Soup when it is 98 Degree's?

I am simmering vegetables on the stove to make a batch of corn and potato chowder.  At 8:30 this morning it was already  hot and humid and is expected, temp and heat index, to make it feel like 98 degree.  Why in the world am I making soup? Several ears of leftover sweet corn, and a supply of potatoes, carrots, and celery nearing their end is my inspiration. Also, it is September in Minnesota, and while today it is hot and humid, by weeks end, we could have a reverse forecast and be looking for an extra sweater. My freezer will have a couple ready made meals and I am happy for that. I am also pleased that this will be a help towards limiting eating out as soup is a fan favorite of my family. I am also pleased that I am using up items that easily could end up in the garbage. This is still a battle I am not winning, but still giving it a good fight. 

My two ears of corn.

I tried Googling a recipe for it, but have you noticed lately how difficult it is to actually get to a recipe when you do a search?  Multiple screen loads, requests for my Facebook  log in or to create an account, sifting through yet more articles, and I gave up.  I really don't need a recipe-I've been whipping up batches of soup for decades, so will do what I always do, improvise with what I have on hand.  

My veggies are sauteing in butter.

Once the veggies are soft, I added two cups of chicken broth, triple strong made with a three to one ration of  chicken bouillon, simmer another 10 minutes, then stirred in three potatoes, diced up, and simmered until soft, but not mushy.  By now, my soup is getting quite thick, so I'm adding four cups of whole milk, more salt and pepper to taste, and the kernels from my two large ears of corn, cooked earlier in the week when our eyes for sweet corn were bigger than our stomachs. I'll simmer it all, taste testing to see if it needs anything more of anything. Delish.

Here is the finished product.  While too hot for soup, I still had to  taste test it and I proclaim it tasty. DD#1 had a couple bites as well.  This was just a small sauce bowl, but you can imagine  a nice big bowl with some crusty bread. I hope it thaws well-I've never frozen milk or cream based soups, but if t gets to thick, I can add a bit more milk or makeshift broth.  What about you?  How are you starting the seasonal transitions with your menu?  

Just Your Basic Chicken Noodle Soup

 

 It's Sunday, and though I'm still moving slower, I can still chop vegetables with the best of them.  I had some frozen bread dough too so decided today, in knowing we will be eating overly rich dishes later in the week, seemed a perfect day to make a big pot of home style chicken noodle and some fresh baked bread. 

Home style Chicken Noodle soup-the easy way

1 large chicken boneless skinless chicken breast
1 1/2 cups sliced carrot
1 cup celery
1 onion
10 stock cubes
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
8 oz. (half bag) wide egg noodles
10 cups cold water

Simmer chicken breast in 2 cups of water along with vegetables until chicken is cooked through.  Remove chicken and dice into cubes  If you like more meat, cook 2 breasts.  Add the water, stock cubes,  pepper, and garlic, along with the chicken pieces back to the pot.  Simmer until the vegetables are tender. Add the egg noodles, bring to a boil, then turn down to low.  The soup is ready to serve when the noodles are tender. 

I know this is barely home made, and for those that need to watch sodium, the stock cubes might need to be reduced.  With all the ingredients purchased on sale, or at low cost, I can make this pot for $4.00 plus less than $2.00 for the two loaves of bread, and have two meals for three people, with little more time than opening a couple cans of Campbell's Chunky soup, and buying one pound loaves in the bakery department. The house smelt wonderful too.

I made it to church today.  I was a little nervous about the up and downs and the times of prolonged standing, but I did just fine.  DD#2 sang in her teen choir, which might be the last time for a while because we are losing her director and a replacement has yet to be found.  Even if the church hires soon, there is no guarantee  that person will have the same passion and patience to work with teen musicians as the former director who actually added the teen ensemble above and beyond his regular duties. The kids sang four songs,  including one of my favorite Christmas carols, Go Tell it on the Mountain. Most of the songs they do are contemporary but this was old school caroling, though with an electric and bass guitar, and a keyboard jamming as accompaniment for a delightful twist.

