Two Soups for You!

My good friend, Margaret introduced me to this soup. Beach Bar Tomato Soup is attributed to the Beach Bar located in Clark Lake MI. The recipe is not difficult to find online. Mine is slightly different from others. The soup is amazingly simple (which is always a sign of a great soup recipe).

Ingredients for 8-10 servings:
2 26 oz. cans condensed tomato soup
1 8 oz. package cream cheese (I substitute American neufchatel)
1 26.46 oz (750 grams) Dei Fratelli Truly Rustic Cut Tomatoes, with juice
About 3/4-1 quart half and half
1-4 clove(s) of garlic
1/2 stick of sweet, unsalted butter, sliced into pats
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Croutons

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized crock pot, rub the garlic glove all around the bottom and sides. Use as much or a little garlic as you choose.
2.  Pour in the cans of soup.
3. Add the package of cream cheese or American neufchatel
4. Add the rustic cut tomatoes with their juice
5. Add the half and half
6. Add the butter pats

Using an immersion blender, blend all the ingredients.
Cook on high for 4 hours, allowing the crock pot to switch to warm.

Serving:
Ladle into soup bowls that you've warmed
Top with shredded mozzarella and a few croutons


When John and I first moved to Detroit, he was fortunate enough to have a secretary, Fran. Fran was a wonderful Polish woman who lived with her family in Hamtramck, a lovely Polish city near Detroit. Fran used to make us all sorts of great and authentic Polish dishes. Fast forward to 2011 when Jeff and I began to frequent the Westsider Cafe, a delicious Polish diner owned by a woman named Fran! A different Fran, but nonetheless, a superb cook.

This recipe belongs to neither Fran, but is inspired by both their versions of what is now my favorite soup. There are many very good recipes for this soup, so feel free to do a little research and create your own favorite version!

Ingredients for 10 servings:
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, diced
6 cups vegetable broth
4 large cold-packed dill pickles in sea salt, shredded (if possible, use a Cuisinart, cause pickles are hard as heck to shred by hand [at least for me!])
3/4 cup pickle juice saved from the pickle jar
5 small, unpeeled, thinly sliced russet potatoes ( I prefer the potatoes julienned, but it's really up to you--just as long as the pieces are uniform in size)
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp soft, sweet, unsalted butter
2 tbsp diced, fresh dill
cayenne pepper to taste (1-2 tsps.)
juice from one small to medium-sized lemon

Directions:

1. In a large Dutch oven, saute shallot in olive oil until just translucent, about 2 minutes.
2. Add grated pickles and potatoes and let them combine, for about 2 minutes.
3. Add stock and pickle juice. 
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover the pot and continue simmering until the potatoes are soft, about 12-15 minutes.
5. Combine milk and flour, mixing thoroughly so as to get rid of any lumps.
6. Add milk and flour mixture to the broth with a slow, but steady stir. 
7. Add the butter and heavy cream.
8. Add the cayenne pepper to taste.
9. Bring just to a boil and remove from the heat.

Serving:
Ladle into warmed bowls and top with fresh dill, a dollop of sour cream, and a grind of black pepper.

Michigan Campfire Mac & Cheese

 A shot taken from the western most lookout point behind our campsite.

I love macaroni and cheese and have several very good, but very complicated recipes for it. During a recent camping trip, I decided to make it as simple and interesting as possible. Here's what I did.

Basic ingredients for 4 servings (this was enough for two guys):

Two cups dried pasta
Four cups of mixed shredded cheese (I like to use two 2-cups bags--one Italian blend and one cheddar)
1/4 stick of butter (I like Land O Lakes with olive oil and sea salt)
Enough spreadable butter for four slices of bread
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
Whole milk (about 1/4-1/2 cup)
Rye bread (I like Jewish deli rye)
A perfectly ripe tomato that is cored and thinly sliced
Pam cooking spray

The key to great campfire cooking is having easy access to all your cooking needs. For this recipe you need a hot wood fire that has left you with some hot glowing embers. You then need your kitchen set up:

