine vinegar to give it the tartness of a hot and sour soup. Large pieces of firm tofu were added last, right before serving, so they wouldn't get broken apart.

I was making this soup quite literally by the seat of my pants, as I'd never made kimchee soup before. I'd had versions of it as a stew, fried rice or saimin, but not like this. The devil-may-care attitude towards cooking was rewarded, as the soup turned out totally delicious, getting better like a stew as the flavors concentrated every day. Sweet potatoes added a slight sugary bite to combat the salty spiced broth. Even if it wasn't exactly like the saimin at Aloha Specialties, it curbed a major craving. Asian cuisine is actually quite basic and the strong flavored sauces tend to rely on the same ingredients like vinegar, soy, garlic and ginger to really punch those tastebuds in the kisser. If loving spicy food in the middle of summer is wrong, I don't want to be right. I also know it'll probably be Instant Rainy Season soon enough, and something like this will totally hit the spot.

UnRecipe: The Lost Weekend

This is what should have happened -- an action-packed weekend of attending this year's Emerald City ComicCon and then an evening of liver-pummelling at the annual Cask Festival. But, no. Thwarted. Defeated. Left a smouldering husk of a superhero that once was... burning through one tissue box a day and a really chapped nose from the Evil Sinus Infection from the Phantom Zone. It was a rare day when the Powers of Evil and Mucus reigned supreme. Bummer.

So... yeah. The last few weeks have been a rip-roaring good time of battling a chest-rattling cough and other sickly sundries -- and I know I'm  not the only one. It seems like everyone is suffering from the same bug. I feel your pain. Literally. Let's share sick stories -- add your horrific tales of pestilence below in the comments section, it'll be theraputic. Maybe it's the change of seasons, perhaps the sudden spike in pollen causing massive irritants leading to a mass outbreak of sinus-related problems. Whatever. It sucked. What sucks even more is how dull and bland food becomes. Granted, you're so zapped for energy, you don't want to do much, but on the early end of being sick, I immediately craved one thing: spice, and lots of it. So I cooked what I considered to be My Last Supper, knowing things would get worse before it was going to get better.

The spice must flow... into my belly - Photos by Wasabi Prime

We had some fresh green beans in our CSA delivery and all I could think of was dousing them in spicy chili sauce and giving them a quick pan-fry. I marinated sliced pork in chili paste, some sugar and soy sauce, and cooked that into a kind of curry-type dish with carrots, chickpeas and onions. I don't even know what it was. I just threw in every strong-flavored spice I had, like cumin, coriander, the works. Not quite as sweet as Japanese-style curry, not quite as heavily-spiced as Indian curry -- at least, not that my fading tastebuds could tell. But it was delicious and this combination literally blew my socks off, they were so spicy and satisfying. I finished off the last of some pickled cucumbers, to add some chilled spice to the mix. Oh, my poor insides, trying to digest this onslaught of heat, but I don't care, when you're feeling sick, you're like a tragic comic book hero, deadened by the prospect of a doomed future -- you do anything just to feel aliiiiiiiiiive.

Food packed with flavor... keep it coming, I'm only getting sicker - Photos by Wasabi Prime

One bright note, I was glad to sprinkle in some fresh garlic greens. I saw we had a fresh batch of green shoots from some garlic cloves that thankfully overwintered and returned this spring. Yet another nice way to use oddball kitchen scraps. I used to plant green onions, but shoving the too-small garlic cloves from the center of a bulb right into the dirt has been an even better, lazier way to get something similar to green onions. They taste similar to scallions, with a mild garlic flavor. Bugs tend to avoid them, so yet another bonus for lazy gardeners like myself.

