potato fennel soup

So, I bastardized a recipe from Moosewood, and I will attempt to maintain the patience implicit in giving you the actual information rather than just what I did. But I will first tell you that.

Chop up and saute 2 cups (or in my case, don’t measure, just use 2 onions) onions in olive oil until soft and slightly brown.

Chop up 4 cups (or, 6 small potatoes) potatoes, 1 cup fennel bulb (or 2 cups fennel fronds), and saute for about five minutes.

Throw in 4 cups water, 1/2 tsp cumin (they used a fancier spice which I can’t remember now) and salt and white pepper to taste.

Cook until the potatoes are done, serve with sour cream on top if you feel so inspired. I never have sour cream at home, but I celebrate you if you do.

Tasty and stupidly easy. Pretty quick, too.

I’ve been hitting up the food not bombs free food market lately, and acquiring lots of produce, which is great, so I will hopefully continue to find/conjure palatable recipes, but I feel really tempted to make everything I cook into a variation of peanut soup. (ie throw vegetables, tomatoes, garlic, peanut butter, and red pepper flakes into a pot with water and cook until done; but I really need to learn new tricks.)

Maybe next week I’ll make minestrone.

The office of the nonprofit I work in is closing, which has been stressful in general and lately quite chaotic-I have someplace to be after that shuts down, but nonetheless cooking has been the consistent way I deal with this, because I am starting to run out of words for life these days, but it is rather grounding to make vegetables into food. Also, I think I am REALLY comfortable putting garlic in EVERYTHING, and I really wanted to add garlic to this recipe, when in fact it wasn’t necessary or appropriate. I just can’t help myself.

In other news, in the near future I’m taking a little train-trip to Portland and bringing my bike, and me and my bike go everywhere together, so I’m pretty stoked that we’re making it across state lines.

Also, hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s Day- my mom brought me cupcakes, and I hung out with one of my oldest friends and drank a lot of wine and acted girly and ridiculous, and I was really happy about it.