1. A sturdy table with a table top two-burner stove and a griddle
2. A pot (with a lid) for boiling the pasta
3. A Dutch oven big enough to hold the mac and cheese and that you can put into hot embers (I used a Le Creuset from home, which took a lot of clean up and was not appreciated by my non-camping partner...so think through your choice carefully!)
4. A small prep area, big enough to place a Dutch oven and all your food ingredients side by side
5. A butter knife, a Teflon spatula, a large wooden or plastic spoon or spatula for mixing the mac and cheese
6. A small cutting board
7. A clean up basin large enough to hold the water from the pasta pot

First, I want no leftovers when I'm camping. The goals is to bring only food that will be eaten and bring back only jarred or packaged staples (like olives, cherries, salt & pepper, etc). So, pack as much dried pasta (I used penne) as you need servings. For two of us, I took four servings or about 2 cups.

Using the two-burner stove, boil the pasta according to package directions. Typically, you need about 9 minutes of solid boiling time for basic pasta. Add salt to the water, but not oil (that is a myth--you want the water to be in contact with the pasta--so skip the oil or butter in water).

While the pasta is boiling, prep the cheese mixture.

But first, prep the Dutch oven (there are a lot of variations on this, but in general it needs to be dry, the interior rubbed with vegetable oil and then sprayed with Pam).

In the prepped Dutch oven, mix the shredded cheeses, add salt and pepper to taste (I advise heavy pepper with light salt, since the cheese will add plenty of punch), a generous dash of nutmeg, and about 1/4 cup of milk. Remember, you can add a little more, so don't make it too soupy from the beginning. Mix all that together evenly.

Check your embers and make a level spot in the fire to set the Dutch oven.

On a hot griddle, place four slices of buttered-on-both-sides Jewish rye bread. You are making croutons, by first making toast. Toast each slice on both sides, using the Teflon spatula to flip. Once the toast is ready, use the cutting board to cube the stacked slices.

Drain the pasta, but hold back some of the starchy water.

Add the cooked pasta to the cheese mixture, stirring to combine evenly.

Check for texture...add a little more milk or some of the hot starchy pasta water depending on what you like. There is no right or wrong way...just make it look like you think it should!

Top the mac and cheese with the rye croutons and then the sliced tomatoes. I add a little salt and pepper on top.

Place the lid on the Dutch oven and set the whole thing on the coals.

Let it bake (this is a great time to make a Manhattan and sip it...you and your camping partner/sous chef have earned it!).

The mac and cheese will bake nicely in about 10-15 minutes, depending on how hot your embers are.

Dish it up and enjoy!

Camping Lessons

One of my goals for this year was to go camping--something that I've never done as an adult. John Muir wrote, “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...”

That's so true.

After just a short three-and-a-half day camping trip I learned some things:

1. Shorts and a t-shirt are the most any man should wear, especially during Michigan's summers.
2. A fishing hat comes in handy to protect against sun, but count on looking ridiculous.
3. Avoid mirrors (see #2).
4. A clean camper is a happy camper.
5. Showering outdoors is heaven.
6. It is never too early for a good cold beer, especially if it is from Founders Brewing Company.
7. Camping is no excuse for bad food. We had nachos, frittata, steak kabobs (even me, the vegetarian!--and they were delicious), upside down pineapple doughnuts (that were beyond delicious), and Guinness Cakes. And cava, of course.
8. I've never been in a kayak, but after 10-minutes of expert instruction, I made it all the way across Pentwater Lake--and was greeted with cheers, a bag of Sun Chips, and a cold one.
9. If a fat man on a scooter falls over, stop and help him up.
10. If you're given the keys to a 5-speed Ford-150 on a dirt path, drive it like you own it.
11. Coleman Biowipes are perhaps one of the most useful inventions ever.
12. The most important thoughts and conversations you might have are most likely to happen in the utter blackness of night in a forest with only the sounds of crickets.
13. Muir was right. Wilderness is a necessity.

The Waking

The Waking
BY THEODORE ROETHKE

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.


Theodore Roethke, “The Waking” from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright 1953 by Theodore Roethke. Reprinted with the permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

Source: The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke (1961)