Mouth Travel: My Favorite Soup & An Awesome Blog Introduction!

Growing up I had an awesome best friend.  He grew up and married an awesome woman (of course he did).  She is an awesome cook (I've never tasted her stuff but her blog makes me drool).  But she is not just any cook, she is an Epicurean cook.  I think this makes me like her more.

See, I adore foreign food.  I wish I could eat it more.  Our food budget and the small area we live in keep me from perusing this love of mine. Erin keeps it interesting with choosing a country each week.  I love that she has her kids involved with the decision and the tasting.  My kids are fairly good at this too (some more than others) because we have insisted on tasting their whole lives.  Rick and I both love to mouth travel.  Well, we love to travel too but right now that is not possible and let's face it, you can reach more destinations with your mouth than you can with your pocketbook.

Just taking a look at what she makes on her blog is interesting/educational reading, especially for foodies.  You may not even like to cook foreign dishes, but you will find her blog fun.  She is also a talented photographer and does her own pics which I also find fabulous.

(Visit Epicurean Travels)  and/or follow Erin on Facebook

I'm hoping to chat for a few Fridays about food blogs btw, so come back for some other favs.


NOW!  For my own foodie moment!

I've been CRAVING this soup lately.  One benefit of living in this lovely mission town is the great population of authentic Mexican cooking women!  When my eldest started public school, her fifth grade teacher would hold these food sharing lunches on occasion for the class.  All the mama's brought amazing authentic fare and Posole soup was one of them.

My first reaction to this was secretly (oh, great a big pot of soup in a room full of kids, are you crazy?  will they even eat it? it looks so brothy...ew!) THEN...

I TASTED IT....and ....
tele-ported myself to Mexico.

I've blogged about Posole once before but I don't think the word got out there enough lol.  It's a soup that is very frugal (see, it's mouth travel that works for my budget), full of easy to find (well, where I live anyway) Mexican ingredients, and is a hit with the whole family.

I've made it myself and it was good, but the way these women around here do it is a little more refined and authentic.  From what they are telling me, this recipe seems to be it.
It reminds me of the idea of pho soup made by the Asians.  You have a base of soup and then toppings are added according to what you like.  When they are added while the soup is still hot, they just cook in the heat of the broth, leaving them crisp and yummy.  Traditionally, the soup is cooked with pigs foot too, which I did, but I did not feel it added more flavor.  I had a bone in my pork though so that may have been why.  The kids thought that was fun.  I made sure they saw me take it out.  It does add to the travel feel! I like to cut a lime in half, squeeze the juice in and cook it with half the  lime bobbing in there.  The flavors in the zest really come out.  I also don't use bay leaves, but perhaps that helps.

So, if you live around here, and wonder what all those red dry peppers are at Food For Less, this is what they use.  They soak them in some hot water and blend them up as a base in the broth.  That is what turns it this lovely red.  They promise me they are not hot.  It seems to be true as the soup is just right and they add hot sauce according to taste.  They also cook them in massive soup pots and invite everyone over, now that is what I call a party!