Eggs for Dinner - Shakshuka

I may be strange, but I do not like to eat eggs for breakfast. I prefer sweets in the am. I'm all about French toast, donuts and cinnamon rolls for starting my mornings. I like to reserve eggs for the evening hours. 

And why not? Who ever said that you need to eat eggs only for breakfast? You eat chicken for dinner, so why not eggs? Especially when they are in such a savory dish as this shakshuka.

I have seen this recipe around the internet for a while now and I even say it on a few menus while visiting Istanbul last year. I only recently got around to trying it out and I'm so mad at myself for not trying it earlier. I imagine that it would have been amazing in Istanbul, with fresh feta and vegetables.

Even though I didn't get the feta a eggs from my local farmer, this meal was still absolutely amazing. We had it for dinner one night and I ate the remaining portions for lunch for the rest of the week. Once you prepare all of the vegetables, the dish comes together very quickly, with very little fuss. In about thirty minutes you can have this amazing and flavorful meal prepared, perfect for a weeknight meal.

Don't let the strange name scare you off from trying this dish. And definitely have it for dinner!

One Year Ago: Spring Risotto
Two Years Ago: Peanut Butter Macaroon Brownies
Three Years Ago: Rosemary Chicken & Potato Pizza
Four Years Ago: Potato & Choriquo Gratin
Five Years Ago: Mango Shrimp Curry

Thai Chicken with Peanuts

Don't want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen, prepping dinner and sweating over the oven? Make a stir fry! At least once a week during the summer you can find me tossing ingredients into a big pan and pouring on different sauces. Stir fry isn't really a science. I usually don't follow a recipe and cook up whatever we have in the fridge.

Yes, the stir fry is the ultimate pre-vacation meal. You can clean out the fridge and use up any meats and vegetables. For this stir fry, had a bunch of sweet peppers and carrots, as well as a pack of chicken sitting in the fridge. With a business trip coming up on Thursday, I decided to use up the stuff in the house, rather than buy groceries this week. Also, since I tend to make a lot of stir frys, I had all the ingredients for my sauce already. My pantry is a well-stocked stir fry zone!

What is your go to "Use it up" recipe? With so many business and personal trips this year, I find that I've been tossing way more food than I would like. Resorting to eating out each night is not the best plan either, for the wallet or the waistline!

Two Years Ago: Milky Way Cake
Three Years Ago: Peanut Chicken with Asian Slaw
Four Years Ago: Banana Coconut Muffins
Five Years Ago: Indian Chicken Curry

Hoisin Chicken Stir Fry

It's another snow day here in Central New Jersey! The snow is coming down steady and it's a good heavy snow. The kind of snow that makes perfect snowmen. You can start with a tiny snowball and roll it up into a giant car-sized ball, perfect for carving out into an igloo. Have you ever made a snow igloo? Growing up in Buffalo, we had many winter igloos in our yard each year!

Sadly, I'll be working from home today, not playing outside and making giant snow igloos. On the bright side, I made this stir fry last night! Lunch hour will be tasty leftovers. This recipe comes together so quickly, I probably could prepare this fresh again today in less than fifteen minutes. Plus, this recipe has hoisin in it and I love anything with hoisin!

Are you stuck inside again today because of the weather? This snowstorm is huge! Stay safe and warm everyone, Spring is coming soon! Until then, I'll be looking out the window at the falling snow, drinking hot chocolate.

Two Years Ago: Biscofferoos
Three Years Ago: Homemade Greek Yogurt
Four Years Ago: Sugar Crisp Cookies

CTB 2014 - Williams-Sonoma - Italian

I always have three easy meals in my back pocket. A few things that I can always whip out in case of late hours at work or an empty fridge. These three meals are 1. Risotto, 2. Omelets, 3. Quiche. Any of these meals also acts as an "Empty out the fridge" kind of meal. To this end I always have Arborio rice, eggs and a pie crust in my house. Always.

Each recipe is pretty much the same. Brown/saute some items in a pan. Cook the main part of the dish (rice or eggs). Combine the sauteed food with the main ingredient and finish the dish. Dinner is usually ready in thirty minutes (22 if it's risotto!).

