soup – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Bring on the soup…

No hint of Spring here. It snowed more over the weekend-it WAS beautiful and slippery and yes, cold. Our house is cold. It is getting a bit depressing.

To tackle this depression I made a somewhat unhealthy soup recipe that my friend Mary Kay shared with me. She passed the recipe on to me from her daughter-in-law who creates the soup at work with friends; they each bring an ingredient and then share for dinner or lunch. I love that idea and would love to find someone at work who would like to do the same.

I used a pound of ground beef from my friend Farmer John and I created my own taco seasonings using this video. I’ve got to get better at snapping photos of my own food!!

{source}

Taco Soup

1 pound ground beef
1 package taco seasonings
1 package ranch dressing (I omitted-I didn’t have it and don’t know how to recreate)
1 can of pinto or kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes or can of Rotel
1/2 bag of frozen corn (I added a can of corn)
1 can diced green chilis
1 can black beans

Brown the hamburger in a skillet, draining any excess grease. Drain beans and can of corn. Combine all ingredients in to crock pot and stir. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Serve warm with toppings; avocado, sour cream, blue chips, cilantro, or sprinkles of cheese.

Pretty easy. Next time I would double a few ingredients as I love leftovers for lunch. I made it on Sunday before I left for a play in the afternoon so it would be ready for dinner. I was happy I could substitute many items. I didn’t have even a a can of diced tomatoes so used the tomato juice my mom made from her garden tomatoes last Fall. I did have cans of black and pinto beans in the cupboard, which was perfect for this last minute choice. When I make it again I will try and soak my own beans first.

I enjoyed making the taco seasoning packet from spices I already had in the cupboard and if anyone knows how to make a healthy version of ranch dressing seasonings I would add that. I’m curious how the ranch packet would taste in the soup but not curious enough to buy a packet as they are just little containers of chemicals and flavor nubs.

The soup was delicious and we ate it during the Oscars; a very down home meal for such a festive occasion! And then last night Groovy Girl and I ate it again over baked potatoes (with small-ish dollops of sour cream).

Did you watch the Oscars? I thought for awhile Gravity was going to sweep it (one of them that I have not seen) and was pleasantly surprised when Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett won. I am extremely happy that 12 years a slave won and loved many of the speeches starting with Jared Leto’s tribute to his mother. Amazing.

We saw a lot of good movies this year and I loved in particular Philomena (and was sad it didn’t win anything), Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska (Bruce Dern was amazing also) and 12 years a slave. I have yet to watch Gravity but I will. I was sad Lone Ranger wasn’t nominated for enough as I loved that movie also. Our favorite dress was Lupita Nyong’o’s floating blue dress. She was a breath of fresh air!

Weekend Cooking; Chicken Tortilla Soup

It’s already a week into February and I haven’t blogged once. I think my fingers are too frozen to type. I did make a lovely treat for last weekend’s miserable SuperBowl game. I saw a crock-pot recipe for a chicken tortilla soup that sounded delicious-hot, spicy, and filled with goodness-everything I was looking for while the weather outside is still bitter cold.

Some soups are easy to whip together and those are good for those days when you need something fast. My chicken soup didn’t come together quite that fast but it was so well-worth the wait. It makes any recipe more difficult when you have to search out the right meat. I did have a frozen whole chicken that had already been cut into parts via my farmer friend, John. After that unthawed I baked it in the oven with drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkling of spices. Mine had the skin on it but that peeled off easy after I baked the pieces. My dogs loved that little treat.

I baked the chicken pieces at the beginning of the week and waited until Sunday to actual put the soup together. I meant to make it on Saturday so it could have a day to sit (always the best) yet I don’t know really where Saturday went. The soup still tasted great and it was a perfect for lunch several times during the week.

Chicken Tortillas Soup {PW Cooks}

Ingredients

2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1-1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 cup Diced Onion
1/4 cup Diced Green Bell Pepper
1/4 cup Red Bell Pepper
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 can (10 Oz. Can) Rotel Tomatoes And Green Chilies
32 ounces, fluid Low Sodium Chicken Stock
3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
4 cups Hot Water
2 cans (15 Oz. Can) Black Beans, Drained
3 Tablespoons Cornmeal Or Masa
5 whole Corn Tortillas, Cut Into Uniform Strips Around 2 To 3 Inches
_____
FOR THE GARNISHES:
Sour Cream
Diced Avocado
Diced Red Onion
Salsa Or Pico De Gallo
Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
Cilantro

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cumin, chili pepper, garlic powder, and salt. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on chicken breasts, then sprinkle a small amount of spice mix on both sides. Set aside the rest of the spice mix.
Place chicken breasts on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Use two forks to shred chicken. Set aside. {I had to cook mine for much longer-bigger pieces.}

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add onions, red pepper, green pepper, and minced garlic. Stir and begin cooking, then add the rest of the spice mix. Stir to combine, then add shredded chicken and stir.

