Baby it's cold outside...

There are a few appliances that make me feel like I'd be ready to be on any reality cooking show.  Not only do they save so much time but they also allow me to be creative with cooking in ways I would not have otherwise.

The first appliance is the NINJA BLENDER.  I got sucked in one night upon seeing the infomercial, that involved a man putting anything and everything into a blender (I think, he put a soccer ball in there!)  I found this blender on ebay and bought it.  At first I was annoyed because it was too tall to stay on the counter all the time, but soon I saw the error of my ways! The Ninja is not fancy, it has three settings (the fancy lies in the blade which you MUST be careful when you wash). I would describe the settings as: food processing, smoothie, and soup.


The second appliance is my steam cooker from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I asked my grandma to buy this for me for a birthday in 2007, and its great!  Clean up is ridiculously easy.  This can steam, slow cook or make rice.  You can expect several entries in the future exclaiming the need for every busy woman to have a steam cooker... you can throw ANY ingredients in and through the magic of heat, time and lack of your presence it can become the most fantastic meal.  Here is the SLOW COOKER I have
 
Tonight it was so cold, I grabbed a few things at the farmer's market and ran upstairs.  When I got upstairs I saw these things didn't necessarily go together, so I used the ingredients, with some in the fridge and my magical appliances and this is what I made:


Sunday Night Broccoli and Feta Soup (yes feta, didn't I mention I live in Astoria?)

Ingredients:

Two bunches of broccoli
One cucumber
1/4 of an onion
Olive Oil
Garlic
Sofrito


Steps:

1)  Steam the broccoli bunches in your slow cooker, along with 1/4 of an onion chopped up.

2)  After the broccoli is done steaming (which should be about 15 minutes), put into your blender.
Add two cups of water.  1/4 of a cup of olive oil.  BLEND.

3)  Skin a cucumber, and cut it into sections, add this.  Add 4 cloves of garlic.  BLEND.

4) I buy Goya's Sofrito, I can't say enough good things about this (with the exception that it is relatively high in sodium if you use it too generously)  I added in 4 tsp's of this at the same time that I dropped in a piece of fat free feta cheese that was about 4 ounces.

5) Blend again, for about a 30- 60 seconds and serve is a great bowl.  Add some crumbled cheese to the top for artful look!