soup's on

This week I found myself scrambling for a last minute dinner and didn't have much in the house so I decided to take stock of the fridge and go from there. It turned out there was a head of celery on it's last day of being crisp and onion, lots of onion... green, red, and these lovely sprouted ones I have been growing for a month or so now by just letting them sit in water on the kitchen windowsill soaking up the sunlight.

I decided to make a soup and based it on a few old recipes I had for similar dishes. It happily turned out to be just a delight!

ingredients:

• 1 head of celery
• 1 small onion
• 1 large handful of spring or green onion
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 large peeled potato
• 6 cups of vegetable stock
• olive oil
• butter
• white wine
• heavy cream
• fresh parsley
• thyme
• crushed red pepper
• salt & black pepper

process:

• chop celery (including leaves) and all onions
• transfer to a large deep pot over medium-high heat and saute' in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 10 minutes
• add a tablespoon of butter and a 1/4 cup of white wine, cook for 5 minutes more
• pour in broth and a large pinch of thyme and crushed red pepper
• add cubed potato and rough chopped garlic, cover and cook for 30 minutes
• take off heat and salt & pepper to taste

• at this point blend the soup in a food processor in batches or with hand blender right in the pot
• once blended return to a low heat and stir in a 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• garnish with parsley and chopped green onion

This soup is light and refreshing. A perfectly pleasant dish for celebrating the end of winter as we transition into spring. The cream gives it a winter warming quality, you could omit it and I still think it would work just fine since the one potato is really what gives it body. A nice crusty bread and triple creme champignon brie is a perfect accompaniment to a bowl of this simple but delicious fare.

a week encapsulated

Just a few snapshots from the course of the last week from puttering about, wandering around and enjoying the return of longer, sunnier days.

the good life

This week I stumbled upon another great internet discovery. What a gem! Through the ever-growing world of Instagram I was able to peruse the lush and lovely photographs of Miss Nicole Franzen. I followed the link to her blog and there I was delighted to find more of her wonderful photography married quite nicely with recipes and cooking tips, musings on travel, city living, and the finer things in life.
With post titles like "The Weekend is for Eating Cheese..." and photographs of a homey and rustic marscapone iced carrot cake I was immediately sucked in. Also, anyone with a love for pickles, aged Irish cheddar, and finding a home somewhere by the sea is someone I can immediately have a fondness for. You can find out more about this Brooklyn based blogger and self taught photographer and cook at La Buena Vida. Enjoy!

shuffling for slices

Last weekend, on one of Philadelphia's first bitter cold Sundays this winter, I braved the chilly winds along with a trusty partner and set out on a mission to find the best slice of pizza on the notoriously lackluster Girard Avenue. Our goal was simple, the groundwork, concise. We would be visiting parlors from 2nd Street, and then heading east, to Susquehanna. This neighborhood is not known for great pie. You would be better off looking for a locally made craft beer since the gastropub continues to proliferate here with no end in sight. The four locations we visited were known to be of questionable food quality and one if not all could conceivably be fronts for selling something other than what is listed on their menus. Brave souls that we are, we started off at George's Pizza on the corner of Girard & American, near 2nd.

clockwise from top left: Girard Ave, George's, Tommy's, Central slices. Not shown: Fishtown Pizza-disqualified for not selling slices. Boo!

George's Pizza was a top notch bare bones pizza joint. I have been intimidated by this place for a ridiculously long time. It surely had something to do with the 150 year old man always sitting on a rickety wooden chair out front giving me the evil eye whenever I walked by. Well, on this frigid February day, old man was warming his bones between a sink and an arcade game in the dining room. The guy behind the counter that waited on us (George?) was boisterous and welcoming and happily warmed our slice up and apologized for being out of napkins. They also sold Frank's can sodas here which, being a Philly girl, won BIG points from me. I also appreciated the handmade artwork they had hanging in the walls. But let's talk pizza!

(using a 1-3 scale)

George's Pizza

crust: 2

sauce: 1.5

cheese: 1(a bit too much cheese, it overpowered the sauce)

size: 3 (perfect, classic triangle)

over all: 3

Next we ventured down the road to Central on the corner of Girard & Columbia. Central is a classic counter style pizza place. Take out only. Besides what they are cooking up in their kitchen they also sell cheesecake, rice pudding, a huge variety of soft drinks & cigarettes. Service here was pretty friendly. We ate our slice out front, quickly, before it got too cold.

