Cold Soups: Part Two

I had a lot of fun creating ColdSoups: Part One. Autumn here in the Northeast can be an up and down proposition temperature wise. It’s currently a 90-degree, sunny September day. So there’s still time to try these before its cold enough to crave winter fare and comfort foods.

Golden Gazpacho with Avocado

By Justin Capple, August 2014 Food & Wine Magazine

Yellow tomatoes and green avocados give this soup a stunning color palette. Lucky for us, it’s also delicious and cooling. Here’s the recipe.

Buttermilk Corn Soup with Shrimp

Health Magazine

Jeremy and I are crazy about buttermilk, so this recipe had us at hello. Summer – or early fall – translated into a soup.

Cascadilla

Adapted from the MoosewoodCookbook

One of my sweetest memories revolves around this soup. My toddler son Jacob was hospitalized for chemotherapy and then infection. It was a long stay. I was in the throes of early pregnancy and feeling finicky and grouchy. All I wanted was a cold, creamy and comforting Cascadilla. The hospital cafeteria wasn’t cutting it.

Jeremy set about gathering a supply of basic kitchen gadgets for this cook-free delicacy. He did some targeted food shopping. Then he proceeded to make this soup in Jacob’s hospital room. Jacob didn’t have any, but Hannah did, albeit indirectly.

On a more practical note, this soup might be worth trying if you find traditional Gazpacho too tart and acidic.

Our adaptation is that we omit the mushrooms and garnishes. The soup is endlessly customizable, so do what inspires you. We feel there is no substitute for regular sour cream. I photographed my cookbook page for easy reference, or you can find it here.

Chilled Carrot Soup with Sweet Pea Cubes

Shape Magazine, July / August 2015

There is something magical about this soup. How fun is it that you can make a cold carrot soup, then float cubes of peas mixed with buttermilk right in it? It tastes fantastic. I made this for the first time while Hannah was trekking through Eastern Europe earlier this summer. I can hear her complaining in the next room about the heat. Time for an encore.  Recipe here.

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Cold Soups: Part One

I learned so many good things from my mother-in-law Norma.

Early on in my relationship with Jeremy, I went over to their place for dinner. It was a hot summer day in NYC. The air conditioners were running at full throttle in the apartment.

Norma greeted me warmly. After some pleasantries, she announced that we would be having cold soup for dinner.

I had never heard of cold soup before.

I felt the little jolt that comes from what feels like an experiential non sequitur. It seemed like the very definition of soup was that it was either warm or hot.

Then again, there were plenty of new foods that I tried for the first time with Jeremy's family. Thanks to them, I now loved Chinese cuisine, vegetarian dishes, Kir Royale, and quiche. I'd also discovered traditional Jewish foods like chicken soup with matzo balls and Charoset at Passover.

My response to trying all of this was, where has this food been all my life? I had no reason to think that chilled soup would be any less good than a pie you eat for dinner or cold spaghetti with sesame sauce all over it.

My first bite of cold gazpacho did not disappoint. I had the same feeling about it then that I do now. A good gazpacho is the very essence of summer.

It took one encounter to make me a cold soup convert. My next cold soup was Norma's vichyssoise, as velvety, rich, and luxurious as gazpacho is bracing and tangy.

Later, I became a cold soup aficionado, making them at home every summer. There is something about food that you only make during certain times of the year that gives me another reason to love living in a place with four distinct seasons.

Mark Bittman's Traditional Gazpacho

Over the years, I've tried many gazpacho recipes and this one became my favorite. I make this a couple of times every summer. It gets bonus points for being, easy, refreshing and Weight Watchers friendly. Here's the recipe.

Silky Zucchini Soup

By Grant Achatz, July 2014 Food & Wine Magazine.

This is truly delicious, and since it can be served chilled or warm, multi-seasonal. Zucchini is especially plentiful and fresh at the Farmer's Market in the summer months and lends this soup a gorgeous color. Get the recipe here.

Tomato Soup with Feta, Olives and Cucumbers

By David Chang , September 2014 Food & Wine Magazine

This wonderful, multi textured soup combines elements of a Greek salad with a chilled tomato base. It's become a new summer tradition. Check out the amazing recipe.

Cold Avocado Soup

From Green Kitchen Stories

Avocados are one of my favorite foods so when the concept of starring them in a cold soup came up, I was all over it. The first recipe I tried was rather dull. I hit the jackpot with this one. It manages to be both light and rich tasting at the same time. I probably don't need to remind you how healthy avocados are.

I forgot to buy coconut milk once and substituted Ronnybrook Coconut yogurt. Lovely. This blog is one of my favorites. Here is the recipe.

Jeremy's Vichyssoise.

Adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook

This is one of Jeremy's specialties. He makes this one every time. Why mess with success? The recipe is here. Jeremy uses leeks instead of onions.

I've tried making many variations on the cold potato leek type soup. I've attempted to find something more friendly to the waistline, then came to the conclusion that this recipe is worth the extra Points Plus. It's what I like to call a worthy splurge.

One summer Norma was going through a challenging time. Jeremy would go to her apartment and make this soup for her. It's a sweet memory.

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Advice For Myself: It's Only Lunch

Advice For Myself: It's Only Lunch

Oftentimes, I find myself at home for lunch. Sometimes the matter of what to have for lunch is a no brainer. I'll have leftovers from the night before. It's already been planned. I'll have this for lunch tomorrow I’ll think while eating dinner.

Then there are the other times.

I have no prepared leftovers. But there are a myriad of other healthy options. I could make tuna salad or egg salad. I could have a ham sandwich. I could make a cheese omelet with feta or cheddar. I could have a tossed green salad inspired by a Greek salad but not slavishly so.

I could have any number of options on an open-faced sandwich, a closed sandwich, or a bed of greens. I could have a baked potato with fixins’. I could have an Amy's Frozen meal.

I could fashion last night's chicken breast into a gourmet chicken salad. Or I could simply heat it up and have it just as I prepared it.

I decide against pasta salad because it will take too long. I decide against scrambled eggs because I had that yesterday. I'm saving the hummus and the avocado for something else. Bagels with cream cheese and lox or peanut butter on whole-wheat toast beckon.

I think you probably get the idea by now.

This type of back and forth will eventually start to announce itself to me. I will recognize it for what it is. I have spent between two and five minutes contemplating lunch. I will not have spent 10 minutes on my lunch menu because I've never been at it that long before catching myself and giving me some much needed advice.

It's only lunch.

Once I say it's only lunch I switch gears. I pick something and have it. I realize how lucky I am to have plenty of food in the house and choices. Not everyone has this. I realize that this is not my last meal. There will be lots of other lunches.

I realize that what I don't choose today I can have tomorrow. I realize I should be saving my mental energy for more important matters. There are decisions that merit contemplation. Lunch is not one of them.

I've taken this advice from myself so many times that I don't usually need the reminder. I'll just give myself the advice at the beginning of the lunch preparations.

It's only lunch is a construct that can be applied to a great number of things. It's only shoes. It's only eye shadow. It's only a diner menu. It's only an evening out. It's only a throw pillow.

It helps with the bigger decisions too. Decisions with farther reaching consequences. I've done my research and doing more research would have diminishing returns. After being thoughtful and thorough I decide and then see what happens. If it doesn't work out, I'll have more decisions available at that time.

There a few things in life where there is one crystal clear path that is perfect. There is usually more than one good option. There are forks in the road. The dead ends are few and far between.

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Fat And Happy

Five or six years ago I felt the pounds creeping on. I wasn't fat. But I was getting there. I was starting to look matronly.

So I lost 30 pounds. I've kept it off all this time. I'm proud of that.

I like being slim. I have to watch what I eat and exercise in order to keep this physique. I like the way I can go up many flights of stairs without huffing and puffing. I like the kinds of clothes I am able to wear. I feel great.

When I was younger and my metabolism was a lot faster I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted without getting fat. This is not the case anymore.

So even though I really love being slim and find that being slim comes with its own rewards, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to take a different path.

Sometimes I'll be in a restaurant or public area and see a fat stranger really having a great time eating a lot of food. They are enjoying their enormous portion with gusto. They're not ordering salad. They're not apologizing for being fat.

Most other people seem to be of a different mindset. I really need to lose that last 10 pounds they say. Or right after the holidays I'm going on a diet. I really shouldn't be eating this they say, and look a little sad eating a piece of cake. I will feel perfectly fine eating it because I've saved up my Weight Watchers weekly points plus.

I would like to stay slim. But staying slim for me is an acceptable effort and lifestyle choice at this time. I make a few tweaks, and I'm slim. If everything goes on my current trajectory then I'll be 70 years old someday and people will be asking how I maintain my girlish figure.

But if something unexpected happens, I'm ready. If I have to go on a medication at any point that causes excessive weight gain or an enormous appetite then I'm not spending my life eating celery.

I'll be fat, but I'll look great. I'll buy fashion forward clothes from the plus size department. I'll still exercise. That's a big girl, but, God love her, she looks fantastic! people would say.  Just look at that ass!

When the doctor reads me the riot act - diabetes, heart disease, cancer - I'll explain that it is impossible to be slim and be treated with the medication he prescribed. I need to enjoy life. Let's work together to make me the healthiest fat person I can be.

