Tomato Soup
Makes 2 servings

If you like tomato soup, try this take on the old classic. The ham and fiber-rich chickpeas provide lean protein that truly satisfies your appetite — and your taste buds!

Ingredients
1 small onion, chopped
1?4 cup sliced mushrooms
3 ounces diced ham
1?4 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1?8 teaspoon sweet paprika
Dash allspice
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) fat-free chicken broth
1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
3 whole tomatoes, peeled**

Instructions
Add the onion, mushrooms, ham, oil, garlic, paprika, and allspice to a large pot. Cook for 1 minute.

Add the chicken broth, chickpeas, and tomatoes. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Puree the soup in a blender and serve.

Nutritional information
404 calories
7 g total fat (2 g sat)
25 mg cholesterol
58 g carbohydrate
29 g protein
12 g fiber
1,341 mg sodium

**Would you use canned tomatoes or blanch and peel? Safe to assume they mean Roma tomatoes?

Pop has been moved to the stroke rehabilitation unit and Henry and I have returned home. We can’t thank you enough for your thoughts and prayers. Pop’s got a lot of hard work ahead of him and the family has been through quite an ordeal, but that man is tough and if anyone can fight his way back from this, he can. Especially with Vivian, mom and Aunt Polly there to help him.

I am hopelessly behind on… well… everything and am trying to keep my spirits up.

First priority has to be finishing up Volume 7 of SLAM DUNK, which, thank god, is a joy. (If I had to work on a book I didn’t love right now, I think I’d be hating life.)

After that… holiday cards, finishing the shopping, errands, household stuff and getting back to a project that Sam Humphries and I are collaborating on. I am so excited about it, I can’t adequately express my enthusiasm. It feels good. So… more on that when I can.

In the meantime, I’m fantasizing about making a Buche de Noel for Christmas this year. Heather Poirier and I have been tossing some ideas back and forth. Right now I think she’s leaning toward the Southern Living recipe as a starting place while I fancy the Johnny Iuzzini version at Martha Stewart.

Oh, and Fraction and I are going to make a timpano for date night this week. Too bad we don’t drink. It seems like the kind of thing that ought to be put together while sharing a bottle of chianti. Oh, well. Maybe we’ll get some pomegranate juice and pretend.

SO glad I did the practice batch first — I’m really happy with the finished product.

Again, the recipe is here.

Changes made from practice batch:

• Butter for cake batter reduced to 1 stick.
• Ganache added to cupcake filling (in addition to the marshmallow).
• Cupcakes refrigerated after filling and icing to give the ganache a nice finish.
• Medium to large topping marshmallows.

Okay, kids — I need some opinions. For the delivery batch, should they be topped with small marshmallows or large?

Recipe is here: cupcakeblog.com/index.php/2007/04/smores-cupcakes/

I reduced the butter by 1/4 cup to see if that would help with the shrinkage issue and… it did not. Mine, in fact, did not rise as high as hers. They taste great though, so I’m not sure I’m going to cut any more in the final batch. We’ll see. Maybe.

What I really like: the ganache is bittersweet and paired perfectly with the sweetness of the marshmallows. The graham cracker cake is pretty tasty too — in fact, by itself it’s one of the yummier cakes I’ve ever made.

What I don’t like: there may still be too much butter. They’re dense. I mean DENSE. And small. And not the prettiest cupcakes ever. (I think I can work on that, though.)

Also of note: Mine took 32 minutes to cook, not 22. I have no idea why.

Adapted from the recipe by Bill and Cheryl Jameson:

• 1 T (generous) Thai red curry paste
• 2 tsp peanut oil
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• Asian fish sauce
• 15 chicken thighs, boneless + skinless
• sweet Thai red chili sauce
• chopped dry roasted peanuts
• cilantro

Combine curry paste and oil in a bowl; stir until the paste is good and soft. Mix in coconut milk and a couple shakes of fish sauce.

Place chicken in a zippered plastic bag, pour in coconut marinade and seal. Toss to coat evenly. Let sit at room temp for 20 minutes (longer if refrigerated).

I used my panini press grill — I set it on high and grilled the thighs in 3 batches, turning them at 3 minutes per side to get the criss cross grill marks. After the first flip, I brushed them with the sweet chili sauce. The chicken is done when it’s white throughout, but still juicy and the sweet sauce is caramelized in spots.

Pile the thighs on a platter of cous cous and red cabbage, sprinkle with peanuts, cilantro and another drizzle of sweet sauce, then serve.

I have a TON of work to do today, so this’ll have to be quick:

Henry* and I made a loaf of banana date bread yesterday as our first experiment in baking with agave nectar. We used this variation on the recipe from “Baking With Agave Nectar,” by natural foods chef Ania Catalano.

The flavor was fantastic (I found it to be less banana-y than Kim O’Donnel did) but the texture needs refining. It was too moist. The top half was perfectly spongy but the bottom was… soggy.

As a test of the sweetener? WIN! I’ll definitely bake with agave nectar again. In fact, I’ll make this recipe again.

Here’s the bad news: I ran it through the calorie calculator on About.com and even without the agave nectar (which the calculator couldn’t identify even though someone has already added it to their database) it’s coming out at 179 calories per slice (a little math tells me that with the agave nectar it’s 211 per slice). Now, that’s not HORRIBLE, by any means. And this is meant as a sweet treat and not a dietary staple, but it’s a little higher than what I was hoping. (That’s 4 POINTS per slice, Laurenn.)

NEXT TIME: I’ll try upping the baking temperature a bit and cut the dates and pecans by half.

* Henry “assisted” he didn’t sample. I still need to find out if agave nectar is safe for children under 1 year old; I know honey is not.

I made up a loaf of this this morning — and by made up, I mean made up.  I improvised the recipe with what I had on hand.  It’s a heavy bread, but good and moist and very tasty with a cold glass of soy milk.  (I’m lactose intolerant, remember?)  I’m pleased with how it turned out.  More importantly, the house smells divine.   

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

3 T cocoa powder 

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 T instant espresso

1/4 c. egg substitute or 1 whole egg

1 cup banana, mashed

1/4 cup babyfood prunes

1/3 c. pecan halves

3 dark chocolate squares, chopped  

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8×4 inch loaf pan.

2 Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, then combine. Don’t over work it.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

3 Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack and allow to cool before slicing.