The Soup Obsession

I realized last night that I've made soup at least once a week for the past two months. It started as a simple curiosity with the immersion blender, and soon became a full-blown obsession (coinciding with warmer weather, oddly enough). Some of the reasons I love making soup are:

1) Once you get the hang of it, there are endless possibilities. See below for a basic recipe, but definitely start experimenting. Last night I made a carrot-ginger-sweet potato soup that was delicious, and I've gone everywhere from the basic chicken and veggies to leek-asparagus to heavenly butternut squash and apple.

2) It is so affordable! For example, last night I made a soup that cost under $10 ($8.23 to be exact) and it fed a dinner for 3 plus leftovers for my lunch today. What can beat that?

3) The leftovers are a major plus for soup, and probably one of the main reasons I've continued to make it. I bring my lunch to work every day, and having soup on hand makes that so much easier. I'll bring a small tupperware of soup with an apple or some bread and voila! Lunch in 1 minute. I tend to make a ton of soup so that it will last the whole week, not just for lunches, but for dinner side dishes and small snacks too. You can't go wrong with fresh soup.

4) It is good for you! Soup from a (eek!) can or even "fresh" from a grocery store is often loaded with salt and butter. I tend to use a little bit of butter and olive oil, but otherwise let the ingredients speak for themselves. Really, its just water and fresh veggies with some spices (and maybe a dollop of milk..).

5) It's easy. It really is. I promise, just start making it and you'll never stop.

OK so here are the basic steps to making a delicious soup:

You'll need:
- veggies (a pound or two - and you can mix and match. Let's go with potatoes for the basic).
- onion (again, you can mix this up by using leeks, shallots, scallions, or a mix).
- water (or chicken stock or vegetable stock. I prefer to make my own stock, but if you get store-bought, make sure to get low-sodium/unsalted)
- olive oil/butter (just oil is fine, but if it's a creamy soup I'll throw in a tablespoon of butter)
- salt, pepper, and any other spices you have in your cabinet.

To make the soup (For this example, let's do Potato-leek):
1. Dice one onion and one or two leeks (depending on how much you get--be sure to wash thoroughly!). Peel and cut up the potatoes into 1-inch cubes.
2. Heat up a large pot at medium heat, then add about a table spoon of oil. Maybe some butter if you want.
3. When the oil is hot, add the onion and leek. Add a little bit of salt to help them sweat. Let cook for about 5-10 minutes, until soft and translucent.
4. Add the potatoes and stir around a bit. Maybe throw in some pepper if you feel like it.
5. Add the stock (I'd use stock for potato soup to add flavor), enough to cover the potatoes and then some. If you don't have enough, add water to compensate.
6. Bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer for 30 minutes or more, until the potatoes are soft and cooked through.
7. Use immersion blender (or in batches in the regular blender) to make the soup smooth. Maybe since it's potato I'd leave some chunks.
8. Taste the soup. Add salt and pepper and taste again. Add spices, perhaps cumin or herbs de provence. Taste again. When it tastes really good, serve.
9. Cut up some chives for presentation and place on top. Serve with crusty bread.

So, for variations, you can use butternut squash and apples instead of the potato, or carrots or sweet potato or asparagus or anything really. Switch up your spices. Add ginger or garlic (about halfway through the onion sauteeing phase). Add chicken at the end (haven't tried to blend that, but chunky chicken and veggie soup is delicious). Don't blend it. Add cream. Add lemon zest. Do anything you want! It's lots of fun, I promise.

Airport Cuisine

Wright and I set a new record this weekend. All four of the flights that we took (New York to DC, DC to Nashville, Nashville to Charlotte, and Charlotte to New York) arrived EARLY. Can you believe it? Early. It was fantastic. Thank you, USAir, for making our Memorial Day vacation just that much better.

To go along with these early landings were two particularly long layovers (we decided to go for the cheaper, and therefore more awkward, flights). We had a three hour layover at Reagan on Friday night, and a 1.5 hour layover in Charlotte last night. Knowing this would require some serious meal-planning, I asked my resident airport expert (Dad) what his thoughts were when he dropped us off at the lovely White Plains airport Friday afternoon.

