Last week, I had a huge cooking disaster with a new recipe for ceviche. It’s bound to happen, so I’m not crying over the failure (nor over spilled milk). This week, on the other hand, with a newly found recipe as well as the necessary ingredients in that hand, success reigned. It was for artichoke spinach chicken soup.

Artichoke spinach chicken soup. Using a dutch oven or a large saucepan, heat 4 tbsp of oil. Add 1 chopped yellow onion, 3 chopped carrots (I do not use carrots, don’t ask), and 2 sliced stalks of celery. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add 4 finely chopped garlic cloves and sauté 1 more minute.

Add 8 cups of chicken broth* and bring to a boil. Add 1 pound of chopped boneless chicken thighs and 1 bay leaf. Gently boil about 5-10 minutes, til the chicken is cooked. Add 8 ounces of chopped baby spinach, 2 cups of marinated artichoke hearts, and the juice of 1-2 lemons. Serve with rice or noodles (oops, I meant to cook rice, but forgot it!).

*I had the carcass of a rotisserie chicken and a few pieces of cooked left over chicken. I used these in the soup. After some time, I took the chicken out; when cooled, I took the meat off the carcass and chopped up all the meat to return to the soup before adding the spinach and artichokes.

This is a mild, delicious soup. I’m sure you can add to it to spice it up.

Art Week continues as Constant Companion and I ramble around town. I had read something about a sculpture on historic Española Way in Miami Beach. When preparing for my public art walking tour, I couldn’t find it. Christmas Day found me giving a delightful family group a general walking tour and, voila, there it was! This large scale sculpture by Sean Kolodny. This constellation of giant silver and gold bubbles is Kolodny’s first public art project. It is a joint effort of the City, the House of Creed (which sells fragrances) and the Esmé Miami Beach Hotel.* It will be up til mid May for other intrepid art adventurers.

*The owners of Esmé and other properties on Española carefully restored the properties during the Covid closedown. I love showing visitors they revitalized the behind-the-scenes spaces of the hotel to create Spanish style alley ways in homage to the original intent of the early developers of this area of town.

And finally, how do you spend Christmas Day? Our family celebrates the day with Chinese brunch. It’s said that because neither Chinese nor Jews celebrate the birth of Jesus, what better way to have a delicious meal – a match made in, well, heaven.

Because of my recent tour was on Christmas morning, Constant Companion and I enjoyed our holiday brunch the following day. We tried a well-established restaurant new to us. CC was attracted by the dim sum cart service as well as the promise of something different. No better way for us to mark this season. Here’s just a sample of a few of the favorites we enjoyed …

If you want more on the subject of Jews and Chinese food, you might enjoy YidLifeCrisis and “yingle belz.” They give me laughs every time I watch!

Here’s to continuation of the many forms of creativity in 2024.