re: Soup Recommendations?

+1 on the immersion blender.
The most caloric food you can ingest is a milkshake made with super premium ice cream. Fat/wide straws make slurping easier, and you can beef up the calorie count with nit butters. Forget the Ensure/Boost and other shitty tasting canned nutritional supplements; they’re depressing, unnecessary, and pushed hard by the medical establishment. A homemade blended drink can be every bit as nutritious as that canned crap.

Food can still a source of pleasure/joy, don’t abandon those positive sensations of the body in the face of so much other bodily unpleasantness.

I make roasted red bell pepper soup and a corn chowder that are blended then put through a strainer to make them smoother. Pumpkin too.

Similar to this I use heavy cream and chicken stock

Corn chowder just blend complete;y and strain

Jacques Pepin consommé

You can make a good chicken or beef stock, then build a raft and clarify to make consommé which is great and you can garnish with many things. My father had the same cancer and loved to make this.

Hungryone, he hates Ensure and finds it super depressing. Milkshakes with high fat premium ice cream will be perfect. You are spot on about food being a source of joy and I'm going to make damn sure he has some great choices, in large part thanks to you guys. Just ordered a cheap Cuisinart immersion blender. What you've expressed here captures exactly how I feel about it. Food is love.

Tiger, Thank you for this amazing recipe. It's on tomorrow's docket. I can get locally made andouille at one place in Chapel Hill. It's not Louisiana good, but it's pretty good.

Gumbo2176's potato/leak soup simmering in my grandmother's dutch oven.

Love old pots like that. I have a couple from my late father-in-laws house when we went to clean things out. They were in pretty bad shape, but I cleaned them really well and then seasoned them and I use them often, especially when making a roux and frying chicken and seafood.

The hand immersion blender will be so helpful since you can puree right in the pot.

Bean soups are a good option and you could probably get the butcher to grind up some ham for you for seasoning if he can have that texture.

You can simmer aromatics in whatever stock you're using for these soups and remove them before pureeing.

Here's an eggplant soup that I really love.

Curried Eggplant Soup

2 T butter
2 T oil
1 c chopped onions
¾ c chopped celery
2 lbs eggplant, peeled and diced
2 c peeled, thinly sliced potatoes
1 ¼ t curry powder**make sure it’s fresh and of good quality-NO store brands
1/8 t thyme
1/8 t basil
1 t salt
white pepper and cayenne to taste
6-7 c chicken stock (Swanson’s low sodium stock is fine)
2 c heavy cream**you can use milk, cream or ½ and ½ and even fat free ½ and ½

Steam onion and celery in hot oil and butter, in tightly covered pot for 10 minutes or so, over low heat. Add eggplant and potatoes; steam 15 minutes more until vegetables soften. Stir every once in a while because it tends to stick. (I make several times the recipe at once, so this usually takes me longer than 15 minutes.)

Stir in all ingredients except cream. Bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer about 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and puree with hand held immersion blender or regular blender. Add cream and serve hot or cold. Better if made the day before. I freeze it before adding the cream. It’s easy to add the dairy in whatever amount you like to serving sizes.

This makes about 1.5-2 quarts. Nothing needs to be measured exactly. The main thing is to have plenty of eggplant. I probably use more onions than it calls for, which is my preference. If the curry is fresh and strong, it doesn’t need a lot of extra flavors. I do use a bit more curry, sometimes

You can garnish with a few small shrimp or crabmeat, if you like, but that’s not necessary. Just fancies it up a bit.

Here is a White Cheddar Soup that I also love. For this one, I'd recommend using the immersion blender on the vegetables before adding the cheese and you don't need any of the garnishes. This is great on a cold day.

White Cheddar Cheese Soup

Makes: 6 Cups
Saute in 1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter; Add:
1 cup yellow onion, diced small
1/2 cup celery, diced small
1 t. garlic, minced

Stir in; Add:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 t. dry mustard
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
1 t. ground white pepper

Whisk in:
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Stir in:
4 cups white Cheddar cheese, grated (about 12 oz.)

For the Toast Points —
Brush with Butter; Bake:
6 slices white bread, crusts removed, cut into triangles *I used French bread slices.

Garnish and Serve with:
Tomatoes, seeded, diced
Chopped fresh parsley
Buttered Toast Points

A little crumbled bacon or chopped pan sauteed sausage/andouille also makes a good garnish.

This lentil soups from Tom Fitzmorris is very good. You can simply puree it when done.

Lentil Soup

One of the inexplicable miracles of cooking is that it's apparently impossible to make a bad lentil soup. The worst I ever had was pretty good. The best were so good that they were gobbled up immediately and followed by a second serving. Leftover lentil soup can be refrigerated and will be even better the next day.
• 1 lb. lentils
• 3 Tbs. butter
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 3/4 cup finely diced carrots
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1 12-oz. can V-8 juice
• 2 quarts light stock (beef, veal, chicken, or a combination)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. Tabasco
1. Sort through the lentils and pick out debris, then wash them. Lentils don't need to be soaked for hours like red beans.

2. Melt the butter in a five-quart saucepan or Dutch oven. Sauté the vegetables until they begin to get tender. Add the V-8 juice, the stock, and the lentils and bring the pot to a boil.

3. Lower to a simmer. Add the salt, thyme, pepper, bay leaf, and Tabasco. Cover and simmer for two to three hours, or at least until the lentils are tender. Stir occasionally.

Serves eight.

Re: milkshakes, find out if alcohol is contraindicated in his treatment plan. A slightly boozy milkshake can work wonders on anxiety. Too many docs push Ativan or other tranqs on cancer patients for the emotional stress when a lil bit of booze can be just as helpful. We used to take my cousin living with ALS on field trips to the daiquiri shop—she could still drink liquids through a straw!and was living in a nursing home. You’re alive til you’re dead. Don’t waste the alive days, ya know? Enjoy it however you can.

Gris Gris,

Wow. I'm going to make all three. It's so generous of you all to share like this. Thank you,

Laura