Cabbage Soup

 I've been on a soup kick lately and I think I'm getting the hang of making them. Tonight it is a chilly 55 degrees Fahrenheit in sunny California. I know,  many of you may laugh because 55 is not chilly at all, but we Californians are a different breed of animal, we don't handle the cold well at all, especially Californians born and raised in Arizona as I was!

Earlier today I came across a recipe for Cabbage Food, courtesy of the Food Network Kitchen, here's the link to their soup. I of course modified it a bit and it was a hit with my family so I want to save it for posterity on my blog!

CABBAGE SOUP

Ingredients:

2 T. Olive Oil

4 Stalks Celery diced super tiny

2 1/2 cups shredded carrots- any brand

1 Green bell pepper also diced super tiny

2 Cloves fresh garlic -grated

1 - 14 ounce bag Classic Cole Slaw Mix

2 T low sodium Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 - 8 ounce can tomato sauce

1 - 15 ounce can White Beans also called Navy Beans (optional)

4 cups low-sodium chicken sauce

2 cups water

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat, then add celery, carrots, peppers and minced garlic and cook until the vegetables begin to brown and become fragrant, about 5 minutes. Stir in Soy Sauce, garlic and onion powder, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper. 

2. Add the cabbage to the pot and stir until it begins to wilt, won't take long since it's shredded cabbage and carrots, about 2 minutes. Add the can of tomato sauce, chicken broth and water, stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook until the cabbage is tender, 30 minutes or to suit your taste. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and/or pepper as needed.

My daughter didn't think beans would be a good addition to the soup, but I love beans in soup so I open the can and drained them well with hot water, added about 1/4 to a 1/2 cup in the bottom of my bowl and added the soup on top. The beans helped to cool the soup a bit. I also added a splash of La Victoria. Yum! 

It was just that easy to make a hearty, healthy, satisfying soup for a cold winter day. I know this one is a keeper and I will be making it often!

Kristen Hampton's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup!

 

I know everyone in the world probably already has a chicken noodle soup recipe that they love, and most are probably pretty much the same, but believe it or not...I had NEVER in my life made Chicken Noodle soup!

I grew up eating Campbells canned chicken noodle soup and I loved it, it was good enough for me as I didn't get the craving for chicken noodle soup that often...but that was cause I had NEVER in my life had Kristen Hampton's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup!

Who is Kristen Hampton? Kristen is a gift to this world! She's this quirky character who works for WBTV in Charlotte NC doing a segment called Good News and she goes out and about and looks for the good in the world, the good in people and she reports on those things. Her fame has exploded and she's a Facebook and YouTube sensation, just google Kristen Hampton and you will find lots of information about her.

Recently she did a live video run simultaneously on Facebook and YouTube in which she shows us how to make her World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup while she urged people to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans to help the people that have been devastated by Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta, two hurricanes in the same vicinity just six weeks apart, they had not even cleaned up from the first hurricane when the second one hit. To date she has raised $9,418.00. 

Here's the video, it's rather long but she's so entertaining that you don't even notice. And you can still donate to the cause. 

So I just wanted to get down on my blog the ingredients on how to make this soup because it was as Kristen would say "Dadgum-delicious!" Kristen doesn't give you measurements, you just gotta wing it.

Ingredients:

1/2 Onion

Garlic - I used two cloves minced in my garlic press, but I think three would have been ok. 

6 Carrots 

5 Stalks Celery

2 boxes Chicken Broth (low sodium) She says Chicken Stock but I couldn't find any and the broth worked just fine

Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base (to taste) - this stuff is amazing!!

Cooked Chicken - I baked 4 big boneless chicken breasts and only used two for the soup. Baked them with nothing but salt and pepper as seasoning.

Salt - Pepper - Thyme (used dried, couldn't find fresh)

I started out by seasoning the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and placing them inside a foil envelope, (two sheets of foil, one on top one on bottom and then you fold all four sides so the chicken is in a little foil envelope. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, set aside to cool, don't open the envelope so the juices go back into the meat.