This scenario of a fat, happy person is rarely seen or talked about in the media.

I've read these two really funny books recently. They were engrossing. They are about a person who is describes himself as fat. I'd like to recommend them to you now. Both of them are by Jim Gaffigan.

I saw Dad is Fat reviewed in a parenting magazine and immediately put it on hold at the library. What sold me on it - we'll not sold exactly, as I borrowed it  - was the part of the review that described Jim and his wife Jeannie raising five children in a two-bedroom apartment in NYC.

My husband and I are raising two children in a two-bedroom apartment in NYC. I have a friend who lives in a palatial home. Inexplicably, the enormous residence is in Manhattan. She has introduced me to other friends of hers at parties as the friend I told you about who lives in the tiny apartment.

So Jim and Jeannie were my heroes even before I picked up the book. There's an entire section in there about how they put their five kids to bed in the two-bedroom apartment. There are diagrams. There are strategies. They roll out this bedtime. It's a genius bedtime.

This was my favorite part of the book. But it was full of stuff about raising kids in NYC. I loved the rest of it. The only problem is that I like to do a lot of my reading on the subway. The book frequently had me in hysterics which causes a bit of a social issue if it's rush hour. So I'd put it away and read it at home. Jeremy would ask me what was so funny then I'd read it aloud to him.

I don't want to give you a blow by blow account. If you like funny books and are sick of all of this depressing crap out there, then read Dad is Fat.

I am an absolute pro at utilizing the New York Public library system.  When Jim Gaffigan's next book, Food: A Love Story came out I naturally put that one on hold right away.

The thing I love most about this book is that it's all about food and eating but isn't all high minded and sophisticated. The writer isn't traveling through parts of France you've never heard of, name dropping a bunch of famous intellectuals and rhapsodizing over some escargot he ate 35 years ago, and then going on about the after dinner aperitif.  It is not written in 1926. Gertrude Stein is not in it. It is not boring.

Jim Gaffigan lives in NYC. The book is a real page turner. I'd like to say I couldn't put it down. But the truth is, there were some specific times where I had to put it down.

There is the aforementioned laughter in public. I've been frank with you so far. Sometimes when I get going, I snort when I laugh. I'm not proud of it. So I cannot justify reading Jim Gaffigan's work on the subway anymore.

Remember how I said that I'm working to stay at a healthy weight? Sometimes while reading this book, I'd get really, really hungry and I'd have to put the damn thing down and go eat some food. This phenomenon was particularly striking while reading about meals Gaffigan and his family consumed at Katz's delicatessen. My God. The sandwiches.

The worst part was when I'd be reading the book before bed and it would make me hungry after I already brushed my teeth.

I hate it when I read a book review and I can tell that the reviewer did not read the entire book. I'm going to come clean. There was one part of the book I skipped over. That part of the book was about Poutine.

I had first heard about Poutine several years ago from extended family members who traveled to Canada. While in Canada, they discovered Poutine. When they came back from Canada, they described Poutine. They showed me photographs of Poutine. They were able to do this because they had a book about Poutine. They either purchased the Poutine book for themselves, or the book was a gift from people who knew how much they like Poutine.

At that point I said that I would never try Poutine. C'mon, people said. You have to try Poutine. But I don't want to try Poutine. I don't even want to read about Poutine. That's why I skipped the part of the book about Poutine.

In every good book there is a sense of mystery or the unexplained. And so it is with Food: A Love Story.

I love books with pictures. This book has quite a few. While reading the book, Jim Gaffigan referred to himself as fat. Indeed, he is not skinny.

But as I read about the eating this guy does and lived vicariously through him, I'd find myself flipping through the book to look at the pictures of Jim Gaffigan. The typical scenario might be him describing an all you can eat buffet, his behavior there and then me looking at his pictures.

Here is what I concluded. Although Gaffigan is not thin, he is not that fat. Quite frankly, with everything he's eating, he should be much fatter. I’m no doctor. But he seems to be doing pretty well for himself.

Even more confounding are the pictures of his wife Jeannie. I won't beat around the bush. The woman is gorgeous. She's had five kids and has the figure of a fashion model. She lives with Jim Gaffigan, yet she isn't even a little bit fat. If I lived with Jim Gaffigan instead of Jeremy Shatan, I would weigh more than Jim Gaffigan and Jeremy Shatan combined.

I might hate Jeannie Gaffigan except for the fact that she seems really nice in the book and took great care of her five children in the two-bedroom. I understand that they live in a larger place now, and I in no way hold this against them. She also commutes all over the city to bring her kids to schools out of their neighborhood and I love her for that too.