More flavor, less effort, the I'm So Freakin' Sick Diet continues... - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Like some Outbreak-style Patient Zero study, my progression into Congestion City only worsened, so I cooked up a beef broth. Getting caught up on the latest episodes of The Walking Dead felt like a promise of things to come. Zombie-fication -- engaged. I had some beef bones in the freezer and pulled some goodies from the frozen scrap bag like leek trimmings, ginger, plenty of onion tops and bottoms. I added whole dry spices like star anise and peppercorns, as well as a little packet of dried kombu, or seaweed. It's typically in sheet forms, and you add it when you're making a traditional Japanese dashi or broth, for that uniquely savory umami. Which of course is a fancy way of saying, "MSG High." I had little dried seasoning packets from Uwajimaya, so I threw some of that in towards the end of the simmer. I strained all the solid chunks, added a spoonful of chili sauce to sweat my sinuses open, and drank it up with somen noodles. Very simple dinners for the next several days of feeling too tired to do anything.

Soup is good food - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Highlight: I had some awesome fever dreams of solid food. A very clear vision of soft bread filled with creamy, gooey Brie cheese. And possibly honey or pear slices. I followed my Food Vision Quest, and while waiting for my prescription of Action-Packed Antibiotics, I found some soft bread rolls and a big ol' wheel of Brie. Let's make this dream a reality, people. I hadn't used the grill pan in a while, and it was good practice getting the heat just-right. Medium-low is just enough to melt the cheese, but not enough to char the bread into a lump of coal, as cast iron can have that effect on things.

Do you dream in cheese? Apparently, I do - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Somewhere between all this, I toasted some almonds with more spicy seasonings because I needed something to snack on that wasn't an orange. At this point, things were looking up. I appreciate all the very kind well-wishes over email, Twitter, Facebook, and even a nice e-card, to boot. You are all awesome people and deserve SuperLotto-like fortunes, but all I can offer is Super-Lotto-sized Thanks. Indy was a good nursemaid, staying on the bed, not judging the fact that I was an absolute wreck. I was popping pills like Valley of the Dolls, eating ibuprofen like candy to stay propped up for work (probably didn't help things, but there's no such thing as sick days when you're self-employed), and taking fever-dream-fantastic decongestants that left me in Bat Country most nights.


All remedies aside... drugs are best - Photos by Wasabi Prime

At least the Mister was able to enjoy Cask Festival this year. He sent me a nice photo of a friend face-down from drunken fury and everyone returned in one piece, so that's a successful beer festival if I've ever heard one. While I'm still disappointed at missing all the fun at Emerald City ComicCon, thank heavens for Local Independent Superhero Web Series! Is that a thing? I think that's a thing. Friend and Brock's fellow workmate at Runictown, Wonder Russell, is blessed with superhuman abilities and Top Pot doughnuts in this funny web series that kicked off at ECCC - meet The Collectibles!  Think Superfriends Meets The Office, which I think we can all dig, because even with special powers, you're still fighting The Man. It got a great live kickoff at the Con, and since it's a web series, you can be anywhere on the planet with the interwebs and watch it (except maybe China and likely North Korea). It's been a nice diversion, along with big breakfasts and Star Wars marathons as I continue to get better and pop more pills. So please check out The Collectibles!

All the things that will truly cure what ails you - bottom pics by Wasabi, top from The Collectibles

OMG a Recipe: It's a Mad Mad Mad Men World

I've been feeling the nostalgic vibe of late, especially after receiving a funky old Campbell Cookbook: Cooking With Soup cookbook from a friend who knows I love kitschy stuff like that. It goes nicely with my Philadelphia Cream Cheese cookbook, spiral ring-binding and all. Appropriately enough, the equally vintage AMC series Mad Men is kicking off its effing-finally-it-took-you-long-enough 5th season. To celebrate the return of the martini-swilling chain-smoking prodigal son, I thought I'd hazard a sampling of what the 1950s and 60s era cuisine tasted like, and cook something from the book that looked like it would have sat on Betty Draper's shelf, before things went off the rails.

Now you're cooking with nostalgia! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

These old cookbooks, much like an early episode of Mad Men, circa season 1, can be quite a hoot. Where else are you going to read about the four food groups, where the Milk Group includes a serving of cubes of "Cheddar-type cheese?" A time when capers were considered "crafty," there's dishes called "Spunky Ham Bowl" or "Cock-a-Leekie Soup" without a trace of self-awareness, and you could still get away with calling a dish "Oriental" as long as there's some soy sauce in it. Ah, those were the good old days. It's no wonder they were all raging alcoholics who drank their way through lunches to get through the day.

