Even more about food

Continuing the series of food posts: I've been making a lot of soup lately, as I always seem to do in the fall. I had a friend over for lunch on Saturday, and made her favorite corn and potato soup which turned into corn chowder because that's what I had a hankering for. That will probably be the last of the corn soup for the season, because I like it best when I can use corn on the cob. I cut all the corn off the cob, then boil the cobs until I get as much corny goodness out of them as possible, scraping the last of the corn from them. Then I dump in the corn, a chopped potato or two, and a few spices. Not too much, because mainly I want to taste corn. This time I added milk at the end, because I used to love clam chowder as a kid, but now don't eat it so often (well, never) on account of the whole vegetarian thing. So this was the best I could do.

On Sunday I made borscht. Nothing like a hot pink soup to put a smile on your face. As my grandmother pointed out, you can't make a small amount of borscht - what are you going to do, add a quarter of a parsnip? So we've been eating it for the past three days, but I think we've reached the bottom of the tupperware now.

Tonight it's on to a chocolate extravaganza. In my research group, when a graduate student defends his thesis, we always have a potluck reception afterwards. The soon-to-be-PhD defending this time has requested all chocolate, so (per her specific request to me) I'm making a chocolate crusted-key lime pie and (per my own desires) a super rich choocolate cheesecake. Yum. The promise of cheesecake and champagne is reason enough to finish you PhD, isn't it?