A Little Home Cookin’

For various reasons, I haven’t been doing too many Souper Saturdays this year, and I kind of miss it.  That’s not to say we haven’t had any soup…recently I made a big pot of ham and bean that was so good, I decided to share.

Ham and beans are a comfort food to me; my mom used to make it when I was growing up, but thick and not soupy.  I had never tried it myself until a couple of years ago.  I had a ham bone in the freezer and used this Basic Ham and Bean Soup recipe, with a few tweaks and great success.

This time around I had another ham bone in the freezer from a spiral ham we had back in the fall.  Basically, I considered that free, since it was inedible on its own.  A 2lb bag of Great Northern beans at Aldi is $2; I used 1/2 of that for this recipe.  So even including pantry items like onions and seasonings, it cost under $2 for a huge pot of soup that fed the five of us supper, plus several individual lunches.  Economical, delicious, and super easy…that’s a keeper!

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The night before rinse a pound of dried white beans, then cover with water and let soak overnight.  In the morning, drain and put in the crockpot.  Cover with water, or with a combination of water and chicken broth.  Add the ham bone, chopped onion, chopped carrot, chopped celery, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp mustard powder, and a couple of bay leaves.  Turn the crockpot on low and get on with your day.

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Later in the afternoon, the meat should be falling off the bone.  Take out the bone and remove the meat, chop it up and put it back in the pot.  If there is fat, skim off as much as you can.  Depending on how thick you like it, you may need to add more water or broth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  That’s it!

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Serve with cornbread and a salad—yum!  Even the kids rated it at 8 to 9 out of 10.

Enjoy!

Super Souper Saturday

On a whim today, we took a day trip out into the surrounding country/small town areas.  We made some geocaching stops, and  went to an antique mall that I’ve really been wanting to visit.  It’s about an hour-and-a-half south of us, if you go straight there, which we didn’t.  We took a lot of snacks and the puppy, set the kids up with a movie on the laptop (no built-ins in our van) and hit the back roads.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we saw some fall colors, but we’re probably a week away from the real show.  The first geocaching stop was at this old church and cemetery of German settlers.

The antique mall in question frequently lists items on craigslist at affordably low prices.  I’ve been wanting to check it out for some time, and I’m looking for a small table or shelf for a particular spot.  There were lots of nice pieces; how about a large round dining table with three leaves and six chairs, newly painted black and distressed, all for $250?  Or one of several white distressed coffee tables for around $30?

Craig was manning the camera, so I didn’t get photos of anything I really would have wanted to show you, but here are a few shots.  The building itself was very cool.  I would love to have this woodwork and exposed brick.

In some of the rooms, the floors had this pretty stenciled pattern. 

I found some milk glass for the etsy store I’m contemplating. Huh.  In this photo, I am clothed entirely in thrifty finds: $1 Gap jacket, $1 Banana Republic purse, $1.50 Ralph Lauren jeans, $5 consignment store shirt, Kmart clearance shoes.  Not bad.

Unfortunately, I did not find the piece of furniture I want.  There were many pretty pieces at good prices, but I need something very narrow, and I just didn’t find the perfect thing.

It was fun, though, and thanks to my fore-thought, a slow-cooker of taco soup was waiting for us when we got home 7 hours later!

That hits the spot!

Souper Saturday---Chicken Tortilla

We haven’t had soup the last several Saturdays because it’s been so warm and spring-like.  Today was cold and rainy, and at one point there was actually snow in the forecast (!), so it was a good soup night.  It may very well turn out to be the last one of the 08-09 season.

I found this recipe online:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 bunch cilantro, well washed (leaves only)
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 small can of green chilies
• 6 cups chicken stock/broth
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can tomatoes
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in a small amount of water
• Corn tortillas (about 10) cut into thin strips
• vegetable oil
• 1-2 cups cooked chicken (2 oz. per serving)
• Monterey Jack cheese (1 oz. per serving)
• 1-2 avocados, peeled, pitted and sliced

Preparation:

Puree cilantro, garlic, onion, chilies, and tomatoes in a blender or food processor. Heat stock and add pureed mixture into cumin and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 1 hour. Stir dissolved cornstarch into stock. Often I don't add the cornstarch since I like a thinner soup.

