Zuppa Toscano

It was cold and rainy today and I thought it was the perfect day for soup! This recipe comes together quickly relying on the flavors of the sausage to make the soup. Maybe a bit too much spice for kids - we served ours a mild sausage instead.

Adapted from the kitchn where the measurements seemed off

Ingredients 

1 1/2 quarts chicken broth

1lb spicy Italian sausage, casings removed

1t olive oil

1 lb russet potatoes, sliced into 1/4" half moons

1 bunch curly kale, ripped into bite sized pieces

1 onion, chopped

3-4 cloves Garlic, crushed

Salt

Pepper 

1/2 C heavy cream

Directions

1. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium then add sausage and brown. Break up large chunks.

2. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft. 

3. Add chicken broth, potatoes and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20min until potatoes start to fall apart

4. Add kale and cream and cook until kale is bright green and wilted

5. Serve warm with warm bread

Chicken Tortilla Soup (No Beans)

There is a Mexican restaurant by us and it has delicious Chicken tortilla spup.  I looked for recipes like it but all the recipes have beans and no potatoes. This recipe has the right flavor profile but also no potatoes. It is delicious!  Very quick to make and can be adapted for the slow cooker! Plus it is a one-pot meal!

Ingredients
1lb chicken breasts or thighs, cut into small chunks
32ox chicken broth
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 lb carrots cut into rounds
2 ears corn, kernels removed
1 jalepeno, ribs and seeds removed, diced
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2T tomato paste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ancho chili powder
Salt
Olive oil
1/2 bunch cilantro

For Serving:
Lime wedges
Shredded cheese
Tortilla chips
Avocado
Cilantro


Directions
1. In a large pot over medium heat add olive oil and then sauté pepper, onion, carrot and garlic until onion is soft.
2. Add spices and stir on the bottom of the pot vigorously for 30 seconds
3. Add all other ingredients except cilantro
4. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for at least 20min or until chicken pieces are cooked through but longer is fine
5. Add cilantro just before serving
6. Top with desired toppings

Chicken Tortilla Stew

The other day I had plans for dinner but needed to have something available for my family. I decided to make a chicken tortilla soup and some poached chicken - two birds...

The resulting soup from this recipe is more of a stew as much of the broth disappeared. This is flavorful but not spicy. I recommend this super quick dish for your family!

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 14oz can chopped fire roasted tomatoes
1 14oz can chopped tomatoes
4 Cups chicken broth
salt & pepper
1 t chipotle chili powder
1 t ancho chili powder
1/2 t cumin
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
juice 1/2 lemon or 2 limes
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

For serving - Tortilla chips, cheese, avocado, more limes

Directions
1. Heat oil in a large pot and add onion, cook until softened.
2. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more
3. add everything else except chicken, lemon and cilantro
4. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer
5. Add chicken and simmer 20 minutes
6. Remove chicken, cut or shred 2 chicken pieces
7. With the other chicken pieces cut and reserve for another use (aka for your toddler! They weren't spicy at all)
8. Add chicken, lemon juice and cilantro back in. Simmer 5 minutes
9. Serve

Ham Bone Soup

For Christmas Eve we served a ham because it was super easy. We also served baked potatoes that didn't cook long enough. Where do you get small russet potatoes anyway?

We had a lot of leftover ham even after giving away a few pounds so we decided to utilize the ham in many ways. We made a delicious quiche and then we used the bone to make our very own ham stock and soup.  The soup is pretty low calorie, delicious and something to add to our freezer stash of soup.

By the way, if you do freeze soup, we recommend putting it in gallon and quart sized bags. Leave space for expansion and then place them on a rimmed baking tray and freeze on the tray. Once frozen, transfer to the freezer alone. They lie flat and don't use all your extra tupperware! You can heat from frozen too, it just takes a bit longer.