"First things first," he said, "there is only one small snack stand at the sole gate at White Plains, and it is a little known fact that they serve beer. I'll buy." Sure enough, as we wandered up to the peculiarly tiny snack stand, selling oreos and not even magazine, Dad's plan proved true. They had a keg behind the counter. After a cold Bud Light to offset to crowded gate, we were off and continued to put our food planning in Dad's hands.

Dad gave us two choices for Reagan, which were either the small, crowded sports bar in the terminal, or, with our three hours, we could venture out of security to the Legal Seafood in the main entrance hall of the airport. Since we arrived ten minutes early, making it a three hour and ten minute layover, and it was Friday night at 7pm, we decided to brave it and leave security.


It was definitely worth it. We ended up having a delicious (real!) meal at Legal Seafood, and totally stuffed ourselves. It was actually a pretty nice restaurant, and since it was outside of security, everyone was remarkably relaxed and kind. We went wild with the menu, ordering the crab cake (melt in your mouth!), a selection of raw oysters (for Wright), a delicious avocado, corn, etc salad with grilled shrimp, and the mussels. Everything was absolutely wonderful, and we kept forgetting that we were in an airport! It was a perfect Friday night date, and we made it perfectly on time back through security and to our gate.

Our meal on the return flight was not quite as glamorous, but we had an hour and a half to kill in the dreaded E terminal of the Charlotte airport (every time!), so I called up Dad again, and he immediately sent us to the Fox Sports bar, which was quite close to our gate. We had a couple of Carolina Blonde beers (go local!) and shared the chicken tenders. Hardly anything healthy, but after a nonstop weekend of fun and in the midst of a long night of traveling, anything fried is exactly what I crave. Particularly when dipped in a mix of honey mustard and ketchup.

Now, these airport food extravaganzas were only the bookends to a fantastic trip. Nashville was a lot of fun, and most importantly, it was great to see Billy and Winston and Wright's parents. Moral of this blog, though, is to call my Dad if you are ever in an airport and hungry. Apparently he's been there.

Traveling in America

Happy Memorial Day weekend! I hope everyone has plenty of corn on the cob eating, white pants wearing plans for the holiday. Wright and I are headed down to Nashville for the weekend to visit his brothers. I've never been before and am so excited to see the city. Anyone have tips on places to go to? We're hoping to find some fun live music as well as check out some of the sights.

Given the current economy, traveling within the US has really become the rage - I feel like I am constantly reading guides on weekend trips to cities like Portland, OR and Asheville, NC. I think it's a great time to support our country's tourist industry and to check out some cities that you might not get to (like Nashville!).


A few summers ago, Wright and I took a fantastic trip to Pittsburgh. No one really understood why in the world we'd choose this as our summer trip, particularly after the previous year's rendez-vous in France, but we were thrilled about it. The idea first came up because I was in a Warhol stage, and wanted to visit his museum. When we started to look into it, we realized that there were a lot of fun things to see and do there - we went to a Pirates game, a ton of museums, walked along the river, took the tram up to see a view from above the city (I can't remember the mountain/hill's name right now...see picture above) - it was really a blast. But it was fun, affordable ($43 round trip flights), and a great time to just spend together. And now we can say we've been to Pittsburgh!

Along with the big Nashville trip this weekend, we're hoping to do some more American traveling this summer, including possible trips to Chicago to see the new wing of the Art Institute, New Hampshire to see Kate's house, Idaho for a wedding, and Maine to visit my grandmother and camp. There are so many neat cities in the US, and while they may not be Paris or Amsterdam, they have their own special qualities and deserve some enthusiastic tourists!

Let's go Yanks!

Last night, I made my glorious debut at the new Yankee stadium. If you live anywhere near the New York area, you have no doubt been unable to escape the overload of press that Yankee Stadium and Citi Field (the Mets' new stadium) have gotten, particularly given their gigantic price tags and the recent economic situation. A lot of the news, though, has focused more on the amenities at the new stadiums, in particular, the various new restaurants and food stands at the stadiums - Brother Jimmy's at Yankee Stadium and Shake Shack at Citi Field, to name a few.