This week I made another quiche (I always made some omelets yesterday). Why? I didn't have time to go to the grocery store this weekend. Because I was busy playing in the park. Totally legit excuse.

What are your go to dinners when you don't know what to make for dinner?

One Year Ago: Funfetti Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Parmesan & Garlic Salad Dressing & Cranberry Salad Dressing
Three Years Ago: Mango-Lime Muffins

Quiche with Sweet Peppers & Sausage

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma - Italian

1 rolled, refrigerated pie crust
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 ºF.  Unroll pie crust and press into a deep dish pie pan.  Top with a piece of aluminum foil and fill with dried beans or pie weights.  Bake pie crust for 8 minutes.  Prepare filling while the crust bakes.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Lightly coat skillet with cooking spray. Add sausage and onions.  Cook for about 5 minutes, or until sausage is browned and onions are starting to soften.  Add peppers and cook for 3-4 minutes, until they begin to soften.  Add parsley, salt and pepper and stir to coat.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs.  Add contents of the skillet and stir to mix.  Pour egg mixture into the partially baked pie crust.  Return to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.  Pie crust should be golden on the edges and the egg should be set in the center (it shouldn't jiggle when shaken).

Slice into 6-8 pieces and serve.  You can go wild and grate some Parmesan cheese over the top!

Asian Chicken Salad

Hello everyone!  I'm back from vacation and recovered, I think.  I know, it sounds strange to be "recovered from vacation" but it's totally the truth.  Whenever Boyfriend and I come back from vacation, I feel like I need another few days off just to recuperate!  The reason is - we aren't you traditional vacation-type people.

Most people look forwards to vacation because it involves an umbrella drink (or five), a beach umbrella and some new paperbacks.  I could handle doing that too, for about two hours.  Then I want to get up and DO SOMETHING!  I either have restless leg disorder (is that still a thing??) or Adult ADHD, because I don't want to just sit around on vacation and relax.  Ask anyone, I'm not really the relaxing type.

Our trip to Morocco was anything but relaxing.  In ten days we managed to jam in all of the following...  A day in Oukaimeden rock climbing, two days in Zagora riding camels, a three-day trip to the beach for surfing lessons.  We toured the medinas of Marrakech and Casablanca and traveled on the highways, rails and tramlines of Morocco.  We ate tagines and couscous by the pound and enjoyed liters of mint tea.

Thankfully we had a direct flight home from Casablanca, I don't think I could have mustered up the energy to get on another plane after seven and a half hours sitting in coach.  Once we got home, all I wanted to eat was a big salad.  And I've been making lots of them since I managed the necessary energy to head to the grocery store!

Maybe our next vacation will be a quiet, relaxing, beach vacation...  More likely I'll plan something like that and BF will find a volcano to hike up and coral reefs to scuba dive through.

Be on the lookout over the next two weeks for Moroccan dishes and photos from our vacation!  I picked up a few tips from the locals and a beautiful Moroccan cookbook of my own.

Thai Chicken Lettuce Cups

Dinner last night was messy.  I blame Shoprite.  It's all because they didn't have the lettuce that I wanted, that Boyfriend and I wound up with sauce all down our wrists.  All I wanted was bibb lettuce, with its nice cup-shaped leaves.  But no, Shoprite had to have romaine, Boston, iceberg, spring mix, everything but bibb lettuce.

Even with all the juices running down our hands, this dinner was delicious.  I always like adding fish sauce into my meals, mostly because it starts out smelling so discusting, but lends such fantastic flavors to my meals.  It's such an amazing transformation!

I wanted a light, yet flavorful dish because I still had three miles to run after dinner.  These lettuce cups were just the perfect dinner to have before hitting the road.

Then I came home and had some chocolate cake.

Chicken Stuffed with Peppered Goat Cheese

Since I just celebrated my one year anniversary at work, I thought I would take a minute to reveal...

My top ten favorite things about working in industry!

(for those of you who haven't taken the long road through grad school to your job, working in industry means working in the public sector, rather than in academia or for the government!)

1. The first time I heard "Your time is too valuable to spend it doing X.". When I heard this I just about fell over. No longer would I have to do menial tasks to save a buck. No more cutting TLC plates, no more pulling spotters, no more making Dess-Martin! (all very time consuming things that are terribly boring)

2. Paid time off. And you're urged to take your time off so that you don't lose it at the end of the year! Three weeks where you don't want me to come in? Deal!

