Adventure!

I've been feeling like I haven't made anything for a while, and while that's not entirely true (I made some soup this week), I certainly haven't posted about anything in a while.  So today, I made a recipe I got from my good friend Mary.  It's called Cauliflower Soup, and I present the recipe below:

1 small head of cauliflower, diced
1 box of chicken stock
1/2 jar of fire roasted red pepper, diced
1 can of regular evaporated milk
1 small box of mushrooms
1 can of cheddar cheese soup
1 T. onion soup mix
2 T butter
1 cup cooked wild rice

Cook cauliflower in the chicken stock.  Sauté the mushrooms in the butter.  Add the mushrooms and everything else to the cauliflower and serve.

To serve, top with some shredded cheddar cheese, about 1/2 to 2 T of rice vinegar and top with ginger garlic wonton salad topper. 

Okay, so that was the recipe, but I couldn't make it according to the recipe.  I didn't have a box of chicken stock, but I have bouillon, and I guessed that a 'box' is about a pint.  I didn't have any fire roasted red pepper, but I did have a whole red bell pepper which I didn't roast, but I did chop it up and cook it with the cauliflower.  I didn't have a small box of mushrooms, but I did have a box of small mushrooms.  There's no cheddar cheese soup in this country, so I made a packet of cheddar cheese sauce and added a little more milk than was called for on the packet instructions.  I didn't have onion soup mix, but I found some onion sauce mix.  I had wild rice, but that stuff is a pain to cook.  Did you know that it takes like 50 minutes to cook wild rice?  It's all right though, it tastes pretty good.

Oh, also, I didn't have any cheddar cheese or ginger garlic wonton salad topper (whatever that is), so I skipped the cheese and used some tortilla chips in place of the salad topper.

So, in spite of all my substitutions, everything worked out.  Here's what it looks like in the bowl:

It's not exactly a color explosion, but a lot of that has to do with the wild rice and red pepper sitting at the bottom of the bowl.  What it lacks in visual appeal, it more than makes up with flavor.  And don't skip the vinegar at the end; it really adds something special. 

Actually, before I made the soup (because cooking wild rice takes soooooo looooonnnggg), I made what must be my favorite salad.

 
I guess it's sort of a Caprese salad.  It's just chopped bell peppers, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese topped with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper.  The secret is to mix everything together and then wait at least ten minutes for the juices to come out.  Then it tastes amazing.  Plus, it's super easy and probably good for you.  Thanks Jingnan for exposing me to this tasty salad.