two of my favorite things

I made one of my favorite soups last night. It's called Autumn Harvest soup. It's a lovely shade of pumpkin but there's no pumpkin in it. It has a butternut squash, a leek, an onion, a potato, carrots and a Granny Smith apple. Once you cook all of it with chicken stock, you puree it. I like to top it with Mascarpone. And of course it's best served with crusty bread.

Tonight I made the corn cakes (which I realize I never blogged about the first time), this time with ricotta. They were much better. I can't say what the ricotta does exactly other than give it some depth. I made them last week and they were okay. I knew they needed something more. I decided that since I make my pancakes with ricotta why not try using ricotta in the corn cakes?

The results?

Delicious.

I'm behind on trying new recipes. Most of the ones I've found to try I've set aside because they're heavier dishes. I save those for fall and winter. I'm trying to eek out the last of the summer with salads and grilled meat.

Soon. I will be back to pasta soon.

'O pasta, how I have missed thee...'

I wish I had better lighting so I could take pictures. I'll do my best to be descriptive.

By the way, I have found a great use for my nemesis, corn starch.

Take a ribeye (or whatever large chunk of red meat you prefer) and mix together; corn starch, salt and fresh ground black pepper. Rub the mixture all over the meat. Place the meat in the freezer for thirty minutes. Remove and cook on grill for approximately seven minutes each side (this is for medium, we like our meat cooked to medium). The corn starch mixture creates this crust that is pretty darn good.

The bonus is using up the corn starch that sits in my cupboard mocking me because I can't make pudding.

But I can make pasta.