Fry tortillas in oil until crisp; drain well. Add chicken to stock and garnish with shredded cheese, tortilla strips, avocado, sour cream, salsa, or whatever else you prefer.

I just realized that I forgot the garlic.  I didn’t have avocados, corn tortillas, or jack cheese, and I used flour rather than cornstarch.  I served it topped with crushed tortilla chips and cheddar.

This was excellent soup!  Pureeing the onions, tomatoes, cilantro and chilies was genius in my book.  I usually puree the chunky stuff anyway, and this just really melded all the flavors together.

Ratings:

• Craig- 8
• me- 8.5
• Firstborn- 7.5
• Skippy- 6
• Pinkerbelle- 10

Average- 8  One of the most successful of the year!

Souper Saturday--Hearty Hamburger

If you read this post, you know that we don't do much for Valentine's Day. We had a regular Souper Saturday, and I made what I will call Hearty Hamburger Soup. Ground beef, onion, celery, carrots, 1 can diced tomatoes, beef soup base + water, bay leaves, basil, salt, pepper. I thought it was quite yummy, but nobody else seemed to think it was very good (Handsome said it was okay). Personally, I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.



I handed out Valentine goody bags to the kids; bubble gum and jump ropes for Skippy and Pinkerbelle, who had been asking for them, and bubble gum and $1 (the equivalent of the cost of the jump rope) for Firstborn. I'm happy to report that they were all well satisfied with their meager loot.

For our Valentine dessert, I made chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!


Happy V-day to you! Hope it was all you were wishing for!

No Souper Saturday

It was 65 degrees today! Just didn't feel like soup weather. Instead we had breakfast--pancakes, bacon, fruit, and orange juice. I virtually never serve a hot breakfast in the morning, except for the occasional bowl of oatmeal, so when we want pancakes, we have them at dinner.


Pinkerbelle wanted me to post this picture of her and Lila, so here you go.


Hope you're having a great weekend, and don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Souper Saturday Gone Awry

Earlier this week we had a delicious pot roast. I used Pioneer Woman's instructions. It was good, very good. There was a nice sized hunk leftover, and I immediately earmarked it for Souper Saturday, to make vegetable beef. I've been looking forward to it all week. After all, the last time I made it, we all liked it, and I only used deli beef.

But somehow or other, it just wasn't that good. I'm no gourmet, but I consider myself a decent cook, and it's really not very often that something doesn't turn out. It was edible, but we didn't go back for seconds. I didn't even bother to rate it.

I'm really not sure what the problem was. I used the same basic recipe as before, except that I did it in the crockpot, and I now realize that I didn't use onion powder like last time, and I added peas. There was just something, some little je ne sais quoi, that tasted a little off. Not spoiled; just not tasty. I wondered if it was the beef soup base; I used the same one, but maybe I used too much or something? Dunno.

So there you have it. My first Souper Saturday flop. Too bad. It looked good.

Souper Saturday--Black Bean [Vegetable]

For tonight's soup offering, I started with this recipe from allrecipes.

Black Bean Vegetable
Submitted by: DeeDee

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (8.75 ounce) can whole kernel corn
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes

DIRECTIONS

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat; cook onion, garlic, and carrots, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onion is softened. Add chili powder and cumin; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add stock, 1 can of the beans, corn, and pepper; bring to boil.
2. Meanwhile, in food processor or blender, puree together tomatoes and remaining can of beans; add to pot. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until carrots are tender.

