Rainy Day Recipe: Potato-Fennel Soup

When the weather is wet, the Spice Girl gets cooking!  After much traveling and eating on the run, I am happy to be back in the kitchen tonight.  I got my latest box of organic produce from my CSA this week and it was packed full of some hearty vegetables, including - to my surprise - a bulb of fennel.

Now, fennel is not normally a vegetable that I would pick up in the store and buy, but that's why I love my CSA box.  It pushes my creativity in the kitchen.  So with the weather outside pouring down, I decided to whip up a delicious and warm potato-fennel soup.

Ingredients:
olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cups vegetable broth
potatoes (I used about 15 fingerling potatoes)
1 bulb fresh fennel, chopped
salt
pepper
cream

Supplies:
Hot Plate
Pot
Cutting Board & Knife
Hand Blender
Ladel

Directions:
Start by sauteing the onions in olive oil over medium heat in your cooking pot.  When onions are soft and slightly translucent, add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

In the meantime, chop potatoes and fennel and add to pot.  Cook for approximately 20 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are soft.

When potatoes are soft remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.  Then puree the vegetables using the hand blender until smooth.  Add salt, pepper and dash of cream to taste.

Simple, absolutely delicious, and extra servings store well for lunch.  Bon apetit!

For The Impractical Love of a Juicer ...

Cupboard Hog

Orange-Carrot-Ginger Especial

Working in a small space, practicality is often the stick by which one must measure.  You must think long and hard about the tools you have in your cupboard and the staples to carry in your kitchen.  Does it justify the space?  Will you use it?  Can you live without it?  Can another tool do the same job?  Because in a 68" x 60" kitchen ... EVERY INCH COUNTS.  But sometimes ... just sometimes ... that is not the case.  Sometimes, practicality succumbs to personal predilection.  And such is the case of my juicer.

Now, I will be the first to admit that my industrial strength Jack LaLanne juicer is absurd.  It is monstrously large (consuming over 1/2 shelf), laborious to set up/take down/clean, has limited functionality and, well, there are probably a dozen other appliances one should have before having a juicer.  It is also a thing of beauty ... serving up freshly squeezed orange, apple, grapefruit and even celery juice; making great bases for tomato and carrot-based soups; and ... most importantly, juicing up my personal favorite:  fresh immune-boosting orange-carrot-ginger juice for mornings when I am feeling a little run down.

So, for me, it is my juicer ... For you, perhaps it is your shot glass collection, or your George Foreman grill, or your salad spinner, or your creme brulee torch.  To each their own.  And when you live alone, who's to judge?