Roper's Summer Serenade Special

Being broke, conveniently around the time of my ‘rents birthday, they offered us (Jen and I) a great gift idea: we could make dinner for Mom and Dad. I agreed, and Jen and I planned a simple, but hopefully yummy dinner. We went to Fresh&Easy and bought all the ingredients, and even dug up some bargains (a bag of carrots for 52 cents and mini French bread sticks for 50 cents) and most importantly, we left the parents guessing. When we got home, Quinan cleverly led the parents outside as we prepared their meal. I had Jensen find the old whiteboard and wrote the special in green and purple marker: J&K Cafe’s Special: The Summer Serenade, and the Drink of the Day was the Holiday American Pie Drink. Jensen and I scrambled around to try to make everything perfect. Half an hour later, the parents came in to order. Of course, they ordered the Summer Serenade with a glass of the Holiday American Pie drink. We first brought out the appetizer: Crackers a’la Dill. Here’s the recipe:

10 large, whole-wheat crackers (preferably circular)
plain, whipped cream cheese spread
10 sprigs of dill

1. Take the crackers and spread the cream cheese on them.
2. Top with dill and serve.

Dad commented on the dill as he guzzled down a large glass of the Holiday American Pie Drink:

1 container of concentrated, frozen apple juice
1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1. Follow the directions on the container and make the apple juice.
2. Add the cinnamon and stir well.
3. Serve cold.

Then we served the salad. No special ingredients or dressing. After everyone had a good heaping plateful of salad, I brought out the soup while Jen topped it with fresh ground pepper. Here’s the recipe for thr Roper’s Garden Soup:

2 cans chicken broth
3/4 cups of small, alphabet noodles
1 zucchini, sliced
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/2 carrot, sliced,
12 snow peas, diced
1/2 cup of frozen corn (in kernals)
1 6 oz can of diced jalapeno, drained
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper

1. Heat the chicken broth until it boils. Add the noodles and salt. Stir occasionally for five minutes, then leave at medium heat.
2. Add the zucchini, carrots, peas, corn, jalapeno, and tomatoes, one at a time, waiting three minutes until adding the next ingredient.
3. Add the heavy whipping cream and stir. Let it simmer for seven minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pepper and serve immediately.

Jen and I waited nervously for our parents output on the soup. To our happiness, they loved it! Even though I made it up as I went, I decided to recall as much of the recipe as I could and decided to blog it for million’s (okay, maybe only ten’) of blog readers to make this creation, and maybe become inspired to make up their own recipes.

03/30/2008 | ken |

What do you think this soup needs?

  1. Sounds good to me! Good job you guys!!!

    http://roper5.com/images/79.jpg

    Kim
    Mar 30, 07:48 PM

Commenting is closed for this article.