Ham Bone Soup

Ingredients
1 ham bone, meat removed
Any meat scraps (anything with skin, fat, whatever)
1 onion, diced
1 russet potato, diced
2 large carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Cup pinto beans
1 T fresh rosemary
1 T fresh thyme
salt
pepper
2 T olive oil
2 Cups diced leftover ham


Directions
1. In a large stock pot or dutch oven place the ham bone and ham scraps and cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil and turn down the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until fragrant. *tip - step outside and back inside to see if it smells great yet*
3. Taste the broth and confirm it tastes like something other than water
4. Remove ham bone and skim out scraps
5. In a large skillet, heat olive oil
6. Add potato, carrot, onion and garlic. Saute until onion is translucent about 3 minutes
7. Add the onion mixture, ham, spices and beans to the broth
8. Bring to a boil
9. Lower heat and simmer at least 10 minutes or until dinner is served

Mine made at least 10 servings

Homemade Chicken Stock turned Chicken Soup

AA couple of weeks ago my friends from work came over bearing roast chicken and pasta.  We froze the carcasses for stock assuming we would never consider making such a thing. Then all of a sudden we decided to actually try it! We have been spending lots of time at home so it kind of made sense. The soup was good so I think that is all due to the great stock, however, it's a lot of time for not too much output. If you go down this path...well you can still make soup with canned broth.

Chicken Stock:
Did not make enough for soup but, then again I didn't add more water when it burned off because honestly I wasn't anywhere near the pot of stock while it was simmering for the entire 4 hours.

Ingredients:
2 chicken carcasses
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 T peppercorns
3 sprigs thyme
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 T olive oil
Enough water to cover the chickens

Directions:
1. In a large pot, heat the oil. Add the carrots, celery onion and garlic and cook about 8 minutes until softened and fragrant
2. Add chicken carcasses, peppercorns and thyme. Add water to cover the chickens.
3. Bring to a boil, skim off foam (may be gray), reduce heat to a simmer, cover. Simmer 4 hours+.
Supposedly you should stir every so often and also add more water when it boils off. I didn't do that so the output was small.
4. Strain stock into another pan or containers. Use right away or freeze for 3 months.

Chicken and Barley Soup:
This soup was pretty good, these quantities served 4 people along with salad and biscuits with a tiny bit leftover that could be boosted with some chicken broth for another serving.

Ingredients:
6 carrots, chopped in bite-sized pieces
6 celery ribs, chopped in bite-sized pieces
1/2 large onion, ""
6 sprigs thyme + 3 sprigs fresh oregano tied in a bundle
Salt
Pepper
3 boneless skinless chicken thighs, chopped in bite-sized pieces
1 can chicken broth + all the stock you made
1 C barley (before preparation, this was actually a lot of barley so you could make less)

Directions:
1. In a large pot, combine all the ingredients EXCEPT the barley. Don't worry, the chicken WILl cook.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover partially, simmer for one hour
3. In another small pot make barely according to package directions
4. Just before serving, add the barley to the soup. If you make the barley in the soup it will soak up all your hard work liquid.

Fastest Pumpkin Soup

Joey & I made his famous pumpkin cranberry scones again last weekend and we were again left with half a can of pumpkin.  What do you even do with leftover pumpkin? You certainly don't eat it by the spoonful, yuck!  So I searched the web and stumbled upon this list of 50 things to do with canned pumpkin on the Food Network!

Pumpkin soup seemed like a good idea, so I gave it my own twist and now I have soup for lunch and it took 5-10 minutes tops!

Ingredients:
1 generous C canned pumpkin
3/4 C chicken broth
1/4 C apple cider + extra if needed
1/4 C cream
1/8 t cinnamon
1/8 t ginger
1/8 t nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
dash of salt

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a small pot and whisk on the medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
2. Let simmer 10 minutes
3. Serve.

Chicken & Noodles

This afternoon my friends and I met to discuss "The Personal History of Rachel DuPree" and eat. Unfortunately, this book was all about not eating so I had to be creative with the food served but I wanted to keep it Pioneer-like.  I decided on a simple meal of Chicken & Noodles. Chicken & Noodles is something I have most had experience with in Indiana. Traditionally, the noodles are made from scratch and the whole thing is served over mashed potatoes and sometimes a biscuit. That seemed a little excessive...On the second day the broth is all soaked up by the noodles so it becomes more of a casserole than soup.  I served this the first day* so it was more of a dumpling soup.  Still delicious--mashed potatoes weren't missed.

