Soup's On!

Thought for the day:  The lore has not died out of the world, and you will still find people who believe that soup will cure any hurt or illness and is no bad thing to have for the funeral either. [John Steinbeck, East of Eden]

Who doesn't like soup? A dainty little bowl before an entree is swell, but I enjoy a good hearty soup as the main course, too. (I'm not positive, but I think February is National Soup Month, so talk about perfect timing...)

Anyhow, I'm pleased to be participating in the Souper Blog Hop today, which Chrys Fey is running in support of the release of her mother's first book Pea Soup Disaster. (That's right! Another author in the family!)

First, I'll share a spiffy soup recipe with you, and then I'll share info about the book, okay? (For those of you who don't give a diddle about preparing soup from scratch, don't worry. I'm gonna tell you about a terrific CANNED soup, too.)

SUSAN'S YUMMY SPINACH SOUP

This soup is my own concoction, so I've never had a recipe for it. But this week, I made a point of writing down how much of everything I was using so I could translate my wing-it style of cooking into something you guys could use. I made a smallish pot, enough for Smarticus and me to enjoy at two meals... with biscuits. So you can adjust the amounts accordingly.

INGREDIENTS
2 bone-in country style pork ribs
32 oz. chicken broth or stock
2 medium potatoes, cubed
1/3 c. chopped onion
heaping 1/2 c. instant barley
2 5-oz. bags of triple-washed baby spinach
splash of milk

1. Place ribs in pot, salt and pepper to taste, and cover with chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until meat is tender. (~1 hour) (If you use regular barley instead of instant, add it to the pot after about 40 minutes)
2. Remove meat from bones and cut into bite-sized pieces. Return to pot and add chopped onions and cubed potatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes. If using instant barley, add that now, then simmer another 10 minutes.
3. Add spinach and stir until limp and cooked to your taste. Add a drizzle of milk (or half and half, whatever you have on hand) and season to taste.
NOTE: I usually prepare soup and then refrigerate a couple days to let the flavors "marry." Not necessary, though. It's already plenty yummy at this point. Enjoy!

Don't want to go to all of that trouble? How about the best-tasting canned clam chowder you've ever tasted? That would be Tony's.

We first tasted this award-winning chowder at Tony's restaurant in Cedar Key, Florida. their chowder is a three-time winner of international clam chowder competitions, so ya KNOW it's gotta be good. We enjoyed it so much, we bought a case of it from the restaurant to bring back home with us. Natch, the canned isn't as good as the nectar they serve fresh in the restaurant, but it is reeeeeeally good. Add a blob of butter and some half and half to this concentrate, and your tummy will thank you. If you want to fancy it up a bit, add some chopped chives or chopped onions and a bit of crumbled cooked bacon. Either way, it is a soup that'll make you say, "Mmmm! Mmmm! Gooooood!" Some grocery stores around the country sell it, and you can also order it from the restaurant via the internet.  Just look up Tony's clam chowder.

            So what's YOUR favorite soup?

Okay, I've done my easy-peasy part for this blog hop. Now it's time to move on to check out Elaine Kay's new book... featuring PEA soup.

BLURB: Gregory Green loves his mom’s pea soup, but when he eats it at school, all of his friends make fun of how it looks. He doesn’t think it looks like bugs, and it tastes good! Then at recess, his friends run from him, screaming, “He’s a monster!” Gregory doesn’t know why his friends are being mean until he sees his skin is green. The teasing gets worse until an unlikely friend comes to the rescue—his teddy bear, Sammy. Sammy usually only comes to life for Gregory and his family, but Sammy has an important lesson to teach Gregory and his classmates.

Available in Print:

AMAZON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elaine Kaye got the idea for Pea Soup Disaster from her son who loved to eat her homemade pea soup. Pea Soup Disaster is the first of many fun stories featuring Gregory Green and his teddy bear, Sammy, as part of the Gregory Green Adventure series.

Kaye has worked as a library assistant and teacher's assistant in elementary schools in the Sunshine State. She currently lives in Florida, but she has called Michigan; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Okinawa, Japan home. She is a grandmother of three boys.

Find Elaine:

Website / Instagram / Litsy - @ElaineKaye

Goodreads / Amazon

Sounds good, huh? Here's wishing Elaine much success with her new series. Like daughter, like mother...

