The Drunken Mermaid Special: Why You Just Never Know

So here's how it happened: My grandma is catholic and still practices eating fish on Fridays. I am still getting a little used to it, but it's getting better (not because I don't like fish but because I always seem to be frantically making some fish dish at 11:30 hoping it will be done in time for her lunch lol i'm not used to the schedule part.) SO...scrambling to come up with something. We have fish sticks but....meh. I know... I do it to myself :) i know. But this is how wonderful recipes are born!

I want to make a soup, she loves soup. Aunt Linda does Clam Chowder, we id that last week, so i want to do tomato based something or other. I look through about 10-20 recipes and see nothing that i have everything for, so i already know i have to wing it, it's just a matter of getting the ratios right. I open up a few cookbooks, find a Mediterranean style fish soup and LOVE the idea. I can't use any kind of meat broth though and we don't seem to have vegetable (note to self...) but that's ok because you can use wine to sub and Grandma likes it. Usually, with fish you use white. I have red. While I know it will be ok, i see that I am making a lot of changes and i am not sure at all how it's going to taste at this point.

So I am going along, throwing things in, very much in a hurry because it needs to boil for 45 min, it's 11:45 and my cousin is taking me to coffee at 12:30. I grab the first measuring cup in the drawer, a small one because they're stacked. A quick glance tells me it's a 1/8 c. I want to put in a cup of wine so I pour in 8 of those, all the while thinking it looked awfully large for a 1/8 c. container.

I use the cup again to measure in some lemon juice a little later... this time I see it. It's not an 8, it's a 3.

Which means I used 2 2/3 c. of Pinot in this soup.

Did you know soup gets foamy when you do that? I do now. It also turns the white fish an interesting maroon color...

Well...waste not want not! I plow ahead. As I was posting about this on FB, I got the idea for the recipe, should it succeed. I love mermaids. It smells amazing and you know what, Grandma LOVED it. She laughed at my story but she said it was in improvement on the soup :) So here it is (mainly for my mom,  who taught me how to cook like this, hehe!)

The Drunken Mermaid Special

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 dice tomato

3 large potatoes, or 9 small, chopped

1/2  large onion or 1 smaller

1  8 oz. can pitted black olives

1 4 oz can of mushrooms

1/3 c. green olives

2 TB capers

1 TB Sea Salt (I have this fish specific one from Hawaii, oh and i wouldn't use this much if using broth since broth tends to be salty but i wasn't)

4 c. water

3 bay leaves

2 2/3 c. red wine

2/3 c. lemon juice

1 TB whole pepper corns

1 tsp basil

1 tsp fennel seeds
3/4 stick butter

3 fillets white fish

1 c. shrimp

Place everything but the seafood in the big ol' pot and get it boiling. Boil for about 25 min and then add the seafood for another 20 min or so, until it is fully cooked, stirring occasionally. Consume the awesomeness.

Frickin' Fabulous Friday Soup

I decided that's what I am calling it, since it was Friday and I was in a good mood and the soup was fabulous. What can I say, I am not that good with names (Lord, help my children). Things have been pretty stressful, personal family stuff with my brother is happening and its heartbreaking, but Friday was a day of accomplishment and I felt a little lighter inside. So...I was all for celebrating with some tasty goodness. I miss my mom's 15 bean soup, however, being in a winging it mode I didn't HAVE the 15 bean soup, so I did what I could to simulate. Mom also always put sausage in hers but I only had ground beef....I know this is sounding less and less like her recipe right? But it was the inspiration. And it is a nummy soup! So, here you go, Ma, I think you'll like this one too! (BTW I used a crockpot)

Frickin' Fabulous Friday Soup
Dump the following into a crockpot:

• 1/3 Bottle of Red Wine
• 1 can Beef Broth
• 1 can Kidney Beans
• 1 can Black Beans
• 1 can White Northern Beans
• 1 can Stewed Tomatoes
• 3 Celery sticks, chopped
• 2 cups baby Carrots
• 1 chopped Ortega Chili
• 1/4 c. chopped, fresh Cilantro
• 3 shakes of Fennel Seed
• 3 shakes of Cumin Seed
• 2 shakes of Chopped Bay Leaf
• 1 shake Coriander
• 3 shakes of Sea Salt

Take 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef and brown in a pan with dried garlic and dried onion, drain the fat, and add to the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot. Cook on High for 4-6 hours or Low for 8-10.  

*I added some Franks Red Hot to my bowl, to taste, and that made it just perfect rounding out the flavors of the broth very nicely.

(This has enough protein in it with all the beans you could probably have it stand alone in a vegetarian version too, just change the broth, nix the beef, and maybe add some garbonzos or something....I dunno, my sister-in-law is better at that sort of thing, you can ask her over at So Many Veggies So Little Time. I'm just a noob.)

Mushroom-Brie Soup ala Me

So its snowing like crazy outside, and after shoveling, having a snow fight, playing snow-baseball, building a snowman... I thought it was time for some soup! Back home, a deli near my parents had this Mushroom Brie cream soup. It was AMAZING. So I made one up after looking over a few other versions. This is a random compilation all my own! Yay!

1 1/2 c. dry sherry
6 c. chicken stock
2 T butter
1/3 c. diced ham
4 strips turkey bacon, diced
10 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 T cornstarch
12 oz Brie cheese - rind removed, room temperature
1/3 c. white onion (shallots would probably taste better but i didn't have any on hand)
12 oz Brie cheese, trimmed and cubed
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 tsp pepper

Boil sherry to reduce by half; set aside. In large saucepan melt butter, stir in mushrooms, shallots, ham and bacon. Cook over medium high heat, 4 minutes. Stir occasionally. Stir in cornstarch, add stock and sherry. Bring to boil then simmer 15 mintues. Add brie, stir to melt. Add 1/2 and 1/2 and pepper. Simmer 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and either serve as is (which is what I did because the peoples were hungry) OR puree in batches (OR try an immersion blender) and serve it creamy.

 The Verdict: Tasty goodness, the masses enjoyed it :)I think it would work great minus the meat too, but it was the whole dinner so i needed some protein in there.