I found what could best be called a pantry straggler -- a lone can of chicken and rice soup sitting upon our shelf. Luckily it wasn't one of the newfangled line of Campbell's soups, so I could reference a recipe in the cookbook  using this soup flavor. Granted, my can o' soup was using wild rice, which I'm sure would have been considered too exotic for the post-Baby Boomer era, but even in its original white rice form, it wouldn't have changed much with the recipe I decided to use. Simply named Greek Lemon Soup, on page 163, the dish was just that: one can of condensed chicken with rice soup, water, 1 egg, lemon juice, nutmeg and butter. They dress it up a little by describing the soup as being called "Soup Avgolemono" to the Greeks, which means just that, egg-lemon soup or sauce.

Betty is DONE with being your haus frau - Photos by Wasabi Prime, Mad Men pic from AMC

Even the newly-singletoned Stepford-drone, Betty, would appreciate this soup, as it can be made for a serving of one, with minimal ingredients that are likely hanging around a forlorn-looking refrigerator and pantry. You basically heat the soup to the can's directions, and whisking the egg with the lemon juice in a separate bowl, you temper the egg and lemon mixture before incorporating it slowly into the soup, but off the direct heat, so the egg doesn't curdle. You're lightly cooking the egg in the soup, constantly whisking so that it just emulsifies and gives the soup a rich, surprisingly silky texture. I was actually -- gasp -- pleasantly surprised with what gently adding the egg to the soup would do for its consistency. The lemon juice brightened the flavor, which does any canned product some good, and the nutmeg just made it a little more interesting. What isn't interesting is the final result: Bland, Boring City. Even Don Draper would choose a different kind of liquid lunch before sucking down this snooze-worthy broth.

Option B... for Booze - food photos by Wasabi Prime, Mad Men pic from AMC

Not very exciting-looking, I know. So I drizzled a little olive oil and added some fresh-cracked pepper as these would have been ingredients hanging about a Mad Men-era household, and something they would have thought to add to the soup anyways: Voila! Slightly less Bland-Boring-City.

A little better. But a dry martini would make it perfect - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I had my vintage-era soup and then capped the day off early by signing off around three to start swilling cocktails and exercising poor decision-making skills that would make the fellas at Sterling Cooper proud. Perhaps later I'll have enough liquid courage in me to give recipes like "Curried Crax" a try, or figure out just what the hell a "Mulligatawny" is.

UnRecipe: Shhhh -- Downton's On...

We finally fell down the rabbit-hole a few weeks ago, giving into the social pressure to watch the mega-super-all-the-cool-kids-watch-this-popular British series Downton Abbey. It's basically Upstairs, Downstairs, heavy on the suds and a righteous-sized set dressing/wardrobe budget. It's also addictive like sugar-coated crack with bacon bits on top. This picture is not, in fact, sugar-coated crack with bacon bits, more like a spicy curry squash and peanut soup with fried chickpeas. Why feature it with Downton Abbey? Because it's so dang civilised (notice I use the hoity-toity "s" spelling) and it's quick to make, ready in time to watch the latest episode and slurp the soup without catching a sidelong disapproving stare by Lady Violet.

Lady Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham would not approve of this "exotic" soup - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Give it up for Netflix Streaming, as we spent a weekend watching season one of Downton, almost back to back, which got us primed for PBS Masterpiece's current airing of Season Two, which they've been good about keeping episodes online, FYI. Amazingly, it was Mr. Wasabi who suggested we give it a go. I knew I'd get obsessed with it, so I was putting it off, and it was a pleasant surprise the Mister was keen to watch. I think it was because we rewatched the old Mystery! series, Cadfael, with the I, Claudius-fantastic Derek Jacobi, we're still waiting for season 2 of Sherlock to get its booty shakin' and we were on Brit-withdrawal (Brithdrawal?). It's a twisted, complex path that led us to the sprawling estate of Downton and the Earl of Grantham's melodramatic household, but I'm sure those squirrelly Crawleys wouldn't have it any other way.

