Vampire Garlic Soup

Evan brought me home a new bundle of mutt on his lunch break Wednesday. His name is Jacques Cousteau and is a super cute monster from a local rescue. Rascal Binx and Ponce de

Leon are loving their new little brother, and so are we. I can't wait for everyone to meet him.

We got the dogs Halloween costumes. Ponce is the Headless Horseman's horse and Jacques is

wearing a glow in the dark ghost shirt. Super cute. Ponce keeps eating the pumpkin head from his, but Jacques was obviously dressed often in his past life because he wears shirts like a champ.

We went to Erin and Jesse's going away Halloween party last night. Evan was a hot air balloon and I was Andrew WK. I got to hang out with a bunch of my favorite Urban coworkers and see Jesse before they run off to New York in November.

We both woke up today a bit... yucky? So we've decided our Halloween costumes today are PJs. We're trying to catch up on our 31 horror movies, but I don't think we'll quite make it.

For Halloween, I'm making another of my favorite soups, so I am going to post it as well. If you like garlic and have any possible fears of vampires, I recommend it.

Vampire Garlic Soup:

Start by roasting 4-5 garlic bulbs. We found a fast way to roast full bulbs without peeling them. Chop the bulbs in half and put them cut side down in a oven safe dish or skillet and add enough olive oil for them to the happily sit in. Roast them at 350°F for 45 minutes. Then when you pull them out, you can just lift the skin of the garlic bulbs and PRESTO the cloves stay in the pan. This really only works for the top halves of the bulb. You have to pry out the cloves from the bottom halves.

Okay, so now you have a bunch of garlic cloves in a dish of oil. Next, add the garlic and oil into a food processor and process until it's smooth. (You can also just leave it in the pan and use a potato ricer to mash it all up, but we don't have one and the food processor makes it really smooth.)

Then transfer the mush into a soup pot and add enough flour for the oil to absorb (like 3 Tablespoons or so). Once you have a good rue, turn on the heat and fry it for a minute.

Then start adding 1 quart of heated stock. Whisk in a couple of cups at a time to keep things smooth.

Add some thyme, salt, and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes.

Break up a handful of super thin noodles (we just used some angel hair) into super small bits (think Lipton noodle soup size) and toss them in. Simmer for a few more minutes, just until the noodles are cooked, and you're done!

I planned on making a loaf of French bread to go with it, but I'm out of flour, so we'll do without tonight. Okay, time to watch "P2" with my Tootsies. I'll post our final 31 movies once the day's over!

31 days

In preparation for Halloween, we intend to average one horror movie per day in October. We're not quite making pace at the moment, but we plan to go see a late movie tonight, and then we'll only need 13 from Sunday through month-end. Our taste ranges from well known to ridiculous to fairly new and obscure, and I'll try to say something about those falling in the latter category:

1. Hocus Pocus (Rachel insists on counting this. I don't think she needs to insist, seeing as the entire movie takes place on Halloween.)

2. (& 3?) Ernest Scared Stupid (We're debating counting this as two.)

3. An American Werewolf in London (If you haven't seen this, you should. It's probably in my top ten horror movies of all time, and that's saying a lot. What it lacks in terrifying it makes up for in funny, nontraditional, and overall fun to watch.)

4. Lake Mungo (Evan fell asleep during this, but I thought it was scary. It's about girls and ghosts, or something, so he probably would have hated it anyway.)

5. The Last House on the Left

6. Jason Goes to Hell (If you haven't seen this, keep it that way.)

7. The Burrowers (Weird movie about monsters who live underground and attack frontiersman.)

8. Creepshow

9. Zombieland (You've probably already seen this, but if not, it's a lot of fun.)

10. Ghost Busters

11. Shaun of the Dead

12. Tales from the Crypt (Not a movie, but we watched a bunch of episodes, so we're counting it.)

13. Inside (A French gore movie. One of the goriest movies ever, if you're into that sort of thing.)

14. The Omen

15. Tales from the Hood

16. Shrooms (Terrible, but extra funny since I went to high school with one of the actors in it. I didn't know that going into it.)

17. Deadgirl (Extremely weird and creepy movie about a couple of high school losers who find an weird, naked, hot undead chick in an abandoned mental hospital and turn her into a sex slave. Antics ensue--but don't think that means this movie is funny.)

18. Paranormal Activity 2

19. House on Haunted Hill (original)

20. Frankenweenie

21. Vincent

-updated monday of halloween

Sick Day

Another short Friday at work. We've been working hard on our work-through at another Atlanta Urban, so I was happy to hit my 40 hours at 1pm today and peace out. Evan called just as I was leaving to let me know that he was also heading home, but sadly because he is sick. Although it's really sad that my boo's sick, I am excited to be making my favorite soup for us tonight so we can enjoy our Friday night full and on the couch with some good (bad) horror movies. Because I have never written down this recipe because I am convinced I fully remember it, but always have to try to find it because I think I have forgotten something, I'm going to post it so I can find it easily. It's amazing and really great to make for a bunch of people or just a sick husband. I found the recipe in GreenWise magazine in October of 2008 and think it's a good'n.

Creamy Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

Nonstick cooking spray*
2⁄3 cup finely shredded carrots* ( I always put way more than that.)
1⁄3 cup finely chopped green onions*
2 cloves garlic,* minced
3 cups chicken broth
1⁄3 cup wild rice, rinsed and drained
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms* ( I have to hide these in the soup so Evan doesn't know about them.)
2 tablespoons butter,* softened
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour*
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups Plain Soymilk*

ONE Lightly coat a large saucepan with cooking spray. In the saucepan cook carrots, green onions and garlic over medium heat until tender (about 5 minutes).

TWO Add broth and wild rice. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Add mushrooms; simmer, covered, for 10 minutes more or until rice is tender.

THREE In a small bowl stir together butter, flour, salt and pepper to make a paste. Stir the flour mixture into the rice mixture in saucepan. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more. Add the soymilk. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through (do not boil). Ladle soup into warm bowls. Makes 4 main-dish servings.

Well, I'm off to add the secret mushrooms to tonight's pot.

-The new Rowe