After France our randomizer landed in China where Hot and Sour soup was our choice. It is actually a wonderful soup that uses ingredients that are quite different from soups in the west. Tofu, bamboo shoots and mushrooms including tree ears etc. The “hot” part is largely due to white pepper. That was a surprize. It is super delicious though.

Ingredients:

• Chicken broth
• Shitake mushrooms
• Tree ears
• Bamboo shoots
• Rice vinegar
• Soy sauce
• ground ginger
• Chili garlic sauce
• cornstarch
• Large eggs
• Firm tofu
• Toasted Sesame oil
• Salt and white pepper

After Borscht and Chlodnik, we needed something different and luckily our randomizer landed on France! French Onion Soup is one of my very favorites! I just love it.

Ingredients:

• Yellow or vidalia onions
• butter
• Garlic
• Flour
• White wine
• Beef stock
• Worcestershire sauce
• sea salt
• Black pepper
• Baguette
• Grated Gruyere
• Sherry

Next we went to Poland for Chlodnik. This is a soup that can be served hot or cold, and we chose cold. It’s basically a beet soup that carries that sourness that is so moreish.

Ingredients:

• Beets
• Radishes
• Plain yogurt
• Plain kefir
• English cucumber
• Fresh dill
• Fresh chives
• Vegetable broth
• Lemon juice
• Apple cider vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Soft boiled egg

Borscht is another great tasty sour soup, and one that I remember from my childhood. Super delicious dish from Ukraine.

Ingredients:

• Beets
• Olive oil
• Chicken broth
• Yukon potatoes
• Carrots
• Celery
• Red Bell pepper
• Onion
• Tomato sauce
• Cennelini beans
• Bay leaf
• White vinegar
• Sea Salt
• Black pepper
• Garlic clove
• Chopped dill

Avgolemono is probably the easiest, tastiest and most delicious soup we made. It’s a classic Greek soup that everybody should have in their wheelhouse. A real pleasant egg lemon flavor profile that just goes on. It’s the best version of chicken soup we found.

Ingredients:

• Broth
• Carrot
• Celery
• Orzo
• Shredded chicken
• Egg
• Lemon
• Parsley

This is the Broccoli Gruyere Soup. When I found the soup in the Modernest Cuisine at Home cookbook, it seemed an easy cook. You pretty much use a pressure cooker. You put the floweretes from 3 broccoli stems into the pressure cooker with butter, backing soda and water, then blend it and pass it through a sieve, after that, you incorporate the cheese and add any broth needed to get the texture right. Finish it with roasted hazelnuts and fresh thyme and a few of the flowerets fried.

Ingredients;

• Broccoli
• Baking soda
• Butter
• Water
• Hazelnuts
• Fresh thyme

One of the things that happens when you make a series of different pizzas, is that you accumulate a fair number of leftover ingredients. After we spent a week making pizza, a really great way of eating by the way, we found our fridge beginning to fill up with a lot of small leftover cheeses and sauces especially. So, on Sunday night, we made the “What do we have left over in the fridge” Pizza. What did we have? We had pepperoni sausage, some two week jalapeno pickled pineapple, along with feta, fresh and grated mozzarella, parmigiano reggiano, and arugula. Heather built the pizza she was craving. It was absolutely delicious

This one is the best pizza I have ever tasted. Ever. And it’s not even close. This is a Thai Peanut Shrimp pizza, with spinach, ricotta, peanuts EVOO and Thai peppers, then finished with a squeeze of lime juice. It’s hard to describe the experience of eating this pizza, it’s moreish, it’s delicious, it’s divine, it’s spicy, it’s pure umami in every bite. One of the ways it was so much better was that I kept more dough on the base to it was slightly more chewable than crunchy (which I also like).

Ingredients:

• Thai peanut sauce
• 10 mid size prawns, chopped into thirds
• Fresh spinach
• Ricotta
• Roasted chopped peanuts
• Sliced Thai peppers
• Squeeze of lime juice

After enjoying Chris Bianco’s Rosa Pizza, we made the choice to try his Bianco Verde, Fresh Mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, Ricotta, and Arugula to finish over a red sauce. We used a spicy marinara. The pizza definitely has legs, the ricotta offers a creaminess, so we need to experiment with the red sauces to find the right combination, especially since his version does not use a red sauce. He is innovative in rethinking what pizza is. In any event, we enjoyed it, especially because the arugula wilts and tastes to yummy on top of the pizza, offering a pepperiness that is needed to offset the cheeses.

Next we went simple. The Burrata is a pie on the menu of Ken’s Artisan Pizza in Portland. It’s basically tomato sauce, basil leaves and fresh Burrata after it comes out of the oven. My first thought was, “Well, this is going to leave me hungry,” but, it was really filling and super delicious. Definitely the simplest pie we have ever made. Pizza perfection.

Ingredients:

• Tomato Sauce
• Fresh Basil leaves (after its out of the oven)
• Fresh Burrata (after its out of the oven)

We FINALLY got it right! (they were all fabulous, but this one was the BOMB!)