Pour in Rotel, chicken stock, tomato paste, water, and black beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.

Mix cornmeal with a small amount of water. Pour into the soup, then simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Check seasonings, adding more if needed—add more chili powder if it needs more spice. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Five minutes before serving, gently stir in tortilla strips.

Ladle into bowls, then top with sour cream, diced red onion, diced avocado, pico de gallo, and grated cheese, if you have it! (The garnishes really make the soup delicious.)

I did do the cornmeal step of which I was leery yet I thought it added a certain Southern complexity. I used my regular can of diced tomatoes instead of Rotel. I happened to have a full can of dark enchilada sauce that I bought by mistake {I use green when I made regular enchiladas} so I dumped that in there instead of the paste. I wanted the soup to be authentically spicy and didn’t worry about Groovy Girl’s taste buds.

{Lots of garnish}

I love the garnishes; we added sliced avocado, diced red onion, cilantro, cheese, and sour cream. It was tasty.

Here is the link to PW’s original recipe.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Click the link to find many other food-related posts.

{Fake} Chicken Soup soothes the soul.

The other day I came home from school and it was so blustery cold out I knew I needed some soup. I have a special go-to soup recipe that my kids think of as chicken soup but it isn’t really. Everyone should have a few days in their week of meat-free meals if you want to be healthy.

My (fake) chicken soup:

I love to do all the chopping first so my mise en place is set and I’m not chopping and stirring at the same time. In every instance I recommend local or organic vegetables.

Smash and chop two garlic cloves, one white onion, two large carrots, and two-three celery stalks. The celery and the onion I finely chop as my groovy girl is not a fan. The smaller I can make them the better. I had zucchini in the fridge so I diced that up as well.

Heat coconut oil to a stock pot. I am in love with coconut oil’s flavor. I recently sautéed a zucchini in a little coco oil and it added such a unique flavor. I have Nature’s Gate from Amazon as I don’t have any place that has good oil in town. I’m sad that it is not going to be available much longer in this version.

Add carrots, onion, and garlic to the warming oil. Stir and sauté and then add celery and zucchini. I add this later as they are softer veggies and won’t take as long to cook. Add freshly ground black pepper and just a little sea salt. You can add a little turmeric as well or choose to spice it up a bit. Once this base of vegetables are soft I add my cubed tofu.

If you are new to tofu cut it out of the plastic container, drain the water, and place square of tofu in the middle of a clean, cotton towel. Wrap the towel around the block and place a plate or a pot on top for about 8-10 minutes. This drains the extra water out of the tofu so it will soak up the flavors of your recipe. Unwrap the towel and slice through with a sharp knife to make small cubes. I slice about 5 rows through both ways and then two rows through the middle to create the bite-sized cubes. Lift the towel up and send the tofu tumbling into the vegetables. Mix the it all together gently as you don’t want the tofu to crumble. Put a lid on the pot and let everything steam together for about 10 minutes while you create your broth.

Many times I’ve made my own broth but this night I needed help. I have two different kinds of broth that I use in a pinch. One is Better than Bouillon and Orrington Farms Broth base both in vegetable. Both of these products are easy to mix with hot water. I added 6 cups of broth once the tofu has had a chance to pick up flavors from the vegetables.

Turn the heat up and once the soup reaches a steady boil add half a package of thick noodles. Give them a few minutes to cook and take the soup pot right to the table. This feeds a family of four but my crew (just the three of us now) finished almost all of it for dinner. I ate the last of for lunch yesterday. When Groovy Girl finishes her bowl there is a pile of celery in the bottom~okay, yet all the zucchini is gone. Yeah!

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click over and find many other food-related posts. Happy end-of-the Weekend!

Weekend Cooking; The weather outside is too cold

I know it’s November and Thanksgiving is just next week BUT I was not expecting this freezing weather yet! I’m not a big fan of the arctic temps the Midwest ushers in and yet, lucky for me, I love, love, love soup.

In preparation for this very busy weekend of our church Christmas bazaar, the opening night of Junie B., Jingle Bells, Batman smells that features the amazing Groovy Girl as none other than the main character, which is the same weekend that family and friends would descend upon us to experience this starring role I decided to make soup during the week so we could enjoy it for lunch and/or dinner. And we did.

Of course it was made in a crock pot from a recipe book that my mother-in-law gave me quite awhile ago and it is delicious.

