The week had me back in the kitchen. I wanted to make something for my team at work to keep morale up and thank them for their hard work. Saturday I woke up with an urge to make soup to freeze. The former was easy to get started as I had my idea formed already. The latter meant pulling out some cookbooks to see what called to me.
For the team, I made my classic banana bread recipe. Instead of keeping it a classic form, I made them in individual brownie form. When they came out of the oven, I used my press to make them into banana bread boats. Once they had cooled completely, I filled them with homemade vanilla pudding filling—the one I usually use for banana cream pie. On top of the filling, I added fresh strawberries, with some homemade whipped cream.
That was the original plan, and it could’ve worked (might still work on a second iteration), except the strawberries, as originally planned made it hard to be a finger dessert. The whipped cream, which I had frozen from a batch I’d made a little while ago, did not hold up very well after it thawed. I think this is because I didn’t whip it again to “fluff” it up. As a topping, I diced the strawberries to add before serving and ditched the whipped cream altogether.
No soups were made over the weekend, but I had decided to make a creamy potato and a vegetable soup. The urge to make them ended when I didn’t finish the plan on Saturday. I had purchased the ingredients earlier in the day, so they had to be made this week. The urge returned on Tuesday since the freezer safe plastic containers arrived on Monday. Two quarts of potato soup and four quarts of vegetable soup are now in the freezer. They’ll be an easy thaw for a cold winter’s evening.
While looking through the recipes, there are several other soups, like a Hungarian Goulash, I’d like to make soon. I’ll add them to the collection started in the freezer for another day. With another 14 quart containers left to fill, I can make quite a few more!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 