Sort through those spices for National Soup Month

Spiced – The holidays is when I organize the spice supply. No kidding. It’s all good for January, National Soup Month. Any little dabs go into the Cajun, Tex-Mex or other categories and go into soups, or even yogurt tips. Estate sales find headed to kitchens for vintage jars and shakers. It will surprise you every time when you start processing what you’ve collected in a year. The spice cabinet should be an appealing source of inspiration. If one place in my home looks like a magazine, it’s the spice area in my kitchen.

 

 

Serving Your Gut: Food as fuel and positive self talk may not be radical new topics, but January’s resolutions often remind us to take care of ourselves. “Why Am I Eating This” has Sandy Robertson updating her book with a focus on nourishment. Remember to eat slowly, show gratitude, consider if you are really hungry and if a smaller portion would do.  These reminders have been serving me well as I serve myself fresh veggies.

 

 

Nuts to Baking – PB Fit has a multipurpose peanut flour baking blend that’s a 1 to 1 swap for white AP flour that has 80 percent less fat than almond flour. I’m not a baker, but I sure wanted to try this stuff. It cranked out one of my most attractive pancakes ever. People maybe have an expected taste for pancakes, so I think the cookie and muffins made from this stuff will be the best format for experimenting. www.pbfit.com

 

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie serving the soup in January, National Soup Month. Share your tips at darraghcastillo@icloud.com

What's cooking for National Soup Month?

                       Ready to start off the year on a kick of health eating? Oh, it’s coming. But let’s give January’s National Soup Month designation some attention. Despite delicious cream bases and crunchy toppings, there are some good-for-you soups.

 

                       Soup? This is the time Crock Pot’s (slow cooker) time to shine. See the lid pocket tip below and let’s share some hearty ideas. If you have faves, send them this way. Here are some of mine:

 

                       Soup’s On!

·        Got extra New Year’s cabbage? It’s still lucky. That good green stuff will nourish you and save time in the upcoming weeks. I’m not a fan of full-on cabbage soup, but shred it thin and it plays well with other veggies simmering in the pot.

·        Garlic makes everything better. I use it in all forms and just peeled open a new jar of fragrant garlic powder. Don’t judge. I said “all forms” of garlic are welcome in my house. It lasts such a long time that I tend to decorate the utilitarian bottle with stickers to fancy up my pantry. In addition to monitoring the best-by date, I often write on the bottom when I opened it, if simply to marvel at how long this stuff lasts. Keep garlic handy this soup month.

·        Chili, the state dish of Texas, sounds great for Soup Month. We love our Tex-Mex, and it does occasionally get “chilly” enough for chili down here.

 

 

                       Is that a lid in your pocket? It’s a simple concept that has folks going nuts. It’s a sturdy slot you hook onto your slow cooker to hold the lid when it’s not covering your culinary masterpiece. What else is there to say, except to check out www.lidpocket.com. Not sure you “need” this. Do you tailgate? Attend church potlucks where several lids have no place to wait but the sink? Then you hope you get yours back and intact? Put the lid in the pocket and show that slow cooker some love.

 

Blu to Green - Ethylene sounds like a good name for your sweet Auntie, but it's natural gas from fruits and veggies that concentrates in your fridge. It makes your fresh and crispy greens a nasty brown. A cute little "apple" is waiting to let you know it can be easy being green. And now, Fresh Mats (in purple, yay) are lining my produce bins instead of dish towels. They prevent bruising and promote freshness.

I’m admittedly a sucker for products designed to keep produce fresh and your fridge organized. www.thebluapple.com has stylish offerings designed to save consumers dollars so they don’t toss out wilted vegetables. A blue apple has a “Yellow Submarine” look about it, so this Beatles fan is happy to open the fridge door for salad goods. Combat the gasses that do your lettuce go wrong with these goods. Try these out for a healthy beginning to 2024.

 

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie ready for a bowl of January’s signature dish. Share your tips via darraghcastillo@icloud.com

January is soup month, but pasta could be your 2020 thing

                             Soup’s not really my thing.

                             Don’t hate.

                             Maybe the word soup conjures leftover vegetables I didn’t like in a too-thin red liquid with little flavor beyond salt.

