Catching Up with the Virgens

Good Morning -

I know - it's been a while. There were a couple of factors that converged into no Virgens for three days.

First of all, I've had a bit of a cold. I'm not sick enough to stay home or anything fun like that, just congested enough that mostly I want to eat clear, brothy soups (more on that later) and lounge around with something steamy in my hand that I can stick my face in from time to time.

The other reason for the lack of Virgen blogging is that I had the thought on Monday (Dec. 1st) that I had to blog. Well, there are few things any of us have to do, and blogging is certainly not one of them, so I took a day (or two, or three) off to remind that part of myself that was getting dogmatic about blogging that it really is okay if I don't put finger to keyboard every single day.

Now that we've cleared that up, let's talk about these Virgens. The top one is from Dec. 1st and is just such a lovely picture from a ski resort ad. I love the aspens in the snow and just felt such a peace when I landed on this one as I was flipping through looking for images that I decided to use it and not worry if it actually matched anything specific from my Dec. 1st. It's winter, there are aspens here, and I love them both, so that was close enough.

This next Virgen is from Dec. 2nd and is a tribute to what I hope the drugs the nice pharmacist at Walgreens gave me do to my breathing ways. I had the thought this day that I need some sort of aerobic activity outside on a regular basis - something that will push great amounts of clean, cold air into my lungs and keep them open. How medically sound this approach is, I'm not sure, but it felt in my gut like what I need.

I haven't yet tried anything, but hope to as soon as these meds kick in some more (which are over the counter, but literally, because, while one needs no prescription for them, they are kept behind the pharmacy counter and one has to ask. I didn't know they were there, but had approached the pharmacist hoping for a recommendation on the myriad styles of decongestants on the cold and flu aisle. Instead of suggesting a brand, she whipped these off the back shelf and said they would do nose, sinus, and lungs. Fantastic.)

This Virgen is from last night as is a tribute to the soup I've made twice now since being congested. It's delicious and I'll share more about it in a minute.

This is an image I forgot to share over the weekend - I think the congestion is affecting my oxygen levels, which in turn affects my thinking. I made red pepper jelly on Sunday and it is hot - hot like best consumed with lots of cream cheese on a cracker. I had been looking for the chili powder (what the recipe calls for) in the spice cabinet when I came across the cayenne pepper. I pulled it out in case I didn't find the chili. I then found the chili, but a later taste revealed that it didn't have enough kick, so I added some of the cayenne too. Now it's got kick like someone just put a boot to your belly. But it should be delicious with cream cheese on a cracker.

Ah - here we are at the soup. I was going to call it Fake Pho, but my super clever partner took that a step further and named it Faux Pho.

Do you know Pho? Oh, it's a Vietnamese soup and is the best thing ever when one is sick. Clear, strong meat broth with rice noodles, bits of green onion, and some sort of meat (I like the meatballs), served with fresh bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, lime wedges, and jalapeno slices. It's the best thing when one is sick, but sadly all of the pho for us is a few miles away.

I was craving this the other night when my cold started, but didn't feel like getting in the car, so decided to try to make some at home (big for me since I'm not really a soup maker). I let my taste buds guide and came up with this - which is so delicious, I made it again last night.

Here's what you do:

1. Saute cloves and cloves and cloves (mostly whole - smash them with the blade of a big knife to get the peel off, and then toss them mashed but whole into the sauce pan) of garlic and some thin circles of onion in butter until soft.

2. In the same pan, brown some ground meat (we used buffalo).

3. When the meat is browned, pour in enough stock to fill a couple of bowls (we had chicken, so used that, but if you don't like mixing your meats, you could use beef stock).

4. Let the stock come to boiling, then add a couple of handfuls of pasta. Let the pasta cook for a few minutes and then toss in some fresh parsley (cilantro would be dreamy in this, if you have it) and call it done.

The noodles won't even be al dente yet, but they continue to cook in the broth, so as long as you start your eating without noodles on your spoon for the first few bites, they'll be done by the time you try one (better this than soggy noodles).

Yes, yes, you could cook the pasta separately, but part of the beauty of this is that it can be made using only one pot. Do you really want to make more dishes when you can just let the broth cook the pasta? If you say "yes", I trust that you are not the person in your home responsible for doing the dishes.

Okay, that's it. Time for work and such.

Here's to only doing what you want to be doing, here's to snow, here's to clear breathing and here's to delicious soup made quite by surprise.