During the time the chicken is baking, you can be chopping your veggies. Once chicken is cooked, add olive oil to your  soup pot, then added the onions and cook them for about 3 to 5 minutes, just until they soften, then I added the celery and carrots which I cut pretty thinly added salt and pepper, but not a lot because the Better Than Bouillon has lots of salt in it. Now cook, stirring frequently for probably another 5 to 6 minutes. 

Once the veggies are to your satisfaction, add the chicken broth, both boxes and then what I think was the secret ingredient, I add a big spoonful of Better than Bouillon! I don't know how long this product has been around but I just recently started hearing about it and I can't wait to try all the other flavors, check the other flavors out here. 

Then you wait for everything to come to a boil again and then taste it and see if you need to add more BTB, I know that next time I will probably add another box of chicken broth or water. Also at this time I added a sprinkle of dried thyme.

While waiting for the soup to come to a boil, chop your chicken, I've seen other people shred the chicken but I like smaller bite-size pieces best. 

Once it comes to a boil, add egg noodles and sprinkle with dried thyme, I used wide egg noodles. I put in the whole package and like Kristen says "that's too many noods", it was too many noodles, next time half a bag instead. Let that boil for 5 minutes or so and then add your chicken, let it boil a bit and taste to see if you need more BTB, which I did and next time way more pepper. 

And that it is it. Very good chicken noodle soup, easy to make and so hearty and comforting. Definitely going to be something I made again and again. If you have a great soup recipe, please share in comments or send me a link to the recipe.

Chicken Soup Made Easy - with Beans even!

So I've mentioned a million times in previous posts that I am not a natural born cook like my sister. My sister can open up her pantry and her fridge and see that she has six ingredients in there and she can whip up a meal just using those things!

I can be in the middle of a whole grocery store with tons of ingredients and I couldn't figure out how to boil water without a recipe in writing!

Luckily there are people, like my sister, that are great at being creative with food, and they actually have the good sense to write it down, with pictures and step by step photos! Not that my sister doesn't have sense, she just doesn't have time to write everything down!

So I've been hunting down soup recipes! I know that we're not in the middle of a freeze here in sunny California, but it does get cold people. At least cold for a transplanted Arizonian!

I found a great recipe and a great Chef. And you know why this Chef is so great? Because not only does he create these recipes and write them down, but darned if he doesn't do a video too!

Chef John is an online teaching Chef on the award winning food blog Food Wishes. I love this blog! He has so many recipes and tips and ideas and you know what else? He is damned entertaining. Such a creative, droll, sarcastic sense of humor! Just love him!

The recipe that I tried and loved is Chef John's White Bean and Chicken Breast Chili. This is a photo of his version. Doesn't that look great? Plus I really love the white bowl, that bowl just screams "Soup's on!"

Photo Credit - Food Wishes

This soup called for quite a few ingredients I didn't have on hand, so I had to stop by the store. Is it just me or do you have the experience that you can stop by the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread and you end up at the register with a full shopping cart of $200 in groceries? Every single time!

Here's my version. I made it a bit more soupy as I wanted a soup, not a chili. Verdict? Loved it! So rich and spicy.

Some of the ingredients that Chef John had me get were things I had never tried before, but then again I had never tried making a soup before either. I had to get powdered Ancho Chili and powdered Chipotle Powder and Corn Meal. I had also always wanted to try Cannellini Beans so as long as his recipe called for white beans I bought them, they were good, very meaty.

My peeps are not very fond of onions, but I decided it was time they grew up and ate like real adults and not like five year old kids that can't abide onions, so I did just like Chef John instructs in his video and started out by caramelizing the onions. My peeps loved it! You can taste the onion with all the other ingredients but the onion is almost invisible, just a translucent little gem in there, like you can see in the picture above.

