Food Friday–Two Day Soup

This fall I have been making good use of our slow cooker. I have been making lots of what I call “Poor People Soup”.  Basically it is a collection of meat bones , onions, carrots, parsnips and and perhaps cabbage or a can of crushed tomatoes. I put a collection of whole spices in a tea ball and let it all cook away.

I have discovered that if you let the soup simmer away for two days the vegetables caramelize. The flavor becomes deep.  I started the soup last night before I went to bed. This morning I added two pieces of chicken to the soup. I suppose if I were more refined I would strain all of the vegetables out of the soup.
Tonight’s company are people were are really comfortable with, so I am going to serve the soup in it’s unrefined version.

Chicken is cooking away in the oven  made with lemons, basil black pepper and rosemary. I also have rice and hard wheat cooking away at the same time. I need to figure out a vegetable and dessert.

Yesterday was a big baking day for me.  Our rabbi’s child is having his bar mitzvah tomorrow. Some of us were asked to bake dessert. I made mini cheese cakes.  Did I use a recipe you ask? No, because you don’t need one for cheese cake.

Cheese Cake Formula

1 stick butter melted

enough dry stuff to mix with it- the dry stuff can be crushed cereal, crushed cookies, pretzels  or flour . This mixture needs to be sweet and just a little salty.  I like to add spices to the crust. Clearly you need to add more flavor to flour than you would to crushed cookies.If you need to add sugar, use brown .

The finished mixture should be crumbly, like wet sand. Pat/smoosh into baking dish and bake for 15 minutes @325

cheese mixture

You need 1.5 lbs of soft cheese. Sour cream , cream cheese, ricotta cheese, drained cottage cheese, farmer cheese, pot cheese, labne, Greek yogurt can be used in any combination.

3 eggs

sugar, pinch salt

flavor – grated orange peel, grated lemon peel, vanilla, rum, caramel,chocolate…use what you love in the combinations you love

mix pour into pan with par baked crust. Bake at about 300 until mixture has set. Turn off oven and allow to cool in the oven so the top does not crack.

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I also put up  a roll of refrigerator cookies. My building is having a big Halloween decorating party on Sunday. Kids decorate cookies as part of it.   Rolling the log of dough up I realize that  the slice and bake cookies stoners love so much, are really easy to put together.  I used the recipe from Joy of Cooking, the perfect source for bland American food. Since these are cookies for kids, bland is the way to go.
Shabbat Shalom to all. My house smells great.