This week, Kitchen Parade's weekly column launches a new series called Quick Suppers where the fare will be fast and a whole lot more, er, less. We kick off with a grilled or pan-fried Spiced Yogurt Chicken .

Today's Soup Recipe: An ultra-rich tomato soup, laced with butter and orange juice. ~ recipe & photo updated in 2008 ~ 2005: My oh my. This may be the most delicious soup ever, at least within memory. The tomato is comfortably familiar. The orange is a subtle surprise but still recognizable. Combined, you'll wonder, why didn't we do this before? Made with an entire stick of butter and cream to boot, it's packed with calories and thus perfect comfort food for a neighbor who needs calories to fight a fast-moving cancer. It would also make a lovely starter - small portions! - at a dinner party. Or for every-day, save calories to savor a whole bowl. (Thought: Perhaps there's a lower-calorie version to be had by adding orange juice to Summer's Tomato Soup ?) The soup's inspiration comes from a [2008: now defunct] blog Taste Everything Once. Jenn was in the middle of moving and unpacked her soup pot at 5 in the morning just to make this! She thought it w

Since the weekend, the frig has been home to an overflowing bag of sweet peppers purchased for a quarter apiece at Soulard, St. Louis' year-round farmers market. Yes: you read right. A quarter a pepper. The supermarket price is $1.50 a pepper, six times higher. So the Simple Summer Harvest Soup over at Farmgirl Fare caught my attention again. Thanks to what was on hand, however, Farmgirl's soup and mine are a bit different: Hers was a 50:50 mix of sweet pepper and summer squash, mine 75:25 sweet pepper and zucchini. She recommends homemade chicken stock and I do too. But with none in the freezer, I used a pantry staple, the 48-ounce can of Swanson's 100% Fat Free Natural Goodness. It's not comparable but certainly 'good enough'. Farmgirl says this soup's flavor melds after resting a day. I was in a rush serving-wise, so spiked the flavor with 2 tablespoons of adobo sauce - making for heat that not everyone would appreciate but was easily cooled dow

Despite the other night's experience , greens can taste soooo good. (See? It pays to keep trying!) Here's a terrific example. Easy. Fast. A little prep and then virtually no hands-on time. And thanks to a new technique happened onto while cooking something else, low carb, no fat and no points! This one's a keeper, one to turn to again and again. [If you like nutmeg, try last month's Nutmeg Carrots . Or for other recipes with ever-healthful greens, see Leafy Greens in the Recipe Box .] SPINACH with NUTMEG Hands-on time: 5 minutes Time to table: 15 minutes Serves 4 About 1/2 cup good chicken broth 1 onion, sliced or diced (tonight I did strips, next time I'll dice) 1 yellow pepper, sliced or diced (ditto) 1 heaping teaspoon garlic (from a jar, hey! it's a weeknight!) 16 ounces fresh spinach Salt & pepper Fresh nutmeg Heat a splash of chicken broth in a large, deep skillet on MEDIUM HIGH. When it starts to simmer, add the onion and pepper

A savory noodle casserole (also called a "noodle kugel") made with fresh spinach, flat noodles, sour cream and cheese, extra delicious served hot from the oven. Savory Spinach Kugel is super simple to make and would be easy to scale up to serve a crowd. Fresh & Seasonal. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Scales from Small Casserole to a Large Baking Dish. Vegetarian.

After oh-so-many successful batches of Slow-Roasted Tomatoes , I began to wonder if the same wonderful sweet-roasted flavor might be achieved at a higher temperature. My conclusion: It can't. I consulted reliable sources for combinations of temperature and time, ranging from 350F to 500F and 20 minutes to 45 minutes. I settled on 400F and starting slicing. These are the Kitchen Notes: Batch 13: 400F, 25minutes. Face down on 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt and pepper, fennel. Yielded 3 cups tomato PLUS 1 1/2 cups liquid (see the picture) so MUST use rimmed baking sheet. Think liquid is result of high temperature with tomatoes face down. Took 30 minutes til cool enough to handle. More like stewed tomatoes. Okay but nothing close to slow-roasted. Batch 14: 400F, 90 minutes (I think). Face up, misted with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, fennel. No standing juice but yield only 1 1/2 cups. Some burned spots on skins and pan. Took 30 minutes to cool. Flavor less like

Aren't these the prettiest little muffins? Thanks to CookSister , a South African living in the UK, I knew just what to do with something new that showed up at the local supermarket recently, peppadews, a part tomato / part pepper indigenous to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. I was intrigued by the peppadews themselves but also by a muffin with half the 'standard' amount of fat. For all their prettiness and relative healthfulness, the taste testers found these a bit floury and at least to one palate, 'too spicy'. (They are good warm and doused in butter!) Destined for picnic sandwiches, these were made in giant muffin tins. The picnic didn't happen but I do think these muffins would be great that way, with ham or turkey or something slightly salty tucked inside with a little mayo, lettuce, tomato, even cheese. PEPPADEW MUFFINS CookSister's Recipe and Notes (including metric measurements, fyi you may have to scroll down aways) Hands-on time: 15