*Technically I made the soup the day before but I didn't add the noodles (which soak up the broth) until the next day so it was still soupy.



Chicken Soup

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 box chicken stock (24 oz)
2 cans chicken broth
1 T herbs de Provence
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t turmeric
1 t salt
5 grinds black pepper
3 carrots, chopped or cut into coins
2 celery stalks cut into half moons
3 inner celery stalks with leaves chopped
1 batch dumpling noodles (recipe to follow)
1 1/2 C pasta water from making noodles

1. Place chicken pieces and all the spices in a large dutch oven and cover in stock--if chicken isn't all the way covered add some broth until it is covered.
2. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. (this is called poaching chicken)
3. Meanwhile, chop the vegetables
4. When chicken is cooked, remove chicken from broth and set aside.  Add vegetables to the pot and cook 10-15 minutes on medium
5. When chicken is cool enough to touch, shred with your hands or two forks
6. Add chicken back in and add broth if you think broth is low.  Heat 5 minutes then remove from heat and let cool and refrigerate overnight (unless you are having it today, then just turn off the heat until the pasta is ready).

Dumpling Noodles from here
2 1/2 C flour
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
1 t salt
1 T butter, melted

1. In a large bowl combine flour and salt.  In a medium bowl combine eggs, milk and butter. Whisk until just combined.
2. Pour egg mixture into a well in the middle of the flour and stir until just combined
3. Turn  out on a floured surface and knead 5 minutes until smooth
4. Place dough back in the bowl and cover in plastic wrap. Let sit 15 minutes
5. Turn out the dough onto floured surface and roll as thin as you can go--aim for 1/4 inch. If it starts springing back step away for a few minutes and come back and try again.
6. Use a pie crimper or knife or something to cut into long strips
7. Place cut noodles on a cooling rack and let sit while you boil the water
8. Boil water in a large pan. When water is boiling add 1 t +  of salt. Cook noodles 5 minutes until they taste like pasta.
9. Reserve 1 1/2 C pasta water. Drain noodles
10. Add noodles to the soup along with reserved pasta water and heat soup until warm. Serve today as soup and Serve tomorrow over mashed potatoes...if you dare.

Sausage and Bean Soup

A few weeks ago I went on a bit of a sausage kick, I bought a few kinds of sausages on sale. I bought one kind for a recipe and the other cause I'd always wanted to try it and there was that sale. Then I went home and made the recipe and later we had the other sausages and we found we didn't love them. I was now stuck with a variety of extra sausages.  Being "Autumn" I decided to make a nice soup with the sausages and some beans. I searched recipes, I found one, I went to the store and got the rest of the ingredients.

And then it was 106 degrees.  For the whole week...

But finally this weekend the weather was a little more reasonable, so I made some soup.  I loosely followed this recipe. It was actually a really hearty soup and pretty delicious. And guess what? Joey ate Kale!


My adaptation:

Ingredients
2 15oz cans white beans, drained and rinsed
4 C chicken broth (low sodium)
1 onion
3 large carrots
2 cloves garlic
4 sausages, (I used 2 pork-wine from Guy Ferrari and 2 Italian Chicken)
1/2 bunch kale
1/2 t salt
10 grinds pepper
1/2 t Italian spices
1/4 t oregano
1/4 t thyme
2 bay leaves
1 T olive oil

Directions
1. Dice the onions and slice the carrots into half moons. Mince the garlic
2. Heat a heavy pot over medium high and add oil once hot
3. Saute the onions and carrots until onions are soft and brown, about 4 minutes
4. Slice the sausages into half moons, prepare the spices
5. Add the garlic to the pot and cook about 30 seconds, then add the sausages
6. Cook for 8 minutes and then add the beans, spices and chicken broth--keep track of those bay leaves.
7. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
8. Remove 2 cups of the soup and blend with an immersion blender, add it back to the soup and cook another few minutes.
9. Remove kale leaves from stems and cut into pieces, rinse
10. Remove soup from heat and add kale to let it wilt, serve

Vegetable Barley Soup with Beef

A few days ago, I decided to slow-cook a roast beef.  I used a recipe from All Recipes that called for only 1/2 C of water. I thought that seemed to be not much liquid at all but decided that 40 people and 5 stars knew what they were talking about.

