Soups
Soup recipes
Crouton’s Easy Split Pea Soup
Relatively easy, that is! You can prepare it in the morning or early afternoon, then reheat and serve for dinner. Actual kitchen prep time is about half an hour; cooking time is about four hours. Notes There is no need…
Clam Chowder
This is a second-generation DeMenthe family recipe, passed down by my father, Chateaubriand deMenthe. He made clam chowder every Christmas Eve and we carry on the tradition. Merry Christmas to you, dear readers, from Crouton and Ditalini! Notes We doubled the recipe…
Ditalini’s Gazpacho
Ditalini’s adaptation of a recipe from a New York Times cookbook: Note: peeling & seeding tomatoes is big, messy work, and there are probably canned alternatives. Some people (Philistines, no doubt) may be tempted to substitute tomato juice.
Not Gazpacho
. . . but close!
U.S. Senate Navy Bean Soup
We’ve experimented with different navy bean soup recipes over the years; this time we’re trying an authentic-seeming Food Network recipe (I compared it to the actual U.S. Senate cafeteria recipe listed on Wikipedia and it’s a match in ingredients and relative…
Crouton’s Off-the-Shelf Navy Bean Soup
I’m going to make an exception here and put in a recipe from a package of dried navy beans, modified only by the addition of a smoked ham hock. I love this particular navy bean soup, and if you haven’t…
Ditalini’s Oxtail Soup
When I was a kid, living in Germany with my USAF family, one of my favorite dishes was ochsenschwanzsuppe — oxtail soup, a thick and flavorful beefy broth. In later years, married and living in the USA, I’d sometimes pick up a…
Moroccan Meatball Soup
A friend posted a photo of this soup on Facebook. It looked good, so I asked her to post the recipe and last night cooked up a pot for Ditalini and me. It didn’t take long to make, maybe half…
Year-End Wrapup: More Holiday Gluttony
Ditalini and I drove to Las Vegas with our daughter Escargot and doggies Mortadella & Ubracio to spend Christmas with our son Baguette, daughter in law Truffle, granddaughter Biscotto, and grandson Pesce. All the deMenthes together again! Of course the…
Christmas Eve Seafood 2010
We’ve always trimmed our tree on Christmas Eve. During our first overseas posting in the early 1980s, we started inviting single friends over to help us hang the decorations. Even though we’re settled down in Tucson now, we still invite…