I made vegetable soup and corn on the cob for lunch. Andy decided it was his corn.
“No! Andyyyy..! No!
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Buying food for one person comes with perils. Fresh vegetables often come in packaging that has more than I can use in one or two meals. I do better if it comes in bins and I can select just as much as I want. Another peril: fresh Brussels sprouts in a package usually includes small to large sprouts so steaming requires strategy to assure all are equally done. I sorted these into mostly same sized sprouts, selecting the smaller ones for the soup and the larger ones for later. I could go frozen, but texture too often is off to my taste, especially with Brussels sprouts, my favorite.
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Did Andy’s nose touch the end of my corn? I’ve added this enlarged version of the second photo. I think (hope?) not, but it was very close. What do you think? I ate it anyway.
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The corn on the cob was just at the end of freshness. I should have eaten it a day or two ago but decided I wanted something else for lunch. The left-hand cob was delicious dipped in butter seasoned with pepper, garlic powder, and honey mustard meat rub. (Why not?) The right-hand cob was just a little better than it would have been thanks to the same seasoned butter, though, as you can see in the photo, the holders were hard to get in. The corn, too, was a bit tough.
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The soup was the star of this light lunch. I combined Portello mushrooms, broccoli florets, quartered tiny Brussels sprouts I sorted out of the packaged sprouts, celery heart, purple onion, and spring onions I diced or quartered then sauteed in butter to soften and flavor with onion powder, garlic power, and pepper. I added these to chicken broth and canned diced tomatoes. I finished the soup off by blending in sour cream and cheddar cheese. I left salt out because I knew it would be salty enough with the added cheese. I don’t care for heavily salted foods!
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I recently bought saltine crackers, something I haven’t bought in years because I like Ritz and Townhouse crackers more. I didn’t notice they were unsalted saltines, a happy accident, one that went well with my lunch of vegetable soup and corn on the cob. Regular saltines have too much salt on them. The concept of unsalted saltines is a bit weird but I’m happy to know there is such a thing!
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Making soup from scratch has its perils. I have enough for at least three, four meals. I’ll freeze it after it cools down, saving out a small serving to have with a tuna salad sandwich. The frozen soup is at risk of dying in the freezer before I think to take out and use it, sadly, but I’ll try to remember it’s available for some frozen, winter day. I’ll make the tuna salad tomorrow. Andy likes the water off the tuna. He’ll enjoy this rare treat!
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I had a chilled Perrier sparkling mineral water with this agreeable vegetable-based meal. Andy settled for his standard Hill’s Prescription k/d Diet chicken pâté kitty food for lunch, then took a snooze.
That sounds delicious
It was even better the next time when I added another large dollop of sour cream to it. That toned down a slight heavy saltiness I noticed the first time I had it.
Beautiful meal, I love too, Andy just checking, beautiful photographs
Loved them all. Thank you dear Doug, Love, nia
It was even better the second time! I like to have a vegetable-based meal from time to time. Thanks!
You rmeal looks asmazing and I think Andy got close, but didn’t touch the corn. I would have eaten it anyway, too.
I might have resisted if he kitty-sneezed on it because of the pepper on it…. Anyway, soups made with whatever is in the cupboard and refrigerator if one of favorite meals. I sometimes buy ingredients for a recipe, but I’m more used to substituting and innovating with what’s on hand. It was even better the second time when I added a big dollop more of sour cream to tone down what seemed like a bit more salt than I am comfortable with.
My Sammy loved corn on the cob. I love Brussel’s sprouts. 🙂
Both rate high on my food favorites list!
I don’t worry if I share with my girls. I used to have a Nurse that said “A Dogs Mouth Is Cleaner Than People’s”. Not sure if that holds True for Cats.
Your meal looks good! Doesn’t look like Andy touched the corn. I cook for one and I agree, it’s not easy.
It appalls me how much food I waste because eating it more than twice usually means it, the rest, becomes a refrigerator science project or a freezer Ziploc bag of something I can’t identify or am scared off of by the date next to the ID of contents. It goes out the door then.
Are you taking over my job, Doug? This is a delicious soup you made. Mr Andy exploring corn is a fabulous close-up.
I can’t top your recipes. Mine are mutts compared to your Westminster champions!
One should not strive to be humbler than Our Teacher Moses, or so I have been taught.
There is an interesting paradox in humility, which I’m having difficulty articulating but have crossed. I know it when I feel it.
Please let me know when you recall or feel it. as a cat, I am curious.
To feel humble – the moment you identify it in oneself – is to risk pride for achieving it, which wipes out humility! That’s the risk and paradox.
I thought so because there is a Yiddish parable to this effect.