                             I know. I know. Soup is also potato and cheese, French onion, thick chowder and, in some circles, our beloved Cajun gumbo. Those are all different stories. If the soup is like that, count me in.

                             Bone broth and vegetable broth are trendy again and help develop your flavor. Every culture has a soup. Too often American soup is uninspired vegetable or chicken noodle from a can. If we’re branching out, I’m in.

                             January is National Soup Month. I’m headed to the kitchen for egg drop.

                            

                             Pasta night could be your 2020 thing

                             If you don’t already have a weekly pasta night, start it up  2020. You’ll want to both cook and eat one of everything in this new book. Locally-sourced ingredients help Nikkki Marie “elevate” the way we think of pasta. Nothing at all wrong with red sauce, white sauce and olive oil toppings, but it’s easy to create a low-cost version of some pasta dish that would have people standing in line and spending whole paychecks at a restaurant. Are you ready for this? “Simple, Elegant Pasta Dinners” offers 75 dishes with “inspired” sauces.

                             Toasted pasta with fried egg is easy for real. Lentils absorb flavor of garlic and wine and ending it all with a serving of rigatoni with dark cocoa and red wine short rib ragu is within your reach. Tip: Save that pasta water to finish a sauce or reconstitute pasta that has been left out too long.

                             This might sound like crazy talk to some, but stick with her. Photo spreads with convince you. Recipes are arranged seasonally for freshest ingredients.

                             Your first Pumpkin Update of 2020 I’m getting from this book: Fresh Pumpkin Pappardelle with Browned Rosemary Butter sounds “different” but great (based on my own holiday experiment with a 25 cent post-Thanksgiving pumpkin and some chipotle cream sauce that came into my possession).

                             Some other ingredients you may have overlooked with thinking of a simple and elegant pasta dish? Nikki Marie gives you license to play with:

                  * roasted red grapes

                  * purple cabbage

                  * apples

                  * caramelized blood oranges

                  * parsnips

                  * salami

                  * fave beans

                  * peas and mint

                  * strawberries, blackberries and plums

                             Let’s go pasta with Marie, who is creator of the food blog Chasing the Seasons.

                  Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie ready for a bowl of soup, gumbo, pasta, ice cream…. Keep it coming. Reach her at darraghcastillo@icloud.com

Get your soup on in January

                             The concept of a steaming bowl of hot soup is interchangeable with a bowl of “hot gumbo” around these parts. At Christmas Eve church services a number of families noted they were headed home for their traditional holiday gumbo.

                             January as National Soup Month should be celebrated by more than retailers. It’s a time to branch out into creamy delicacies, hearty stews and fortifying broths.

                             I’ve dropped some boullion cubes into a carafe of bean mix to serve as decorating until I have time to soak and simmer those beans into a soup to last all week.

                             Something I love about soup is that it revives leftovers, transforming those little containers of this and that into something new.

                             Some add-in or topping tips:

                             * Greek yogurt

                             * Cheese

                             * Chopped onions

                            * Sprig of oregano

                             * Nuts

                             Readers, feel free to share your favorite soups, recipes or tips with us via the e mail below. We love talking soup.

                             Celebrate the soup this month by trying a flavor from a different culture. It seems we all have a soup to identify ourselves.

                            

                            

                  Zatarain’s gets you seasoned for Mardi Gras

                              Zatarain’s has a box of Cinaltro Lime rice mix that’s a quick fix and history lesson, with the label noting that the Spanish introduced this crop to the Mexican culture centuries ago. The box notes this rice dish is an ideal complment to fajitas, tacos, enchiladas and burritos. I will add tamales. That’s what I serve another January birthday girl. This quiet meal turned into “the birthday that ended in a frantic search for Allen wrenches," but that is another story.

                             Zatarain’s jambalaya mix boxes suggest you add meat for a one-pot dinner. That’s the sort of  thing you need for Mardi Gras season when you’re headed to ball fittings, krewe meetings, etc. Mardi Gras of Southeast Texas is Feb. 8-11 this year. See you on the grounds in downtown Port Arthur.

Darraghcastillo@icloud.com