In order to really absorb all the drama of this series, you don't want a fussy meal to distract from whatever hour-long intrigue that's afoot, so I suggest a creamy, rich squash and peanut soup. It's quick, delicious and looks all fancy-like if you garnish it up nicely. I admit, it's nice to have some pre-roasted squash that was frozen and set aside for a rainy day, but if you had a can of plain, unsweetened pumpkin, that would work dandy for this. I had a particular hankering for the spice of curry and the sweetness of peanut butter, so I combined the two in this soup. You can use your favorite curry powder or a small spoonful of curry paste to mix in with your squash puree, a heavy shake of chili or cayenne powder for heat, and about a quarter cup of smooth unsweetened peanut butter. Add in enough chicken or vegetable stock to give it the consistency you want in the soup, and if you have a stick blender, run that through as well, to give it a super-creamy consistency. Season to taste -- add salt and pepper accordingly, and if you want to highlight the sweetness, add a little sugar or honey to it.

My favorite soup topping is pan-fried chickpeas. Simple enough to make -- take a can of well-drained chickpeas and toss lightly with canola oil and some of the curry powder before putting them into a pan heated to medium. They'll sizzle and pop a bit, you just want to cook out as much of the liquid but not burn the beans. They'll get seasoned, smoky and lightly crisped, and be a bit lighter with so much of the water cooked out, so they'll top a thick soup rather nicely.

Downton-Harry Potter meme-osity by the Mister... and crispy chickpeas! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

You know something's good if it's worth doing a meme-mashup. Brock kept saying how the actor that plays the infuriatingly berzerker footman, Thomas, looks a lot like a young Voldemort/Tom Riddle from the Harry Potter movies. It's true! Think about it... Maybe it's the soft, eerily calm voice; the lazy, sociopathic stare when he's speaking with the Upstairs folks, or the fact Thomas just reeks of pure scheming eeeeevil. So, the Mister put together this clever meme, since whenever Thomas shows up in a scene, Brock whispers, "horcrux." I laugh, miss half the dialogue in the scene, and we have to rewind it.

But enough fussing!! Downton's starting -- shhhhhh!!

UnRecipe: The Meals That Just Happen

If you've been sticking with my ramblings for this long, you'll know that this blog isn't so much about the intricacies of complex dishes or the following of recipes to the letter. Definitely not about recipes -- if I were on the Lewis and Clark expedition, we'd have found ourselves several miles down the Nile River after making a wrong turn in Albuquerque.  Don't ask how that would happen, but if I were writing the rules, I would make this happen. Food is something that just happens. The less you plan around it, the more you can just let the ingredients be your guide, and that's not a bad thing. Take this dinner in particular -- a roasted pork loin with a roasted root vegetable mash -- I really did just let the ingredients guide the way, and we wound up with one meal that stretched into several variations throughout the week.

The Dinner That Just Happens - Aimless Cooking at Wasabi's - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I know, it looks fancy and fussy, a mash of root veggies in the middle of a creamy soup and a little slice of pork tenderloin on top. Let's be honest, this shot was clearly for the blog -- a beauty shot, as it were. The meal itself was more like a random pile of all these ingredients on a plate, scarfed down with eager om-nom-nom-ness. Don't let the presentation throw you off -- I awoke on a Thursday morning, pulled our CSA box from the chilly front porch and found a mix of squash and carrots, and I always have some sweet potatoes on hand for cold weather months. I buy meat and freeze it for later use, pork loin being a favorite cut, since it's a good basic. Granted, it's on the lean side, so not a ton of flavor, but it's like a tabula rasa meat, so you can add whatever seasonings you want, cooking it in whatever manner you like. For meals like ours that go totally unplanned and seat-of-your-pants, it rolls with the punches nicely.

