Something resembling Italian Wedding Soup: Souper Sundays

What's this? Two weeks in a row?

I'd better be careful or you might start expecting more from me.

A 'quick' & easier Italian Wedding Soup for dinner (and Souper Sundays). As always, we made two versions of this. One for Matt & another for Alex & me.

Already-made smoked chicken stock or vegetable boullion was boiled with finely-diced (or, as I like to call it, 'confetti') carrots & celery. After a few minutes, add first the orzo & cook until al dente, then the meatballs (the recipe wants them one-inch; I made mine considerably smaller, while Matt's were only a bit larger than that) made from either ground pork or a vegetarian ground 'sausage', breadcrumbs, grated cheese (Asiago, in this case) & a bit of salt & pepper. This gets simmered, then chopped spinach goes in & simmers a bit more.

The recipe also calls for chickpeas, which is an unfamiliar ingredient for this soup (to me), but we decided to omit them on the grounds that a few years ago, sillyAlex (TM) declared he didn't like them.
And some nights, you just don't want to deal with the whole 'try it before you say you don't like it' debacle.

For something that came together quickly & with so few ingredients, it was surprisingly good.
Matt & I prefer to brown our meatballs before adding to anything liquid, but despite a short cooking time, they came out nicely-done.
Results were flavorful, but not overwhelming.

And after Alex quite literally cleaned his bowl & went off to play, Matt & I did a parenting-win high-five.

Love ya, Deb.

McSpicy Paneer-ish

I read an article from NPR last week, about McDonald's plans to open stores in India near temple sites, but featuring vegetarian menus. (My feelings about that will have to wait for another time and place.)

One of the dishes mentioned was the McSpicy Paneer; a sandwich made with a tempura-d slab of paneer.

Ok; I don't eat fast food. And if I did...it wouldn't be at a McD's.  But this? This intrigued me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find much beyond a general description for the sandwich so I decided to just wing it.

A spiced mayo spread on the bottom half of a roll, followed by lettuce and a thick slice of tomato, then slices of batter-dipped and quick-fried paneer, and finished with raita.

The result? Quite good, actually. A bit too much food (which I suppose is on par with a chain restaurant sandwich), but tasty.
We'd rather have used a tamarind chutney in place of the spiced mayo, but couldn't find ours.

Definitely worth further experimentation, though.

Real-Deal Tortilla Soup for Souper Sundays

I am such a bad food blogger.

I made this soup three weeks ago. I had every intention of posting!

...And then I didn't.

Ah, well.

No time like the...blah blah blah.

I've become such a fan of Serious Eats over the last year. I think a third of my bookmarked recipes come from them.

And despite Matt not being much of a soup fan (I know, I cry a little on the inside, too), he was very interested in this one.

Bonus? I finally got to use the Michael Chiarello method for slicing corn kernels from the cob!

I think the only changes made were using some already-cooked (and smoked) chicken for Matt, tortilla chips instead of frying fresh...and of course, leaving out that foul cilantro.
OH!
And blue potatoes. Come on; look at that beauty!

Really fabulous & quick soup. Deep flavor - it has a lot going on. And so filling!

DEB!!! I AM HERE!!