Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘emulsion blender use’

May 2011

Posted by terrepruitt on May 19, 2011

Today I taught Nia. It was not a Nia class, but a one-on-one session. No matter what I am teaching, a class, a playshop, a move, a song, an individual, I always learn things myself. It is amazing. Sometimes I am reminded of something. Today I was reminded of how fun it is to teach someone something new. To explain something in a way that allows them to understand. In some instances it might be the information is received and then there is still learning or “mastering” to be done, but they have the tool you gave them. In some instances they just have it. It just depends on what it is. But it is amazing.

When I am learning a new routine I would love to be able to take a perfect “product” into my class. But there is often a point where I know it is not perfect, but I can’t learn anymore by myself. So I take it into class and usually that first time in that one hour I learn more than (or just as much as) I had learned in the time it I spent getting to the point I where I took it into the class. Amazing. I might have actually said this very thing before in a previous post, so it might sound familiar to you. Or it could sound familiar because you have experienced something similar. Learning as you are teaching. I love that!

Well, it is May and for the past week, maybe two it has been cold and raining here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I don’t mind it so much. Especially since, as you may know, I have a new found love . . . making soups with my immersion blender! The last one I made I made it too spicy and I couldn’t eat it. I was very sad.  But my husband loved it which was great because he was stuck eating the whole pot. I was thinking it would be the last batch before the warm weather comes in and I might have been right. The past two days have been pretty warm and very beautiful.

It seems like spring might actually finally be here.

During the cold one of my friends posted a picture of some of her flowers. She had cut them and brought them in the house and posted “At least it’s springtime inside the house.” She inspired me. It took me a few days, but I cut these from a tiny rose bush we have in our yard. These are VERY small roses. The bush is probably not even two feet high.

I just wanted to share. I wanted to share the beautiful flowers, the beauty in a sign of spring, the excitement of learning as you teach, the wonder and beauty of the world. I wanted to share and I wanted to say I am looking forward to living in the beauty that is, and learning as I go.

Posted in Flowers, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Experimental Soup

Posted by terrepruitt on April 9, 2011

On the way to teach my Los Gatos Nia Class on Friday I thought that I would be making soup on a warm day.  By the time Nia class was over it was getting cloudy.  I was thinking it might turn into a good day for soup.  I was going to attempt the Green Garlic Spinach Soup.  On the way to class I decided to shop at the store somewhat on the way home from the fitness place.  I had never been there and was hopeful they would have green garlic.  Since it looks like a scallion I was thinking that I had seen it in stores before and I just didn’t know what it was.  Well, some of the produce at the store was less than desirable.  I passed on the collard greens and I couldn’t find the green garlic.  I had my mind made up that I was going to make soup using my emulsion blender.  I decided that I would make baby bok choy and spinach soup.  I am going to share about the soup making process and issues in this post.  My next post (Tuesday) will be the “recipe”.

I bought the basic ingredients I would use.  By the time I left the store it was cold and cloudy.  Perfect day for soup. When I got home I decided to get out the blender to figure out what blade to use and to wash the blade.  I neglected to look at the blade my friend used.  In looking at the instructions I was thinking “blade C” would be the right blade.

Since I’ve never cooked bok choy before and I didn’t really know if it would work, I decided to sauté the bottom portion of the stalk and save the leafy part to add to the soup at the same time as the spinach. I sautéed the veggies.  When I finally added the broth I was thinking this soup was going to be pretty flavorless so I added some of a beer that was open in the fridge.  It was a Hefeweizen.  So it was going to add some heartiness.  I also put in a dash or two of teryiaki.  I let it boil then added the leafy part of the bok choy and the spinach.  I thought my friend had just let it cook long enough to wilt it.

Oh, I didn’t yet mention that I don’t have a stock pot.  Maybe some of you know where this is going.  🙂

The instructions for the blender said that when you use blade C use it in a chopping motion.  Ok.  So I stuck the blender in the pot with one little pulse I thought, “Hmmm . . . . I should cover this.”  With the next “whrrrrr”, I thanked God because I was going to heat some bread in the oven on foil but decided not to and I think that having the piece of foil out already is what kind of made me think to use it.  Even with the foil it made a mess.  I used blade C but it wasn’t getting creamy.  So I added some cream cheese.  Not part of the original soup plan.  I tried blending again.  Still not creamy, I added the rest of the spinach. Still not as creamy as my friend’s soup.

I decided to use a different blade.  Blade B.  I put it on and put the blender in the pot and it did absolutely nothing.  So I decided to go back to blade C.  Now mind you, I was very careful to unplug the blender, and detach the stick from the motor.  So I walk over to the place where I have to blade removal tool and there is no blade.  Well, no wonder it wasn’t doing anything!  So I fished the blade out of the soup.  I put it back on and it still didn’t do anything. So I was going to change back to blade C and guess what?  Blade B was back in the soup.

I tried blade C again.  By now, I am using a portion of a lid and foil (I have this half metal half plastic lid and the plastic always falls out leaving the metal “rim” — so I was using that to help keep the mess down).  There was still green soup dripped all over the sides of the pot and all over the burner.  So I decided to use yet a different blade, the Raw Meat blade.

I never really got ALL the secondary spinach chopped up clean and the soup never got creamy.  But my hubby said over and over again it was good.  He said it was a keeper.  The next day (today) he was still talking about it and said I had to post the recipe on my blog.  I thought that those of you that make soup and those of you that use an immersion blender would enjoy hearing about how I made soup a mess by not using a stock pot or the correct blade.

Do you know which blade I should be using to blend the veggies and have it come out creamy?  Also, tell me how to use the blender.  Do I move it around like a hand mixer or set it at the bottom of the pot, then blend, then pick it up and set it back down, etc.?

Posted in Just stuff, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »