soup night once again.

raul and i have been eating out a lot lately and i haven't been cooking. hence, the lack of updates. i will take a minute to talk about southwater kitchen. raul and i had a date night on friday. we went to dinner and to the gene siskel film center to see our friend denise preform her burlesque. it was great, by the way, all the girls did a great job. i felt very proud of them. but i digress. southwater kitchen. it was delicious and the wine was out of sight. the prices are a little steep but if it's a once a month thing....

soup night was something we started in the winter when it was all we had to look forward to. our first chicago winter was hard. no warm coats, no money and no jobs. but at least we had soup night. now that we're millionaires* we can look back on those times and chuckle as we sip our cocktails. but soup night still remains. 

*we may or may not actually have a million dollars. 

the soup de jour is clam chowder, or it's christian name, clam chowda. 

it's a really easy recipe and tastes good with just some bread or a bread bowl if you're fancy. laurel, i'm lookin' at you. 

3 slices of bacon, diced

3/4 cup chopped white onion

3/4 cup water

2 cups cubed red potatoes

3/4 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 1/2 cup half and half

1 tbs and 1 1/2 tsp butter

1 10 oz can minced clams, save the juice! 

in a sauce pan start fryin' up the bacon. when it's almost crispy, add onions. cook until they are tender. add water and potatoes (add a tiny bit more if potatoes are not covered enough). bring to a boil. cook until potatoes are fork tender. add half and half, butter and clams and 1/2 of the clam juice. season with salt and pepp. 

heat up deliciousness but don't boil. 

also, in a way to save the strawberries and rhubarb that we got from our csa i decided to make strawberry-rhubarb jam. 

2 lbs rhubarb, chopped, cleaned

1 cup strawberries, hulled, chopped

1 cup of sugar

1 box strawberry jell-o (or some indie brand, but i like jell-o just fine)

mix everything together in a bowl and let it sit in your 'fridge for 3-5 hours. lean more towards 5. after that, put mixture in saucepan and bring to boil. boil it for 10 minutes. remove from heat and add jell-o. stir until it is dissolved. pour into some container. (not the jars you took home for work (tomato mountain) because no matter what you do it will smell like tomatoes). 

right now i'm eating an old pancake from this morning and drinking champagne. 

love,

keighty