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This isn’t so much a sauce as a topping, and boy does it deliver. It’s on the must-repeat list. The ingredients are pretty simple: pine nuts, bread crumbs, red onions, with a couple of surprises like capers.

Recipe here (I didn’t use the tomato variation though it sounds good, too). Yes, it’s from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian again.

I wonder if it would be good with almonds or walnuts or pecans instead of pine nuts. I’m guessing yes. I served it on top of pasta, but I think it would also be good on top of veggies of any kind. The crunchiness has an almost bacon-like quality.

Make sure to check out the comments in the last post for a special surprise. Sarah Towle has offered a promo code for her most excellent Paris travel app for the first five responders. She’s celebrating the release of the bilingual version. Merci beaucoup, Sarah!

My soup kick continues, though our weather is a little better and Hallelujah! the days are getting longer. This is my less-meat answer to chicken noodle soup. It’s a go-to easy recipe, and the best part is most of the ingredients are usually in my kitchen anyway.

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that I’ve made minor changes to. Basically you’re cooking onion, celery, and garlic together first. I added carrot into the mix, and if I don’t have the celery on hand, I just skip it. Then you’re pureeing the veggies with broth and a can of chick peas. You add a second can of chick peas whole (drained), then add pasta.

You get a rich, creamy soup with lots of hidden vegetable power. The stick blender is your friend here, a master of vegetable disguise. Make it as thick or thin as you like.

The carrots + chickpeas give it a lovely golden color, and I like using spaghetti noodles—somehow they seem more fun. I’ve been leaving out the rosemary, though it’s nice with it as well. You can always make it vegan/ vegetarian if you use vegetable broth. For grown ups: the red pepper flakes, freshly ground black pepper, and chopped parsley add a nice zing. Without the garnishes, it’s a plain-looking soup my kids like. Enjoy!

The Seventh Chair
by Ann Keffer

The Seventh Chair is a 2007 Cybils nominee.

At a Catholic School in Washington DC, a chair comes out of the sky and lands on the playground. Seated in the chair is a being who appears to be a nun, but who turns out to be Merlin. Merlin has come in the Siege Perilous looking for his new protégé, a modern-day Arthur who can help the world out of its troubles. But first he has to deal with a confused headmaster, a school bully, and a missing grail.

The Seventh Chair is a cute, funny, and lively story. Unfortunately, though, author Ann Keffer made a mistake that many novice children's writers make: she wrote the story from an adult perspective. Not only does most of the story follow the adult characters, rather than the children, but it seems to be written with an adult way of looking at the world. Also, while the book looks and reads like it's intended for a fairly young audience, there are some difficult vocabulary words. I'm not in the camp that believes that all children's books should have controlled vocabulary. I think it's good for children to be exposed to difficult vocabulary words. But if you have too many of them, it can frustrate budding readers.

In spite of these flaws, though, The Seventh Chair is an entertaining book. I quite enjoyed it, but then, I'm an adult and not the target audience. I have a hard time judging whether elementary-age children will enjoy it. I think that children will enjoy the humor, especially the way that the adult characters are depicted as largely incompetent. I loved the way that the school bully is depicted as a sympathetic character, and the ending was refreshing.