It was still freezing last weekend (and not just here in Chicago, where we expect it to be freezing in January, but also in places like Tampa where we usually flee to escape the bleak iciness of January in the north).  Nothing else to do but make more soup!

The Roasted Garlic and Sweet Potato Soup recipe is also from The Eat Clean Diet (see here for Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup from The Eat Clean Diet):

Ingredients:

6 large sweet potatoes
1 large cooking onion, chopped
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 head roasted garlic
6 cups reduced-salt chicken broth or bouillon
1 or 2 cups of water

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise. Rub cut surfaces with olive oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet. On the same baking sheet, please a whole bulb of garlic and drizzle with more olive oil. Bake uncovered in the center of oven until the sweet potatoes are soft, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile heat olive oil in a saute pan. Add chopped onion and saute until clear and soft. Place in food processor. Remove half the potato pulp from the sweet potatoes and place in a food processor. Squeeze the roasted garlic into the food processor with the sweet potato pulp. Run the food processor until a smooth puree forms. Place puree into a large saucepan and add remaining pureed potato pulp. Add broth and water until desired consistency. Cook on medium until thoroughly heated.
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I found the instructions a little confusing (like, when did the ‘remaining pureed potato pulp’ get pureed?). So I pureed all of the potato pulp with the onion and garlic. Oh – also, I used the whole head of roasted garlic. And I added pepper. It was almost perfect.

Almost because the soup did bear some resemblance to baby food. Also, because I ate while listening to my husband’s assessment of the soup that I very clearly specified while preparing it that it was not intended for him.

My husband is no fan of the sweet potato. Well, that’s not entirely true. He will eat them, but only according to unflinchingly strict guidelines, none of which – I have learned – involve pureeing them into soup, adding them to risotto, or adding flour and molding them into (really amazing, if you ask me) gnocchi. Any sweet potato activity that falls outside his strident personal sweet potato metaphysics? Oh, he’ll eat them, but only for the opportunity to, once again, explain to me the preparations of and occasions for approved sweet potato eating.

Which is why I specified early and often that the soup was not intended for his consumption.

(Lucky for me, he isn’t like Mr Tucker described at This Eclectic Life who gags when in the presence of a sweet potato – click ‘gags’ for a great story, which is actually about the glory of bacon.) Mmm… bacon.

This past Sunday a headache threatened to ruin the last day of my long holiday weekend. The only time my head did not hurt was when I was standing, so I had little choice but to spend the day in the kitchen. Let me tell you, my family got seriously fed on Sunday.

I made this soup with stuff I already had in the house and it was perfect for lunch on a super-frigid day.   The smell of roasted garlic is nothing short of delectable. And watching the steam rise over the bowls with our icy-snow covered

Not my yard, found on Livescience.com

backyard visible through the window behind our table just made this super-easy soup feel like a real accomplishment.

And, according to the cookbook, each serving is a crazy 71 calories. Yep, seventy-one. Which is great, because you will want about four servings.
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From The Eat Clean Diet, Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup makes 12 cups

Ingredients:
1 head garlic
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
8 cups stewed tomatoes, including juice (stew your own tomatoes)
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
water
1 tsp dried thyme

Preheat oven to 400.  Remove loose papery skins from garlic, leaving head intact. Do not remove all the skin. Cut half an inch off the top of the garlic. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake on center rack for 40 minutes until garlic has softened. Remove from oven. Place on a plate to cool. Once garlic has cooled, squeeze garlic into a small bowl. The paste will be added to the soup.

In large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat 1/2 teaspoon olive oil. Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and juice, 1 cup water and all seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add roasted garlic paste and simmer for 30 minutes. Puree with hand blender until mostly smooth.
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With the soup, I made my first baguettes from Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day.  The bread was great, even if its shape was different from what one might expect from a baguette. I need to work on that.

Yesterday’s cruddy weather gave me a work-from-home day.  I made all fruit smoothies in the Vita-Mix and pancakes on my table top griddle for breakfast. As I was taking the griddle plates off to clean them, the hubby asked me to swap them out for the grill plates so we could have asparagus bruschetta for lunch. For dinner, we had already planned stuffed shells (’snails’ as my kid calls them) and, of course, homemade bread.

A whole day of prepared- and cooked-at-home food.  This post is pretty much just self-congratulatory. Because in addition to all the cooking, I completed two major work projects.