My changes:

• used 1 carrot, shredded
• used 2-3 cloves garlic
• used beef broth instead of vegetable
• did not add corn
• used diced tomatoes (didn't have stewed)
• added a few dashes chipotle Tabasco
• added about 4oz tomato sauce I had in fridge

After adding the broth and one can of beans, I pureed the whole thing with the tomatoes so I got the onions and carrots too. Then I added the remaining can of beans (not pureed). Since I used beef instead of vegetable broth and did not add the corn, I can't really keep the 'vegetable' in the name.



Ratings:
Handsome 7.8(he insists on the .8)
Me 7
Firstborn 6.5
Skippy 8
Pinkerbelle 10

Average 7.86

Surprisingly well-received by all!

Souper Saturday

Handsome is at an all-day continuing education course today, so it was just me and the kids for supper. Yesterday as I was on the mend, I started craving that really yummy homemade chicken noodle we had a few weeks ago. Problem was, there was no leftover roasted chicken.

Instead, I boiled a couple frozen chicken breasts and added all the other usual stuff (onion, carrots, celery, etc), and proceeded as last time from there. I knew that the broth made from boiling boneless, skinless chicken breasts would not be anywhere near the real deal. I added a can of chicken broth to it, but it was still mediocre.

The kids didn't seem to notice the difference, and were happy to eat the soup. I could definitely tell, and was vastly underimpressed. Maybe, maybe, it would've been improved if I had had a good chicken soup base to add instead of just canned broth. But I'm thinkin' that if you really want a chicken broth that'll stand on it's own, it's gotta have bones (so to speak). Here endeth the lesson.


Oh, and I feel I must confess...the first photo of my kitchen in yesterday's post was taken before we moved in. That's not how it looks every day; but neither is the second photo!

Souper Saturday--Taco Soup

Handsome requested taco soup tonight. There is an abundance of taco soup recipes available, most of them fairly similar. Here's my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants version.

1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 can chili beans, undrained
2 cans diced tomatoes, pureed
2 cups beef broth
about 1/2 cup cooked ground beef (had it in the freezer; normally I would use more)
1 can of corn
taco seasoning
ranch dressing mix

I didn't have a packet of taco seasoning, so used chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, oregano, paprika and salt and pepper. I did happen to have half a packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix, which I didn't really want to use anymore since I realized it has MSG. But I also didn't want to take the trouble right now to find a clone recipe to try to approximate it, so I dumped it in.

Ratings:
Handsome 8.5
Me 7
Firstborn 5
Skippy 8
Pinkerbelle 3

Average 6.3

It was good, but I thought it lacked just a little something, I'm guessing because I did not use actual taco seasoning. Here's a recipe for making your own to keep on hand (it's the one I used to guesstimate the spices I put in the soup, but I didn't follow quantities); I think I'll give it a try. It's probably cheaper than packets, and no mystery ingredients.

Souper Saturday--Vegetable Beef

Tonight I concocted another soup with what I had on hand. Not that it's an original recipe or anything. I looked at a recipe online to get an idea of a basic vegetable beef soup, and created a reasonable facsimile.

I put about 3-4 cups water, beef soup base, ground mustard, onion powder, s&p, worcestershire, 2 peeled and cubed potatoes and a sliced carrot in the pot. Brought it to a boil, reduced heat and simmered about 12 minutes, until veggies were tender. I didn't have any other veggies to add, but green beans, peas, even mushrooms would have been nice.

What lead me to do a beef-based soup in the first place was some deli roast beef that I needed to use up. It was sliced quite thickly, and I chopped it up and added it to the pot along with 8 oz of tomato sauce and simmered until heated through.

My sister sent me these awesome soup bowls for Christmas with our Souper Saturdays in mind. She sent cute polar bear drinking glasses too, but I forgot to put them in the picture. Thanks, sis!

I thought this was surprisingly good for how simple it was and how few seasonings I put in it.

Handsome 7
Me 8
Firstborn 6.5
Skippy 10 (he ate 2 bowls...unusual for SS!)
Pinkerbelle 4.5

Average 7.2 Not bad!

