Why someone should invent smell-o-vision

I woke up this morning to rain. I knew it was coming, and secretly I was kind of looking forward to a rainy Sunday. Yesterday was the most glorious fall day. My friend Amal and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went out to farm country - we visited the Harvest Fest at Gaining Ground in Concord, and were pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a delicious lunch buffet full of farm fresh foods. We continued our day of outdoor autumn appreciation by visiting Carver Hill Orchards, in Stow, where we ended up picking apples and laying in the field, soaking in the smells and beauty of it all.

So with that start to my weekend, I was kind of glad to have an excuse to stay home and relax around the apartment (although I have million things I should be doing!) So in honor of the rain, I stayed in bed this morning after waking up and finished reading Ruth Reichel's Tender at the Bone, the first of her memoirs about her young life as a budding chef and food critic. Her writing makes me salivate - she uses the most lush and colorful language to describe food and it is amazing how well she brings to life the dishes she discusses. I finished the book this morning - I'm going to do my best to hold out on reading her next book, so I can savor the deliciousness of her writing for a little while longer...

Needless to say, I was inspired and in the mood for cooking by the time I got up! I started the day with a fried egg on toast spread with basil pesto, and I tried out a new experiment - I made my own chai tea! It was delicious and very easy - I used this recipe, and even though I put in only half the called for sugar (and used soy milk), it was still a little sweet for my taste. But I will definitely make it again - I might even make more this afternoon!

Breakfast though was not enough to satiate my desire to cook (note to all - while my day may sound super productive to some, really it was a full on attempt at procrastination against some important things that I still have to do - just like writing this blog post is a form of procrastination!) Next up - apple sauce. I cut up a bunch of the apples I had picked yesterday (Romes, Macouns and Macs) and stuck them in a big pot with a cinnamon stick and some cloves. I cooked it for at least an hour, and the house filled up with the delicious, cozy, enveloping smell of apples and spice.

As delicious as apple sauce is, I recognize that it will not tide me through the week of meals ahead. So that brings me to cooking adventure number three for the day - soup! A perfect day to simmer a pot of hearty soup. The only problem - I have virtually no food at home, and am avoiding going grocery shopping on a rainy Sunday (when pretty much every other person in Somerville and Cambridge is bound to be at the grocery store).

So, here is what I came up with - it's currently simmering on the stove, tempting me with it's delicious basil smell, but because I haven't eaten it yet I can't fully vouch for it's flavor. I'll have to update this post later, but for now, my recipe:

Green Kale Soup (great for a rainy day)








1 large bunch of curly kale (you could really use any kind)
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1 leek
1 can of cannellini beans
1 cup barley
1/2 cup of basil pesto
olive oil
splash of white wine
8 cups water
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

I first sauteed the onion, leek and garlic in the oil, and after about 10 minutes, I added a few splashes of white white (partially for flavor, partially because I want to use up the wine before it goes bad!)

After the onions were soft and slightly browned, I added the kale, which I had washed, ripped up and removed the stems from. Next, add the water. I used enough to cover the kale (I had a lot of kale - really the inspiration for this soup was the need to use up my kale!) Then I rinsed the barley and the beans and added both. Finally, I dropped in the pesto (I had made a huge batch of pesto back in August and froze it in muffin tins - so I added 2 muffins worth of pesto)

I've been simmering the soup for about 45 minutes now and the veggies are all cooked but the flavors need to meld a little more. Oh, I also tried something different that I had read about ages ago - I have been saving the rind of a nice parm cheese for a while because I heard it was good to add to soups to give a little intensity to the flavor. So I tossed a chunk of rind in there - we'll see what happens!

Ok - the smell of the dish is definitely calling me into the kitchen - must go and stir the pot (maybe once my green soup is done I'll finally buckle down and do my other work - wish me luck!)

UPDATE: The soup came out great! The only thing I would do differently would be to add a little less barley - it was a little barley heavy, and the grain soaked up more of the liquid that I had anticipated. But other than that, delicious!!