WEDNESDAY: A Winter Standby

At this point in the season, nearly every one of our meals begins with a trip to our very own grocery store - the chest freezer in our shed. There we peruse the shelf (singular) for various and sundry vegetables and meats. Rashmi and I spent many a long night in the fall blanching all variety of vegetables for the freezer, and despite complaints at the time, we're most grateful for the effort now.

One of my tasks in the late summer was to make a couple of huge pots of tomato soup. I froze the soup in perfect serving sizes - about two and half bowls in each Ziploc. This gives us enough for one heaping bowl and a tiny bit leftover for whoever claims the most hunger. Combine this with an old standby - the veritable grilled cheese - and you've got yourself a solidly respectable, if not extremely sexy, meal. The cheese is from Wright Dairy (I'm seeing a pattern this week...) and the bread was my second attempt using Alabama wheat in the now famous "no-knead" method, written about first by Mark Bittman and then later adapted into videos, converted for pizza dough, and capitlized on in books. But the wheat we have is just not glutenous enough to give the kind of rise called for in the no-knead recipe, and I'm always disappointed with the results. The flavor is outstanding and the crust holds much promise, but it never gets the kind of airy, artisanal inside I'm searching for. But I'll keep fighting the good fight and try again another day. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

So there you have it. A perfectly regular Wednesday night meal in the year of eating Alabama. The soup was fantastic - like the tomatoes were just picked off the vine. And the pleasure I get dunking a hot slice of grilled cheese into tomato soup makes me forget how barren our refrigerator is right now...