Here's Chef John's video, watch it if you have a chance he's so funny!

***Chef John's Ingredients, watch his video above for instructions***

Ingredients for 4 portions:

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 or 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 1 1/4 lbs

salt and pepper to taste

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp ancho chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp flour

about 3 cups chicken broth or stock, divided

1 tsp fine cornmeal
2 cans (15oz) white beans

cayenne to taste

1/4 tsp sugar or to taste

1/3 cup chopped green onions

sour cream and cilantro to garnish

I used the toppings he recommended, cilantro, sour cream, chopped green onions and I added chopped jalapenos. I am loving making soup! More soups to come!

 

Potato Soup Fakeout - Low Carb Cauliflower Soup

I'm so ready for Fall already! Ready for football and hot chocolate, for reading while wrapped in a blanket, for soups and sweaters and cold misty mornings!

Unfortunately, Fall is not accommodating me this year! So I'm having to continue with Fall like things even though it's in the 90's outside and I have to turn on the air conditioning just to give me Fall-like conditions!

Earlier today it was a bit chilly in my office. I was having lunch at my desk, a cold Asian Chicken Salad. It wasn't what I wanted, even though it was delicious; what I was really craving was my daddy's Caldo de Papa, Potato Soup!

He made the best Potato Soup ever! He used potatoes, of course; and tomato and jalapenos and lots and lots of cheese! It was warm and soothing and very, very spicy...that was the best part. He taught me how to make it several times, but in one ear...out the other. Fortunately my sister wrote it down for me.

I realized when I got home today, that I had all the ingredients. I had gone grocery shopping yesterday and my cupboards were fair to bursting with all sorts of goodies! So I dragged out my recipe book and started gathering supplies.

I took half a head of cauliflower and cut it up into florets. I diced up one Roma tomato and one Jalapeno, being careful to remove the seeds. I didn't have any fresh cheddar cheese to shred so I took out the handy pre-shredded bag of Cheddar that my son uses to make Quesadillas with and got to work!

With some Olive Oil in the pan I browned the cauliflower for about ten minutes judging the softness by crushing some of the bigger pieces with the spoon. When it was almost tender I added the diced tomatoes and jalapenos and cooked those all together for about five minutes or so.

Then I added about two and a half cups of water. My dad used to add milk, but milk would ruin the low-carb aspect of this dish so I used water and then added just a splash of heavy whipping cream, about a 1/2 cup. You could also use half and half or if you have a super fast metabolism and you can eat anything you want then you can use regular milk and I will envy you forever!

I let that simmer for a bit until it came to a boil then I added salt and pepper to taste. I had to add salt again later and I still think it could have used more but I'm a salt-fanatic, so don't go by me! While it simmered I did the dishes and put things away and found that I had some Monterey Jack Cheese so I cut that into small cubes and added it to the now boiling pot along with about a cup of the shredded Cheddar Cheese, just cause I'm crazy like that!

Now of course you need to wait for it to boil again and then check it for salt and pepper. (This is where I added more salt, don't be like me...watch your salt intake!)

Look how beautiful all those veggies look together! The cauliflower is crisp-tender and the jalapenos have given just a bit of heat to the broth. The cheese thickens the soup almost like a chowder and you don't have to use flour as a thickening agent. And the tomatoes? Well they just give it a pretty little pop of color!

Then you serve it in a pretty bowl. I tossed in some bacon bits as a garnish and it did this weird thing when I did. I created a different color and made almost a flower in the middle. Do you see that or is it just me? Maybe I need to quit drinking wine while I cook?

Well regardless, it was very, very good. Not as good as the soup my dad made, but he would have been proud and would have smiled at me and said "Muy bien Chaparra" (Very good Shorty), and then he would have eaten a big bowl of it, probably adding several shots of Tabasco!