Now we're off to catch the last weekend of the Celebration of Lights in the park. The Christmas season is wrapping up...I hope yours was memorable (in a good way!).

Souper Saturday--Chicken Noodle

Tonight I had the leftover roasted chicken from Wednesday in the fridge. I picked off all the meat and made chicken broth with the carcass (could there be an uglier word?). Broth is so simple, as you probably know. I just covered the bones with water, added chunked up carrot, celery, and an onion to the pot, a couple of bay leaves, and a few peppercorns and simmered for about an hour.

After removing all the bones etc. so I was just left with broth, I added some (fresh) sliced carrot and celery, brought it to a boil and added whole wheat noodles. When the noodles were cooked, I lowered the heat and added the cooked, chopped chicken. I added a good amount of sea salt to enhance the flavor.



This one was a winner at the dinner table! There is nothing homier than a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. The kids actually liked it, rather than just tolerated it. I tend to prefer trying a more adventurous soup, but this was good, basic comfort food.

Ratings:
Handsome 9
Me 8
Firstborn 9
Skippy 8
Pinkerbelle 8

Average 8.4 This is our top contender so far this year!

Souper Saturday--Made-up Minestrone

I didn't plan ahead for tonight's soup, so I again had to work with what was in the house. After much thought and a recipe search, I came up with minestrone. I didn't really use a single recipe, but just looked at a couple of different ones to get the idea of basic ingredients.

So, here's what I did:

Sauteed chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Pureed a can of tomatoes and added to pot; then I decided to put it all back in the blender to blend up the onion chunks (kids), but of course I could've just added the onions to the tomatoes in the blender in the first place. Back into the pot, and I added 2 cups of water and 2 packets of Trader Joes beef broth concentrate. Added a can of kidney beans, and a can of green beans (which I only had because the kids are having a can drive at school). In the fridge I had some leftovers from a couple nights ago; it was a simple skillet dinner of ground beef and elbow macaroni in a tomato base. I added that, a little more cooked ground beef that I had in the freezer, and some more cooked macaroni. I seasoned with a little basil, oregano and salt. I topped each serving with parmesan cheese.

I didn't expect the kids to eat the green beans; they all have a strong aversion to this particular vegetable, so I tried not to put any in their bowls. Still, the overall chunkiness of the soup made them suspicious. They did eat most of it, somewhat reluctantly. The boys added Tabasco. Handsome was very impressed on first bite, but I guess it became less impressive over time because he originally gave it a 6-point-something, and then rounded up to 7.

Ratings:
Handsome 7
Me 7
Firstborn 4
Skippy 5
Pinkerbelle 4
Average: 5.4

Souper Saturday--Cheesy Potato

Tonight I had to change my soup plans due to another shopping error by Handsome. You would think a grown man...oh, never mind. But I'm just sayin'. So, I had to come up with something using what was already in the house, and decided on Cheesy Potato Soup II by Joan Zaffary, from www.allrecipes.com .

Original recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 4 cups water
• 8 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 15 slices American cheese - broken into pieces
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 1/3 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute the onions and celery in the butter for 5 to 10 minutes, or until tender.
2. Stir in the water and potatoes, bring to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add the cheese and stir until melted.
3. In a separate small bowl, combine the flour and the milk and stir well until the flour is mostly dissolved. Pour this into the soup slowly, stirring constantly, until soup has thickened, about 5 minutes. Garnish with the parsley.

My changes:

1. I used chicken broth instead of water
2. When the potatoes were tender, I pureed that whole mixture with a hand blender (kids=no chunks).
3. I prefer not to use processed cheese (American), so I melted 2 Tbsp of butter in a pan, stirred in the flour to make a roux, poured in the milk and whisked until bubbly and thickened (your basic white sauce), then stirred in shredded cheddar (about 1 1/2 cups, maybe) until melted. Then I stirred that into the soup.