Pork loin doesn't always have a ton of fat, so, it also runs the risk of drying out and turning into a hockey puck. Not delicious. I seasoned the loin with an ample amount of salt and pepper and a light rub of vegetable oil before cooking. This particular cut was boneless, so no extra flavor from bone, but it did have a bit of a fat cap on one side. I lightly scored the layer of fat and in a hot cast iron Dutch oven it went. I did a good sear on the whole loin, starting with the fat cap. It gave it a nice crisp char, rendering it down, and I put a sear around the surface of the whole loin before removing the loin to a plate. I mostly wanted to get the lovely browned bits of flavor into the pot. I took the heat down a little and threw in a few pounds of rough-chopped carrots, sweet potato and an onion. I let the onion sweat a little and get the carrots and sweet potatoes starting to cook and soften. I added a bit of braising liquid -- if there's chicken stock available, I throw that in, but this time I just used a light beer. Keeping a few bottles of beer handy is nice if you want to deglaze a pan or get a braising liquid going. A dry white wine would also work fine.

One-Pot Cooking, My Favorite Way to Do a Meal! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

With the extra liquid in the pot and a layer of vegetables, the loin was added back in, the pot was lidded and into a 350 degree oven it went. Having the meat cook slower, in a lidded and moist environment helps keep it from getting tough, and you still get that nice browning from the initial sear. This is a good rule of thumb for cooking large cuts of meat and keeping it moist -- high heat first, then a slower, lower heat to finish off. When the loin was fully cooked, I let it rest and mashed the vegetables in the pot. On their own, this would be a meal, the slices of pork with a side of the mash. I had roasted the squash and made a simple soup -- basically chicken stock and the roasted squash; having a hand blender is helpful for finishing off creamy soups. But the main event was the pork and vegetable mash; the soup was just a nice side dish. We were able to stretch the pork into several different meals, having it with soup, the root veggie mash, and the large chunks of the loin could be reheated with other sauces and incorporated into other meals with other vegetables. Again, none of the meals really have much thought put into them beyond, "What do we have and what can we throw together relatively quickly on a weeknight?" While meals like these seem kind of disorganized and unplanned, they're relatively quick to make and are good for everyday meals. It's always easy to find special occasion meals, but for dishes that feed the household on a regular basis, it's nice to find one-pot meals or ingredients that are flexible to work with.

Multiple Meals from One Pork Loin at the Wasabi Household - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Meatballs of Fury

It's a meatball soup -- come on, like you wouldn't have written a title just like that? When the weather turns chilly, I think we all crave a cozy spot on the couch, grab the Snuggie (leopard print, of course), and curl up with a hot bowl of soup and listen to the sound of the pouring rain (or snow)... that will likely not leave our Pacific Northwest skies till April. You think I jest?? While a creamy rich bisque is always elegant, if you're wearing a Snuggie, go rustic with this hearty Meat-a-ball and Vegetable Soup. It will help mitigate the fact you're wearing a backwards robe.

This soup pairs nicely with a dry chardonnay... and a fuzzy Snuggie - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Why is this an UnRecipe? Because yet again, I had a crisper full of random vegetables, plus a summertime favorite, fragrant herb pesto, which carried most of the flavor spotlight. It's clearly a riff on an Italian wedding soup, but I can't call it that because I'm sure a thousand Italian grandmas would argue that this is not the proper way to make this soup. So fuggetaboutit. I'm just sayin' it's a meatball soup that was freakin' tasty -- even those orange-hued Jersey Shore kids would have enjoyed it in between Redbull and vodka shots.

The vegetable miscellany included carrots, celery, bell peppers, zucchini and some chard. The meatball component was a half pound of ground turkey mixed with some of the pesto for a little extra fat, an egg to bind it, and then the meticulous rolling of small, bite-sized meatballs began. The soup with all its softened vegetables were simmering away when I dropped in each little meatball to let it braise in the soup. I let it simmer for a bit until the meat was cooked and the flavors melded together.

