This recipe is a favorite and comes from "Sundays at Moosewood," a collection of the very special recipes from the vegetarian collective in Ithaca, New York.
West African Peanut Soup
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 1 Tbsp peanut oil
- 1/2 tsp cayenne (or apply NonE's law: 1 tsp)
- 1 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger root
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- 2 cups chopped sweet potatoes (NonE prefers yams)
- 4 cups vegetable stock
------------------------
- 2 cups tomato juice
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 cup chopped scallions or chives
- (optional) 1 Tbsp sugar
Saute the onions in the oil until just translucent. Stir in the cayenne and fresh ginger root. Add the carrots and saute a couple minutes more. Mix in the potatoes and stock, bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 15 minutes until vegetables are tender.
Place in blender along with the tomato juice and blend until smooth. (I prefer using my "blender stick" directly in the cooking pot, if you have one.) Return to cooking pot, stir in the peanut butter until smooth. Taste. If not sweet enough (I've never had this problem), add a little sugar to taste.
Reheat gently. Serve topped with plenty of chopped scallions or chives.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.....
- NonE
Yum indeed!
While visiting Williamsburg many years ago, I had peanut soup, and greatly enjoyed it. Now I can’t decide whether to use that recipe or yours to introduce the concept to the snolfs!
By the way, what are the differences you detect between sweet potatoes and yams?
Yams
Yams seem more better gooder. I don't know. Richer, smoother, yummier? I just know that when I buy sweet potatoes instead of yams I'm always disappointed. The yams that I like best are the Beauregard (?) yams which are redish/purplish. In the cheap food stores in Arizona they are available in the fall in huge sizes and quite cheap, and I generally just roast them in my solar oven as previously mentioned. I find these harder to find and generally quite expensive (more expensive than ramen) in regular grocery stores.
Does that help with your confusion?
- NonE
P.S. By the way, they are great raw, like carrots, sorta. I've also thinly sliced them, dried them in my dehydrator and made "chips" from them, which are great with hummus.
The difference is...
They are two entirely different species (different genus) and have different properties and nutrition even though they look much alike sometimes. Yams grow only in serious tropical regions. Most of the fresh "yams' sold in American supermarkets are actually sweet potatoes. As far as I know, all canned "yams" are sweet potatoes.
The sweet potato (Ipomoea) has less actual sugar (starch forms after harvest just as with corn), and has a better protein to carbohydrate ratio.
Here are some links to nutrition facts:
Sweet potatoes - Sweet potato facts
Yams - Yam facts
[note to NonE... I tried the codes but none work. I give up. :)] (I fixed 'em 4 you... - NonE)
New info
Thanks for educating me on the differences, Mama. I never gnu!
Sorry, but I'm clueless as to the message you're attempting to convey here. :-[
- NonE
(yams RULE!)
OH! I get it. You're throwing in the towel on HTML, huh? Okay! ;-)
Coding is not hard here.
It is straight html, which your software for TPoL probably produces for you, along with some other muck perhaps. It is not difficult at all, and I know you are smart enough to learn it.
This page from NonE’s link focuses on the tag that creates hotlinks, as well as doing some other stuff that you needn’t bother with at this point. The first example there shows exactly what you need to do to create a link here. You could bookmark that link so that every time you wanted to make a hypertext link here, you can call it up to see how to do it until you learn the code.
Or, you could bookmark this place’s tips page. You need to scroll down to “full html” to see the <a> tag. Or, bookmark this comment, as I’ll show you how to do it one last time. Code elements that do not change will be put in bold text; the url—which varies, depending upon the page you want to link to—will be in italics; and the hypertext—which becomes the text that is clickable— will be underlined. The carats that surround the code must be present too, of course. The result of the code example given will follow it, after a colon.
<a href="http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/">The Price of Liberty</a>: The Price of Liberty.
I can change the wording to whatever I want to use to point to your site:
<a href="http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/">Mama Liberty’s site</a>: Mama Liberty’s site.
<a href="http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/">whatever you want to say</a>: whatever you want to say.
To point to a different site, the URL changes, thusly:
<a href="http://www.sunnimaravillosa.com/">Sunni and the Conspirators</a>: Sunni and the Conspirators.
<a href="http://www.strike-the-root.com/archive/nonentity.html">NonEntity’s Strike the Root archive</a>: NonEntity’s Strike the Root archive.
Or, more on topic, another helpful page on sweet potatoes<a href="http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64">Sweet potatoes</a>: sweet potatoes.
And, of course, one could be disingenuous, silly, or malicious, and do some misleading coding:
<a href="http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/">sweet potatoes</a>: sweet potatoes
but that’s generally considered bad form.