Central Pizza

crust: 1.5 (tasted sweet)

sauce: .5 (had a vinegar acidity)

cheese: .5 (plastic)

size: 1.5 (on the small side)

over all: 1

The third spot we hit was Tommy's, located at Girard & Palmer. Tommy's is large, eat in, lots of booth seating and also was totally empty except for us. Service was lackluster. Maybe they forgot how to be friendly because they were bored waiting for customers all day? We grabbed a slice, a bottle of water and a booth and chowed down.

Tommy's Pizza

crust: 1 (hard, dry possibly just old?)

sauce: 2

cheese: 1.5

size: 2

over all: 2

Last on the list was Fishtown Pizza, a little hole in the wall on Girard off of Montgomery. We were the only customers in the place and were ignored for almost 5 minutes. The grumpy lady that looked like she was working there her entire life and maybe the life she had previously, finally asked what we wanted. When I asked for a plain slice she grunted something about no slices, whole pies only. Needless to say, we slipped out sliceless.

Fishtown Pizza

over all: 0

Stay tuned for more culinary adventures!

project time

Since acquiring an iPhone this past November, my love of photography has come back with a serious vengeance. I have been having so much fun with the phone's camera and all the exciting, experimental apps that are available with it, most especially Instagram. This month of February I have taken on two photography challenges. The first one is documenting an outfit everyday. The second is the February photo a day challenge where I will follow a pre-made list of subject matter to capture and post provided by one of the members of Instagram. I hope to keep up on these and that the focus and discipline I exercise along the way may extend to other, possibly more important or serious areas of my life. To follow along just click on the tabs I created at the top of the page, under the Peregrine Papers banner. Enjoy!

then & now

In the process of working on my February photo-a-day challenge/project I was faced with the theme of "Time". My first instinct was to photograph all the clocks in my house.

Immediately after I compiled that shot I was struck with idea of recreating an image of myself at the age of six that my mother took during a time when she was taking photography classes. It is one of my favorite pictures.

I was inspired to reconstruct this scenario from another photographer, Irina Werning, who has been doing this kind of imagery as an ongoing project for quite sometime on her blog, Back To The Future. I would love to try and do more of these in the future.

a small gathering

Last night I hosted a cozy dinner for 7 lady friends in honor of Miss Tracy's birthday. I spent the afternoon arranging the house and prepping the food. The menu consisted of a small fruit and cheese platter, kale salad, roasted brussel sprouts, Julia's garlic mashed potatoes, and a whole roast chicken. There were gifts and cake, champagne and wine and good cheer all around. I think it a was a night we all needed and enjoyed very much.

nooks & crannies

I've been living in this cozy little split trinity for just over a year now and still am finding new ways of rearranging furniture, repurposing rooms, and redecorating. The first floor of the house is one room. It is the entertaining center and multitasks as an entrance room/foyer, kitchen, and living room. There is a four tiered built-in shelf on the north wall of this room that I have been misusing from the start and just recently reorganized and made right. Today it was completed by altering and hanging a vintage curtain to soften the view of my mismatched and ever-growing collection of glassware. The glasses are appropriately sandwiched beneath my collection of trays and pitchers and above the bar (my vinyl collection, not pictured, takes residence on the bottom shelf). I find the curtain to be a very homey touch. See for yourself...

gather 'round

starting the day off right
photo by nathan williams of kinfolk magazine

I have been spending the better part of the past three days compiling and organizing the link above entitled "Kindred Spirits". It is my link to all the blogs I feel a strong connection with, a likeness to or I am just plain inspired by and enjoy. Instead of letting that page sit idle, waiting to be stumbled upon, I have decided to profile these noteworthy blogging endeavors on the main page and share them with you. I want to make this a regular (hopefully weekly) new feature-- link love. First up is my freshly discovered Kinfolk Magazine. According to their manifesto, Kinfolk was created with the intention of bringing together "a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings... We have come together to create Kinfolk as our collaborative way of advocating the natural approach to entertaining that we love. Every element of Kinfolk—the features, photography, and general aesthetics—are consistent with the way we feel entertaining should be: simple, uncomplicated, and less contrived. Kinfolk is the marriage of our appreciation for art and design and our love for spending time with family and friends." 
Their website is a starting point for the quarterly magazine's subscriptions, a calendar for their regional dinner parties and a showcase for their short films. Being someone who adores an intimate gathering, cooking and cocktail parties, the aesthetics of Kinfolk completely appeal to me. I am also deeply impressed with their knack for marrying the traditions of entertaining with a modern and simple flair. See for yourself!

seaside once again

Just returned from a strangely balmy four days on the tail end of January by the coast with my parents. This time was for recharging and focusing on healing, happy thoughts and the challenge of living in the moment.