Our go-to restaurant, Tavern Libertyville, when we have something to celebrate serves asparagus bruschetta as an appetizer and we order it whenever we go. Here is my at-home adaptation:

I like my asparagus super thin

Ingredients:
1 bunch asparagus (if there is only two of you, this will be twice as much as you need, but that’s how it’s sold)
Romano cheese (for shaving, so you need a block of it – I shave the cheese with my vegetable peeler)
French bread or any other bread that gets nicely crusty when grilled, sliced as though you were going to make a sandwich with it
olive oil
butter (if ya want it)
salt (however much you like)

Heat up table top grill (or I betcha you could make this in the oven, too), lightly glaze the plates with olive oil.
Clean the asparagus, cut to preferred length and toss in olive oil (or melted butter) and salt.
Brush a light coat of olive oil (or melted butter) along the cut side of the bread.
Put bread and asparagus on the grill, checking the bread to be ready to remove it when it has lovely grill marks on it.
The bread should be done a bit before the asparagus, which gives you time to slice the bread into asparagus-length (approximately) pieces and shave a thin layer of Romano cheese over each still-hot piece of bread.
When the asparagus is cooked to your taste, drop a few on each piece of bread and shave a touch more cheese on top.
Serve while hot.

I understand vegetarians; vegans, too.  (I did even before I was hilariously abused while reading Skinny Bitch.)

I hadn’t considered vegetarianism until my step daughter declared an all-out aversion to meat. She never scolded us or lectured us about what we ate. But it sure was hard slicing into (even the most perfectly prepared) pork chop while she teared up at the table.

But worse than that – way worse -  was the icky and lingering smell of the meat substitute microwavable ‘chicken’ nuggets she ate.  Something had to be done. My step daughter was right to take a stand against animal torture. And I was going to have to take a stand against the olfactory tortures of the stink nuggets.

At the library, I grabbed a handful of vegetarian cookbooks, including Lean, Luscious and Meatless, and came away with this incredibly good, easy-to-prepare recipe for Hearty Vegetable Stew.  Not only is it delicious, the recipe works well on the stove top or in a slow cooker. And it freezes well. On top of all that, it’s probably good for you because it is jammed with veggies. Also, you can play with the ingredients to use up what you have in the house (or, as in my case, to replace the sick-nasty mushrooms).

Hearty Vegetable Stew
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sliced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, cut into 1-inch thick slices
1 cup celery, cut into 1-inch thick slices
4 cups mushrooms, cut into quarters (NOTE: or, a chopped bell pepper, any color, works nicely here)
3 medium potatoes (18 ounces total), unpeeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
1-pound can tomatoes, un-drained, coarsely chopped
2 cups cooked kidney beans (12 ounces)
1 8 oz. can salt-free (or regular) tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 water
1/4 red wine

Heat oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat (NOTE: or, fire up your slow cooker). Add onions, garlic, celery, carrots, and mushrooms. Cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add small amounts of water, if necessary, to prevent sticking.

Add remaining ingredients, except flour, 1/4 water and red wine. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Stir occasionally, while cooking.

In a small bowl, gradually stir flour into 1/4 cup water until smooth. Add to stew, along with wine. Cook, stirring, 5 more minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf before serving.

The recipe says this makes 6 servings and each serving has 244 calories and  3 1/2 servings of vegetables. The book recommends serving it with a salad.

I cannot even believe I made this. Or how fantastic and restaurant quality it was. Or how easy it was.

I tossed four ingredients in the mixer, the mixer made the dough (no sticky dough clumping between my fingers, no flour scattered across the counter top and inevitably the floor, no kneading whatsoever and not one single cuss word). The only effort is minimal planning ahead. Once the mixer finishes its job, the dough rises for two hours and then hangs out in your fridge until you are ready for bread. Here’s the secret: Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day.

My thanks to Jeff Hertzberg, MD and Zoe Francois, the authors of this book. And, good news! They just published a follow up book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients. You know it’s on my Christmas Wish list!

I feel like a baking genius. And I totally wear an apron while I am making the bread (even though there is no mess whatsoever).

Last weekend, I made my cake-loving grandparents a Pumpkin Roll Cake. Keeping with the seasonal pumpkin theme, this week’s selection is a Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake. I saw this recipe in a Gourmet magazine a few Novembers ago.

Ingredients for cake:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup pureed (solid-pack) pumpkin
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs

For icing:
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Place oven rack in middle position and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch nonstick Bundt pan generously with butter. Dust with flour, knocking out excess.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt in bowl. In separate bowl, whisk pumpkin, 3/4 cup buttermilk and vanilla.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl of electric mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy (3 to 5 minutes). Add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing batter until smooth.

4. Spoon batter into prepared pan, smoothing top. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on cooling rack 15 minutes. Place cooling rack over cake and invert onto rack; cool 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare icing. Whisk icing ingredients together until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake. Cool completely (icing will harden).

I cannot remember where I clipped this recipe from. But it is a never-miss go-to cake that takes only about 20 minutes to throw together and then an hour and a half to bake.

