I miss the monthly "new recipes" thread. I don't cook much anymore due to work cutting into dinner prep. time, and I don't often make anything I'd really like to photograph. But I do try out new recipes every month. Usually to use up some odd bit of an ingredient I have in the fridge that I don't want to go to waste. The other thing I do is try out a few recipes from the extensive box of recipe clippings I inherited from my mom.

Here are two I think are worth sharing. The pear muffins were to use up pears I bought but did not use for pear chutney. They come from the "Two Peas And Their Pod" blog which is a recipe site I quite like. The second soup was to use up some vegetable bits and bobs and make something nice and yet warming for a grey day with the asparagus we had. We had a frost warning this weekend in MI! It comes from one of my old Moosewood cookbooks specializing in soups and salads. It would be a good vegan soup to serve with some modifications.

Honey Pear Muffins

from www.twopeasandtheirpod.com

Makes 15 muffins. Bake at 375 for 18-20 min.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat PASTRY flour (if you have it, it makes a big difference but any type of whole wheat flour would be ok)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt (I almost always use less as we are on a low salt diet)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 cup buttermilk at room temp.

1/4 cup butter melted and slightly cooled

1/4 cup honey (measure it in the same cup you melted the butter in and it will slide right out. You could also use molasses for a whole different flavor. I haven't tried it with maple syrup but I might some day.)

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup diced pears

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top. You could also add in some diced candied ginger.

Instructions;

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lune muffin pans with paper liners or coat with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. In another bowl, mix together buttermilk, butter, honey, egg and vanilla. Add sugar.

Combine dry and liquid ingredients. Gently fold in the pears.

Fill muffin cuts 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle each with turbinado sugar and some diced candied ginger if desired.

Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick stick in the middle of a middle muffin comes out clean. Let cool for at least five minutes. Serve warm for best flavor.

Asparagus Wild Rice Soup

from "Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special"

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw wild rice, rinsed (Note: I used about a cup of already cooked white jasmine rice since I had it in the fridge and needed to use it up, plus I didn't have wild rice. The soup of course would be fab. with wild rice but you could use other rices, particularly I think brown would be good.)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 large bay leaf

3 cups water (I used a mix of leftover chicken broth and "Better Than Bouillon" vegetable broth

2 cups chopped onions or leeks (I went easy on these due to our tastes, probably only used 1 cup yellow onion. Leeks would be great but I can't always find them or afford them at the store)

1/2 cup diced celery

1 TBLSP olive oil

1 lb. asparagus, tough ends removed

5 cups roasted vegetable stock (or chicken if you don't have veg. stock)

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. dried tarragon

1/2 tsp. salt (if I was going pure vegan I think I would add tamari, about a TBLSP.)

1 cup diced red bell pepper (I had one to use up, but hubs and I don't really like cooked peppers in soup. I also used some diced carrots for additional color so next time I make this soup, I will probably leave out the peppers and sub carrots instead, ymmv)

2 TBLSP dry sherry (I just used reisling because that's what I had)

Ground black pepper to taste

Optional: top with parmesean cheese or nutritional yeast or maybe some toasted sliced almonds or croutons and fake bacon bits if you like them.

Instructions: Note: different from the ones in the book.

First cook the wild rice in the water or broth. It will take about 45 min.

When the rice is almost done, start sauteeing the vegetables in the oil.

Reserve the tops of the asparagus for adding later, and dice the stems and steam them in the microwave for about 8-9 min. depending on how fast your microwave cooks.

When the onion is translucent and all the veggies are caramelized, add the vegetable broth (reserving one cup for the food processor) and seasonings. Bring to a mild boil. Add the asparagus tops and rice. Boil for ~10 min.

Meanwhile, put the steamed asparagus stalks and the reserved broth in a food processor and process until very smooth, about 2 min. I added some leftover boiled potato, about 1 small. If I had it to do again and I was going pure vegan, I would add maybe 1.5 med. ones. OR, if i was using white rice, I would add about 1/2 of the rice to add some thickness, creamy consistency to the soup.

Combine the asparagus slurry to the rest of the soup and season to taste. At this point, after bringing again to a mild boil, you can serve. HOWEVER, I added some additional stuff you might want to consider. The soup was kind of plain so I added:

1/4 cup ham since I had it in the fridge and needed to use it up. If I was going pure vegan or vegetarian I would have added maybe 1 TBLSP fake bacon made out of tvp or gluten.

1/4 cup neufchatel cheese to add some more creamy notes. If I was going vegan I would have added maybe 1/3 cup full fat coconut milk.

Generous sprinkling of parm. cheese. Again, if going vegan maybe nutritional yeast or fake parmesean cheese which is a thing you can sometimes get at some stores.

Serve with falafel, tahini sauce and pita bread with tomatoes, cukes and lettuce for a lovely spring lunch. If you're worried about carbs, forgo the pita and serve the falafel over the lettuce as a salad. This would be great with some flavored ice tea!