If I had thought ahead, I would have reserved the two Tbsp butter for the roux out of the 6 Tbsp used to saute the onions and celery, but since I didn't think of that, I ended up using a whole stick of butter in this soup!

I garnished it with a little cheese and parsley for the photo, but bacon and/or chopped green onions or chives would have been ideal toppings.

Ratings:
Handsome 7 would've like some potato chunks
Me 7
Firstborn 6
Skippy 5
Pinkerbelle 9

Average 6.8

This soup was pretty good; the aforementioned toppings, which I did not have, would have improved it. I actually have a potato soup recipe that I prefer, but have not been able to find my cookbooks since we moved into this house. Handsome is in the basement right now trying to do some organizing, so maybe they'll turn up.

Souper Saturday and Hobby Lobby Bargains

Tonight Firstborn and Handsome are at a Boy Scout lock-in, so it was just three of us for supper. I decided to take the easy route with grilled cheese and tomato soup. However, I don't buy canned soup anymore...high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and all that. So I searched for a recipe, and decided to go with this one, from Angry Chicken (love the name!). As usual, I did a bit of my own thing, as follows:

Dice about 1/4 onion. Saute in olive oil with 1/2 tsp minced garlic (about 1 clove). Puree 1 14oz can diced tomatoes in blender and add to onion and garlic in saucepan. Add some water (1/2 to 3/4 cup, maybe), salt and pepper, and a little honey to taste. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 mins. Put approx 1/2 c. milk in blender, pour tomato mixture in and puree again. Serve. This made about 4 servings. (Edited Mar. 23: the reason I put the milk in the blender and then the tomato is because I read that doing it the other way will curdle the milk. I tested that tonight and it is true. If you add the milk into the tomato, it will curdle. "Add red to white and you won't be blue")

For my own bowl, I added a dollop of pesto, as Angry Chicken suggests. I really liked this soup. It had a bright, tomato-y flavor far superior to canned soup. And it was super easy. Definitely a do-over.

Ratings:
Me 9
Skippy 4
Pinkerbelle 10 ("is there 100?")

And, yes, the grilled cheese is made with white bread. Oh, the horror!! Handsome went to the store the other night and I asked him to get bread. I showed him the bread bag, 100% Whole Wheat.


He brought home made with Whole Grain White. Not the same. And the thing is, he knows we have virtually never bought white bread for the last eight years. (Now he'll read this and he will think I'm really mad about it still.)

I was surprised at how much I didn't like it; it was too soft, too sweet, too bland. Like eating dough or something. At least it didn't have HFCS (neither kind does).

Now, on to Hobby Lobby. When I was there Thursday, all fall decor was 80% off. I resisted. But yesterday I went back and fall was 90% off! Screeech! (That's me slamming on the brakes.) The selection was understandably depleted, but I managed to get a few things. I put them in my china cabinet so I can show you how much better it looks without the paint on the glass.



Some of the green serving dishes were available in red on Thursday, and to tell the truth, I would have much preferred the red. But the red was gone Friday, and the green's not too bad. They'd make nice gifts, or maybe I could spray paint them white? Obviously I couldn't use them for food if I did that, but I probably won't anyway.

The silver gourds kinda made me think of mercury glass, or at least all the imitators that are out now, which I really like but don't have any of. Wait, that should be "but of which I have none". I added up all the regular prices for these items and it was $97, which means that I paid $9.70 for all five pieces! Pretty durn good, if you ask me!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway...it's open until noon on Monday!

Souper Saturday--Country Split Pea

Today's offering came from the New England Soup Factory Cookbook again. I will most likely be using this book fairly frequently this winter. The full name of the recipe is Country Split Pea Soup with Bacon and Potatoes. The author describes it as a "peasant-style recipe".

The recipe again called for sherry; it seems to be a favorite ingredient of the author, as it is in a number of her recipes. Unlike last time, however, it called for dry sherry instead of cream sherry. I don't know anything about sherry, and I'm not about to start a wine cellar in order to have the correct type for each of Marjorie Druker's recipes. So, again, I skipped it, and naturally we didn't know the difference. I don't doubt that it adds a little something to the flavor, and I'm not against using wine for cooking, I just don't keep it around.

