Taco Soup for Teachers

When we moved into our house 6 years ago, we had no idea that we had such a treasure right across the street from us. Greyson goes to school at Wee Care Preschool at the church across the street and it is heaven sent! The teachers are so amazing and pour so much love and time into the lives of all the little kids there. Next year, when Greyson is in kindergarten I will sooooo miss the small intimate classrooms, his face lighting up when he enters his class with friends and the way the teachers greet him at the door. I guess Ill just have to start Riley next year, so I can continue walking her across the street with other nieghborhood kids for the next 3 years! :) So, we made some taco soup in the crock pot for his teachers to enjoy for lunch. Perfect for a rainy chilly day!

"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act."
-Proverbs 3:27

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Feel Good Chicken Soup at Saints Cafe

For anyone whos looking for refreshing ways to use up any excess chicken from their Sunday Roast, heres some more inspiration from Saints Cafe on Day 3 of National Zero Waste Week.

Todays lunch was Feel Good Chicken Soup, which regularly features on the Specials menu, using whichever vegetables are available on the day. The contents may change each time but the flavour is consistent thanks to the delicious home-made stock.  This lunchtime, the ingredients included courgettes with onions as well as some leeks.  Ive had this soup before and remember there being chunks of potatoes and carrots at other times.

Over the autumn and winter months I become a real fan of heart-warming soups, but tend to use stock cubes or my own chicken stock, which never reaches the taste quality of the soups that are served at Saints, so I couldnt resist tapping Engin for some top tips on making stock.

And the tips I am taking away today include a reminder to use potatoes and a balance of green vegetables as well as the usual bay leaf, herbs and seasoning.  But whats grabbed my attention today is Engins advice to grate vegetables such as carrots, which really helps to release and intensify the flavour, and is a more eco-friendly style of cooking too as the flavour is brought out more quickly.

Todays soup was served with toasted garlic ciabatta, using perfectly edible loaves that would be too dry to live up to the quality of Saints fresh ciabatta sandwiches.  Quite often these loaves are also toasted and used for making croutons too.

I also had a surprise treat this lunchtime, which was a smoothie made up of strawberries that were too soft to serve as a dessert, so were whizzed up with orange juice and a dash of lime - delicious.

So, I am totally feeling like a very spoiled customer, making this the most enjoyable Zero Waste Week ever.  However, there have been a couple of mishaps at home, which I will tell you about at the end of the week.

In the meantime, skirting away from my haphazard happenings on the domestic front, please do say hello to Sandy who dropped in to keep me company today.  I know Sandy from when I originally joined BuryLETS, but these days she is more heavily involved in the Suffolks Wildlife Trusts Barn Owl project.

Sandys taking an active part in this years National Zero Waste Week too and has already made a pledge at myzerowaste.com to get creative in the kitchen.  While we sat over coffee I got the low down on how she made some fabulous muffins this week using some stewed blackcurrants that were still in the fridge.

After stewing the blackberries last week, Sandy added extra sugar to the top of the jar to preserve them for longer, and used the intact pieces of fruit (as a replacement for blueberries) to add to the muffin mixture, which incorporated 3 eggs, 6oz self raising flour, 6oz caster sugar and 6oz Bertollis spread. 

This has definitely encouraged me to check out the remains of the stewed blackberries that Ive got sitting in my fridge and have a go at making them at home. They only take about 15-20 minutes to cook so could be a lovely surprise for the kids later.

However my biggest challenge this week is to see if I can get a photo of the elusive Engin, cafe owner and chef extraordinaire, who seems to disappear every time I pull out my camera.  Im sure youd all like to see a snapshot of the man behind the fabulous food Ive been enjoying this week.  So watch this space and see what happens.

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More information about National Zero Waste Week can be found at www.myzerowaste.com.   While youre there, please take the opportunity to visit this urgent post, encouraging readers to take part in an online Defra survey about how England should manage its waste. The deadline is 9 September, which happens to be this Thursday.

 

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Roasted tomato soup madam Oh yes please

Bernadette, one of the owners of Saints Cafe, where they always provide a friendly welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

As well as its great food, the one thing I especially love about Saints is the fabulous atmosphere and very warm welcome. Its the kind of place where the owners and staff let you get on with your business in a non-intrusive manner, but if youre the type to seek out some friendly chat and humorous banter, theres plenty on offer, to make this one of the most engaging eateries in town.  

So, can you imagine how delighted I am to have a valid excuse to dine out at Saints Cafe to celebrate the National Zero Waste Week awareness campaign.  Its like home from home, but without having to do the cooking. And Im here all week, learning some great tips in using up perfectly healthy ingredients that might not be obvious to an average householder. 

And todays lesson is the humble tomato, which when freshly delivered is great for summer salads but when the sides soften dont look so great on the plate. 

In the past, I would have just chucked out any tomato that didnt sport firmness worthy of a six-pack, but  I now know better and have since boiled up plenty of very ripe tomatoes to serve up an unidentifiable "Cannard Creation".   Anything to avoid waste, even if it did mean Id be sat on my lonesome at the dining table. 

What Ive really needed is a good dash of inspiration so when Engin at Saints told me that todays "pot luck" lunch was Roasted Tomato Soup, both my tastebuds and imagination jumped for joy.  No sooner had I sat down and settled myself in getting ready to blog and have a natter on Facebook, Kathryn arrived with the soup and accompanying garlic bread.

So for a proper look at what was on todays "pot luck" menu, and a game of  "guess the ingredients" heres the close-up shot!  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Roasted Tomato Soup, courtesy of Saints.

Being a tomato lover, this soup was just the ticket for my first day in the cafe.  It was delicious, full of mediterranean flavour and the texture was just perfect, and I managed to grab Engin for a quick run-down of  ingredients....although I am quite proud of myself that I guessed most of them, even if there was one ingredient that totally suprised me.

Aside from the vine tomatoes, which were roasted in olive oil for 20 minutes, the other vegetables included onions, carrots, celery, all softened on the hob with olive oil to release their flavour.  And the surprise vegetable was potato, which Engin introduced as the ingredient "no soup should be without" due to its fantastic thickening properties.

With the skins removed, the roasted tomatoes and pan juices were added to the softened vegetables and brought to the boil in a pan of regular home-made vegetable stock, seasoned with fresh coriander, a touch of basil, some parsley, salt & pepper and simmered for 20 minutes.  It was then whizzed up (my words not Engins) and served with some fresh cream and a sprig of parsley.

So how easy is that!  Its definitely something I have the confidence to recreate at home.  And while Ive been typing up this blogpost, Ive already been contemplating this soup as a great rescue recipe for some squashy tomatoes and bendy carrots I have at home, as well as some onions and potatoes that have begun to soften.

The only problem is, those soft potatoes I mentioned.....well, er, I have an awful feeling that in my hurry to exit my holiday lodge at Center Parcs this morning I left them in one of the kitchen cupboards. My only hope is that I left my husband there to pack up the car while I dashed off to take the kids to school.

So as I end this post with a keen desire to make Roasted Tomato Soup at home tonight, the mystery of the potatoes might just thwart me.  And given that my hubby was close to throwing them in the compost bin last week when all they needed was a wash and the eyes removed, Ive got a feeling that if he had found them, he might have left them there.

Oh well.  Thatll get me back to the drawing board then.

In the meantime, my huge thanks go to Engin and Bernadette at Saints for a fabulous Day 1.  I look forward to coming back to see whats on the menu tomorrow.

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Its not too late to join in the National Zero Waste Week.  For more information about how you can get involved, visit www.myzerowaste.com.

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