Ramblings of the confused

I've not shared a recipe that I invented in a while, so I'll give y'all one. It's good if you like spicy vegetarian-type soups. And, as with all my make-believe recipes, you can totally modify it to fit your needs and taste.

3-4 potatoes, diced
3-4 stalks of celery, cut into bite-sized slices
One can Rotel tomatoes and chilis
Tomato juice (as much or little as you like)
Can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans, drained and washed)

Spices: I use the following, because I have and like them, but feel free to use whatever you like. Garlic powder, no-salt seasoning, cayenne pepper powder, powdered ginger, oregano, cumin, curry powder, turmeric. From the Indian grocery store, I use Garam Masala, but chances are good you may not have that one on hand unless you do a lot of Indian cooking.

I make a "broth" of the spices and boiling water, and cook the potatoes and celery until they're tender. At that point, add in the Rotel tomatoes, tomato juice (I use my mom's tomato juice that she cans from the garden, but store-bought would be fine, I'm sure), and chickpeas. Add a dash more seasoning if you like and let it simmer an hour or so.

That's it! It's pretty spicy, with the Rotels, the ginger, cayenne, etc. But if you had a stuffy nose or cold, this stuff would totally rock and I'm sure, cure what ails'ya.

One of my favorite soups at Tomato Head is the artichoke and bleu cheese bisque. They make all their soups from scratch, and rotate the soup of the day continuously. It's been forever since I had this soup, but I've just had a craving for it. Since I don't have easy access to Tomato Head (that's my favorite restaurant in Knoxville, by the way) anymore, and heaven knows when they'd have this on the menu again, I thought I'd give it a whirl myself.

I found this recipe on Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/ARTICHOKE-BLUE-CHEESE-BISQUE-107061
It looks easy enough, and I think might be fairly close to what I've gotten at Tomato Head. The one ingredient that concerns me is the vermouth. I don't have any, nor do I care to buy a bottle just to get one cup for a soup recipe. I can't see that I'd ever use it in any other recipes or just to drink. So my question is, do any of you know of substitutes for vermouth? I tried googling to see if I could get any information, but I didn't know if it was trustworthy (I got recommendations to use a dry white wine, white wine vinegar or..white grape juice? Thinking I don't want grape juice in my bleu cheese soup, but I was hoping someone might have actual experience with the other two options to let me know how well they would work.)

Any assistance would be much appreciated. (Also, nonspecific, if it's good, and you think you'd like it, I'd obviously make you a modified batch to suit your needs.)

Last weekend I went to a housewarming party at tnrkitect's house. His wife had made these amazing peanut butter sandwich cookies, and I meant to get the recipe for them. She'd told me that the filling was cream cheese, powdered sugar and peanut butter, but I wasn't sure of increments. So when I got home, I just googled until I found something that looked similar. This is what I came up with:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 to 6 tbsps milk

In a large mixing bowl, beat peanut butter, cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla and milk. Add more milk as needed to achieve spreading consistency.

Spread on half of the cookies and top each with another cookie.





Holy cow, soooo good. I made peanut butter cookies yesterday, and tried this filling. (I'll put the recipe for the cookies under the cut, but it's just pretty basic) I can't quit eating them, they're so amazing. I took some over to my dad yesterday, who promptly devoured them.

I'm definitely making these the next time we have a cookout or family dinner. And if you're a fan of peanut butter, you should make them, too! I'm just trying now to figure out how to incorporate chocolate into the mix, because that's the one thing I can think of that would actually make this recipe even better. Peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips? Or chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips. The possibilities are endless...
Next time I make them, I think I will leave out the vanilla extract. I may have added a bit too much, but I'm normally a fan of vanilla. In this case though, it didn't quite mesh with the other ingredients. I also had to add more milk, because the filling is THICK, and my mixer kept stalling when I was trying to blend the ingredients. Otherwise, I've gotta say, these cookies are darned near perfection. Oh, another hint, they tend to get a bit soggy if left at room temperature or warmer (they practically melted in the car yesterday on the way to see my parents.) Refrigerating them gives them a better texture, and I think, makes them taste better.

Here's the recipe for the cookies, if you like..

( Feed your head. )