Merry Christmas Everyone!
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You may have noticed that there is no Culinary Fundamentals post today. I apologize. The holiday season is becoming extremely hectic and I have no time to come up with a from-scratch recipe for you just this minute. I am having a lot of fun with the series, so I am not giving up just yet, so stay tuned for more in the New Year! Today I thought I would offer just a quick recipe for a very warming and comforting soup. On those chilly winter nights when you need something quick and easy but tasty and maybe just a little more than plain, this soup is for you. With a vibrant blend of spices, vegetables and accoutrement, it makes for a tasty addition to your soup repertoire. Don’t be afraid of the amount of spices in this blend, it really does give the soup that full flavour. If you don’t want it too spicy, simply leave out the cayenne and chile flakes and you should be fine!
Today is one week until Christmas Eve! Can you believe it? It happened so fast this year, what with this being the first year our son will be conscious enough to understand about Santa and being generous and all that jazz. We’ve had so much fun setting up his gifts and talking about baking and leaving cookies out for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer of course!) and we’re getting all giddy, just like when we were kids. Isn’t it odd that as you get older, Christmas begins to fade a little. It becomes less about the magic of the holiday and more about getting everything done in a timely manner, sending out those cards, getting your pictures taken, baking, presents, wrapping, shopping. When you have kids, that magic comes back. You see the sparkle in their eye when you tell them the story of Christmas (whatever that is to you…) and you see how magical and exciting this time of year can really be. We still haven’t gone to visit Santa (I’m not brave enough to stand in a line-up for an hour with two small children waiting, and waiting, and waiting…). I see that in our futures, but not this year.
It’s Christmas time, and that means it’s time for giving. I don’t usually offer up product reviews or commercially sponsored giveaways for the most part on Guilty Kitchen, but seeing as it’s the holidays and I haven’t done a giveaway in a while, I thought I would host this just for you. Tetley Tea has a new line of products called Tetley Colour Therapy which includes 10 new flavours of herbal caffeine free tea. Each flavour corresponds to how you are feeling, though some have names like summerberries which doesn’t seem like a mood to me, but it does evoke visions of sunny summer days. There is a big caveat though. It’s for….. Canadians ONLY! Amazing isn’t it. You’re so used to seeing “US residents only” that you thought you would never see the day did you?
Although this isn’t a traditional Culinary Fundamentals post, it does cover a basic cooking skill everyone should master. Baking your own bread falls under the category of essential kitchen know-how if only because it hearkens you back to a quieter time when everyone baked their own bread. Sadly, I didn’t grow up in a household filled with the scent of freshly baked bread, or that weirdly attractive smell of yeast proofing. Nope, never. Not even my Grandmother baked bread. I’m telling you, sometimes I wonder where all this foodie obsessiveness came from. What I did have though, was an aunt who baked her own bread and her house always smelled wonderful. That fresh baked, soft on the inside, crusty on the outside bread slathered in butter and bursting with seedy goodness. What could be more belly warming, comforting or fulfilling? I’ve made a lot of bread in my day, and let’s just say they don’t always turn out as the recipe plans. I’m not too sure what I do wrong. Is it the flour? The yeast? Not enough rising time? Too much kneading? Ugh. Bread can be a little, well, unforgiving. I once tried my hand at making my own sourdough starter. I Measured and mixed, fed and dumped, stirred and allowed to rest. I covered and uncovered, I kept it on the counter or in the oven with just the oven light on for warmth. And that is where the demise began. Because our house is so cold in winter (we like to turn it down a lot, it’s greener!), I kept it in the oven because that was the warmest place in the house (the top of the fridge is unfortunately, under a cabinet). Can you guess what may have happened? |
Hi! I'm Elizabeth. I like fitness, bad ass tattoos, food, bacon, chocolate, taking lots of silly pictures and my spawn. Check out my FAQ for all the usual Qs or send me an e-mail and tell me all about your cat and your Aunt Sally's amazing apple pie.  
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