I am just about to have corn on the cob too! Louis Catorze is nowhere to be found. He’s just not interested.
‘Tis the season! I like corn in all forms but canned cream style. Hope you enjoyed yours!
I’ve never had the canned cream style!
I can’t describe it other than to say it reminds me of slop. It tastes ok, but…
The corn on the cob and the soup sounds good, Doug! You are in the right time of year for all kinds of fresh food at the market.
Our best to you and little Andy cat, too.
Yes, and I like to support truck farmers and stores that feature in season produce! If I lived in Oregon, I’d probably haunt your place this time of year!
You are welcome any time, Doug. We have more than we know what to do with right now. 🙂
Nope, Andy’s nose didn’t touch the cob! Your soup looks and sounds delicious, Doug, can I have the recipe? I like the little trays the cobs are in, so easy to keep the cobs nice and buttery. I use a slice of bread with lots of butter on it. You are Chef Doug!
I used to use the bread method you describe, too. It’s a great way to butter corn, and a neater way as well. The little trays work well to butter corn when you are like me and like the corn drenched in butter and seasonings. I don’t have a recipe, just a sense of how much seasoning I like on the corn.
I see, that sounds so delicious, Doug! I have to be careful with the butter because of my high blood pressure. Now I wanna buy some corn and get busy with seasoning!
Think how you make chili, and the seasonings will match your preferences!
I cook for 2 and it’s not any easier. I stopped buying potatoes in the 5 lb. bags because they go bad. Everything packaged seems to go bad before we get to them. I love soup because it’s time effective. You make it once and have several meals. I can make enough to use all the stuff I have on hand too. Cat germs? Is there such a thing? My cats say not. Morgan likes to lick the salt off of potato chips. I call the line there. Saggy chips, yuk!
Andy likes to lick my fingers after I eat potato chips or Cheetos, though neither he nor I should have these very often. As for potatoes, I end up buying one or two russet potatoes from a bin when I have a specific meal in mind for them. Same with sweet potatoes, something I like with just about any meal including meat. I used to cook for two, and I agree that it isn’t any easier than for one!
If you buttered the corn, that might have attracted his attention.
Exactly! Of course, being a kitty, when he saw me shucking it, he had to examine the process and the result.
We had two cats years ago who’d dig through the garbage to get the cobs. One had been a street cat for a few years, and we assumed he was teaching the kitten survival skills, and how fermented corn on the cob with butter was sooooo good. Yuck.
LOL! I’m sure it was the scent of butter that got Andy interested in the corn on the cob. The corn was resting in a puddle of melted herbed butter at the bottoms of those corn dishes. (Those, incidentally, are one innovation that really assures your corn can be saturated with enough butter.)
Wherever Andy’s nose has been it doesn’t seem to have done you any harm. You do well with your cooking. Our packaged Brussels are usually sorted into similar sizes.
The brand the store carries is from a small cooperative. While the product is very fresh and good, they package everything on the stalk, from as small as the end of your little finger to as big as your thumb! I can steam about three-fourths of them together, but the little ones have to be fixed separately. I remove the outside leaves and poke a criss-cross in the ends with a knife of the biggest ones, and just a single poke for mid-sized ones. That always works for consistent steaming.
As for Andy’s nose, I think by now I am either infected with all kitty germs or immune to them
Doug, you put me to shame! As another singleton, I’ve mostly given up on making large, complete meals for myself. I might fix a package of ramen and top it with boiled egg, spinach, and mushrooms, but cooking a big pot of soup from scratch as you say has its perils. Mostly, my fickle palate gets tired of eating the same soup for lunch for an entire week, so I *might* put the leftovers in the freezer and hope at some point I’ll remember to pull it out and microwave it for a later dinner. Or I might not. Sometimes, if I know a neighbor is ailing or needs cheering up, I’ll bring her a container of leftover soup (relatively fresh from the pot), but too often it ends up in the garbage disposal. 🙁 And yes, the supermarkets need to sell vegetables in smaller packages for those of us who aren’t feeding a rowing crew or family of four. My local store still sells Brussel sprouts in bulk so I can fill my own bag with whatever I need, but lettuce and leafy vegetables of all sorts come in heads or packages far too big for a single person to use in a day or two. Since they’re usually the first to go bad in the fridge, I’ve tried using the bagged salad mixes, though those tend to be pricier and not such a good deal if you don’t eat them right away. Anyway, your meal looks delicious!
My exact experience! I almost never buy lettuce because it rarely survives to be eaten before it goes bad. The bagged lettuce goes bad faster, so it isn’t any deal either. When Brussels sprouts are in a bin, I definitely buy them, nicely matched in size.
Almost, but I don’t think Andy nommed the corn. Close call, though!
Very close!