What I Made for Dinner: March 28, 2009

Beef and vegetable soup, homemade bread.

Here's the thing about homemade beef soup: It is a pain in the ass. Not worth it.

I am still struggling with the bread. This one was an improvement: My friend Amy sent me a New York Times article on how to make an easy artisan bread, and it was definitely better than last week's try. It's still not the kind of light, chewy inside and crackly-crusted outside I'm going for. I'm going to get the book she suggested, and I'll keep working on it.

What I Made for Dinner: January 20, 2009

Cream of asparagus soup and broiled chicken breast sandwiches.

You can get asparagus all year round at Costco, but the winter asparagus is really thick and so only the tips are good to eat. When I made risotto on Sunday night, I used just the tips. The depression-era housewife in me felt outraged at the idea of throwing out all those stalks. Usually, the thing to do with less-than-ideal veggies is to make soup. So I consulted Joy of Cooking, the '97 edition.

Some people complain that the 1997 iteration of Joy of Cooking was too highfalutin', that it departed from the practical-everywoman vibe that had made it such a masterpiece. I don't agree. I can always find a little of everything I need in the '97 version, which was a wedding present from my friend Tamara. One time I needed to make Hollandaise and didn't know how; Joy of Cooking taught me. Get a taste for Spanish tortilla? Pad Thai? Hummus bi tahini? Chicken and dumplings? It's all there. And so it was with cream of asparagus soup.

Five ingredients and one unfortunate-but-fixable misjudgment of my food processor later, and dinner was served.