 

My Random Week

Well...I'm still buried in paperwork at work. I think April is going to be a better month, which is good because if all goes according to plan I'm going to be really busy with a huge project in April. For now I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

Started this week by BBQ'ing on Sunday. Now that doesn't seem something important enough to blog about, but I've actually never BBQ'd by myself EVER! BBQ'ing is kind of a "man thing" in our family and my dad would BBQ every single Sunday for everyone and you always knew no matter what you would get an excellent meal on Sunday.

One thing that my dad always BBQ'd that was a real treat for us was corn on the cob.. in the husk. And I'm proud to say I'm following in my dad's footsteps by BBQ'ing some. Don't they look pretty? I also BBQ'd hamburgers and hotdogs which came out great. Next I'm going to try Chicken. My brother Fred BBQ's the best Chicken!

Also this weekend I went to J.C. Penneys. You know they changed their whole pricing plan? I was really scared that since they were going to be lowering their prices in order to be more competitive that the quality of their clothing was going to suffer...and I was right. I was not happy with anything that they had and even less with items that I tried on. But I did end up finding this beautiful black ring! I had been wanting one forever! I've worn it to work almost every day this week. It's hard to type with it, but doesn't it look good? Sorry for the blurry cell phone picture.

Oh yeah...and also this past weekend I hit the Big Lots 20% sale, and am I glad I did because I found the most beautiful patio table. I know you're probably thinking...well ummm, but it's in your kitchen. Yes...I know. But see, I gave my pretty little country kitchen table to my dad for his new apartment and we had been using my ugly round white plastic patio table and one chair in the kitchen. We only had one chair because the only one who ever sits at the table is my mom. Soon I'll be putting the table outside and I know it's going to be beautiful out on the patio!

And did you know that this week the news sweeping the world is that brooms are standing on end...by themselves? This phenomenon or hoax, depending on how gullible you are is attributed to the spring equinox and the axial alignment as a result of the equinox. Well I heard about it this morning from my local weatherman, Kevin Charette who posted a picture of his broom at home standing straight up unassisted. So I had to try it and lo and behold!!! Voila! See... I did it! I actually left it standing up just like that and later checked with my son and he said it was still standing up! Cool Beans huh?

And this week I've gone back to my low-carb diet in an attempt to lose at least 10 pounds in a couple of weeks because I'm going to a conference with my sister later in the month. So I thought that since it was a little chilly outside, I would try a new recipe that I found on a new favorite blog my sister Lisa recommended called Blue Skies and Yellow Dogs. The creator and author of this super funny blog is "The Zadge" and she posted a recipe she calls White Chicken Chili. It seemed even simple enough for me as not only am I not a big BBQ'er I'm also not a big SOUP'er. The talent for whipping up a soup just eludes me, but this recipe from The Zadge was just the ticket as I was able to make it with a minimum of trouble and it was delicious. I didn't photograph it as well as The Zadge did because by the time I remember to photograph it I already had it in a plastic container for storage, but still it doesn't look too bad...and trust me it was delicious, although I wish I had noticed that she said 2 cans of white beans...I only put one in and it could have used more.

I topped my soup with way too much Monterey Jack Cheese, but trust me...it was delicious and fairly low-carb except for the beans, but since I was short a can that wasn't too bad. My son even liked it and he doesn't like many soups. He had two helpings and I managed to get a picture of his second bowl. He loaded it up with Garlic and Butter flavored Ritz Crackers.

So that's a wrap up of my week. I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. It's going to be a long, busy day, but at least it's Friday and I have the weekend to look forward to!

So how's your week been? Balance any brooms?

Turkey and Rice Soup

Earlier today I was talking to one of my favorite underwriters about how our holiday went and so on and she mentioned she was going to go home and make some soup out of her leftover turkey. And I decided to play along and said, "Hey, that's just what I was planning to do!" Then I told her I might just make a turkey potpie instead as I had some pie crusts left from the pumpkin pies and she said, "Oh yum, that sounds good too! I might do that instead."

