Roasted Corn Chowder

According to the calendar, spring has arrived, but the temperatures are not quite cooperating fully.   I asked the hubby what he wanted for dinner St. Patrick’s day night and his answer was a steaming bowl of soup.   He was adamant that it had to be roasted corn chowder.  He usually isn’t picky, so when he very emphatically asks for a specific item at dinner, I try to accommodate him.

It’s a recipe that I got from a neighbor years ago.  You start by roasting two bags of frozen corn in the oven.  While that cooks, you fry up a bit of diced bacon.  Using the bacon drippings, you cook the rest of the vegetables – onion, celery, and red pepper.  A bit of salt and pepper, a sprinkle of flour, a couple of diced potatoes, then you add in two boxes of chicken stock.  Bring it to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, partially covered, until the veggies are tender.  When you are ready to serve, I add a about half a cup of heavy cream to the pot.  I top the soup with some crispy bacon and dig IN!

John requested grilled ham and cheese sandwiches on the side, which I made for him, I didn’t need anything more than the soup for dinner!   I really do enjoy not only making soup, but eating it.  It is probably my favorite part of fall/winter, a pot of delicious soup, simmer on the stove top, but for now, I am not sorry to see these cold temperatures fade away to warm, sunny days!

Beef Barley Soup

What should you make when you are craving both beef and soup?  Make beef barley soup, of course!  This is actually my Mom’s recipe that she gave me years ago, and we love it.  Full of hearty vegetables, filling barley, and tender beef.  Perfect for a winter day.

I always start by sauteing the mushrooms first.  They brown better in a searing hot pan with just a bit of oil.  It is best not to salt them until they are done as salt draws out the liquid and makes them difficult to brown.   Next up, I brown the beef, which I season with salt and pepper, and finally the carrots and onions.   To that I add a bit of tomato paste, a few sprigs of thyme and beef stock.  I cook the barley seperately and add it after it is cooked.   I let it simmer on the stove for a few hours so the meat gets incredibly tender and the flavors have time to get to know one another. This, in a bowl, with  some french bread, makes me incredibly happy.   It’s even hearty enough that the hubby doesn’t insist on having a sandwich alongside his soup.

French Onion Soup

We are quickly coming to the end of soup making season in our house.  I still have a few more that I want to make before the weather turns and I spend all of my days grilling!   I was debating between a roasted eggplant soup or french onion.  I texted a friend, I always bring him soup, one because he likes it and two, because I cannot for the life of me, make a small batch of soup!  I asked which he would prefer and his resounding reply was FRENCH ONION!  The good news is that onions were on sale, buy one bag, get one free, so it was super inexpensive to make!

Normally I make incredibly hearty soups so this French Onion was almost delicate by comparison!  I slowly caramelized the onions, added a bit of flour, then deglazed with white wine, before adding sprigs of fresh thyme and beef stock.  I let the soup simmer for 30 minutes before adding toasted slices of french bread and topping it with a generous slice of gruyere cheese.  A little time spent under the broiler and ta-da!  French onion soup is served!

I made chicken salad sandwiches to go alongside the soup and it was the perfect late winter dinner to have during what I HOPE will be the last snowfall of the year.   I made the chicken salad using leftover cooked chicken breasts and diced onions, carrots, and celery.  I like the crunch of the veggies.

The snow looked beautiful, but I am not going to be sad to see it go, spring is just around the corner!

White Bean Chicken Chili

The hubby loves chili, so I thought I’d make a batch to get us through these cold, icy winter days.  When I mentioned it to him, he told me he had chili TWICE that week while traveling for business.   Well HECK, I didn’t want to make him eat it again, although he would probably be ok with that, AND, I figured it gave me an excuse to make chili with chicken instead of beef, whoo hooo!

I kept things very simple, the entire recipe took me under an hour to make.  I started by dicing boneless, skinless chicken breasts and browning them in the pan.  I removed them, added in three diced onions and one large minced jalapeno pepper.   To that I added some Penzey’s Arizona seasoning, smoked paprika, and some ground cumin.   Once the vegetables had softened a bit, I added in four minced garlic cloves and let that cook for one minute more.

