Creamy Baharat Vegetable Soup

Around my house, we love "spice" but we aren't always really adventurous with our spice choices. We know what we like and we use our favorites often. When I was given the opportunity to try a few new spices, courtesy of the generous folks over at The Spice House, I decided to really stretch my boundaries and go for a couple of completely unknown (to me) spice blends. I must say that everything I received from The Spice House was fantastic, and this spicy, creamy soup was so easy to put together. There is no meat involved, and you could even use a can of soup as your base if you want or need a quick meal! It is a little on the spicy side, but if you serve it with a dollop of yogurt (as suggested), the heat is nicely tamed and mellowed. We really enjoyed it...hope you do as well!

*For the vegetable soup just I used some that I had in the freezer. It contained chicken broth, tomato puree, carrots, celery, corn, peas, green beans, and potatoes. It was lightly seasoned and very basic. You can use whatever you have or prefer, as long as it's not already too seasoned. You can even use canned, or minestrone, as the pasta will add a bit of thickness once it is pureed. Just be sure not to have too much salt in the soup beforehand.

Maple Bars & Beer

We didn't plan to serve maple bars with beer.

Friends came over to watch three college football games, eat Willie’s fajitas and drink a beer or two. But when our friend Mike brought his daughter along, 10-year old Jessie, I knew within minutes of meeting her it was a game changer. 

Jessie likes to be in the kitchen and when I mentioned I was considering making maple bars she lit up. I loved her immediately.
Me: Oh, do you like maple bars?
Jessie: No, I've never had them!
Me: But you think we should make them?
Jessie: Yes, I do!

Me: Listen, if we don't have anything you like to eat, you and I will go to the store and get something else ok?

Jessie: Oh, I like everything. Oh, you have Diet Coke? I LOVE Diet Coke!

Then she proceeded to weigh everything on the kitchen scale that she could find, chatted Willie up about her favorite restaurant, which serves certified Neapolitan pizza, and explained to him the horrors found in hot dogs. Did I mention she's 10?

Cabbage Soup

We're the kind of family that takes the top off the pepper shaker and takes a giant pinch to throw in a dish. Or we skip all that take-off-the-top business and just shake (carefully now) from the open shaker into the food. We LOVE pepper! When we eat French fries, we pour some ketchup on the plate or in a ramekin and we shake a lot of pepper into the ketchup rather than over the fries because we just don't want to miss any of that good pepper.

Spicy Tofu with Beef and Szechuan Peppercorns

Magic beans. I think that's what I thought of Szechuan (also spelled Sichuan) peppercorns. They were mythical spices from faraway lands that only food magazines and fancy food bloggers somehow managed to acquire. I pictured having to secret some of them through customs. Which of course, first requires a trip to China, which I have been lucky enough to visit, but am still paying my bank account back a year and a half later. So yes, magic beans, something in my fantasies but out of my depth.

Green-Chile Bacon Burger

Usually a green-chile burger relies on external ingredients to impart the chile flavor. It's smothered in green-chile sauce or features strips of the roasted chiles as a topping. These are both tasty options. However, I think the best burgers are those in which the patty itself is the wow factor.

Introduction to The Spice House Challenge

This challenge started when one of our members was talking to one of the staff at The Spice House. Why was Diana talking to Paige that day? Because Diana is a regular customer of The Spice House. So she said, "hey Paige, y'all should totally do a challenge with 37 Cooks." That's actually my version...Diana would never say y'all and totally! Nevertheless, the conversation progressed and when Diana talked to Gary and me about it, and she went on and on about how much she loved The Spice House. Gary was thrilled. I was happy, but since I didn't realize how much I would come to love The Spice House, at that point I wasn't doing cartwheels yet.