Then on the drive home I thought, well why not? Why not make some soup?

Well, for started, because I don't have a single vegetable in my house! No wait, I lie, I do have a couple of jalapenos and a bag o'salad, those can be considered veggies right?

So I thought, ok, I'll just go to the store and pickup some carrots and celery and maybe a zucchini squash, but first I called my mom to see if she had some celery because I didn't want to buy the whole big stalk of it. I was in luck! She said she had a whole bunch of celery and bell pepper and onions already diced left over from the stuffing!

So I went and picked it up and figured, I don't need carrots, I'll just use potatoes. And this is what I created!

And I gotta tell ya, it was soooooooo good! Just what I was craving. I added some rice as well and some chili pepper flakes so it was a bit spicy, but not too much. Some carrots would have added some lovely color, but other than that it was perfect!

Turkey Rice Soup *estimated ingredients since I really didn't measure

1/2 onion diced small (I used a yellow onion)

1 cup chopped bell pepper

1 cup celery

1 cup white uncooked rice

1 small can chicken broth

2 cups diced up cooked turkey

1 cup chopped potato

salt and pepper to taste and about 1/4 tsp of chili pepper flakes

2 tsp oil

Pour the 2tsp oil into your pot and add the onion and celery and stir for about 2 minutes then add the bell pepper and the uncooked rice and stir again for another 3 minutes, then add the chicken broth, the chopped potato, salt and pepper and the chili pepper flakes, stir and let come to a boil and toss in the turkey, then just simmer until the veggies and the rice are softened to your personal taste, about 20 minutes or so.

Cauliflower Soup

“Explaining something sensible to Lord Killanin is akin to explaining something to a cauliflower. The advantage of the cauliflower is that if all else fails, you can always cover it with melted cheese and eat it.” – William E. Simon

I have not a clue who Lord Killanin is, or why he’s so hard-headed. All I know is that I’m making Cauliflower soup and at least I know that you can always cover it with melted cheese. Anything is better with melted cheese, just like any day with BACON is a good day!

Since I’ve been home recuperating from my surgery I’ve been reading food blogs nonstop! I wish the things I read would stick, but they don’t. Thanks to the magic of bookmarking though, I’ve saved a whole folder of special recipes to try. I especially want to try soups even though I know it’s still 85 degrees outside right now. Let’s just pretend it’s cold and foggy and misty!

This recipe is from here. And it seems so super simple. Actually it looks upon further reading that the writer wants me to try making the soup with butter and with olive oil…oops! I only did butter. Sorry Becks & Posh, next time if it turns out well this time, I’ll try it with olive oil.

The cast of characters, 1 lb. of cauliflower florets, 2 tbsp. butter, 1 small onion chopped, 3 cups water, 2 tsp. salt, pepper as desired


I went pretty much just by the recipe as shown on their website:

In a heavy pan with a lid, I melted butter over a low heat. (Next time I will use much more butter, I think like 4 tbsp because I love it real buttery.) Then I added the onion and cooked gently, it did get a little brown on me but I think that gave the soup a richer, nutty sweet taste.


Then I added the cauliflower florets, the salt (next time more salt, maybe another tsp.) and I put in a whole cup of water because it seemed like too much cauliflower to me. I then covered and cooked it for 20 minutes, exactly.


After 20 minutes, I removed the lid and added 2 ½ cups water and simmered on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring gently every once in a while. I got so excited after the 20 minutes that I forgot to take pictures of it during this time and during the cooling process (just let it slightly cool). I also didn't take pictures during the blending process, but puree in the blender (next time, I will not puree as I like it chunky, it kinda had the consistency of Cream of Wheat).

But at least I took a picture of it before I ate it all. That's it in the little red bowl, sprinkled with pepper, next time I would cook the pepper with it for flavor as well. But all in all, it was pretty good. I would serve it in a bread bowl with shredded cheese and some paprika.