12 hours later, I arrived home to a dish hanging out in the slow cooker on warm that smelled amazing and was dryer than a pumice stone. We went out for pizza. Joey offered to douse the meat with A1 sauce and eat it for lunch but I was disappointed I couldn't think of what to do with it but slice it and throw it in the fridge.

The carrots, which were immersed in the liquid were fantastic and I ate those for lunch.  After Joey had some meat for lunch he decided that the meat tasted a lot like soup meat. He suggested we make some soup and add the meat.  I'm not much into making soup but I was game for trying to resurrect my dreadful roast.

I searched the web and spoke to my soup-making sister and came up with a game plan.  I followed two recipes tweaking them as the soup simmered.  I think the result is rather delicious but time will tell when we eat it for real tomorrow.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Chunky Turkey Vegetable Soup and MyRecipes Beef & Barley.

Ingredients
1 C pearl barley
4 carrots, diced
3 celery spears, diced in crescents
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 14.5 ounce can stewed tomatoes in juice
1 box beef broth
1 C water
2 bay leaves
2 T tomato paste
1 tsp olive oil
2 C cooked beef, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped

Directions
1. Chop all the vegetables before you start cooking because once you start things go faster than expected.
2. In a large pot with a lid, heat olive oil over medium.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
3. When onion is soft, add tomato paste and stir
4. Add tomatoes and their juice, celery, broth, water, carrots, bay leaves, rosemary and salt and pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil.
5. Once the soup has started to boil, add the zucchini and barley and reduce heat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes or until barley is cooked
6. Remove bay leaves and add beef. Leave on the burner until the beef is warmed through and serve
7. If you eat the soup right away ignore this step. If you don't eat the soup immediately, the liquid may absorb completely into the barley. Keep extra beef broth on hand to revitalize the liquid for your next bowl. Just scoop out the soup you want and add enough broth for your tastes. You could probably add broth & water if you are so inclined.

Fresh Tomato Soup

My mom and her friend Moira have been making this fresh tomato soup at the height of the season for as long as I can remember. We've always had a surplus of tomatoes from my Grandpa's farm and this is one way to use lots. My mom never makes just one recipe, she doubles or triples the recipe and freezes the soup for a touch of summer in the cold winter months that follow.

The soup is very fresh tasting and really tastes like a bowl of tomatoes at the best time. I love the freshness and delicious flavors with a little Parmesan melted on top. If you have too many tomatoes, make this, you won't regret it.

Ingredients:

Blend these together in the food processor:
4 large carrots, peeled
4 stalks celery
3 medium onions

----------------------

1 green pepper, diced by hand
14 large ripe tomatoes, peeled
1/4 C. olive oil and 1/4 C. butter...or 1/2 C. olive oil
1/2 C. finely chopped fresh parsley (use food processor)
1 bay leaf
18 leaves fresh basil (more or less according to taste)
salt (according to taste), approximately 1 T.
freshly ground pepper to taste
Grated fresh Parmesan cheese - for serving

Directions
Heat oil (and butter) in heavy pan. Cook carrots, celery, onion, and green pepper in oil 20 minutes. Add tomatoes, bring to a boil, and continue cooking over moderate heat 25-30 minutes. Stir in parsley, bay leaf, basil, salt, and pepper. Cook 5 minutes. Blend slightly with immersion blender. Serve hot, sprinkled liberally with Parmesan cheese. This recipe freezes well.

