Curling up w/ a good bowl of soup(s)

A couple weeks ago I took the Soup Simplifies Your Life class at PCC. It was taught by the same instructor as the last soup class I took, Marie Donadio. Marie is awesome. She teaches a hands on class where each group makes a different soup. Somehow she manages to help all of us when we need it in a room with lots of people that are all doing different things. She helps without giving too much help. I think that is a rare and important skill for a teacher.

The soups were amazing just like the last time. I love how each soup has a distinct garnish. It always has an acidic element to it to help bring out the flavors of the soup - you learn lots of stuff in Marie's classes.

Ruth's Carrot Soup. This is the bonus soup that Marie demo'd at the beginning of the class. It was really flavorful, yet simple to make. The sparkly looking stuff is just the flash. PCC isn't a photo studio. Marie was really thougthtful and got some toffuti sour cream to put on top.
Congee. OMG. this is the best soup ever. In China they eat this for breakfast. That's what I will do once I eat my way through my feedbag of oats (aka oatmeal). Though I could speed up the process by making oatmeal cookies...

It is really thick with a delicious mushroomy flavor. You can see the garnishes in a line at the top - soy sauce, ginger, and green onion.
Saffron Scented Wild Rice with Tomato Soup. This is the soup that I helped make. It contained garlic prepared 3 ways. The soup looks dry in the pic below, but it wasn't. It was perfect. It even had just enough, but not too much saffron. I'm not a saffron lover, but maybe that's because it's typically overdone. The garnish is a lemon wedge and some fresh herbs (lemon thyme?).
Caldo Verde. mmmmm... this soup had potatoes, kale and smoked paprika in it. Very delicious. You can see that I'm not very neat at serving myself because I got stuff all over the sides of the bowl.
Mulligatawny Soup. This was a super spicy Indian soup that was very thick and filling - and great tasting too. When that team was cooking up the spices (turmeric, cumin, corriander), the room smelled really good.

I was supposed to put the rice on the bottom of the bowl, but I put it on top. The garnish was a very loose variation of Haroseth. It had apples, lemon, nuts, and lemon. I could have eaten the whole bowl of garnish by itself.
You do not walk away hungry from this class.

Marie - if you're reading this, I lost your email address. can you add a comment to this blog w/ it? I will delete it afterwards.

Andy - you need to choose which soup I make first.

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Now to the curling up. The worms (Chippy, The Judge, Peepa, and Tubs) were at it again.