3. Bagel day. What? Your company doesn't have bagel day every Thursday? Mine does and it's awesome!

4. Dressing up. Gone are the days of wearing the standard t-shirt and jeans to the lab everyday. Now I get to wear button down shirts, pressed pants and nice shoes. Sure, I could wear jeans to work, but when I dress nicely people don't ask why I look so nice.

5. Work hours. What does your standard grad student work week look like? Usually between 60-80 hours a week, depending on your advisor. Never again.

6. Coworkers that care! In grad school you want to work hard and get out. There is competition, gossiping and sometimes back-stabbing. In industry, teams work toward a common goal, the whole "we all succeed together" motto goes here.

7. Free lunch. That's right grad students of the world, there are
Lots of free lunches in industry. Usually they are associated with lunchtime meetings, but not everything can be great!

8. Mr Softee Wednesdays. Yup, you read that right. The ice cream man comes to my office on Wednesday during the summer and gives us I've cream. For free.

9. Robots. Robots to do work for me, save me time and make my life better. I'm going to name them all this coming year. That way I can say "Hi Bert! Ready to run that purification for me today?"

10. All of the learning I still get to do on a daily basis. Pharma is an ever evolving industry and you've got to keep on your toes to stay in the game!

It seems that three of my favorite things involve food... Well, here's a recipe for the food you saw throughout the post, we'll keep up the theme!

Paradise Chicken

Since I shared with you an island drink yesterday, I thought that today I would tell you a little bit about that island.  St Kitts, home of Ting, is part of the Caribbean country including its neighboring island Nevis.  Boyfriend and I spent a week there a few years ago and loved every minute of it.

If you are looking for a quiet island with lots to do, this is the place to book your next vacation.  Boyfriend and I were drawn to St Kitts with its promise of lush rain forests, clear blue waters and monkeys!

Yes, monkeys!  The monkeys that live on St Kitts are not naturally from the island and were brought there by the French as pets in the 1600's.  Now they abound in the rain forests and you can even find them by the beaches, drinking your cocktails.  (Enjoy a laugh and google drunken St Kitts monkeys!)

You should definitely judge your vacation location depending on its lack or abundance of monkeys.

We also spent a good portion of time hiking through the rain forest and walking through Basseterre.  We ate locally made ice cream in the port during the day and barbecued chicken on the beach at night.  There was always an abundance of empty beaches with calm water for snorkeling and wave-filled beaches for the acrobat in your family.

We lived on chicken while we were on St Kitts.  The many different beach huts we frequented all offered their delicious poultry options.  For our Caribbean dreams menu, chicken had to be the main course.  I chose a dish with heat, traditionally found on St Thomas.  If you're not a fan of spicy foods, just remove the habanero pepper!

Sweet Potato & Choriquo Gratin

I am very excited to announce my very first Wilde in the Kitchen Bake Sale! But I need your help! In June, less than six weeks away, I will be participating in Relay for Life out here on Long Island. For those of you who don't know exactly what the event entails, here is the description straight from the American Cancer Society.

Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease.

At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length. Relayers do not have to walk all night, but each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event.

The event begins with a lap completed by cancer survivors, showing their victory over cancer. The caregivers then join in the next lap, showing their support for those who have battled cancer. Finally, the remaining walkers join the track and start the relay. As daytime passes into night, luminaria bags are lit to commemorate those who have lost their fight to cancer. The relayers then walk through the night with the light of those now gone guiding them around the loop.

Our Relay will take place from 6 pm until 6 am the next day and our team will be camping out at the local college. I will be relaying with several of my work colleagues! Being a newer member of my company, I'm looking forward to not only raising money for ACS, walking with survivors, but also getting to know some of my coworkers a little better.

Now I need your help! May 17-18 will be the Wilde in the Kitchen Bake Sale for Relay! I'll be putting up several candy confections to help raise money for Relay and am looking for people to join in the bake sale!

How does it work?  Don't worry, I do all the heavy lifting!  You provide an image and web address for whatever baked good you would like to donate to the bake sale.  People bid on the items by e-mailing me with their bids.  Once the bake sale closes, the baked goods go to the highest bidder!  Here's where your work comes in...  Within a week, you just have to bake your item and mail it to the winner!

What would be a good item for the bake sale?  Anything that ships well, is delicious and is something that you love.  Cookies & Bars ship really well.  I'll be making several different candy recipes to contribute to the sale.  Marshmallows are their own packing material!

Do you have a little extra time in your week to whip up something sweet and delicious? Send me an e-mail at wildeinthekitchen (at) hotmail (dot) com and let me know!

As a thanks for your help and kindness, I've made you dinner. Kinda. In order to prepare for an all-night relay walk I think my team is going to need some carbs. So make yourself this spicy gratin and leaf through your dessert cookbooks!

Grilled Chicken & Potatoes

I'm back from Chicago and back to work.  For some reason I decided that I didn't need to change the time on my watch while I was away.  People kept suggesting that I could easily change the time (with a simple turn of the knob!) and just change it back when I returned.  I told them not to be silly.  My phone acts as my real clock, my watch acts as the minute hand.

Think about it.  How often do you find yourself not knowing approximately what time it is?  Almost never.  Usually only in the middle of the night, when you are thrown awake from a dream, having no idea where you are and what time it is.  Well, maybe that was just me this week, sleeping in my big hotel room bed.

By keeping my wristwatch on east coast time, I feel like I saved myself at least a whole minute of time.  Now I just have to get back onto east coast time!  I don't think that you can say that you have jet lag when you've only flown from one time zone to the next.  Also, half of my company was at this conference with me.  I don't think it will go over well if I'm dragging and complaining today, when everyone else is in the same boat!  Better go get some caffeine and get some work done.  I've got to put all my new conference knowledge to use!

Raw salad & Wagamama Dressing

Our trip around Europe in the fall of 2010 began in London, after a harrowing flight from Newark international.  We just barely got out of the country before a hurricane pummeled the east coast.  In true London fashion, we landed in the middle of a light drizzle which slowly turned into a full out downpour.  This would have been fine, except we had decided to walk from the train station to our hotel. 

According to the map, it looked like we only had to walk a few blocks to get to our destination.  Unbeknownst to us, London blocks are a lot bigger than New York City blocks.  They also seem to twist and turn and lead you in the wrong direction.  At one point we wound up by Harrod's, trying to find some internet to activate google maps.

We finally made our way to the right street and slowly began making our toward our hotel, checking building numbers as we went.  Counting, counting, wait, where's our hotel?  We had passed from one building number to a much higher number, skipping our desired number in between.  We circled the block, thinking that we just couldn't have missed a huge Marriott hotel.  Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe it was the crazy London numbering system (I blame you London!), but had we kept walking to the next block, we would have found the hotel.

Soaked to the bone, we checked into our hotel room.  After changing into dry clothes, we headed out to find what we knew was close, Wagamama.  Those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about are confused.  Those who do know what Wagamama is, understand.  Located all over the city, Wagamama tempts you with its noodles, soups and salads.  If you are in Boston, you should get yourself to Quincy Market.  You'll find Wagamama there. 

The soup that I got warmed me through and through.  Boyfriends Chicken Katsu curry (his favorite and the only thing he ever orders there) tempted me too.  Wagamama fueled us for the crazy trip ahead and brought me my first cookbook of the trip.

Thankfully the rain abated (just after we got to our hotel) and gave us a few beautiful, sunny days in London.

Thai Chicken Soup

The weather has taken a turn for the worse here in New Jersey!  Walking out of my apartment yesterday morning I was confronted with a torrential downpour.  By the time I got to work, the temperature had dropped by ten degrees and the wind had increased by twenty miles per hour. 

The weather seemed to deteriorate as the day went on.  By lunchtime, the winds howled and a chill began to take hold.  Shortly after returning from lunch we sat in our office (discussing highly intellectual things like chemical bonding and cell assays) (actually, I think we were talking about food), I looked out the window to discover hail bouncing off of the windows.

Waiting on the train platform everyone looked like cows, with their backs to the wind.  Forty mile per hour gusts blasted us commuters, tearing through even the thickest jacket, scarf or hat.  I was never so happy to see the train lights cutting through the night.

