Thursday, August 17, 2023

Food I'm Eating: Creamy zucchini soup for summer

 If you find yourself with an oversized zucchini that somehow got missed when picking fruits and vegetables from your summer garden, or even if you simply have too many normal-sized zucchini or other summer squash, here's a good alternative to zucchini bread as an excess zucchini mop (adapted from Tamar Adler's excellent "The Everlasting Meal Cookbook," which I recommend – it's a cookbook you'll actually use.

Ingredients (in my version) are: zucchini, an onion, king trumpet (or other) mushrooms, a peeled potato, olive oil and/or butter, vegetable stock, finely chopped fresh dill, salt, and half and half. 

In an appropriately sized soup pot, heat the oil/butter (I like to use a little of each) and add the onion, chopped with a little salt. Stir as the onion cooks until it is tender and beginning to show a hint of color (about 10 minutes). At the same time, in a separate pan, sautĂ© the mushrooms until golden. Next add the zucchini and potato, chopped, but not too finely, to the soup pot, add the cooked mushrooms, and then add the vegetable stock (about a quart, more or less, depending on how much zucchini, potato, and mushroom you have). Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender (another 15-20 minutes). Turn off the heat and let the pot rest until the liquid has cooled a little. Add the dill. At this stage, the soup can be put in a blender to smooth into a puree, but I like it just as it is with the coarsely chopped vegetable and the mushrooms in pieces. Add the half and half (about half a cup; the original recipe calls for heavy cream, but half and half makes it plenty creamy in my experience). Adjust salt to taste. Enjoy hot – or enjoy it cold later. It's delicious either way. 

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Miscellaneous: Crab Spider

This spider's been sitting in the same spot on the same plant in the garden for several days now. Today I had a moment to do a portrait. I don't know what the species is, but it's a spider in the family Thomisidae, which includes spiders commonly known as "crab spiders," this one in the genus Mecaphesa.

Art I'm Looking At: Drawing the Line at the Legion of Honor

I went into San Francisco on Friday to see what was on at the Legion of Honor. I posted yesterday about the spectacular Holbeins in the Tudor show there through September 24. Today I'm posting about a small, easy-to-miss exhibition in the Achenbach Foundation gallery that's down one of the side hallways downstairs at the Legion, which was an unexpected pleasure. Entitled "Drawing the Line: Michelangelo to Asawa," a selection of work from the museum's collection of works on paper. 

According to the museum, the show is intended to highlight drawings that emphasize the use of a prominent outline. I'm not sure all of the selections make sense from that perspective, but everything on the wall is worth looking at. 

To quote from the Legion of Honor/De Young Museum website,"The selection ranges from minimal line drawings by Michelangelo and Andy Warhol to fluid figure studies by Pablo Picasso and Ruth Asawa. One of our most treasured works, Paul Gauguin’s large-scale portrait L’ArlĂ©sienne (Madame Ginoux) (1888) is on display for the first time in more than a decade." 

If you enjoy the art of drawing, the Legion of Honor is worth a visit right now just for the chance to see this group of gems. "Drawing the Line" will be on view through February 25, 2024. I've chosen some of my favorites here, but these represent only about a small fraction of what's on view.

Pictured here, top to bottom: 

1. Charles DeMuth, Apples and Carrots, c. 1926. Watercolor

2. Auguste Rodin, Nude with Legs Spread, c. 1900-1914. Graphite and watercolor on wove paper

3. William Blake, The Complaint of Job, c. 1786. Brush with wash over graphite

4. Willem de Kooning, Untitled (two figures), c. 1947. Paint, watercolor, charcoal, graphite

5. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Young Couple Praying by a River and Young Woman Looking to Her Right, c. 1860. Brush with red and black ink



Related Posts with Thumbnails