The anchor code (that’s what the “a” stands for) needs to be structured exactly like this. Extra spaces in the code, or a missing quotation mark (or a single quote instead of a double) will be problematic.
If you have any questions, ask them here and NonE. and/or I should be able to answer them.
Too short!
I think, Sunni, that Mama may simply have made the decision that LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR THIS CRAP!!! or something like that. And I cannot disagree with her. We all have choices, and, like the song goes, for every thing there is a season. (Or however that song goes...)
You did an EXCELLENT job of laying out how it all works however.
From personal experience, there are times when none of that matters, when there is just some form of iron-clad-door that drops in place in front of my mind and is like the person with his hands over his ears yelling LA LA LA LA LA LA!!! and nothing... NOTHING will get thru.
Minds are weird things. I'm currently listening to a lot of Steven Pinker on how our brains work. He's really sharp, fun, and filled with great ideas. I've just gotten turned on to him. Highly recommended.
- NonE
Pinker.
Yeah, I know what you mean NonE., but I’ve not known her to be that way. Doesn’t mean I can’t be wrong, however.
I’ve read one of Pinker’s books, as I recall, and probably some online articles. I can’t remember if it was he or some other chap whose book I slogged through, only to be rather let down at the reward for all that effort. Quite frustrating.
Never. NEVER!!!
NEVER admit such a thing... never, never, never, not even EVER!!! It's just not right!
- NonE ;-)
Life is too short
I simply see no need to go through all of that and I will not remember unless I do it a lot. I do not speak "geek" and so do not generally understand much at those "help" things.
Tools are good. I like tools. Why reinvent the wheel each time? sigh
I'll just refrain from using any links.
Trying to hit this moving target ...
You deleted your previous comment while I was replying to it, so some of this will not flow as nicely, but I’m not going to retype it all. It isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s learning how to use a tool—html—which you are currently letting software—a higher-level tool, but more limited if one gets stuck and doesn’t grok the simpler tool—do for you.
Anyway, here’s my previous comment.
It used to. And I might be able to re-enable that for you.
Well, since you seem to be unhappy at the thought of not including hyperlinks in your text (and I agree, it is an enormously limiting factor), it might be worth one more try. You don’t need to understand anything, actually—just follow the structure that I outlined above. Tap on the issue and then give it another go, while I check the engine room to see what tools might be lying about. You can play all you want here in the comments, using the “preview” feature multiple times if necessary, until you get it right. And even after you do, you don’t need to submit it to become part of the “permanent record”, so to speak.
Tools
Dreamweaver does create the code for most purposes, but I have to read at least some of it and understand it to keep the program from doing weird things not intended. That is what I meant by "necessary." The code used there I can read, but it is quite different than a lot of the code used other places, including here.
As far as I can see, code is not the tool. It is the raw material to make tools. If I want a hammer, I don't want to go find a book, learn how to make one, gather the materials and build it first. I go to the toolbox, take out the hammer and pound in the nail.
Those who enjoy building hammers will have no problem with all that, of course. If I have a choice, I'd rather spend my time building houses instead of making hammers. :)
Raw material
You want raw material? Check out ASSEMBLY language! :-)
But Chill, Mama, it's (well, it in NO WAY IS, but we can pretend anyway) a free country!
- NonE (dreaming about fresh bread... mmmmmmm.)
Dreamweaver input ≠ output, then.
Because when I look at the source code for TPoL, I see the exact same code for hotlinks (or hypertext, if you prefer) as is used here. In fact, even forum software takes forum code—the [url=whatever]text here[/url] format you know—and turns it into the code I demonstrated above. As far as I know, the anchor tag (<a href>) is the only way to make a hypertext link—and if I’m wrong, I would appreciate being corrected. No matter what the software does, that <a href></a> code is the output.
And that’s why I don’t rely on any software to do things “for” me. I did some checking, and didn’t see a way to enable an editor with icons for you to click and insert text; I’ll check with our TechDeity as soon as I can.
What I am not grokking is how you can build an online house without knowing how to build the doors between rooms—viz., links between online resources.
TinyMCE?
While I don't have much experience with Drupal, according to the website, the TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor works with it using a plugin. Perhaps that can be enabled here to accommodate folks like ML? There are other modules that can work as well, such as FCKEditor.
AGGGGG
I employ thousands of links to every part of the internet at PoL. I just don't have to write the bloody things from scratch. I use a tool called Dreamweaver to do that for me.
I don't need to grow trees in order to have doors, or make cement blocks in order to build a wall. Of course, I could do that, but I don't need to. If I had to do everything myself from scratch, I'd not get much done and neither would anyone else.
