Mulligatawny Soup

A few years ago I was in a soup and sandwich restaurant in Novi, MI called Zoup! I'm usually one who will stick with what I know and am comfortable with and will order it over, and over, and over.

That day, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and tried their Mulligatawny soup. Curry? Apples? I had never had anything with Curry in it before, and apples?? I mean, who puts apples in soup? It was soooo good. It was so good, I had to try and recreate it. 

It's been so long since I've had Zoup!'s version, that i no longer remember what theirs tasted like. I think they may have used a coconut milk or a cream in theirs. This is what I came up with, and I must say its pretty dang good.

MY MULLIGATAWNY SOUP

4 Cups Water
4 Cups Vegetable or Chicken Broth
1 Bay Leaf (remove when cooking is complete)
12 Oz. Chicken breast
1 Med/Lg Onion
1 tbsp Minced Garlic
2 Carrots
2 Celery Stalks
1 Cup Raw Spinach
1/2 Cup Quinoa (rinsed & cooked separately then add to soup)
1 bunch of Green Onion
1/2 Cup Red Pepper 
Red Pepper Flakes (add to taste, depending on how hot you like your soup)
1 tbsp Red Curry Powder
1 Lg. Apple (your choice)
1 Lg. can diced tomatoes
1 Sm. can tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste. 

Cook until the chicken is fully cooked then shred it. Add back into the soup and add in the quinoa. If you don't like Quinoa, you could substitute beans or rice. 

Enjoy!! 

PS.This makes a TON of soup, so I used a small stock pot. Mom and I will be eating on it for days! 

Algebra

Mom: "Algebra? Why did you buy an Algebra book?"

Good question Mom.

My Reply: "TV sucks and is turning my mind to mush. I want to challenge myself and see if I can still do it. I want to. I really want to." And I do!

After being out of school for a lot of years, I decided that I wanted to tackle the subject that gave me major anxiety in High School. I went to an ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) school where thankfully I was able to work at my own pace. It took me 2 years to get through one year of HS Algebra. I'm pretty sure I would have failed algebra if I had gone to public. It's not that I'm stupid, It just never made sense to me why they would mix numbers up with letters and expect me to find out what X was? And why would they force me to learn it when I was pretty sure I would never use it in my adult life. I put up a HUGE mental road block. I didn't care and I didn't want to learn.

Thankfully, I had a wonderful and patient teacher in HS. I will never know how she was so patient with me. Anything that I remember about algebra is all thanks to her. Algebra was a lot easier when I was in college because I had a good foundation in HS. Thank you Mrs. Melrose!

So here I am at 43 years old doing Algebra, still wondering why they had to place numbers and letters together and will I ever use it when I grow up. I also don't remember fractions being such a pain in my backside. So much to learn again.

But it's all good. I'm looking at it as a puzzle. A very slow puzzle, but one I want to complete. One I choose to complete and that makes all the difference to me.