4) Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Growing up as an unabashed carnivore, it took me a while to wrap my head around the concept of vegetarianism. I actively pitied my vegetarian friends in Chicago, Lara and Andrew. The reasons as to why anyone would willingly forgo the great joy of eating a perfectly-cooked steak, or a succulent piece of duck, or a luxurious lobster tail remained a mystery to me. In fact, I felt compelled to "cure" my friend Andrew with a standing offer to treat him to a famous Bleu Burger from the dimly-lit Moody's Pub, in the event that he desired to abandon the error or his meat-abstaining ways. He remained resolute, though I still wonder how. That was one tasty burger. In recent years, I have found it harder to ignore the environmental and ethical arguments against eating meat, so I am thankful that I gained knowledge and experience in the ways of cooking vegetarian dishes from my Chicago pals. That insight has only grown, due to the fact that my brother-in-law Bryan/Rivers/Jonas is a...