Book Club Cooking

Tim and I are on a big push to finish our book club book. Especially high stakes this time, as we picked the book; Rabbit Run. We are notoriously bad book club book finishers. But I think we've got this one in the sack, so to speak.

We've been sharing one copy for the last couple of weeks. I know, I know. But we honestly couldn't get a copy from the libraries (we tried several), or the used bookstore, and ended up buying it new, and it seemed frivolous to buy two. So.

In the meantime, the real point of book club looms large for me: the eating and drinking of good food and wine, and having amazing conversations with all the ridiculously smart people in our book club. They're really something. And they don't even make you feel badly when you can't keep up. Or, ahem...pipe down. Well. Anyway.

Everyone brings something to the table, literally and figuratively.

As we tend toward vegetarian at book club, I've pulled out of my recipe stash Carrot Dill Soup.
This is one of the first things I ever made, back when I first got my hands on my own kitchen, and joined a mail-order cook-book-of-the-month club. When my father, still reeling from college tuition bills, caught wind of that, he asked me if I was going to "get a job, or just stay home and cook."

I knew what the right answer was back then, but we both, my dad and I, have come a long way since. I now essentially do the latter, and no one is a bigger fan of my soup than my dad.

I used to follow the recipe from The New Basics like science lab instructions, but now I rarely follow much of anything. I started switching in vegetable broth for chicken broth a few years ago, as it seemed so unnecessary-almost an affront to the carrots. And those Silver Palate girls always had to complicate everything. Creme Fraiche? I'm still sketchy on what exactly that is.

So here's my idea of carrot soup: veggie, organic, fresh and easy. Even easier if you buy a couple bags of those baby carrots. Also, I don't have a blender around anymore, but I have one of those hand blenders, which you just plunge right into the pot and puree everything right then and there. Eliminates all sorts of issues.

Carrot Dill Soup

::saute in 1/2 stick of melted butter, 1 chopped onion, until wilted
::add 2 lbs carrots (either baby or diced), 2 celery stalks + leaves, chopped, 1/4 c fresh dill
::add in 8 cups of vegetable broth
::salt + pepper to taste, pinch of cayenne pepper (don't skip this!)

::bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover, cook for 40 minutes.
::transfer to a blender, or, if you have one, definitely use one of those hand blender things, to puree the soup to a texture that pleases you.
::check for salt + pepper, and sprinkle with a little more fresh dill, to serve.

I hope book club enjoys this as much as I enjoy them. And if you're reading, Dad, I'll save some for you.

More tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
tt