Deeply Rooted Soup and Grateful Dreams

So…I have been trying to post on Tuesday each week, but this week I had to wait until Wednesday. I wanted to be able to direct you to our local newspaper and an article written by Katie Scarvey for the Food Section about my blogging and recipes…and out of pure curiosity and excitement….well….I wanted to see it first…haha!!! THANK YOU KATIE!!! Go to www.salisburypost.com to see her kind words and Jon Lakey’s great pictures. Wow…so FUN 

and I am grateful!!!!

Winter has been trying to arrive here in North Carolina. TRYING is the key word. The days have been like late March, but the nights have been cold or rainy and I have been grateful for the heat in our home. I left earlier than usual one day this week and the car windows were covered in frost. My initial reaction was annoyance at myself for not thinking about the cold and checking to warm up the car ahead of my leaving time. I had timed my leaving NOT taking into account scraping and defrosting the car windows….ugggggg! 

I looked through the windows and taaaa….daaaahhhhhhh!!! 

IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!

Like an impressionistic painting entitled, Winter Whisper.

I looked out the side window and, no kidding, I thought it looked just like the sparkly tree garland used, “back in the day” on Christmas trees. If I squinted ‘til it appeared to be silver…exactly the same.

I ran and got the camera before I scraped. I wanted someone else to see my “aha” moment. As I scraped the ice from the windows, it hit me. I was potentially missing lots of beauty because of my un-seeing eyes. When I scraped away the frost, the layers peeled from the glass were leaving traces of crystals behind. I muttered a small, “Forgive me”, under my breath. I then uttered a louder, “Thank you”, for this chance to see a miracle of nature and a louder, “Thank you”, that I internally made the connection to make meaning out of this ordinary situation. Not to carry this to the point of complete weirdness, but….how many moments had I missed because I was too busy, too stressed, and too inwardly consumed???? LOTS!!!! I’ve been noticing the planet Venus each evening…so bright…so beautiful and the first “star” that I have been wishing on each night. You remember that don’t you??? “Star light, star bright…the first star I see tonight….I wish I may…I wish I might…have the wish, I wish tonight!!!” I still make wishes…dreams…and prayers…really….(sigh)….each night. A childhood ritual with hopefully more grown-up wishes…

....well some nights better than others!

I’ve been having vivid sleeping dreams this week, must be all the kale I am ingesting…haha!!! I LOVE some smoothies!!! I thought I was dreaming pretty good dreams and then…I reread Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “I have a dream” speech. Now that’s a DREAM! What a wonderful dream!! We… I think…are closer to that dream of his, but we ALL still have more work to do…for sure. No… my dreams are not deeply prophetic like Dr. Kings. My dreams are much simpler. My dreams are for people to simply be grateful…that’s it…be grateful. In my simple mind, so much could be better if people could be grateful for the day, the hour, the moment where they are right NOW. Then GRATEFULNESS would lead us to act on that gratitude for the good of others and in turn ourselves. Dr. King said his dream for our world was “deeply rooted”. I LOVE that phrase…”deeply rooted” and thus a recipe was born from my pantry and refrigerator. The recipe is to prove something to myself and to others. You can always create something with what you have NOW…and for sure I can ALWAYS make soup. Making soup is especially good because I found out this week that January is “National Soup Month”…so even better. (Maybe I AM prophetic…hahaha…nope…just lucky!!!!) I made soup from ingredients I had on hand and the vegetables represent those that are “deeply rooted”. I have named this soup, Deeply Rooted Winter Soup. I am also sharing a bread recipe that I made to go with this root soup…try it…you’ll like it!!!;-)

Deeply Rooted Winter Soup Recipe:

Don’t say you don’t like beets…you won’t even know it is in the soup…PROMISE!! How could you not love this beauty…???? Look at those deep roots!!!!

In a soup pot or Dutch oven:

1 T. olive oil

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup chopped green onion

1/3 cup chopped celery

(Sauté onions and celery until they are soft and translucent.)

Add:

1cup chopped parsley

1 cup chopped carrot

2 cups peeled & chopped beet

3 cups chopped potato

Beautiful colors!!!

Add:

32 oz. of vegetable stock/broth

(remember if not using homemade… use the no salt added variety)

Cover the pot with the lid and allow this to simmer over medium high heat until the beets are tender when pierced with a fork. This could take an hour or so…While soup is simmering you can go dream like my dogs.

Once the veggies are soft, puree them in a food processor or blender until smooth. Be CAREFUL!!! Remember that expansion thing that happens with hot liquids and do not overfill the blender or food processor. 

Puree in several batches!!!

Place the pureed vegetables back into the pot and add the following:

1 tsp. onion salt

1 tsp. curry powder

½ tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. ground cumin

2 cups of unflavored almond milk

Allow the soup to heat back up over medium high heat, stirring well to combine the seasoning and almond milk.