I added the chicken back into the pot and two boxes of chicken stock.  I opened a can of white beans and smashed them using a potato masher. I added this into the pot as my thickener. I opened two more cans of beans and stirred them into the chili.  I added a generous handful of minced cilantro and BOOM, dinner was DONE!

I put out some toppings – cheese, sour cream, hot sauce – and we dug in.  I didn’t even make a bread or sandwiches, it was a very basic dinner, at least for our household.

Dinner Party

I find we don’t do as much entertaining in the winter.  I think it’s the cold temperatures, the ugly weather, and the dark days, I just don’t always feel up to company.  Well this year, I am trying to change that! I promised myself I would do more entertaining, spend time with friends, and just generally find a way to ENJOY these long dark days!

I set the table, nothing fancy, just our everyday dishes and some brilliantly beautiful red roses.

Our first course was Italian Wedding soup.  Can I be  honest here….I lie to my husband.  I make the soup with chicken meatballs instead of beef.  He eats FAR too much red meat when he travels for work so I try to find ways to incorporate healthier options into meals when he is home.  Years ago, when I first started making this soup, he asked me why I used chicken instead of beef.  I looked at him, thoroughly appalled and said, why on earth would I used beef meatballs in a chicken based soup.  He shrugged and said, makes sense, and I haven’t looked back!

I love starting winter dinner parties with a broth based soup.   It is warm, comforting, and filled with good for you vegetables.  Our friends brought their little, who loved the soup, yeah!

Next up I made a butternut squash gratin, I thinly sliced a peeled and seeded butternut squash and layered it in a pan with gruyere cheese, chinese five spice powder, and heavy cream.  I bake it, covered, for 40 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove the cover and cook for another 20-25 minutes, until hot and bubbly.   It is delicious!

Our protein was pork tenderloins, that I seasoned with Penzey’s Pork Chop Seasoning and browned in a skillet.   One browned, I smeared them with my homemade Guinness Mustard and layed them on a bed of shallots, fennel, and dried apricots.  I slid them in the oven for 20 minutes until they reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees. Yes, we eat our pork medium, and yes, I know my mother is reading this and thinking her daughter is crazy.  I can live with that!

For a vegetable, I simply steamed a head of cauliflower and tossed it with a bit of butter.  Everyone was thrilled with dinner, thankfully ; however, the piece de resistance was the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Talk about a decandent way to end a meal.  It was creamy, it was rich, it was covered in chocolate ganache…..

What a way to end the night.  I am grateful that our friends came, we had a wonderful time. It was so great to see them and we will be getting together again soon.

Chicken Tortilla Soup with Biscuits

The hubby prefers soup and sandwich for dinner, I’m more of a soup and bread kinda girl.  Every once in a while, I forgo the sandwich and we just have warm, lovely bread, with a ton of butter, alongside our soup.  I don’t do it often, but when I do, man am I a happy girl!

As you can see, most of my soups are incredibly hearty.  We are not a thin brothy soup kinda family, so most of my soups are a meal by themselves.  This chicken tortilla soup is no exception!  Filled with tomatoes, onions, corn, black beans, chilies in adobo, and shredded chicken.   To make sure the hubby would be full, I made a batch of home made buttermilk biscuits and had a ton of “toppings” for his soup.  Tortilla strips, hot sauce, sour cream, shredded cheese – the works!

I timed the biscuits to come out of the oven just as I was putting the soup on the table.  I slathered them with butter and oh my goodness, were they awesome!  We finished our dinner with a pan of dark chocolate cheesecake brownies.  Hubby can’t complain about that!

Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

I worked both weekend days, so on Friday, I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up groceries for the weekend.  When I got home, I started a pot of soup.  I didn’t use a recipe, I totally winged it, based on what I bought and what was already in the house.

I started by dicing up an onion, two leeks, several carrots, and three stalks of celery.   I cooked the celery in some stock in a small pan so that it would get tender. I diced up two boneless, skinless turkey breasts, seasoned them with salt, pepepr and poultry seasoning.  In a large stock pot, I browned the meat in batches.  After removing the meat, I sauteed the leeks, onion, and carrots, with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.

I added in two minced garlic cloves, the celery, and two boxes of chicken stock.  While this was cooking, I made three small boxes of wild rice.  Once the rice was ready, the vegetables were tender, so all I had to do was combine the rice with the soup and add a splash of heavy cream.