I should preface this by saying we have a freezer full of chicken stock. That's half the ease of deciding soup is on the menu. I simmer a rag-tag band of ingredients in a big pot, cool it down, strain it off and pour it into old sour cream or yogurt containers before hitting the deep freeze. Mr. Wasabi bemoans my hoarding of these plastic containers, but they're the best for storing quarts of stock. I can usually get a little over a dozen filled with golden, delicious chicken goodness every stock-making day. The basic ingredient list is chicken bones with saved vegetable scraps and aromatics like garlic, bay leaves and peppercorns. I keep a brown paper sack in the freezer that collects carrot ends, onion tops, and any other vegetable scraps that will add flavor to stock, and when the bag is full, it's like a timer saying Ding! Time to haul out the stockpot. Usually by that time I will at least have one chicken carcass stored in the freezer, preferably two. At the risk of our freezer looking like an undead nightmare, it's been a fairly effective way to literally wring every bit of flavor from our meals -- even the dregs.

Granted, I realize not everyone has the schedule to fit in making their own stock, but if you can find the time, it's so totally worth it, and a pennysaver. On a rainy/snowy Sunday, what else you gonna do? Plus it will make your house smell amazingly delicious! Sure, it can be messy and the way I do it, the process of collecting the ingredients can take a couple of months. But once we started on this self-replenishing stock cycle, it makes UnRecipe nights where I decide, "I want soup," very easy, as I can defrost a couple of the frozen stock containers and it adds richness and flavor that the mass market stuff doesn't quite achieve.

The return of Zucchini Staredown and a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes of soupmaking - Photos by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: The (Tastes) Great Pumpkin

Pumpkins. They're not just for pies. Well, duh, of course you know that. They're for carving funny faces in. When smashed, they can inspire 90's indie band name titles. They're also nifty-keen for soups, stews and chili. To help inspire minds already clicking away on Thanksgiving plans, here's some non-dessert uses for our squashy friend, reminding us that The Great Pumpkin isn't just great, he's DELICIOUS.

Hey, there, Pumpkin! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

For those fans of the Peanuts Gang, I apologize to Linus Van Pelt for taking his sacred All Hallows Eve cow, hacking it in twain and roasting the bejeebers out of it. But you can't get a tasty roasted pumpkin without doing all that stuff. My journey to give Peter-Peter Pumpkin-Eater a run for his money started out at the grocery store when I saw a sign that priced small pumpkins at $1.99 a pop. Not per pound, per pumpkin, which was pretty good, since butternut squash was priced that amount by weight. Granted, these weren't sugar pumpkins, the creamier-textured pie-friendly varieties. These were basically destined to be mini jack-o-lanterns, but I hate to see produce go to waste, so I bought three of them and set to work on incorporating them into food.

Pumpkin soup with a unique flavor twist - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Despite their small size, these little guys were stringy buggers. The flesh was compact and definitely more tough than the pumpkins you'd use for pies. But that didn't make them any less edible. Once split, seeded and roasted in the oven till fork-tender, it still had that lightly sweet, fragrant scent that pumpkins have when cooked. Mild in flavor, it becomes a bit like a potato, able to play with a variety of seasonings. Blended smooth in a food processor or blender, it's great for soups. I made my version of pumpkin soup with creamy coconut milk, enhancing the pleasant sweetness of the squash. Adding a few different spices like cardamom, chili powder and nutmeg, it had more of a Southeast Asian flavor to it, versus the typical mild pumpkin soup. I reserved the seeds, dried them out, and roasted with chili powder to make them into a crunchy topping.

For my next trick, I will make a pumpkin disappear into this chili! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

This blog should be renamed as 101 Ways to Eat Chili. It's true, I make it a lot. Just call it the comfy pair of sweatpants and baggy sweater you always throw on after a long day at work -- it's always a good fit. The latest batch of chili ended up getting half a roasted pumpkin mixed in. The soft chunks of the roasted squash sort of melted into the chili and made for a great thickener. You don't really notice the flavor but it adds a nice, rich texture to the chili. I did the same to a chicken curry I made that week and it made the sauce pleasantly thick, plus gave it a pretty orange hue.