Jewish Apple Cake

6 Rome apples (that’s what the recipe says – I have used all sorts of apples and even made it when I had as few as two)
3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/3 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons vanilla
Ground cinnamon (at least a teaspoon, but I usually use more)

Peel core and slice the apples (not too thick). Mix them in the 1/3 sugar and cinnamon. Let them sit while you put all other ingredients in a bowl and mix. Pour a layer of the batter into a fluted bundt pan (either coated with Pam or butter and flour) top the layer with sliced apples. Pour another layer of batter, top with apples and keep going, making the final layer an apple layer.

That’s it! Pop it in the oven for 90 minutes. I sprinkle powdered sugar on the top after it has cooled.

I had a dream about the flower-shaped thingie over there on the right last night. It’s a bread tube.

I hosted a Pampered Chef party when I was about 5 weeks pregnant. I mean it was early early early in the pregnancy because I wore my regular non-pregnant jeans.  I remember feeling bummed that I was not already in maternity wear. During my Pampered-Chef-consultant-friend’s entertaining presentation (this girl is always entertaining) she demonstrated how these bread tubes work – you just pop something (can’t recall what) in the tube, pop the tube in the oven, and a few minutes later, you have a lovely flower-shaped loaf of bread that you can slice to make stunning little finger sandwiches.

It was like I had been given The Answer. The Secret to Perfect Parenting. I knew – just KNEW – that I would be the best mother anyone had ever known with that bread tube. I envisioned myself in that same soft glow that young mothers are depicted in on every page of every parenting magazine. I saw myself in a crisply ironed oxford shirt accented by a string of tiny pearls and back lit by morning sun pouring through the kitchen windows (which makes little sense in this obviously lunch-time fantasy) serving my child flower-shaped sandwiches to her surprise, delight, and wonderment.

(Which leads quickly to the confession that I never even considered the possibility that I might be carrying a boy baby.  We never asked the doctor, we just picked girl names and bought girly furniture and got really lucky when our infant complied with our overly certain presumptions.)

So I ordered the bread tube and was thrilled a few days or weeks later when it finally arrived. Of course, it was many months later that my daughter arrived and many many months after that that she was old enough to eat flower-shaped sandwiches. By that time, I had completely forgotten the bread tube.

We moved when my little girl was three years old and I discovered the bread tube as we packed. Perfect -  my little girl was just the right age to know the wonder of flower-shaped sandwiches! I set up my new kitchen placing the bread tube in easy reach, certain that I would make flower-shaped delights just as soon as I could remember what, exactly, went in the tube. Was it  some Pillsbury bun-thingies? I could not remember and my Pampered Chef consultant friend had long since given up her second job. I no longer knew anyone on ‘the inside’ who could guide me. (Also, Pampered Chef has discontinued its bread tube line.)

We moved into this house in 2000. And the bread tube remains never used.  Well, except for I did use it to collect box tops for my daughter’s school, which I then forgot about as well. (I opened it to take the picture above found 43 box tops to send with her to school next week.) Yet the darn thing was the star of my dream last night.

I know a girl who can interpret dreams, who connects your sleep stories – no matter how bizarre  – to real life current day things. Here’s a for-instance: I had a dream about a painted turtle being pecked relentlessly by a bird.   I like to give this girl’s talents a challenge now and again, so I emailed her with this quirky dream. She writes back, “You are the turtle, the paint represents a mask of sorts, some way that you are presenting yourself as different from how you really are. The bird? Is your guilt.” Without knowing any of the details of my work life at that moment, she exposed me to myself: I loved the company I worked for, loved the people I worked with and, yet, hated 95% of the job I was hired to do. But the money was great and the economy was tanking and there was little option for me but to keep at it.

Given the bread tube’s connection to my early imaginings of motherhood, it’s probably safe to assume that its appearance in my dream points to some disconnect between the ideal and reality. The good news is, it’s certainly not too late. I know my kid would still be delighted by flower-shaped sandwiches. And now, she knows her way around the kitchen pretty well.  This weekend, we will unravel the mystery of the bread tube together.

I recognize that I am among the most fortunate of the 9.7% of unemployed Americans. I have a working spouse (though he is self-employed and so we are super grateful for the 65%-off COBRA sale taking place through Dec 31, 2009). I had the whole summer home with my kid – a genuine gift to me. I soaked up absolutely every minute of it.

And how’s this for immeasurably lucky?  A friend connected me with some part-time contract writing work that not only has kept me busy, it is the most enjoyable work I have ever done. Also, it will allow me to scoop up everything I have done in the past on my resume and pivot all of it solidly in the direction of ‘dream career’.

Another good friend, who is an independent graphic designer, created a business card for me as an independent writer encouraging me to follow her successful lead in working for herself.

Yet another good friend touched base to see how I was managing unemployment, heard about the work I am doing for Multinational Health Care Firm and now I have two ‘clients’, yes I do.

I am CRAZYGRATEFUL for all of this because I’ll tell you what: this job market is soul-destroying.