Anyhoo, the soup was thick, hearty, and satisfying. Handsome and I really enjoyed it. It tasted just like a split-pea soup should, but I would probably skip the potatoes next time, personally.

And now for the ratings:
Handsome 9
Me 9
Firstborn 7
Skippy 5
Pinkerbelle 3

Average 6.6

One thing I like about many of these soup recipes is that they start out with lots of veggies...this one had celery, carrots, and onion, as well as the split-peas...and then you blend it all up with a stick-blender and the kids are none the wiser!

Souper Saturday--Pumpkin Black Bean

I didn't realize until I typed out the title that this just sounds like a slightly modified version of last week's Pumpkin and White Bean. However, I chose it because it is actually very different. The recipe comes from Tammy's Recipes and she describes it as "a delicious black bean pastrami soup with pumpkin, tomatoes, onion, and garlic in a flavorful beef broth". She also says you can't really taste the pumpkin, so I figured it would be a good way to hide use some of the pumpkin I had from last week.


Tammy's Original Recipe

Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
4 to 4 1/2 cups freshly cooked black beans*
1 1/2 cups fresh or canned tomatoes, diced
3/4 teaspoon sugar
4 cups beef broth
16 ounces (2 cups) pumpkin puree
1/3 to 1/2 pound turkey pastrami, diced or chopped**
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Instructions:

1. In a 6-quart stock pot, saute the onion, garlic, cumin and pepper over moderate heat, until onions are translucent.

2. Add beans, tomatoes, sugar, broth and pumpkin, stirring to combine. Simmer uncovered for 25+ minutes.***

3. Add pastrami and vinegar and heat through.

Additional Notes:

*Can substitute three 15-ounce cans of black beans, rinsed and drained. The original recipe also said to puree the beans, but we like them left whole!

**I order my turkey pastrami thin sliced and then dice it for this. You could also use turkey ham.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I rarely follow a recipe exactly. Here are my changes:

a) oil instead of butter to cook the onion in
b) I used 2 cans of black beans
c) I used Trader Joe's concentrated beef broth packets (plus water to equal the 4 cups)
d) instead of turkey pastrami or turkey ham, I used Black Forest ham because that's what Trader Joe's had
e) used only 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
f) I pureed the tomatoes and beans, as the kids protest vegetable chunks

The family liked last week's poll, so I'll probably make that a regular feature. This week's verdict:
Handsome 8 "hearty"
Me 7
Firstborn 7
Skippy 4 "too meaty"
Pinkerbelle 10 (although her reaction did not support this...should be a 6, maybe)

Average: 7.2 but slightly skewed by P's false 10

Nobody knew there was pumpkin in it until Firstborn read the title of this post. They were somewhat taken aback, but didn't make a big deal of it. After all, they had already eaten it.

I thought it was very good, but slightly too acidic or tangy, hence my 7 rating. I would further reduce the vinegar next time, or cut it out all together.

Souper Saturday--Pumpkin and White Bean

Thursday we were in Barnes and Noble getting our free Starbucks coffee (sorry, I'd link it but the coupon expired yesterday) and browsing. In the discounted section I came across several soup recipe books and decided I should really branch out for my Souper Saturdays.

I chose the New England Soup Factory Cookbook by Marjorie Druker because the recipes sounded sooo good, it had nice photographs (I like to see what I'm trying to make), and apparently the New England Soup Factory is a popular restaurant in the Boston area, so I figured these were tried and true recipes. At $6.98, it was a bargain. Also, just now when I got the link from Amazon, I saw that it gets very high reviews, so that's a good sign.