                           Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

P.S. The other participants will be doing their Souper posts on Monday. (Chrys was nice enough to let me post mine on my usual blogging day.) You can find a link to a list of other Monday-posting participants HERE

Will Blog For Books

Thought for the day:  Books are uniquely portable magic.  [Stephen King]

Yes, indeedy, it's that time again. It's Cephalopod Coffeehouse time. Time for a bunch of us book-loving bloggers to sip fragrant beverages while sharing information about some of the innovative, new, and not-so-new books we've read over the past month. Wanta participate? Just pop on over to The Armchair Squid's blog.

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.  [Haruki Murakami]

If you're still here, is it safe to assume you like to read? Well then, what do you think about FREE BOOKS? Yeah, I know. Dumb question, right? I'm pleased to say I've won a lot of books through Goodreads' giveaways... as many as three in a single day. But, that's kinda hit-or-miss, and based on the luck of the draw. What if there were a program where you can simply request a book, and (ta DA!) it gets shipped to you? Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But it is true. Allow me to present ...

Maybe you've heard of bowling for dollars, or fishing for compliments, or running for office, but have you ever heard of (Insert drum roll here.) Blogging for Books? Don't worry; I never heard of it, either, not until the lovely Connie told me about it, that is. Now I'm passing the info on to you guys. Would you be willing to write a review on your blog about the books these fine folks send you? (Which, by the way, YOU get to select.) If so, who knows? Maybe you could take part in this program, too. To find out, all you have to do is go to their website and answer some simple questions. You get to select your preferred genres from a wide range of categories, and then if you're accepted, you have immediate access to a list of books from which to choose. Less than a week after I put in my request, I had my first selection in my hot little hands. Am I psyched? You betcha. I mean, come on! Free books? What's not to love? Check it out.
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Okay, time to consider some of my reading indulgences from this past month. I read a couple Nicholas Sparks books, which were as enjoyable as a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows... and just about as predictable. Another Iris Johansen book, which was good, but not one of her best. I finally got around to reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett, too, and was delighted to find it's every bit as good as everyone says it is. I thoroughly enjoyed Florence Gordon, by Brian Morton, which is about a feisty and unforgettable seventy-five year old feminist. But the book I'm gonna highlight this month is the one I got from Blogging for Books. Not just because I agreed to blog about it, but because I genuinely loved it.

                           The book?

"My Paris Kitchen." Appropriately enough, it arrived on my doorstep on Bastille Day. Kinda cool, huh? Piggy that I am, I devoured the entire thing in one gluttonous sitting.

Is it a cookbook? Yes, but it isn't just a cookbook. It's an intimate cookbook with a myriad of personal touches, and it's written by an accomplished chef who's every bit as talented at spinning a delicious story about what it's like to live in Paris as he is at whipping up a mouth-watering meal.

Lebovitz relocated from California to Paris ten years ago, and with this book, it's almost as though he's taken us with him, because this book immerses readers in the realities of Parisian living.

Does it contain some wonderful classic French recipes? Yep, but that isn't all it contains. Like many other places in the world, the infusion of other cultures and nationalities has greatly influenced French eating and cooking habits. So this book also contains delightful recipes from other regions, too... with a bit of a French twist, of course.

In addition, this book includes clever tricks of the trade that any cook would appreciate, and some spiffy updates on some of the classic recipes found in my old (ie. antique) Julia Child cookbook. The recipes themselves? Extremely well-written, often illustrated, and simple enough for most cooks to tackle with confidence. (However, I don't think I'm gonna tackle the duck fat cookies... You're welcome, Smarticus.)

Oh, yeah. I know I already told you once, but according to the instructions, I'm supposed to add a disclaimer to the bottom of my review. So here 'tis...

DISCLAIMER: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.
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For those of you who aren't into cooking, another book I read this month may be more to your liking: The Ghosts of Nagasaki, by Daniel Clausen. Talk about a unique book. I'm telling you, it's a literary Mobius strip. Past and present, real and imaginary, dead and alive... they all seem to coexist on the same plane, so it's a real mind-bending thought provoker. Plus, that dude really knows how to write.

                                              Okay, y'all, have a super weekend.

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.