With all this coverage, I approached my first game at the new stadium with a little trepidation. First of all, where were all these new eating adventures? How expensive would the beers be? Would the lines be insane? What if I get intimidated and prefer peanuts to fried pickles? Oh, and of course, would the Yanks continue their winning and A-Rod his home run streak? (Yes, they won, and yes, he hit a home run. It was wonderful.)

While Wright decided to go for some more upscale dining, my brother and I decided to forgo the aforementioned delights and stick with the original:


And let me tell you, my hot dog was delicious! No matter what fancy food is available, I'll always want to stick with Hebrew National to go alongside my $10 beer. You see, I love the Yankees, and I love going to Yankee stadium (new or old) because I have so many memories of going with my Dad when I was younger. Both Morgan and I do. Alas, we aren't in it for the fancy food, we're there for a hot dog, a win, and the YMCA dance during the 6th inning.

Now, the stadium as a whole was gorgeous. That's really the only way to describe it. It was new and bright, everything was clean, and there were lots of women's bathrooms. The one major difference, which I haven't quite decided is good or bad, is that since everything is new, it is very bright and open when you are inside (rather than out at seats). It is also all open-air, so that as you walk around the mezzanine or grandstand level, you are looking out at the game the whole time. This is fantastic in a) game-watching ability, b) making you feel like you aren't catching diseases, and c) allowing for less of a crowded, underground feeling and more of an open spaces, airy situation as you fight the crowd.

The negative, however, is that my favorite part of the yankees game has always been the moment you first see the field. You've been wandering in what feels like circles through a dark, dingy hallway, crowded with fans spilling beers and ketchup, and as you enter the tunnel that is your section entrance, the space around you goes from dark to light, making the experience and the stadium feel that much more grand and exciting. You suddenly leave the world behind and are in this beautiful ballpark, full of energy and neon lights. Perhaps tourists could compare this to coming up from the subway into Times Square? Or Virginians could compare to leaving the basement of New Cabell Hall and walking onto the lawn on a spring day? Whatever it is, there was a magical feeling when you stepped into the old stadium.

Anyway, since there are no dingy parts of the new stadium, this experience will be lacking from your visit. But, do not let this deter you! I highly recommend heading out to a game and checking out the new digs. You may have been hearing about the $2,000 seats, but believe me, cheap seats are available! Our tickets were only $19. Granted, our food cost more than that, but it was totally worth it when Jeter hit the 3-run double.

Aluminum Jungle

I've been either working or away most weekends the past few months, so this weekend I was really craving some museum time. I had major catching up to do on exhibitions (many of which I still haven't gotten to!) and planned my attack right as some other exhibitions were just opening. We saw five high-quality exhibitions this weekend, but the one that I've been thinking about the most is Roxy Paine's installation on the roof of the Met.


The roof garden (and exhibition) just opened last weekend, and on a warm, pre-Memorial day Friday evening, it was packed. The crowd, however, ended up really adding to the piece. Paine, who you may remember designed the aluminum trees in Madison Square Park a couple years ago, created an encompassing and tangled tree structure out of aluminum for the roof of the Met. It was invasive and complicated; confusing and elegant. Because of the crowds, you were constantly climbing through branches, meandering over and under these metal arms. The roof, crowded with ladies in heels and men in suits, holding cocktails and watching the sun set, literally became a jungle gym. It was fantastic!

The choice of aluminum made the sculpture light, rather than heavy, so it would sort of bounce around, and you could touch it and shake it, making branches on the other side of the space move in tandem. It was playful, and viewers were having fun. I was really surprised at how interactive the piece became - you could never just stand and look at it; you were engulfed by it.

This installation was a dark horse in the group of summer "blockbusters" we saw and I absolutely fell in love with it. I hope anyone who is in New York this summer will get a chance to see it!! The Roof Garden is open during Museum hours, as well as on Friday and Saturday evenings for cocktails, until 8:30pm. The sunset over the park is a must-see.