In an effort to warm up, spicy soup was in order.  Luckily, this soup was ready in no time flat.  The stock and chicken were prepared this weekend, the thing that took the longest time was cleaning the mushrooms!  Boyfriend and I were warm in no time!

Asparagus and Tortellini Salad

Can you believe that I have been the proud owner of a pasta maker for five whole months and it's only now that I've actually used it?  I kept looking at it, thinking of all of the delicious pastas that I wanted to try out, yet there it sat.  It was just crying out to be used and I ignored it.

This year has been one of the busiest times of my life.  I've hardly had time to do my laundry, nonetheless hand make pasta.  With trying to complete two projects at work, visiting boyfriend every other weekend in NJ and searching for a job, almost every minute has been spoken for.  Buying storebought pasta just seemed like the easy thing to do.

Last week I decided to ignore the calls of the pasta maker no more!  I was going to make one of my favorite pasta dinners and I would make the tortellini!  With a DVR full of shows from the past two weeks, I set out on the journey of making my tortellinis.  It was fun!  It was easy!  It was not a short process.  First I made the pasta dough (same one I used in this recipe), then I stirred together the filling, then it was time to roll.

I secured the pasta maker to the countertop.  It's a heavy little guy, but you still need to clamp it to your countertop in order to roll out the dough.  So I rolled and rolled the dough, slowly closing the wheels to get a thinner and thinner dough.

I stamped out litle circles using my trusty 2-inch biscuit cutter.

I added a 1/2 tsp of filling to the circle...

Folded it over and went pinch pinch pinch to close...

Then pinched them in the center.  Not exactly what a tortellini is supposed to look like, but I thought they looked cute this way.  Then I set them on a baking sheet and into the fridge they went.  Overnight they sat and dried out.

The next day I had adorable little tortellinis. 

See, aren't they cute! 

Then I boiled them up with some asparagus and yellow peppers, tossed them in dressing and I had dinner!  Phew, quite the process, but totally worth it.  I'm looking forward to trying out other filling recipes, fresh pasta is just the best.

Thai Chicken Curry

It’s been a little chilly up here in the Northeast! So cold, that I decided it was unnecessary to leave the house yesterday. I checked the weather channel and found that it was only 18 degrees out, with a wind chill making it feel like 2 degrees. I left Wisconsin to get away from those temperatures, right? Why are these chilly temps following me around the country? Maybe I should move to Florida next time.


I can’t complain too loudly though, because I was invited to go down to Florida this weekend. Boyfriends parents recently moved down south, escaping the cold Buffalo winters once and for all. They are very smart people. A quick check of the temperature in Florida? 74. Curses, why didn’t I take boyfriend up on that offer? Oh right, I have a bunch of stuff to get done at work this week. Double curses. Cold weather and work.

I guess that since I can’t escape the cold weather, then I might as well make something hot. Spicy hot! Curry spicy hot! Nice. This recipe is light, delicious and it’s chicken! I also added zucchini to the curry. The strange thing about zucchini is this. I hate raw zucchini. I will always pick up a piece of zucchini thinking that it is a cucumber. I will bite into the slice of veg and then spit it right out. I think zucchinis have a very bitter flavor when raw. When you cook zucchinis, this raw flavor is cooked out and they are delicious. Plus, I had leftover zucchini from baking the bread last week.



Sorry for the lame-o pic.  Cooking took place pretty late!

Lentil Chili

Well, that’s what it sounds like if you listen to the news right now. The vast majority of Connecticut schools had cancelled classes before a single flake of snow fell. Libraries, community centers and childcare centers, all closed. Is everyone being overnervous, or am I just hard to impress? The weather channel suggests that we will get between 18 to 24 inches of snow. Is that a lot? Nah.

I can count the number of snow days I experienced as a child on one hand. This is not because I lived in sunny Southern Florida or tropical Hawaii. I grew up in the northtowns of Buffalo, NY. Snow capital of the United States! In reality, Buffalo ranks ninth among cities over 50,000. There is a town in New Hampshire that averages over 200 inches of snow per year, Buffalo averages only 93. Anyways. You’re thinking, “All that snow, now snow days?” There are reasons that all the Western New York children are constantly disappointed.