For tonight's supper, I chose Pumpkin and White Bean Soup from the Autumn Flavors chapter. I won't print the recipe, because that would probably be a copyright breach, but the combo of pumpkin, white beans, brown sugar, and parmesan cheese (and a lot of other ingredients) was intriguing. There were a couple ingredients I didn't have (cream sherry and sage) which I'm sure added an important and complex flavor, and Marjorie would probably be highly dismayed to know that I altered her recipe in such a degrading way.

Normally, I would've just used canned pumpkin even though the recipe calls for fresh, but I figured I'd use last night's jack-o-lantern and asked Handsome to cut it up. In the middle of his work, I realized that he had used one of the uncut pumpkins, and he was horrified at the idea of using the jack-o-lantern. A bacteria breeding ground! he said. So, I guess I'm glad he played it safe.

I conducted a poll rating the soup on a scale of 1-10. The results:
Handsome 6.5
Me 8
Firstborn 3.5
Skippy 8
Pinkerbelle 1

Average: 5.4 Not great, but the 3.5 and the 1 hardly count because I will never expect much more from them in the soup department.

Well, I liked it and I'm glad there are leftovers for my lunch this week. Plus, I have a lot of roasted pumpkin left to puree and freeze for muffins and stuff.

Souper Saturday

Two years ago I started a fall/winter tradition: Souper Saturday. This started because I often did not have a plan for supper on Saturdays, and was just throwing together some sandwiches or scrambled eggs or something, and I wanted to be a little more proactive without spending a lot of time in the kitchen. The kids were anti-soup, so I never made it and Handsome and I missed it. Thus a regular Saturday supper of soup was born during the cool months, and that way I could even do it in the crockpot if we were running around during the day. I figured if that's what the kids had to eat, eventually they'd warm up to it (get it? warm up? oh, never mind).

They have, kind of. It's still not their absolute favorite, and some soups are more well received than others. Nevertheless, I like it. Soup is simple, warming, comforting food and it doesn't take a lot planning or time on my part. Tonight was the first Souper Saturday of the year. As you may recall, I had the leftover roast chicken waiting in the fridge.

First, I pulled off most of the remaining meat and set it aside, then broke up the bones a little and put them in a pot covered with water. I added an onion cut in half, with its skin, a big carrot, unpeeled and in large chunks, a bay leaf and a couple peppercorns. Usually I would put in some celery, but I didn't have any, so I tossed in a little sprinkle of celery seed. Doesn't that look homey?

I let this simmer for about an hour, then I removed and discarded all the bones and veggies and strained the broth through a sieve. That left just broth, or technically stock. There are ways of clarifying the broth, and you can refrigerate it until the fat solidifies and skim it off. I did neither. There wasn't too much fat, and in any case this was a free-range organic chicken I got straight from the farmer, and the fat is actually good for you. For more on that, visit Kelly the Kitchen Kop and peruse her blog.


Now, I do not really have a collection of tried and true favorite soup recipes. You would think after two years of this I would, but usually what I end up doing is searching Allrecipes and finding a recipe with good ratings that sounds good and for which I have the ingredients. Tonight I ended up with Spicy Chicken Rice Soup, although I didn't have a few of the ingredients (celery, green pepper, crushed red pepper flakes), but they wouldn't have gone over well with the kiddos anyway.

I prefer to use brown rice, but didn't have enough, so went ahead with regular white rice; I also added a dash of cayenne in place of the pepper flakes. I chopped up the reserved chicken and added it at the end of the rice cooking time, as I just wanted it heated up and not cooked more. BTW, I will not review this recipe for Allrecipes, as I always think it's a little silly when people say a recipe was either great or terrible and then list all the changes they made, basically ending up with something different all together.


Both boys said it was "actually good, Mama" (victory!). I thought it was good, but not fantastic. Probably not a do-over. But all in all, a successful kick-off to Souper Saturdays '08-'09.

Afterwards, in another fall tradition, we went out in the back yard and made s'mores. I love these firepits which became popular 2 or 3 years ago and allow us city-slickers to play with fire. Happy Fall!