Archive for November 10th, 2007

Tonight for dinner, with a cold night, it seemed right for a hearty soup. I made a variation on my minestrone featuring:

• vegetable stock
• tomatoes
• green beans
• broccolini
• hearty green escarole
• pasta
• parmesan cheese, evoo
• carrots
• sweet onion

First, sauté the onion in EVOO, garlic; add the carrots. Stir until a brown residue appears on the bottom of the pan; add salt, and tomato paste. Next, add red wine (I used Barbera), and more garlic. Then, add your stock, tomato, and water to fill the pot.

Once a simmer appears, add the pasta. I took the stem sections of the broccolini next and added that; the rest of the vegetables are up to you, and the order for adding them is so that they are enough cooked-through, and not some pale, gray color.

Garnish the finished soup with fresh-grated parmesan cheese. Drizzle with more EVOO.

I served a rustic toasted bread with more EVOO for dipping into the soup. Copious amounts of black pepper add to the excitement.

I frequent the Goochland Courthouse-area coffee shop Java Jodie’s at least once a week, either for lunch or a morning coffee.

This is a combination you can get: a small soup with a half-sandwich. Most are grilled panini-style.

Their food is good, but it is rather expensive. In this case, I didn’t care for their tepid soup which was also too “thin.” Otherwise, Jodie’s is an eclectic atmosphere for dining in Goochland. The staff are always friendly. I wish, however, they made a 20 oz. coffee drink size!!

I recently had an another excellent short rib dish. This time, at Dd33 in Richmond’s far west-end.

I plan to make something like this at home this week… I saw a good recipe on TV with sherry vinegar… I was thinking a combination of balsamic, red wine, and beef demi-glace.

Recently, I followed a link from Metafilter and found this large knife. Evidently, Mario Batalli was using it in an episode of Iron Chef America.

It just looks bad-ass if you ask me.