Coconut Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Collard Greens

Last week my sister in law got her second box of produce. In it was a bunch of collard greens that she went to great lengths to get rid of. I ended up taking those greens and then had to figure out what to do with them.

There are two typical ways to make collard greens. 1. Braise them with hamhocks for hours until they are cooked down and flavorful, 2. saute them with bacon and onions. While the latter sounded like my kind of thing, I was really hoping to find something different to do with them. Eventually, I came across a recipe for soup with the greens. I thought it sounded interesting--something like a thai curry soup.

I got all the ingredients with grand plans to make it Wednesday night and then I hit a roadblock of laziness and put them aside. Finally I got to it on Saturday. This soup is ridiculously quick to make (as long as you don't have to run to the store to replace a moldy onion). After some light chopping the soup comes together in 40 minutes. One could have this as a quick weeknight meal.

My husband likely wouldn't eat this soup--although he said it smelled good and I almost got him to try some...I had my taste of the soup with dinner and poured it over rice. I don't think it needs the rice though as it wasn't nearly as spicy as I expected. I put in the lime juice and the cilantro and I think that was a nice edition.

You can find the recipe over on Dandy Sugar, Here.

Roasted Carrot & Potato Soup

My husband and I hosted my family at our house for Christmas day. I wanted the food to be delicious, elegant and hands off. So, I decided on roast beef, roasted potatoes and carrots, green beans, seasonal fruit salad and dinner rolls. My family was very impressed! The dinner went off without a hitch. Near the end, however, I realized we had lots of leftovers. No problem for the beef--we could just have French dips. But what was I to do with a bunch of roasted potatoes and carrots? The worst part was those potatoes and carrots didn't come out crispy--they were more steamed than roasted and they weren't very flavorful alone.

I mentioned to my sister in law how I had an overflow of leftover roasted vegetables and she suggested, quite simply, make a soup. A soup, I thought? I don't really make soup. But hey, what did I have to lose? We wouldn't be eating those potatoes or carrots anyway. So today I whipped up a roasted carrot & potato soup--it is fantastic! I used the immersion blender and it turned a beautiful yellow color--the sunshine that has recently disappeared from the Los Angeles skyline. I didn't measure for this soup--I just threw some things together. The only negative effect of not measuring was a heavy hand with the pepper. This soup is a tad on the spicy side. I was able to cut it a little with some milk which was a nice addition to the soup regardless, but next time I'll be careful with the pepper.

Ingredients

1 brown onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, diced

roasted potatoes & carrots *I can't be sure how much I used but I know I originally roasted a bag & a half of carrots and about 4 pounds of new red potatoes. This filled a rimmed baking tray to the brim--which is why they steamed instead of roasting in one even layer...)

herbs de Provence

dried thyme

salt & pepper

2 Cups vegetable broth (1 can)

2 Cups water

2 T olive oil

1 C (or less) whole milk or cream (optional, I needed it due to the pepper)

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion and saute until translucent and fragrant, about 10 minutes.

2. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds

3. Add potatoes and carrots, vegetable broth, water and all the spices to taste (watch out for the pepper!).

4. Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour or until potatoes and carrots are very soft and can be smooshed with a spoon.

5. After simmering, puree soup with an immersion blender until smooth. Add milk or cream if desired and serve warm.

Pasta and Bean Soup

Bacon is one of my favorite foods, it adds a delicious flavor to beans and stews, it adds that salty crunch with sweet pancakes and it even adds quite a distinct texture to cookies (its true, I made bacon chocolate chip cookies last Christmas) but that's neither here nor there.  The problem I have with bacon is the size of the package it comes in.  Most recipes called for 4-6 strips of bacon leaving a sizable amount of unused bacon.  I have to admit, freezing stuff isn't currently an option in my house.  I freeze a couple of slices of bacon or an extra piece of chicken and then forget about it until it is unrecognizingly covered in ice crystals.

