The Princess and the Pea (Soup)

My son had a birthday in June, making him the ripe old age of four. He thinks his older sister, at eleven, is the coolest person on the face of the planet. He loves dressing up and his favorite colour is pink. With those fantastic red curls it looks fabulous on him. I got him a book called My Princess Boy for his birthday. He doesn't really get the point, as he is totally accepting of everyone. The book was really more for us because it made me happy, and the art is fantastic. Anyway, when we were shopping yesterday we found this sparkly tiara for a dollar and he immediately pointed and gasped, "A princess boy tiara!" So here is a picture of my princess boy in his princess boy tiara. It isn't the best picture as he was being so very wiggly, but he still looks darn cute.

In other news, we've been trying to get excited about cooking at home again. Historically we eat out way too much. To help with this endeavour we've signed up with The Organic Box. It's been working well for us. Once a week they drop off a box of organic produce, much of it very local, and we then have to figure out what to do with it. Everything is seasonal, meaning that when it shows up it's really easy to get excited. This week we had a bag of peas from Peas in Earth dropped off, and they were huge and beautiful. We still had a few left over from last week so I decided it was time for some soup.

Sometimes I cook from recipes, sometimes I make it up as I go along. Last night I made it up. I shelled the peas and stuck them in the pot with some veggie broth (for Campbell's, I admit) and some mint and basil from the garden.

I figured that if I was cooking for three, I would need a bit more green in there. So I added half a bag of spinach and some more herbs.

There, that looks better. From here I just boiled everything until the spinach was reduced a bit and the peas had gotten nice and soft. All that I added for extra flavour was some cracked black pepper. Once everything was ready I took out my handy immersion blender (bought last summer at Superstore for $10) and pureed everything. It got a little foamy and so very green. I couldn't believe how very vibrant the colour was. I added a bit of cream to the soup to smooth it out and then tore up some prosciutto and added it in. Then I forgot to take a photo until my second bowl. But here it is.

It really doesn't do justice to the fantastic colour. I think in the future I will chop the prosciutto up really fine. It started cooking up as soon as it was added to the soup and became a little tough. Still, it was a resounding success that will get made again. The husband was sweet and said it was the sort of thing he would be pleased to get in a high end restaurant. I think I'll keep him.

This week I also have a clamshell of fresh raspberries and another Saskatoon berries. Any thoughts?