The next night, we had soup and roast beef with cheddar sandwiches for dinner.  It was so nice to come home after a really long day and not have to worry about getting dinner on the table.  All I had to do was asssemble a sandwich and heat up the soup.

Soup and SNOW

Well folks, even though I haven’t been here to write about it, I have been cooking!  I tend to make a lot of soup in the winter.  The hubby and I are both HUGE fans and it makes for a wonderfully hot, filling, comforting dinner.  I also bake a lot more in the winter – cookies, cakes, bread, rolls…. you name it.  It makes the house smell wonderful, it heats up the kitchen, and does horrible things to my waistline…ah well! Good thing I am eating a lot of veggie filled soup to balance out my diet!

Four potato and chicken soup

Cream of potato with ham

Tomato basil

Italian vegetable

The four potato and chicken soup was nice and spicy!  Potato with ham was creamy and comforting.  We LOVE tomato basil, it goes beautifully with a grilled cheese.  The Italian vegetable soup was chock full of veggies and spicy italian sausage.  As much as I enjoy soup, I do have to say I am just about over winter.  I need sunshine, I need warmer temperatures, I need to not have to wear a jacket, hat, gloves, and scarf to work….how many days until spring?

 

Soup!

While I was home on Winter Break, I made quite a few soups.  I made a Polish Potato Soup Recipe from the King Arthur Flour site.  It was amazingly good!  I had some smoked kielbasa left over from the night before, so I diced that and added it to the pot.  It was SO good!

There is nothing like a pot of pasta fagioli soup on a cold winter day.  Tons of vegetables and beans in a hearty broth…YUM!  I started by cooking a bag of dried beans, which I seasoned with a whole head of garlic and some fresh rosemary.  Once the beans were done, I started the soup.  I used up a bunch of fresh veggies from the fridge.  I added them to the pot, seasoned them with salt and pepper and let them sweat for about 4 minutes or so.   I added in a bit of minced garlic, a can of diced tomatoes, chicken stock, the beans, and a parmesan cheese rind.   I let this cook for a few hours, when we were about ready to eat, I added a bag of baby spinach and cooked of some ditalini pasta.

The third soup was a poblano corn chowder recipe from the Daily Soup Cookbook.  It was OK, we certainly enjoyed eating it.  You start by sauteing poblano peppers, onions, and garlic together.  Add in a ton of diced potatoes, two bags of frozen corn and chicken stock.  Once the vegetables are tender, you add in 4 oz of crumbled feta and 2 cups of monteray jack cheese, minced cilantro, and a dollop of heavy cream.

I really think it needs smokey component to make it amazing.  Next time I think I will roast the corn and add some smoked paprika and cumin to the vegetables.

Thankfully, John is very happy with soup and sandwiches or soup and home made bread for dinner, which allowed me time to organize my kitchen cabinets and not have to worry about making an elaborate dinner!

Soup’s ON!

I had a ham bone in my freezer begging to be used, so I defrosted it, grabbed a smoked pork butt at the store and made a batch of ham stock.   Once that was done, I put it in the fridge overnight to solidify the fat.

Once the fat was removed, I went ahead and made split pea soup with ham for dinner, YUM! I served it with a grilled cheese sandwich – it was awesome.

One of my coworkers is a HUGE fan of split pea soup so I brought her in a container.   She savored it over the course of three days, I wouldn’t have had that kind of patience!

My days off are usually scattered and I try to take advantage of them when I can.   Last weekend I had off on Friday but had to be in work at 5am on Saturday for our second Admissions Open Houses.  I knew I was going to be exhausted when I got home so I took the opportunity on Friday to make a batch of Chicken and Wild Rice soup for Saturday’s dinner.

It was super easy,  I started by sauteing onions, carrots, celery and garlic in a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper.  I added a few sprigs of fresh thyme and 8 cups of chicken stock.  I brought it to a boil, turned it down to a simmer and let it cook for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, I removed the thyme stems and added in 8 oz of wild rice.  I added a lid to the pot and let it cook for an hour.  Just before serving I added a dollop of cream.  It was exactly what I needed after a long day at work!