To serve...garnish with a bit of fresh parsley...

...presentation...presentation...presentation

Now for the bread recipe…stay with me as this is easy and so worth the time. You can start the bread before starting the soup and it will be hot and ready when the soup finishes. I made up this recipe in my “normal” association thing that I do…so follow my line of thinking????? The soup has a beet…which made me think of borscht, which made me think of Russian rye bread…which made me think... too much time…something quicker…focaccia…but with a twist…hmmmm…Swedish rye…hmmmm….orange, anise, molasses…yum…THAT’S IT!!! Orange-Studded Rye Focaccia…DONE! I know it may sound odd…but IT IS SOOOO GOOD!!!

Orange-Studded Rye Focaccia Recipe:

2 ¼ cups warm water

1 package dry rapid rise yeast

(Allow 5 minutes for the yeast to soften and bloom)

Zest 1 medium sized orange it will be approximately 2 tsp.

Now cut the orange in half and “juice it” into a bowl…it will be approximately 

¼ cup.

To this juice add:

1 T. of flaxseed meal

& the 2 tsp. of orange zest

Allow the flax to soften in the juice while you measure the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl:

2 cups rye flour

3 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

1 tsp. anise seed (grind slightly in mortar and pestle)

Anise is typical in Swedish rye breads and has a unique flavor that pairs soo well with the orange and rye!!!

Whisk all of the dry ingredients together.

Make a well in the center of the flours. Into the well pour:

3 T. of extra-virgin olive oil

3 T. of molasses

You do know the trick to measure the oil first and then sticky liquids (like molasses) flow right out without having to scrape or lose a single drop…right????

Now add the orange juice/flax mixture and the yeast/water mixture into the 

well too….it’s more a lake than a well…heheee!

Stir the dough with a wooden spoon until it comes away from the bowl…it will still be sticky.

Turn out the dough onto a flour-dusted counter or board and begin kneading in another ½ to 1 more cup of unbleached flour. Keep kneading until dough feels elastic and smooth. Come on…it’s an easy upper body workout!!!!! It only takes 5 minutes or so….Form dough into a ball shape. Place kneaded dough ball into a large bowl greased with olive oil. Turn the ball over so that the oiled bottom is now on top. 
(This helps the dough to not form a crust)

Now cover with plastic film and then a kitchen towel and place in a warm place in the kitchen.

Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size…an hour to 90 minutes…depending on the warmth of the room. (I sometimes turn on my oven BRIEFLY and then turn it back off and place the bread in there to rise…90 degrees is a happy place for dough to rise…just FYI…no hotter or you’ll be cooking a boule instead of a focaccia loaf!)

Once doubled in size…the dough is ready to place onto a 12 X 19 inch baking sheet that has been well oiled with olive oil. Spread the dough out making a long rectangular loaf. (Think fat pizza) Now let it rest for 10 minutes and pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread out the dough a little more (it will almost fill the pan) and dimple the surface of the dough with your fingertips. Drizzle the surface with still more olive oil, allowing the oil to puddle in some of the dimples. Now…for the best part…the topping!!! Cut a small orange, or tangerine into thin slices…crosswise…so you have circles…YES peeling and all! Cut the circles of citrus into halves or if you want smaller pieces into quarters and place the fruit…flesh down into the dough…peeling on the surface. Studding the dough with citrus….BRILLIANT!! Now, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and red pepper flakes…LIGHTLY! Now…dust the top with FINELY…I mean FINELY ground walnuts…powdery…it’s like the parmesan cheese of other focaccia breads. I am sorry…don’t really measure this, but I would say about ½ cups worth of walnut powder…hahaha!!

Now place in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. The top should be lightly golden. Allow the bread to cool for a few minutes before cutting and then serve with a good cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for dipping.

The perfect accompaniment for the “Deeply Rooted Soup” ….YES!!!

So…back to gratitude…Gratitude has been everywhere in my path this week and so…ding…ding…I knew it was the lesson for my week. I always try to be grateful, but I really upped my awareness this week and it was really amazing how the "gratitude thing" kept being woven into my days. I want to share with all of you a link that came to our home last week via email. We have shared this with many of you, but I pass this along for YOUR week of gratitude. It takes about nine minutes to watch, but you won’t be sorry…it is breathtakingly wonderful…hey the man is a world-renowned cinematographer…watch this and dream!!!

&lthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&feature=share&gt

So after watching this piece, I admit it…I looked up at the sky more…remembering that this formation of clouds would never be again…I said, 

"Thank You"!!!

Be grateful...this is my dream this week. Thank you Dr. King for leaving traces of sparkling crystals behind like on my frosty car window…

Thank you for your dream!

Thoughtful living moment today: Stop…Look…Listen….Taste….Smell…..Touch….Dream….be grateful!!!!!