lincoln logs

Memory: throughout elementary school, I could never remember if you spelled Lincoln with an l or a capital I.

"Last night, I took a walk in the snow, couples holding hands, places to go.
Seems like everyone but me is in love. Santa can you hear me?" My only wish this year is to rid the world of those couples that hold hands in public. Shameless.

As per Mademoiselle Mareau's request: my recipe for the month. Not cooking frequently to make it a recipe per week.

At home, I'm usually not so fond of my parents' cooking, but they were able to make decent soups. Warm you right up, if not scald the taste buds off your tongue. Yes, my parents were always pushy about my brother and me eating food.

So there was this one soup with a tomato base, but a slightly sweet taste to it, that was/is one of my favorites. Here you go:
For every vegetable, buy in equal amounts, except for the potatoes, which you only want half as much. I personally like tomatoes, so i would load it up on tomatoes. You could also reduce the amount of onions. These recipes are always for 1 person: ME.

In-the-meantime nameless soup:
1 Tomato
1/2 russet potato
1 yellow onion
carrots
figs/dates
stalk of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
basil
salt
pepper
corn/olive/whatever oil
sesame oil
H2O

After the longest time, I finally figured out that my parents had been adding figs/dates to the soup to create that mildly sweet scent.

Anyway, add your water, then the oil, and heat it up to a boil. During this time, you should be able to wash your vegetables and chop them up into bite-size pieces. You want to chop up the carrots and potato first, since they will take longer to soften in the hot water. Note on the oil- you only need a sprinkling of sesame oil.

After leaving the carrots and potatoes boiling for a while, you can add the tomatoes and onions. You're adding these later because if you had put them in earlier, they would be mushier than your carrots and potatoes, and nobody wants to be expecting something soft and then biting into a tooth-splitting carrot while drinking piping hot soup. I didn't have any figs at the time, so I just put in sun-dried dates in the pot. Don't worry about these- they're only there to add that figgy aroma. They disappeared from my soup when it was done, surprisingly.

Now that everything's in, you can add more water if you don't think there's enough, but once you hold the amount of water constant, you can start adding the finely chopped garlic along with the stalk of ginger into the broth. For the salt and pepper, add a little at a time, tasting along the way to make sure there isn't too much to cause hypertension/cardiac arrest. Lastly, sprinkle basil or whatever herb gives you the desired high over the water's surface and mix.

Let it simmer for a while longer, and you'll be done in no time. If Yan can cook, you can cook! (as well as randomly shout indecipherable Engrish)

If you personally attempt to use my family's recipe for soup, and it turns out poorly, I will personally come to you, heat the soup to boiling, and throw it in your face. Enjoy!