I still have a few more pumpkins left from the squash shopping spree. Another nice thing about thick-skinned squash is their shelf life. As long as the skin isn't pierced and no bruising, they can just hang out on your counter for quite a long time. Ultimately, the remainder of the pumpkins will be roasted down and have their mushy goodness frozen for future uses, as I haven't decided on the specifics of how I'll use them. But I'm already envisioning breads and cakes, or a rich, creamy mushroom and pumpkin lasagne.Stay tuned, I'm sure Pumpkin 2: Electric Boogaloo will be a sequel worth blogging about.

UnRecipe: The Comfort Food Zone

Submitted for your approval... you are traveling to another dimension... a dimension of not only sight and sound but of humble, simple foods. You have entered the Comfort Food Zone. So maybe that's not what Rod Serling intended for his historic (and one of my favorite) anthology series, the Twilight Zone, but lately, I've gotten into the habit of doing a lot of cooking on Fridays, often doing multiple dishes not even meant to be eaten together, but it turns the whole kitchen into an edible zone, with things bubbling on the stove or baking in the oven. Normally I'd consider it a Test Kitchen Friday, but recently with the change of weather, it's not new things I'm trying, but a return to familiar dishes and flavors that really strike the autumnal mood. Submitted for your approval: andouille sausage mystery beer chili and a leek and pesto Italian soup with quinoa.

Hey there, hot stuff - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Chili is a notorious UnRecipe for me because I never measure or keep track of how it's made. In all likelihood, each pot of chili I've made has been like some rare, genetic singularity fang-toothed dodo bird/platypus hybrid, anomalous and extinguished before proper documentation could occur. But delicious all the same. This batch of chili used up some leftover andouille sausage we had languishing in the fridge and Brock found an unmarked bottle of beer from one of our homebrewing friends where the top had lost its seal. No longer carbonated, it would still make for a tasty cooking liquid, despite its mysterious origin. Honestly, any beer would do. You could throw in a PBR into your chili recipe and it would taste fine, and you could have the smug knowledge that your chili was a blue ribbon special.

Deconstructed chili - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I threw in chopped bell peppers, an onion, garlic, and browned some ground turkey as an additional protein punch. I've been leaning more towards the use of black beans over kidney beans for the legume component; the smaller beans make for a less chunky chili, plus if you feel so inclined, the more uniform consistency makes for a boss add-on to fries or tortilla chips. As for the main flavoring, I use two or three adobo chiles with a bit of the sauce, and then a disorganized, unmeasured mix of chili, mustard, cumin and garlic powders, plus a hefty shake of Hawaiian seasoned rocksalt. I realize this must sound really frustrating to those wanting measured amounts, but I don't name these posts UnRecipe for nothing.

Blog-inspired, Wasabi-meddled soup - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Another burner was busy bubbling away with an Italian-themed soup. This was inspired by personal chef and blogger, Silvia de Gregori's Citron et Vanille. Her beautiful Sardinian spinach, chickpea and fregola soup inspired an Italian turn, taking a big liberty with the seasoning and adding a spoonful of the homemade pesto we still have in the fridge. I also substituted the couscous-like fregola pasta with quinoa, which was also a pantry leftover awaiting its destiny in some meal. Not meant as an insult to Silvia and her amazing blog; she writes several new posts every week with beautiful, colorful photos and her dishes are always a constant source of healthy inspiration for me to incorporate vegetables in new and interesting ways. I liked the idea of her Sardinian soup and modified it to fit the needs of what the pantry and refrigerator already had, because we have a terrible habit of just letting ingredients pile up. Definitely give Citron et Vanille a look and if you're lucky to live in the Bay Area, her personal chef services would be a treat to experience.

Tasty bulbs and the last of the quinoa - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I appreciate your coming along for this visit into the Comfort Food Zone. Certainly not as exciting as William Shatner freaking out over the fact that THERE'S... SOMETHING... ON THE WING! but really, what else can beat that? There's at least a creature comfort in having a few simple meals cooked up ahead of time that can be spooned into plastic containers and brought to work, or easily microwaved for dinner after a long day. That makes venturing into the CF-Zone on Fridays a worthy trip indeed.