From
Daryl:
GIVEAWAY BELOW!
I went to my go-to soup recipe book by Williams-Sonoma. I
wanted to make asparagus soup. I bought the ingredients.
Or so I thought...
I did not buy enough asparagus. They wanted 3 pounds for a full recipe. I was
going to make a half recipe from the start, but I only bought 1/2 pound. Oops.
So here’s what I made,
using most of the ingredients and adding potatoes, and then tweaking to my pleasure.
I love soup. I truly enjoy that I can fiddle with it to make
it mine. This is my “half” recipe and it made enough for 4 nice-sized bowls. By the way, I removed some soup before adding the cream so it was just veggies and potato. YUM. Try it both ways, if you dare.
POTATO AND ASPARAGUS SOUP
1/2 sweet onion, chopped fine
1 stalk celery, with leaves, chopped
8 ounces asparagus, chopped, (reserve 2-6 tips)
1 very large brown potato, peeled and chopped into 1” cubes
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups stock *
1 teaspoon basil, dried
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup cream
(In the WS book, they make from scratch; I use gluten-free
stock. Also if you buy low sodium stock, you might want to add extra salt.)
Fix all the veggies first.
Chop the onions, celery, asparagus, potato.
In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and sauté until
translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, all the asparagus stalks and most of
the tips, the potatoes and basil. Raise
the heat and bring to a boil. Skim away froth if it arises. None did for mine
probably because I used premade stock.
Reduce the heat and cover, and simmer gently for about 25 to
30 minutes.
In small batches, puree the soup in a blender or food
processor. Each time I finished my
batch, I returned to the saucepan. When it’s all pureed, heat over low and stir
in the cream and season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Meanwhile, quickly steam the asparagus tips, for decoration,
about 3-4 minutes.
Spoon the soup into bowls and garnish with asparagus tips.
Enjoy.
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VEGGIE SOUP WITHOUT CREAM |
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To celebrate the upcoming release of
I'm doing a special Sunday giveaway - winner's choice of any of my cozy mysteries.
Leave a comment to enter. Do you love cozy mysteries? What's one of your favorites?
Remember to include you're email should you win so I can contact you.
SIFTING THROUGH CLUES buy link
The latest Cookbook Nook Mystery (#8), available for pre-order. Comes out April 23.
What's it about?
Book clubs from all over have descended on Crystal Cove to
celebrate the library’s Book Club Bonanza week, and Jenna Hart has packed the
Cookbook Nook with juicy reads and tasty cookbooks. But she’s most excited about
spending an evening with the Mystery Mavens and their moveable feast, when they
will go from house to house to share different culinary treats and discuss the
whodunit they’re all reading. It’s all good food and fun for the savvy armchair
detectives, until one of the members of the group is found murdered at the last
stop on the tour.
As if that weren’t enough to spoil her appetite, Jenna discovers
that all the evidence points to her friend Pepper as being the guilty party.
And with Pepper’s chief-of-police daughter too close to the case to be
impartial, Jenna knows she’ll have to step in to help clear her friend’s name
before a bitter injustice sends her to jail. Sifting through the clues, Jenna
unearths any number of possible culprits, but she’ll have to cook up a new way
to catch the killer before Pepper’s goose is cooked.
Includes tasty sweet and savory recipes!
SAVOR THE MYSTERY!
A SOUFFLÉ OF SUSPICION, the 2nd French Bistro Mystery.
Can Mimi prove her chef innocent before the chef gets dusted?
A DEADLY ÉCLAIR, the 1st
French Bistro Mysteries, in all formats.
Can
Mimi clear her name before the killer turns up the heat?
SIFTING THROUGH CLUES, the 8th Cookbook Nook Mystery.
Sifting through the clues,
Jenna unearths any number of possible culprits, but she’ll have to cook up a
new way to catch the killer before her friend Pepper’s goose is cooked.
Click here to order.
WREATH BETWEEN THE LINES, the 7th Cookbook Nook Mystery.
Jenna Hart is busy decking
the halls and ducking a killer
FOR CHEDDAR OR WORSE, the 7th Cheese
Shop Mystery by Avery Aames.
Finally
there's going to be a cheese festival in Providence!
Click
to order.
GIRL ON THE RUN, a stand-alone
suspense.
When a fairytale fantasy night becomes a nightmare, Chessa Paxton must run for
her life...but will the truth set her free?
Click
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DAY OF SECRETS, a stand-alone
suspense
A
mother he thought was dead. A father he never knew. An
enemy that wants them dead.
Click
here to order
I love cozies. One author I’ve read most of her books is Kathi Daley and another Tonya Kappes. Both were my first cozy read authors from a Facebook party I happened to see on my feed. So I’m new to reading them. About 2-3 years now. I look forward to reading these. Nerdsrgood@man.com
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sally. Got the email fix, too. ~ Daryl
DeleteMSN.com
ReplyDeleteWreath between the lines! Thank you for the opportunity to win!! Have a great Sunday!
ReplyDeleteKcline96@hotmail.com
Aw, thanks, Kate. ~ Daryl
DeleteMy favorites are any of the Joanne Fluke - Hannah Swensen cozies. Love those 1cow0993(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteCarol, they are fun, aren't they? ~ Daryl
DeleteI so love cozy mysteries, I grew up on Agatha Christie and evolved to many of the newer authors of course. I especially love the cozies that include animal and/or culinary themes.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on Christie, as well. ~ Daryl
DeleteI prefer cozies. They are easier to read and I enjoy the characters that appear in each copy. My book club has been reading authors such as James Patterson, Harlan Coben and Michael Crichton. I have not enjoyed these authors....too dark and too intense. dbahn(at)iw(dot)net
ReplyDeleteDianne, I read across genres and have read those authors. I find I like to sprinkle them in with my other reading. ~ Daryl
DeleteI love that cookbook -- actually, all Wms-Sonoma cookbooks. We just made the beef stroganoff last night!
ReplyDeleteLeslie, I love stroganoff! ~ Daryl
DeleteYour recipe sounds tasty. I do love cozies but, I don't have favorites. I tend to enjoy most books I read.
ReplyDeletelkish77123 at gmail dot com
Linda, good for you to be open-minded. Reading is fun! ~ Daryl
DeleteI love anything by Joanne Fluke!...and also adored Sifting through Clues, since I was lucky enough to snag an ARC �� My email is ibmandums@yahoo.com (and now I really want some asparagus soup. I'm quite the soup junkie)
ReplyDeleteAmanda, so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for telling me. ! Daryl
DeleteI love so many cozies! One of my favorites is the Zoe Chambers series by Annette Dashofy. JL_Minter@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteJaime, Annette is a lovely writer. ~ Daryl
DeleteThe soup sounds great - and I love your books ! also love both by Leslie Budewitz - thanks for the contest - tr Williams 69 (at) msn (dot) com
ReplyDeleteTaylor, so glad you're reading Leslie's books. Love them. ~ Daryl
DeleteThe soup looks really yummy. I do love cozies. One of my favorite cozy series is Sofie Kelly's Magical Cats Mysteries.
ReplyDeleteturtle6422 at gmail dot com
Jana, I love Sofie Kelly's series. So much fun. ~ Daryl