Shiitake Spinach Soup

Every week I make a big pot of soup. It's lunch for the whole workweek, so I tend to get creative. It's fun to just start dumping stuff in the pot to see what comes out. Today I made a soup my husband deemed a winner, so I thought I'd share it with you. I've been really into dried mushrooms and other fungi lately, so this recipe was an excuse to play with dried shiitakes and some leftover raw spinach. By the way, shiitakes are great brain food. I need brain food.

6 dried shiitakes, broken into pieces
1 large onion, diced
1/2 carrot, sliced
about 10 cups water or chicken stock
2 Tbs. soy sauce
Japanese noodles (I used the kind that come four bundles in a package - 1/2 a bundle was plenty here)
1/2 tsp. ginger
2 cups raw spinach leaves
sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper

Put everything but the noodles and the spinach leaves in a big pot, bring to a boil, and turn down heat. Simmer until the carrots are soft; turn off heat. Add noodles and spinach; let sit until spinach wilts.

Blueberry Blunder

I was going to share with you a killer blueberry pie recipe today. Since it's been a while since my last installment, I thought I would wow you with a great homemade dessert. But it didn't work. I made the pie last night, and it was a total flop. We're eating it anyway. I didn't put all that work into it to feed my garbage disposal a large amount of purple mush.

As taste goes, it's not that bad. It's mostly edible - not in a traditional pie sort of a way. More in a "chilled blueberry soup with dumplings" sort of way. The dumpling effect is thanks to my half-baked pie crust that would have been good, had I read the recipe correctly and CHILLED the dough for three hours, rather than freezing it, as I unfortunately did.

Alas, this is why I do not bake, why my husband spends most of his days cookie-less and cake-less. It's why when guests come for dinner(usually a somewhat elaborate attempt on my part), it ends with fancy little cakes from the nearby European bakery. And it is why, after almost 10 years of marriage, I have used my pie pan twice.

I am, however, bound and determined to eat this entire pie, if only by myself, because the idea of it was so delicious - wild organic blueberries, homemade pie crust with a hint of lemon, and a wonderful latticework top. A far cry from what I tearfully removed from the oven. Hence, on this blog, I'll be sticking to exotic soups, kicky curries, and the occasional hors d'oeuvre.