Soupfest

There is an event held near our town every year around (Canadian) Thanksgiving called Soupfest.  Local farmers, restaurants, and cooking schools get together to show off their soup-making skills using locally grown produce.

For $5 ($10 if you buy a mug) you can sample all of the soup you want. All The Soup You Want.  Think about that for a minute. On a crisp fall day soup is exactly what you want. I figure there were about 40 different vendors last year.  And some have several different soups to try. 

Besides the soup tasting there is a farmers market (OMG the baked goods!), handicrafts, and live entertainment. Last year there were also wagon rides and barge rides on the river.  This coming year it's being held at a winery so I'm guessing that wine will factor in somehow. Wine & soup?  Dunno.

So, as I was wandering around their website on the weekend I found some terrific recipes from last year's "fest". I decided to try the beef vegetable soup, cream of carrot, and corn chowder.  I started out taking pictures of everything but after awhile I was making all three soups at the same time and only got pictures of the beef vegetable soup.

Ingredients?  Pretty typical. Hamburger. Vegetables. Beef stock.

First I browned the hamburger with some minced garlic.  You'll want to brown the meat before you add it to the stock because if you allow the meat to cook in the liquid only it will turn grey.  And grey meat is nobody's friend.

In a separate pan I sauteed the onions, celery, and peppers.  Don't you love my "mise en place"?  Use what ya got.

I also added mushrooms and carrots but sorry...no pictures. You've seen a mushroom and a carrot before, right? I did a mixture of minced and coarsely chopped vegetables to provide different textures.

Once the hamburger is fully cooked, drain the excess grease and add the meat to the vegetables. I drained a can of diced tomatoes and added that with enough beef stock to make it look like soup.  As opposed to looking like a stirfry.  Which might have been good too, but wasn't what I was going for.

Don't you love how exact my measurements are?  Just throw some in and hope for the best.  I'm the same way with seasonings.  I think I added sweet Thai sauce, salt, pepper, soya sauce, and sugar.  Sugar cuts the acidic tomato taste and that hint of sweetness is perfect.

Here is my masterpiece finished and waiting to be worshipped.

Just look at those big chunks of vegetables and beef.

tom was out moutain biking, but when he got home he served it up with some sliced turkey and havarti on egg bread. Excuse the soup drips in the picture.

Doesn't that just make you want to snuggle up under a blanket in front of the fire?

For the cream of carrot soup, the carrots were roasted in the oven with maple syrup drizzled over them before they are added to the pot.  I cooked all of the vegetables together and then blended them thoroughly with an immersion blender.  I added milk to the mixture to thin it out and also some nutmeg at the end.

The corn chowder has a potato base.  I cooked the potatoes, drained the water, and added milk.  I then blended it until it was creamy and added the celery, onion and garlic (all minced).  I tried to add some corn at this point and blend it into the base, but those little suckers don't like to be smushed.  I kept adding milk until it was the consistency I wanted.  I blended one more time before adding the rest of the corn and spices and thoroughly heating it all. 

I can't believe I didn't take pictures of the finished product.  They are all packaged up now in two-serving containers and tucked away in the freezer.  It just takes a few minutes of reheating and we'll have a beautiful, hearty meal.

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Fold-up Garage Worktable

Tom is still working on his garage. Still. It's coming along pretty nicely, but I don't think he'll ever truly be done.  He really is a putter-er.  It's a word. I'll post pictures of what he's done soon.

I went to visit him last night because, well, mainly because he's working on something for ME. If I didn't get my own spot out there I'd be some upset. Yes, I do need my own craft room in the house and space in the garage, why do you ask? 

A few months ago I saw a post on another decorating blog featuring a fold-up (fold-down?) workbench and knew I had to have one.  If I can find the link I'll add it.  Here are some pics of my inspiration:

Isn't that a great idea?  Extra (always cleared) workspace that can be folded up out of the way when we need to park the car inside.  So it's been a part of the reno plan from day one. Then...... a couple of days ago I changed my mind and decided I'd really rather just have a table in the middle of the floor. I figured I probably wouldn't use it if it was off in the corner.  But the materials were already purchased so I was getting a workbench, dammit! 

Tom reworked the original and I really like what he's done.  I thought the long edge would be against the wall making just the front useful, but he built it so it folds out (like an ironing board) and now I can work all the way around it. 

And it has legs for extra support. 

 Don't you just love how it folds up? 

And the cute little hook to keep it in place? 

Now could he just get the rest of the garage finished so I can start making a mess?

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Update: People have asked for some detailed pictures of how it mounts to the wall and how the legs attach, so I've added more here.

There is a piano hinge attaching the table to the support board on the wall. Excuse the dust and dirt.

Then there are "tee hinges" attaching each leg to the underside of the tabletop. The tabletop is 3/4 plywood that is screwed down to the frame along all four sides.

And you can see here that the angle between the legs and the tabletop is slightly more than 90 degrees to give it extra stability. If they were straight up and down they might slide under while you’re working and the table would drop. You could add locking braces between the legs and the tabletop if you wanted additional security against someone/something pushing them in while you're working.

Since the original post we’ve also added an electrical switch to make it easier to use power tools. You plug your tool into the yellow end, plug the black end into the wall outlet (or an extension cord), and flip the switch. Power without having to run cords all over the place, and an easy shut off.

I hope these extra pictures help! If you end up building a fold down table of your own, please send me a link or a picture - I’d love to see it.

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