Problem #1 – Snow Plows! The Atlanta airport has one snow plow. The driver most likely learned how to plow in Buffalo. Every year there is a plowing convention held in Buffalo, where drivers learn the fine art of snow plowing. This means that the snow plow drivers in Buffalo are good at what they do, much to the chagrin of schoolchildren everywhere.

Problem #2 – Winter is long in Buffalo. Some years, snow starts falling in October and will keep coming until long into spring. There is the occasional blizzard, the ones that make the national news, but these are rare and usually only happen when Lake Erie is unfrozen. So 93 inches of snow, spread out over 5 months equals lots of snow, a little at a time.

So our 18 to 24 inches of snow might keep me from heading to work, maybe. My boots only go up to my knees, and I don’t own any snow pants (I recently destroyed a pair while tubing). Just in case the grocery stores are wimps, I decided to prepare myself a big pot of lentil chili to last me through the onslaught of snow. I’m going to enjoy my piles of snow while eating bowls of chili, knowing that if I was still in Buffalo, I would definitely be at work.

Health tip?  Eat the rainbow!  Don't eat the snow.

Spicy Peanut Noodles

How is your New Year going? I know it’s only a week in, but that’s 1/52nd of the year! Now doesn’t that sound like a lot of time? Aside from my VERY important resolutions, I’m working on a few smaller goals. One of those is to try and do more things that scare me. I’ve found, in the past, doing these scary things have yielded amazing results.





A number of years ago I joined my first gym. For the first year I spent a good amount of time on the elliptical machine. Walking in place, uphill, downhill. Very fulfilling. Got some killer calves from that year, rock hard. After a while I got a little bored and decided to try out the weight room floor. All those shiny machines were calling to me. After a personal trainer showed me the ropes I dove in, hit those machines, usually on Fridays. This lead to some nice arms and a few too many offers of friendship from the muscle-bound men.

Look at all that color!  Delicious!

The final hurdle I jumped was going to the group fitness classes. I decided that I liked this the best. Not only would I have awesome arms and calves, but I would be able to work my whole body! Pilates, body sculpting, yoga it was all so much fun! But what really caught my eye? One night I spied a kickboxing class while pedaling away on my elliptical. Punching and kicking, all the members in unison like one of those Bally’s commercials. I could do that, right? You bet! Although it took an introductory class and a pair of new shoes to get me into the rhythm with the rest of them. But now I can round house kick like Chuck Norris.  Totally worth it!

The scary thing for this week? I stopped at that imposing looking Asian market on my walk home from work. Walking inside and being greeted with strange candies and bad lighting. I walked up and down the aisles, looking over the bottles and jars with words written in Chinese, Korean and Japanese. I decided to bring home some of these sauces, even though I wasn’t quite sure what they all were. Dinner would be spicy tonight, because the bottle we’re using tonight says chili!

Roasted Red Pepper, Leek and Potato Soup

I forgot how dark and rainy fall in the northeast can be. It makes me want to hide under the covers and watch Sell This House all day long. Something about watching other people work makes me warm and happy. Maybe this is why I like teaching Bodystep classes so much? Nonetheless, fall can be so different, depending on where you live.

Fall in my hometown is cold, gray and wet. Ahh, the pleasures of living near Lake Erie. Fall in the Midwest is crisp and sunny, perfect for getting up early and drinking hot apple cider. Fall in the Rockies is fantastic with warm, sunny days and cool, dry nights. Great for hiking during the days and sleeping under heavy blankets at night.

Fall in the Northeast is a little more temperamental. We have swayed from cool, cloudy days to warm, sunny ones. I like to think of this season as a manic depressive one for the region. Maybe fall just needs some lithium. I have some in the lab, I should offer it up to the season. Here fall, would you like some lithium wire? I’ll clean the mineral oil off of it for you! Be careful though, it’s kinda flammable…

Perhaps offering the season some lithium metal is a bad idea. Maybe it just wants some soup. Soup should make it all better. This soup should make it great. Sunny days and cool nights are in my future! Not only is this soup delicious, but it is fun to make. I might just be saying that because it meant I got to use my immersion blender for the first time. You can make this soup with a simple pot and blender, altough I was more than happy to pull out my new toy. This soup has a fabulous texture, great flavor and most importantly, it’s so pretty!