So my only alternative with leftover bacon is to use it in a number of recipes that are different enough from each other to not taste like we're eating bacon all week.  In my search for a second use of bacon (since the potato chowder), I found a recipe for Pasta e Fagioli.  This soup promised to taste "very similar to Olive Garden's soup."  Joey assures me that this is not true.  This soup was really tasty--but in Joey's words "Olive Garden's soup has two colors of beans which change the taste and it's beefier."  Indeed--every soup that has beef as one of the ingredients is beefier than this one ;). 

This soup was posted by someone else..who you ask? I don't have that in front of me...oops.  It is really easy to make and tastes great.  This recipe makes a LOT of soup, so you may either want to cut the recipe in half or do that thing people call "freezing" for a rainy day.

Pasta and Bean Soup

Ingredients:
6 slices bacon, diced *I recently discovered that a serrated bread knife is a great tool for cutting up bacon*
1 small onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 14oz cans cannellini beans, drained *or 1 can red kidney beans and 1 can cannellini beans
1 10oz package frozen spinach, thawed for 2-3 minutes so it's not in a huge brick
6 C chicken broth
3 C water
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 t Italian seasoning
1 scant t cilantro
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1 t oregano
8oz small pasta of your choice, uncooked *I used this new mini rotini that was on sale

Directions
1. Heat a very large heavy pot over medium heat.  Add bacon and fry until just crisp.  Add onion and sauté until soft (about 8 minutes).  Add garlic and sauté an additional 2 minutes.
2. Add all other ingredients except pasta to the pot.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes stirring occasionally. 
3.  After simmering, bring soup to a boil.  Add pasta and cook until al dente as shown on the pasta directions.  Serve with bread.

Potato Chowder

I wanted to make a quick and light dinner that would fill Joey and I up before softball but also give my parents that home-cooked feeling. Unfortunately, I got a late start and everything took a little bit longer than it should have so we ended up eating after our game (dinner at 9!). This soup is light and flavorful and rather quick and hands off once you get it simmering.

I watched this video and learned a valuable lesson about cleaning leeks. I have tasted that grit and sand before in finished leek dishes. I knew about the bowl part but didn't think that pouring them out wouldn't help at all.

This recipe didn't specify if herbs should be fresh or dried, but the flavor is really stand-out so I highly recommend fresh. To chop the thyme remove the leaves from the stems and roll into a thin cigar. To use the thyme, pinch leaves off of thick stems or drag your fingers against the grain to remove leaves.

Potato Chowder
1/2 t salt or to taste
4 oz chopped bacon
2 T butter
2 sliced leeks
2 t sage (fresh)
2 t thyme (fresh)
4 C chicken broth
1 1/2 C cream
1 bay leaf
3 potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
green onions or chives (for topping)
shredded cheese (for topping)

Directions:
1. Saute bacon in a large stockpot
2. Add butter, leeks, sage and thyme. Let cook 1 minute
3. Add chicken broth, cream, bay leaf, and potatoes
4. Simmer until potatoes are tender.
5. Serve hot with toppings

Albondigas Soup

Joey and I got the cooking bug the other day and decided to cook for the remainder of the week. I suggested that I make Beef Vegetable soup in the crockpot. He countered with a plea for Albondigas Soup - which is a Mexican meatball soup.

Never having made this before, I scoured the internet for recipes. I finally settled on this one.The soup promised to be spicy and flavorful--and it also promised to be way too much food for two.

Generally, when a recipe is too much, I cut it down--but in this case, since it was so new to me, I didn't want to mess it up. We invited some people over--but they declined last minute, so, with all the ingredients I moved forward making the whole thing. Thank goodness it was good!

I recommend taking the serving suggestions in the recipe, none of which I followed. It would also be delicious with corn muffins (Jiffy is the only way). I made a few changes to the recipe which I will list here, but I recommend just going to the link above for the details.

