Leftovers

I'm sitting on my couch feeling almost as full as I did three days ago. I used the leftover glazed carrots from our Thanksgiving feast to make some ginger-carrot soup. My friend Soo, who is the best cook I know, gave me some pointers on how to modify a recipe I found online. I had all the ingredients I needed except for vegetable stock. Following is the text of our IM (please ignore the typos--we type fast). From reading it, you can glean my total ignorance about cooking (parsley?) and Soo's expertise:

Soo: what ingredients does the recepie call for?

me: * 1 diced medium red onion
* 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
* 4 Tbsp of minced fresh ginger
* 2-3 cloves finely minced garlic
* 1½ c. chopped carrots
* 3 c. vegetable broth
* ¼ c. orange juice
* salt and pepper to taste
* ¼-½ c cream or milk (optional)

1:15 PM Soo: ok. yes. yo ucan add water but i would add milk or soy milk definitely otherwise, it won't be rich enough

me: ok

thankx

1:16 PM Soo: in fact, i would add two cups water instead of 3 cp broth they are talking about and add an entire cup milk instead

just salt and pepper more than usual. also , do you have dry bay leaves?

1:17 PM me: unfortunately, no

parsley?

Soo: no parsley is for granish and aftertaste

me: oh ok

Soo: bay leaves gives it that veggie broth taste. no probl

i would also add a little cinanmon powder - just a tad. it'll give it a nice flavor.


I keep telling Soo she should start a cooking blog or website of some sort, where people can ask her advice on how to doctor up recipes or cook from scratch based on nothing except what's in their kitchens.

Now that I'm pregnant, and don't drink anymore, eating good food has become a major pleasure and indulgence, even more so than before. Thanksgiving was such a great time to be reminded of the joy and pleasure of cooking from scratch, of feeding a big crowd, of sharing others' recipes and contributions to the meal. I wish the U.S. celebrated more holidays that were unaffiliated with religion and that simply centered around being with family and loved ones, and eating.