Don't worry about finding a tool to do that here. I have no desire to impose anything that others don't want, of course. I actually thought of a way I could do what I need without bothering anyone. I'll simply open DW, make the link, and paste it here. Much easier than trying to remember how to write the silly things. :-)
And NonE, you can come to my house for fresh bread any time. :) I really didn't intend to hijack the discussion of peanut soup. Much as I love peanuts, I can't imagine eating such a combination. Sort of like contemplating broccoli jelly. Both are good, but not together. LOL
The gift of Mama
Mama,
My mama gave me a great gift as a child. We had a rule at dinner. I had to take ONE bite of everything that was offered that evening. Beyond that it was my choice. If I chose to not like it, I didn't have to eat anymore. But I DID have to take one bite. That was cool with me. I knew I didn't have to worry about it because I knew that I was free after that one little bite.
As a result of this (I think) I now find that I'm terribly curious about food. If I go into a restaurant and see something exceedingly weird on the menu I just HAVE to order it to find out whether or not it is horrid or maybe the next best thing to enter my life. I had, at the recommendation of the owner of the restaurant, duck's feet at a Chinese restaurant one time. To him they were quite the delicacy. I must say that I can't think of a single more horrid thing I've ever eaten. On the other hand, one night I went to that restaurant with a bunch of good friends in celebration of nothing but the desire to celebrate, and I told the owner to make whatever he felt would be good, as many dishes and whatever the cost, and surprise us. I cannot remember ever eating a finer meal than that.
So all I can say is, if it sounds weird, I at LEAST have to taste it! ;-) By the way, chocolate is an excellent gift to chicken. They call it Pollo con Mole in Mexico. Whooda thunk?!
- NonE
(Thanks for the invite on the bread thing. Who knows, maybe I'll show up some day.)
P.S. I admit, brocolli jelly sounds pretty bad, but then, that's what I thought of jalapeno jelly, and while not a favorite thing of mine, it's really kinda fun stuff!
Makes a big difference!
I think your mother was a very wise woman. As much as I loved my mother, things were very different for me. We didn't have much, and no waste was tolerated in any form. Whatever was on our plate was what we had to eat, like it or not. If we didn't finish it for one meal, we had to eat it at the next one before we could have anything else. I didn't have much of a problem, since I would eat pretty much everything and mother was a good cook - but my sister often sat with the same lump of stuff in front of her several meals in a row. I guess that's why she's skinny and I'm not. LOL
I grew up cooking plain, ordinary fare without frills. We had mostly government commodity stuff in the early years and my idea of torture would involve being forced to eat commodity style dried eggs, scrambled with powdered milk and served on stale store bread. I was probably 7 years old before I learned that chicken didn't necessarily come badly overcooked in a can. I'm a little sick just remembering.
So, I never developed any desire to try exotic things or mix ordinary things much. I don't use sauces or gravy, and don't even use much in the way of herbs or other seasoning for my cooking. I like things plain and simple for the most part. My California style chili, spaghetti sauce and salsa are my most daring and spicy creations, and they are extremely mild according to others who like things hot.
So, I'm not very adventurous and not willing to take chances with new foods very often. And the older I get, the more set in my ways I become. [grin]
Out of all the fuss ...
we found a solution! It was worth whatever discomfort may have been experienced along the way, in my opinion: it is important to me that you use your corner of the ‘net here to your fullest capacity.
And, to get back on topic, Thai food is replete with unusual-sounding combinations of ingredients and/or spices, including the mighty peanut. Sometimes it’s a little too hot for me, but I’ve yet to find anything peanutty that I didn’t like from that cuisine.
Ithailian
Which reminds me of the little Italian/Pizza place in Ridgecrest, Californika. They had calzones on the menu, with a choice of 4 ingrediments (favorite girl friend said it that way ;-) ) from a huge list. So you got the bread, the sauce and the cheese as a given, and then had to choose up to four additional items in the basic price.
Long list...
I'm lookin' down the list, the waitress is standing buy, I'm still lookin'... I get to the end of the list and the last item is PEANUT BUTTER.
PEANUT BUTTER! I exclaim to the waitress. Yeah, says she, It's GOOD!...
Okay, me being me, I put Peanut Butter as #1 optional item and then look for things that go with it. I choose Jalapeno peppers as option #2, Pineapple as #3, and Onions as #4.
My oh MY was that good. The combination of hot, sweet, peanut and onion just happened to turn my calzone into a Thai dish, sorta. Way cool!
Now, whenever I go into a pizza joint I ask them if they have peanut butter. They always look at me like maybe they should call the loonie-bin on this guy, but I swear, it's their loss, not mine.
- NonE
Solution?
Yeah, so whutz this solution you're braggin' on? I don't see anything differnt.
- NonE
I can vouch for this recipe
This one has been a favorite in our family. We always double the recipe and freeze the rest for quick meals.