This past Saturday was a great opportunity for me to get outside, enjoy the nice but weird weather and do a bunch of walking. But instead of lacing up my sneakers and taking my usual 5 odd mile walk, I decided to take the wife out and we met up with a couple of friends and went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. I'll tell you this much, nothing motivates you to get walking quickly then guys dressed up as demon clowns chasing you with chainsaws. They didn't really scare me that much but our friend took off running so we had to hunt her down before she got totally lost in the crowd. We even got to walk a bunch of the backlot as well. They drop you off at Whoville and then you make your way up to the Bates Motel, the Pyscho House and finally a stroll through the crashed plane scene from War of the Worlds. Not only is it mostly dark and scary with people popping out at you left and right, but you get to walk around some of the sets which was really cool. Overall I had a great time. The House of a Thousand Corpses in 3D was a real trip and we got to walk for about 6-7 hours. With limited time sitting. Our feet hurt a lot afterwards though. Then last night I had a couple of firsts in my cooking. First off I made quinoa for the first time. For those of you who have never had it before I highly recommend it. It's a great healthy alternative to rice and couscous because it is not actually a grain. It's grain-like, but is more closely related to beets and spinach. Go figure! I mixed mine with sauteed onions, peppers and shallots. I love shallots. Really good stuff though. I served with some stir fried beef with curry sauce. But the highlight of my cooking last night was definitely the broccoli soup I made. My wife and I for years have been going to this one place here in LA that serves really good broccoli soup. In fact, I like to go there just for the soup, but I also get some chicken to go with it. Anyways, I've been wanting to try making some of my own for awhile now and decided to finally try it out. The one we eat at the restaurant is lighter than mine and has a nice buttery flavor so I'm guessing they use some turnips in their's. Unfortunately, my grocery store didn't have any turnips so I was forced to use actual butter, but I only used a tiny bit. It turned out really well and tasted great. I definitely think I'll be making it again and I'll give you all the recipe as well. As far as everything else goes, I'm getting ready for the AIDS Walk in two weeks. Thanks to all of you who've donated already. For those of you who haven't please go to http://aidswalklosangeles2010.kintera.org/cevanmiller and make one. Every little bit helps so if you can only do $5 please do $5 then. Hope you're all well and thanks again for your support.
BROCCOLI SOUP RECIPE
2 Big bunches of broccoli (the greener the better)
1/2 TBSP. Butter (or turnips for a healthier alternative)
Salt & Pepper to Taste
Large Pot
Blender
Cut the florets from the broccoli, wash and set aside
Fill pot and bring to a rolling boil
Salt the water while it's boiling
Put the florets in the boiling water and salt the top of the broccoli
Boil broccoli until tender but not super soft (cutting them with a knife to test, if knife snaps through, they are done)
Remove broccoli from the water, but don't dump the water, you'll use that as a stock
Place broccoli in a blender and fill about halfway with broccoli stock
Put butter into blender
Season with pepper
Place the lid on the blender and hold it down firmly with a towel (I can't stress this enough)
Do a few pulses with the blender to start breaking the broccoli up then run the blender on liquefy until you get the consistency you want (if you want it thicker use less stock and vice versa)
Check soup for seasoning
Serve
Super duper easy and it tastes great and is great for you. It's an easy way to get yourself to eat broccoli if you don't normally like to eat it. Try it, enjoy it and let me know what you think.
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