SP's Sunday in the Kitchen

Yesterday, SP did lots of cooking. I wasn't feeling well, so I curled up under a blanket in my recliner and watched the Steelers lose to the Bungles. I guess my lucky socks aren't so lucky anymore.

SP made 3 things yesterday:

• vegetable soup
• crab-artichoke orzo
• yogurt

VEGETABLE SOUP

He started the vegetable soup while I ate breakfast & read the newspaper. He washed and chopped lots of vegetables: green beans, carrots (CSA and store-bought), celery, potatoes, leeks, and onions.All of that went into the crock pot with chicken broth and a can of crushed tomatoes plus some seasoning (I'm not sure what he used, but I think he sprinkled in parsley). It simmered all day. The photo above with the floating veggies is when the crock pot cooking started. Below is after it cooked all day:

CRAB & ARTICHOKE ORZO

Our other meal for the week will be Crab and Artichoke Orzo Salad. This recipe is from Food & Wine May 2006. This is a very easy and very tasty dish. Last week when the new Giant Eagle had all those specials for their grand opening, we bought a couple cans of crabmeat. We used one of those cans in this dish.

Basically, 1 lb of orzo, crab, chopped artichokes, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes are mixed together in a dressing. The dressing ingredients are pureed in a blender: olive oil, artichokes, shallot, mustard, oregano, basil, white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.
We ate this for dinner last night. Yum!

HOMEMADE YOGURT
SP also tried out the yogurt maker that Googer gave me for my birthday. He used 2% milk and followed the steps in the manual:

1. heat the milk for 1-2 minutes at 180 degrees
2. cool the milk to between 108-112 degrees
3. put the milk in the inner container of the yogurt maker and add water
4. add the starter (in this case he used some of his store-bought yogurt as the starter)
5. place the inner container into the yogurt maker, cover, and incubate for 4~4.5 hours
6. when it's done, remove the inner container and put it in the refrigerator

I haven't tried the yogurt yet, but SP tasted some of it warm right before he put it in the refrigerator and said it was tasty.SP had all 3 of these dishes finished/simmering/incubating by the end of the first quarter of the Steelers game. The crab orzo salad is very quick and the crock pot and yogurt maker do all the work - you just have to toss in the ingredients. He also did lots of laundry while we watched the Steelers lose - boo. A busy day for SP! After dinner, we caught up on TV (Flash Forward & Giada At Home) and watched The Amazing Race. We're sad to see pink hair guy and his dad go home. It was funny to watch the teams play volleyball in the bog!