Changes:
I used 8 cups of beef broth and it was plenty.
I used more than 1/4 cup of cilantro in both broth and meatballs because I despise trying to measure herbs.
I chopped the garlic, onion and cilantro in the mini-chopper that came with my hand blender--I highly recommend doing it this way!
I omitted the rice completely. (didn't miss it)
I put two 14.5 ounce cans of Rotel tomatoes in because the size was unclear
I only cooked it for an hour total because the meatballs cooked faster than I anticipated.
I could taste the hot Italian Sausage a lot in the meatballs, I recommend using something flavorful but not AS overpoweringly flavorful.
I used 6 carrots and thought more would have been nice. Adding a bell pepper or two might have also added something--probably the rice did this for the recipe creator.

I'll be eating this soup for at least a week, so come on over and have a bowl.

Creamy Patoato Soup

Ever since Tastespotting came back, I have been watching it day by day. Last week, I saw a delicious looking recipe for Creamy Potato Soup and I knew I hadto try it. Ever since I first tried Baked Potato Soup at The Outback, I have been trying to replicate it.

My first attempt to replicate it was disgusting. I didn't realize that potatoes turn gray/brown if you leave them out. After that episode, I put my dream on the back-burner--until I saw this picture.

One thing that really excited me about the soup was that the recipe called for the use of an immersion blender. As luck would have it, I recently received one as a surprise gift!I was surprised about how much the soup changed after I blended it. It really thickened up into what appeared to be a hearty dish.

The soup turned out really well. It was a little bland by itself, but with the bacon, cheese and green onions, it was really quite delicious! I think probably it just needed a little salt. What is the rule of thumb really with "Salt to taste"? I never add enough.

I increased the ingredients to make 1 1/2 recipes and that was just enough for 6 hungry guests with one bowl extra. Be sure to make tons of toppings available for the best results.

You can check the recipe again here, but let your mouth water after the flavors melded in this steaming bowl:

Acorn and Rock Soup

You take some rocks from the yard and some acorns that fell from the oak tree. Get a bowl from your play kitchen and put them in. Stir it with a spoon and squish some crunchy leaves inside, pick a little rosemary from the garden. Shake a lot of pretend cinnamon on top and put it in the pretend microwave. Stir it and stir it and stir it.

Cheddar Potato Soup

Well, night two came and went. I made Cheesy Potato Soup from Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals. I must admit right off the bat that I made a possibly major mistake right off the bat that might have ruined the soup.

Remember those tests in grade school where each question told you to do some kind of silly thing but at the top it said Read through all the questions first and somewhere near the bottom it said "don't do numbers 2-20?" Well this is one of those times when I would have failed that test.

The part I didn't read was the part where it says "Carefully, without burning yourself, puree the soup in a blender or food processor or use an immersion blender to do it right in the pot." This is an important piece because, while there are 3 choices of small appliances, I don't have any of them. Usually when I make a blender-required recipe, I just ask Joey to bring one of the appliances over. But he was already there and so was our friend, so I decided to just skip that step.

Big Mistake. Instead of pureeing, I mashed the potatoes and then mixed them with the broth. The soup tasted much like a baked potato. Joey and Nate added butter and more cheese to their soup--bacon would have been an excellent topper. The soup was missing something--I really expected it to be more creamy than baked potato-y. I challenge one of you to try it and puree it and tell me what it's really like!

Cheddar Potato Soup
Ingredients:
2 T olive oil
2 leeks (I didn't realize that 2 leeks was two stalks so I only bought one and then I used finely chopped red onion to fill the void of the other one)
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
6 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (she calls for roasted garlic chicken broth which I have seen in other recipes but NEVER in the store)
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped (I added this because I thought there would be no flavor, the garlic flavor did not come through at all)
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
chopped chives (optional)
crumbled bacon (optional)
extra cheese (optional)

Directions:
-Heat oil in a large saucepan over med. heat
-Add leeks and cook, stirring until soft and fragrant, add garlic and cook one minute more
-Add potatoes, chicken broth, bay leaves and bring to a boil
-Boil partially covered 8-10 min until potatoes are fork tender
-Remove bay leaves
-Puree soup in batches and return to pot
-Add cheese and stir until melted
-Add salt and pepper
-Serve hot with toppings