My heart breaks for the heads of households who every morning open up the job search engines and see the same positions listed that have been posted for months. When you apply for these jobs  – whether you are perfectly qualified  or only marginally qualified (you have to cast the widest net) – you either never hear a word back or the company sends a quick rejection. The message, too-often repeated, is that you are not enough. The company would rather wait interminably to fill the position than to consider you as a candidate. After too many of these, I swear you hear smug laughter from potential employers each time you click open the e-mailed form letter dismissing you.

On occasion, you get your rejection so far after your application date, you have to flip through pages of notes to even recall what position you had applied for. Still, there’s no avoiding that kicked-in-the-ribs feeling or the hopelessness that gives unwanted understanding of the physical pain of depression depicted in Cymbalta ads.

And somehow you have to keep searching, keep applying. You have to keep your enthusiasm at the right level so that your cover letters sing your benefits to the prospective employer in a tune written just for their ears. You have to re-work your resume Every Single Time to embed the job description’s key words into it in case the prospective employer bypasses the painstakingly crafted, carefully nuanced cover letter in favor of resume-scanning technologies. You have  to do all this and then complete online applications that take 20 minutes or more, repeating all the details from your cover letter and your resume and laying bare your privacy by providing your social security number only to come to the last page where you have to grade your own strengths in employer-identified areas of specific importance. And then you know.

You know that all applications will be triaged wholly on the responses to these three or five or ten measurements. This is where I get stuck. Am I an ‘expert’ in strategic planning? Well, I have been through strategic planning for several organizations, in various capacities, have seen it done extraordinarily well and have led one successfully all on my own. Ok, but does this justify selecting ‘expert’?  I don’t think it does. I have met strategic planning experts.  And, you know, read their books. But I also feel that indicating I am anything less than ‘expert’ is the equivalent of telling the employer, “Please don’t waste any time  reading my application!”

This is a whole new world order. For the last 25 years (at least until May) I have never not been employed. And more often than not, if I submitted an application for a position, I’d get a call. Sometimes within hours of hitting ’send’.

My history helps sustain me, helps me understand that it’s not me. Or not just me, anyway. Which puts in all in perspective again.

Abdominal fat is a big icky problem, I found out.

This is not me

From the Mayo Clinic Web site: The midsection matters. Gaining weight in your abdomen does more harm than simply making your waistband too tight. While putting on weight in general can have negative effects on your health, abdominal weight gain is particularly unhealthy. Too much belly fat increases you risk of:

• Heart disease
• Breast cancer
• Diabetes
• Metabolic syndrome
• Gallbladder problems
• High blood pressure
• Colorectal cancer

Other sites differentiate between two types of abdominal fat: subcutaneous (which is both squishy and easy to see) and Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT) that clumps up around your internal organs and can only be seen with expensive scans (so maybe you have it, maybe you don’t, but being ‘thin’ is no guarantee that you are VAT-free).

VAT is noted to be dangerous, metabolically active (which makes it sound evil) and linked to all those things listed above.

The best measure for of your abdominal fat is the WHR –  waist to hip ratio. Measure your waist at its smallest point, measure your hips at their largest point and divide the first number in to the second number. Ratios above 0.8 for a woman and 0.95 for a man indicate an unhealthy level of VAT.

Uh oh.

So now what?

From fatlossnutrition.com: Weight loss is the number one thing here. Minimizing dietary intake of saturated fats, trans fats and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids is also hugely important. Monounsaturated fats (like olive oil) and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (like fish and flax oil) improve insulin sensitivity. Fiber intake is negatively correlated with WHR (waist to hip ratio). Pectin appears to be the most effective fiber for reducing WHR. Increasing protein while reducing carbohydrate intake also improves WHR.

Looks like I will be adding apples to my morning fruit/veggie smoothies (love you Vita-Mix!).

From Harvard University researchers: Subjects who exercised the equivalent of walking or jogging 12 miles per week put on no visceral fat, and those who exercised the equivalent of jogging 20 miles per week lost both visceral and subcutaneous fat.

Looks like I need to run a little more often and a little farther each time.

A study out of the University of Pennsylvania shows that strength training (exercising with weights) fights abdominal fat. An hour of weight training twice a week reduced participants’ proportion of body fat by nearly 4% — and they were more successful in keeping off visceral fat than their non-strength training counterparts.

Huh. Gotta dust off the Perfect Push Up contraptions I got for Christmas for a start.

Other lose-the-chub advice includes the obvious Eat Right and Relax. Read this stress-inducing article about how daily stress causes VAT build up and other horrors.

Looks like I have some new goals.

Remember the old ad for some cereal that asked Can you Pinch an Inch? My WHR is 8.4 today. I am working toward the day when I will be delighted to pinch only an inch.