I'm getting a few presents wrapped and put under the tree.   I haven't tackled baking or candy yet, and at this stage may not at all before Wednesday, but I am resigned to accomplish just what I can. The Minnesota Vikings lost a close game, again, but other than that, it was a pretty good December Sunday.



While not strictly home made, the rising and baking dough made the house smell wonderful.

Souper Sunday: Cheating

We really like home made soup in our house, but sometimes time and energy is just a little short to prep and work through all the stages needed for some soups.  I have a confession-I keep Bear Creek dehydrated soup mixes on hand for just such times.  There are other brands, but my family likes this one quite a bit, particularly the creamy wild rice. To homemade it up a bit, I throw in a quickly diced celery stalk, perhaps a can or a few fresh sliced mushrooms, and some leftover chicken, ham, or bacon bits.  I know these are not the most  nutritious soups, and the sodium, content is 40% RDA for a 1 cup serving, so we try and keep any accompaniments very fresh and salt free, such as a loaf of crusty bread and some fresh fruit. We stock up when they go on sale, often at $3.00 or less and usually do not make more than once per month.  The package will make 8 one cup servings, so plenty plus leftover lunch for my small family.  It is not as tasty as home made varieties I have had, but considering you can get this started on the stove and to the table in 30 minutes, with relatively little watch time as most is the simmering, this is a convenience food that will stick around my pantry.  I'll be making plenty of  true home made soups this winter, but I doubt I'll attempt wild rice.

While purging my guilt with this confession, I wanted to share an interesting website I discovered that can help, or terrify, the person with kitchen duty in being more aware of what is being served when using various ingredients. Foodfacts.com is a handy, if not frightening, site where a person simply types in the product in the search bar and up will come a report on the ingredients and  brief summary of the nutritional benefits and weaknesses of the product. The report grades the food product as well. The ingredients come up color coded for controversial and non-controversial, and also red indicators for "avoiding" certain food traits.  I hate to admit the soup I will be serving my family gets an "F" at Foodfacts, but so does virtually every other variety of wild rice soup, including those at restaurants such as Panera.  As scary as it is, I think knowing what you are eating, helps you decide how to serve food around it. Sometimes the need for a warm comforting meal, even when time is a factor, overrules fresh and organic, particularly when it is waiting and ready to be prepared from your pantry.

Still, just as restaurants are being legally driven to provide nutritional details on wrappers and placemats, it is good to have a source to get the information a person may want.  Everyone knows McDonalds food eaten as a sole diet is not going to be good for you, but knowing the difference between  a Big Mac and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, might be enough to alter a choice, or skip altogether and just get a single hamburger with a yogurt and apple slices. I'm not a nutritionist, but I did manage a government funded nutrition program contract for several years, so I can't plead complete ignorance on my food choices. With tools like Foodfacts and nutrition labels out in the open, it should make us more informed consumers.  Whether it changes behaviors is a discussion for another day.

Souper Sunday's

Not the most original title, but I am introducing a regular feature to my blog called Souper Sundays. This will run through the cold months of winter to motivate me to test the waters with some new recipes, or create my own from the pantry, fridge, and freezer.  Today, we have plans with extended family, but a cup of soup in a mug later tonight when we get home, and having some leftovers ready for the week will serve us well for a light and quick meal. 

Today's soup...Tomato Vegetable with Rice

This will be a crock-pot soup, and a semi homemeade, use up ingredients on hand soup.  In no particualr order, throw into you crock pot the following ingredients:
1 can condensed tomato soup
6 cups of water
5 chicken, beef, or vegetarian bouillon cubes
1 large chopped onion (or two small is what I had)
3 large but small cut carrots-about 1+ cups worth
3 large but small cut celery stalks about 1+cups worth
1/2 cup
2 tsp. of pepper
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp. garlic powder
extra salt if you think to taste but with the cubes and condensed soup, probably more than anyone needs in a serving.

