lisa’s place

After this horrible bout of the flu, I’ve been in the mood for serious comfort food. I’ve found that vegetarian food doesn’t often fill this need.  Luckily, mom to the rescue!  She reminded me of the dumpling-noodle thingies she adds to chicken noodle soup – they fit the bill perfectly.  Yummy, fragrant, filling, wholesome veggie soup!

Here’s the recipe:

Ginger-dumpling soup with arugula

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
2-3 Tbsp finely chopped garlic
2-3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1/4 cup (or more) finely chopped cilantro stems
2/3 cup coarsely chopped onion
2/3 cup carrots (diagonally sliced)
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1 sweet potato cut into 3/4″ chunks
10 cups vegetarian vegetable broth (I use Knorr, best flavor)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp water
2 cups flour (give or take a bit)
6-8 oz arugula (very roughly chopped works best)
salt
pepper
cilantro leaves (if desired for garnish)

1. Melt butter in olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.

2. Add garlic, ginger, and cilantro stems to butter and oil mixture.  Cook until this mixture becomes quite aromatic and brightly colored (but not browned).

3. Add onion and saute for 2-3 minutes at medium-high heat.

4. Add carrot, celery, and sweet potato.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Saute just until mixture begins to brown.

5. Add broth, stir well, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer.

6. Allow soup to simmer for 10-15 minutes.  During this time, make the dumplings.

6. Beat eggs with a fork until well mixed.  Add salt and water and beat until the eggs get slightly frothy.  Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well with each addition.  Continue to add flour until mixture is similar to biscuit dough (this may take slightly more or less than 2 cups of flour).

7. Using a spoon or kitchen scissors, add small bits of the dumpling mix to the simmered soup.  Dumplings that are approximately 1 tsp is size will require about 15 minutes of additional cooking time.

8. Return soup to a boil and cook dumplings for 12 minutes.  Add arugula and continue cooking for 3 minutes.

9. Serve immediately with crusty bread.  Garnish with cilantro leaves, if desired.

The garlic, ginger, and cilantro stems could be blended to a paste in a food processor to save a few minutes prep time.  I think the arugula is essential to the taste of the soup, but spinach could be substituted for arugula – the flavor would change pretty dramatically, but I think it would still be good.  Crimini mushrooms, potatoes, parsnips, and many other vegetables would also be very tasty in this soup.  I like to add the vegetables early so they are well cooked and softened.  If you prefer crunchier veggies, add them later during the cooking time.  This soup is really good (maybe even more flavorful) a few days after you make it – the consistency of the dumplings will hardly change at all.

Loving these quilts (surprise, surprise, there are a lot of birds in here):

1. Cathedral Window Doll Quilt for quilt swap 4, 2. Doll quilt and doll, 3. Doll quilt #5 swap!!!, 4. Polka Dot Estates, 5. DQS5front, 6. Birds on My Brain, 7. September mini for Raesha, 8. Scrappy Log Cabin Baby Quilt, 9. Wedges!, 10. scrap quilt, 11. Doll quilt II., 12. FlockTogetherAngle, 13. Block for Amy, 14. sparrow, 15. For the Birds, 16. Imagine my surprise and delight!, 17. doll quilt, 18. flea market fancy quilt-side 2, 19. teacher quilt, 20. stacked coins baby quilt, 21. Nine Pillowcase Quilt, 22. View 1 of Top, 23. Mixtape 1: Favorite Songs, 24. Paintbox Quilt on the Sofa, 25. baby quilt – detail

I think making these mosaics might be a little dangerous.

I am one of the lucky 12 members of the Creatively Dyed Fiber Club.  Dianne put together the best package for the first shipment: beautiful roving, a calendar, a wraps-per-inch tool, and a great pattern.

The roving is a 20% milk protein, 20% seacell, 60% wool blend and it was so, so soft.  This is a special club dye lot:

I love that there are so many different colors in the roving.  One of my favorite things about Dianne’s roving is how different the roving and the finished yarns look.  The rovings are always very bright and (almost overly) cheerful, but spinning always creates a beautiful and serenely colored yarn.  You never know what you’ll get until you’ve finished spinning and plying the singles.

Without worrying too much about how I spun the yarn – I just tried to enjoy spinning such pretty, smooth, soft roving – I spun a 2-ply worsted(ish) yarn:

Look at all of those different colors.  Hard to think of a color you don’t see.

The softness and smooshiness of this yarn is quite indescribable.  I just love the slight sheen.

Now, I just have to decide what to knit with this yarn.  I’m thinking a cowl, perhaps.  Definitely something to be worn close to the face – gotta take advantage of all that softness.

In case you’re like me and you just can’t get enough applications for your iPhone, check out these great knitting applications from Michael Golden at Ashland Sky.  These pictures are just screen shots taken from my iPhone.

I never had any idea why you’d want to take a screen shot of your phone, but it can be really handy.  If you don’t know how to do this, it’s really simple:  just hold down the home button (the round one) and then click the top button, the screen will flash and the screen shot will be added to the Camera Roll on your iPhone.

iKnit Needle Sizer:

This one is so simple, it’s silly.  Just lay your needle or crochet hook on your screen and match it up.

Definitely a needle gauge you’ll always have with you – and a real steal at 99 cents!  Those plastic ones I am always buying and breaking/losing are at least $3-5!  I just have to get used to having this with me all the time and remember to use it.

and KnitGauge:

This one is also pretty much self explanatory and SO useful – I can’t wait to need to use it.

Line up your swatch at one peg, slide the other one to the edge of the stitches you want to measure, count the number of stitches between the pegs, move the slider to that number and voila your gauge!

As a bonus, you could measure just about anything up to 2.82″ just by moving the pegs and using them like a little pair of calipers!  Cool, eh?  It also has a little ruler built in (inches and centimeters).

I love this, no more fiddly-effing around with a little window or a ruler to check gauge, just drag the little peg   Ingenious, I tell you.  This one is only 99 cents, as well.  Wow!  These two apps are the best $1.98 I’ve spent in a very long time!

I haven’t said this in a couple of days, but what in the heck did I do without an iPhone?  How do people live without one?