The other week, I was perusing foodtv and ended up liking this Soba Noodle-Vegetable Salad recipe by Ellie Krieger. Who’s Ellie Krieger? I have no idea, but this salad looked good. Wet ingredients on the left, and “dry” ingredients on the right, it was quite simple. Why did I make this when it was 30 degrees out? Sometimes, I’m not so seasonal. This would be a great light meal when it’s hot out.

I left the mint and basil out of my version, because I’m not too into hunks of mint or basil. But it tasted just fine to me with just the cilantro. The salad is extremely crunchy and the dressing is tangy and good. It also looks quite beautiful with all the intense colors. It actually tasted even better a day later when the soba noodles had gotten more firm. When you first make it, the noodles get a bit too soft. Once refrigerated, they harden up again. Here it is served up with some of the asian inspired pickles I had made. I had gone to the food bloggers potluck and had eaten way too many of these. I made them on my own and they turned out just great. And if I can make em, anyone can make em!

Remember the beautiful dutch oven that I got for christmas last year? I finally busted it out again. I picked up an old copy of the Moosewood cookbook from a yard sale earlier this summer, and with the weather being all cold and crappy, it got me in the mood to make soup. I decided to make some succotash chowder. First I cooked up some onion, garlic, and celery with some basil and thyme. I don’t like celery, so I left mine purposely huge so I could easily fish them out later. Meanwhile, I had soaked the lima beans for many hours and had been simmering them. I’d also cooked up some potatoes.
You then add some frozen corn. I had gotten some extra sweet organic sweet corn from TJ’s.

You then add the lima beans in there. I also took some of this mix and pureed it with an immersion blender (a new toy I’d just picked up for future soup making) to make the soup thicker.

And to finally chowderize it, the potatoes and milk are added.

I removed the celery at this point. So the mistake I made was that the lima beans weren’t cooked enough. I followed the recipe, but I should have followed the instructions on the bean bag instead. I should have soaked them for hours longer and certainly cooked them even longer. They turned out crunchy, which isn’t very appetizing. So mostly, I just ended up fishing around the lima beans. The rest of the chowder itself was quite fine.

Have you ever made your own butter? I hadn’t until last Monday. I had just bought some fresh raspberries, and thought to myself, wouldn’t fresh berries and cream just be delightful? Yes! So I wanted some whipped cream. But instead of buying some, I decided I would make my own. So I bought a thing of heavy cream. I put some in a small bowl and started whisking. I don’t have one of those hand mixer things, so I had to use sweat. I whisked for a long time. I think my whisk was a bit too big for the bowl. I whisked some more, but it only got a bit thicker. I had to get to work, so I decided to just shake my way to whipped cream. I put a lid on it and started shaking in the car. Eventually, I pretty much couldn’t hear any liquid sounds. There was still a little bit so I thought I would just give it a few more shakes. That’s when I passed that point of no return. And then I started hearing the clunks. When I opened it up, I had butter and buttermilk. I drank the buttermilk, which was delicious, and also tasted the butter, which was even more delicious and fresh. Who knew you could do this? And it actually made quite a large hunk of butter. It almost seems like it’s cheaper than buying butter. In my next attempt, I did end up with whipped cream, but perhaps next time, I’ll just buy some.