These were my ratios based on what I had on hand and wanted to use up.  Roughly I do a 1-1 vegetable to water ratio, 1-2 rice to water ratio, and then 1 can soup-1 cup water ratio, so a little less than equal the can. I like to have 1 cube of bouillon per cup of water, but  reserved one less since the canned soup already has so much flavor. That's how I decide on  5 cubes and 6 cups water.  Tweak as it works better for your taste, and thickness of soup preference.

Turn on high if you will be eating in 4-6 hours, or low if you want to just let it cook all day.  That is it, and while somewhat experimental, I can't see why it won't be delicious. You could add meat if you wanted as well, but we often have a grilled cheese or a deli sandwich along with soup, so I don't worry about meat with most soups.  DD#1 is vegetarian so I got accustomed to versioning things, or making one and supplementing meat sides for some meals.  This was simple and cheap, and uses some of the stocked up at dirt cheap prices  tomato soup we have on hand, but never seem to eat as soup. Some day I might put pencil to paper and do a better cost summary than the estimating in my head, but I'll say roughly $3.25 for 6 hearty portions. Some of you like the pureed soup and I think this would lend well to that if you so choose, particularly if you left the rice out.  I wanted a little more sustenance to it. Enjoy!

If some things work out for me in the time department, I'd love to do a post at the end of December, early January compiling links to some of the best  tried and true or experimental soup recipes.  Leave a comment if you think that would be a post that would interest you.  Even better, if you like the idea, and have one to include, leave me the link to the blog post that contains your recipe.  All will be duly credited.

Sunshine and Soup

Last nights cocktails have wore off and despite not having to get anything done, decided to not be a total slug.  It is sunny and bright outside, but deceiving.  It's a nippy 40 degrees out there.  Perfect fall soup weather.  I have an easy bean soup throw together.  I can't really call it a recipe.  It's easy but cooks a long time as I often don't plan enough ahead to presoak and soften the beans.  Here it is.

Simple Bean Soup
2 small or 1 large onion, about 1 cup
2 large or bunch of baby carrots, sliced but still with size, about a cup
2-3 stalks celery cut in bites, again, you guessed it about a cup
At this point you can add other veg you might have like peppers, turnips or parsnips, even a little squash.
Cook onion until soft in a TBSP or so of butter, add carrots and celery, cook all until a little caramelly in color, add salt and pepper, about 1 tsp. each to flavor veggies.  Add 1 lb. dried navy beans that you have washed and gone through. Add 12 cups of water, and turn heat on high until boiling.  For additional flavor, add bullion cubes or powder, no more than 1 per cup of water, or any other flavoring you like such as  Italian seasoning, garlic, onion powder etc.instead of bullion if you are concerned with salt,.Flavoring ratio is generally 1/2 tsp. per cup, of water depending on dried or fresh.  Start lighter and add as you want more flavor.  The beans with the vegetables alone are a nice flavor I find, but I do like to doctor it up a bit.

Once on a high boil, you can cover and turn down to a simmer for about 90 minutes, or transfer to a slow cooker set on high and just leave until the beans are soft.  Depending on how hot your cooker gets, this could be 4-6 hours. For the simmering method, I turn off and just let sit covered about an hour, and then check for softness of the beans.  Of course you can add meat, or simmer the whole time with a ham bone with some remnants still on as those will fall off and add a nice touch-remove bone before serving.  My older daughter is a vegetarian, so when she is around, we skip the meat additions, but I  love making with a reserved ham bone the best.


While still simmering, I took a bit of video by mistake-can't you almost smell it? We'll get two meals for the four of us, or one meal, and freeze 4 portions for work lunches. I didn't calculate the cost for the batch, but I'd estimate under $4.50, to get 8 hearty servings. I was going to double as I had ingredients to do so, but worried my pot wasn't big enough and would bubble over. In hind sight 1 1/2 batch size would have been good, then two meals and lunch's.  This is old school for so many of you, but for those that think home made soup is tough, it really is just throwing things you like together with broth, and seasoning to taste.