Indian-Style Cauliflower Soup with English Peas

I love the Santa Monica Farmers' Market, and I like the cookbook Santa gave me as well. English peas are making their 2012 debut, and this soup highlights them well. Mine was a bit spicier than expected, likely because I dumped in red pepper flakes instead of measuring, but it tastes great. 


The recipe in the link has 1 TBL for canola or ghee, and 2 TBL of ginger. In the book, it is the reverse. 


I've also realized I need a stronger immersion blender! And better lighting when I take these photos!

I will stick with Shalimar

I recently made palak paneer from 101 Cookbooks (she calls the recipe saag paneer, but I think it's palak). Every time we eat Indian food I order palak paneer. It is my hands down favorite food. I was excited when the recipe from 101 Cookbooks appeared. I tried making palak paneer a long time ago and it didn't turn out well.

A handful of the 101 Cookbooks readers posted that making this recipe at home was more expensive than buying palak paneer from a restaurant. I concur. I paid $5 for the spinach, and that amount was actually less than the recipe called for. I spent $5 on the paneer. I think I can order palak paneer from a restaurant for $8, so I have to agree with the other posters on this point.

The dish turned out okay. I liked that it did not taste like a lot of oil was added, which is often the case with restaurant quality paneer dishes. But something was missing and I will not make this again.

Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

I love no cookie more than an oatmeal cookie, usually without the addition of nuts and candy. This recipe from my Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics book produced light, thin-ish, cookies that could crumble easily. This surprised me considering you need two sticks of butter! But these aren't crispy, like bad chocolate chip cookies, these are awesome. I did not add the nuts or raisins, per the recipe.

I ended up adding chocolate chips to some of the cookies, and then some trail mix (one of the only things I would need if stranded on a deserted island), just to use more of it up before it went bad. 

A house guest ate almost all of them in two days! Also, these last for quite a while, over 10 days.