My Favorite Alien

Wow

This Is Indiana

Not a restaurant. An outlet. Whatever you do, DO NOT call it a restaurant.

Soup Shop

So, let's say you're making pretend soup with a bunch of five year-olds. Let's say this soup-making experience, which is full of paint and glue and sequins and dough, turns into a business model. Let's say that we depart art-making mode and art class morphs into some pretty serious talk about the opening of a soup restaurant, which is to be operated by said five year-olds and, thrown in for good measure, me. I mean, I do know a couple things about soup. If these children have a lick of sense betwixt them, they know it is wise to involve me in their restaurant empire. Clearly.

The next thing you know, you've developed a complete menu and, like magic, you're ready for the grand opening. Now all you have to do is sit back, relax, and sniff the delicious, soupy air as you wait for your first customers to arrive.

Menu
pumpkin-raspberry soup
pumpkin-blood soup
mustard soup
blood in mustard soup
candy soup
salt soup
salt-pile soup
sticky salt soup with little macaroni and papes*
pumpkin-blood soup
blood in mustard soup
glue soup
sugar candy soup time
sugar candy for everyone soup
bunny soup

And yes, you read that right. There were indeed cross-outs. I mean, we were brainstorming, after all! The blood soups were suggested pretty early on, but then the child who submitted the blood-soupn ideas initially reconsidered, offering some pretty solid reasoning: "I wonder if maybe we should take those blood soups off the menu because people might come into the restaurant and think those soups are gross and then they will leave and we can't give them soup." A minute later, after being absorbed in his artwork, he looked up and said, "Wait! Can you put them back on the list? Or uncross them? Because what if monsters come into the restaurant? We need to have a soup that monsters want!" True. Quite true.

This soup shop, well, it's really onto something here. I'll be sure to send you the grand opening flier with coupons attached!




*I don't know what they are, either.

Bookend Soup

It's the weekend! Well, close enough. In fact, here, let's make it official: I hereby declare that all weekends during the months of November through April will begin on Thursday. There! Poof! Weekend! And now that it's the weekend, and it's sleeting and cold outside, and you're most certainly not going out anytime soon, that means you have no choice but to make soup. This soup is so lovely, so incredibly simple, and so divine that you will perhaps find yourself doing what I do, which is to make it for Sunday supper as well, in which case you will call it Bookend Soup.

If your guest is peering into the pot, he or she might say something along the lines of, Welcome to Panera!, which will actually make sense, because this soup is nearly a dead ringer for the broccoli-cheddar soup that is featured there. I do like to have some control over the cooking of the broccoli, though, so that it remains a bit crunchier, and not mushy like it's been sitting in a giant restaurant-sized crock-pot all day long. Actually, when this soup has tons of crisp broccoli in it, it balances out the rich cheese so nicely, and you can actually pretend like it's the healthiest soup in the whole world.

I also appreciate that this recipe won't make obscene amounts of soup. My problem with soup, you see, is that I always end up making way too much, and I get sick of it before I can eat it all, and I don't have enough space in my freezer to store it, and I honestly just want the freaking soup to disappear so that I don't have to look at it anymore. But this soup? One batch will make enough for 3 hungry people or 5 less-hungry people. Or enough for you and your darling to have for supper (with one round of perfectly civilized leftovers the next day).

So, my friends, start celebrating soup season! Batten down the hatches, cozy up your cold little body to the stove, crank up the burners, and spend your weekend in a smooth, dreamy cheese bath. You've had a hard week, and you deserve it! Twice.

Bookend Soup 
AKA Broccoli Cheddar Soup
serves 4-6

1 medium bunch broccoli
3 T butter
3 T flour
2 C vegetable broth
1 C milk
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t hot sauce
1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
1/8 t ground red pepper

Chop the broccoli florets and stems. In a soup pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the chopped broccoli and cook until bright green (about 3 or 4 minutes). Stir in the flour until absorbed. Stir in the broth and milk. Cook, stirring, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in the cheese, salt, pepper, hot sauce, Worcestershire, and red pepper. Cook, stirring, until cheese is melted, but don't let it boil at all once the cheese is in (or else you'll end up with a curdled mess). Serve with croutons, more hot sauce, and scallions.