Adapted from Better and Homes and Gardens’ The Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes:

Indian-Style Curry Soup

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1-in cubes (5-6 cups)
1 pound red potatoes, cut into -1-in. pieces (3 cups)
2 cups chopped tomatoes or one 14 1/2-oz can low sodium tomatoes, cut up
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 T grated fresh ginger
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
2 T snipped fresh cilantro

In a 4- or 6-quart slow cooker combine eggplant, undrained tomatoes, and garbanzo beans.
Sprinkle the ginger, mustard seeds, coriander, curry powder, and pepper over vegetables. Pour vegetable broth over all.
Cover and cook over low setting for 8-10 hours. 0r on high for 4-5 hours. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.

My modifications: I only used part of an eggplant and I diced it into tiny cubes as I didn’t want the children to see the eggplant. I already had yellow organic potatoes so I used those an cubed them into bite-sized chunks. I had dry garbanzo beans in my dry storage so I prepared those with an easy recipe so they were soft before I toppled them into the crock pot.

The soup hit the spot as the temperature continued to drop here yesterday.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click to there to find many other food-related posts. Stay warm out there.

Weekend Cooking; Deep thinking about food.

Last night my husband and I went to an unusual play at our local university. The play based on the book, The American Way of Eating, by the same title by Tracie McMillan. The book was chosen as the school’s in-depth everyone reads book choice and the theatre department head decided that in celebration of that; they should workshop it into a play. From a very unorthodox beginning the play came together and was an amazing display of team work and artistic talent plus the audience members learned a lot of interesting facts.

Even though I haven’t read the book which is about Tracie’s journey to uncover what happens to produce from field to store to restaurant I get it. I’m the proverbial choir. I shop at the farmer’s market, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart or eat at chain restaurants or fast food. I did however not know enough or think about it enough what happens in the farm fields where undocumented or immigrants work. In Iowa I am familiar with disgusting meat plants that pluck workers from other countries in order to create an “affordable” work force. It is criminal how little they are paid for a long day’s work; back-breaking work and they are afraid to stand up for better conditions for fear of losing the little income they get. The play also touched on women’s rights and how easily those in charge take advantage of them.

I don’t know how to solve it beyond talking about it, writing about it, and encouraging folks to read her book and many others with similar themes about our broken food system. We want cheap food but at what cost and on who’s back are we stepping on to get garlic at a “rock-bottom price”.

Be aware. Be thoughtful. Investigate a lot. Question more.

This post is loosely linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads. There you will find other foodies who love exploring recipes.

Other food-related news:

I created this delicious zucchini soup this past week for a quiet dinner for my husband and I. I plan to make this soup this week to use up swiss chard and zucchini. I made a mole sauce yesterday for a pumpkin enchilada dish I’m making this week for friends that I’m going to hear Bonnie Raitt with in concert. I made mini raspberry muffins for my book club kids-they asked for seconds.

Overall it has been a good food week here at our house.

And in preparation for winter I’ve been cleaning out the gardens by making two more batches of pesto with basil from my mother’s garden; it is beginning to freeze here at night and neither one of us wants to lose any basil. I think I’m also going to freeze mint leaves in cubes. I’m watching my zucchini and butternut squash plants carefully as I have several there to bring in.

Have a bountiful week!

Random Recipes + sneaking in some greens

It is pouring rain outside tonight. The television is off and Groovy Girl is off playing somewhere which means there will be a trail and a mess to clean up. How do I help her learn to clean up after herself? This is major life trauma right now. She’s 10 and we’ve made every kind of challenge, chore chart, and list we can think of. We’ve worked with her to show her what it looks like to play and then clean up. I’m glad she plays, I really am; I just which the second part of playing came easier to her.

When we were in New York City in June Groovy Girl, Greg, and I tried a sample of a Mojito Tea (non-alcoholic) that some tea shop was passing out on the street. We loved the zingy flavor and we made a list of what ingredients we thought it might have in it. I have been meaning to whip up a batch of what we thought might be in when I found a recipe in Bon Appetit/August edition that seemed pretty similar to what we thought. I made it tonight with Groovy Girl’s help. It was refreshingly wonderful and I will definitely make it again. It doesn’t have that mojito flavor we were going for yet so close. I may play with it to see if I can get any closer.

(image source)

Here is the recipe:

Honeyed Lemon-Mint Iced Tea

4 cups water

4 bags green or black tea (we used green)

1 bag mint tea

1/2 of a can of 12-oz can frozen lemonade or limeade concentrate, thawed

1/3 cup honey

ice cubes

fresh mint sprigs or leaves

thin lemon slices (we used lime)

1. In a saucepan, bring the water to boiling. Remove from heat. Add tea bags. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add lemon or lime concentrate and honey, stirring until honey dissolves. Cool thirty minutes.

2. Transfer tea to a 1 1/2 quart pitcher. Cover and chill for several hours.

3. To serve, pour tea over ice cubes in tall glasses. Garnish with mint and lemon/lime wedges.

Makes 6 servings.

You could easily add a splash (or two) of alcohol to this for an adult beverage. In the heat here, right before the rain came down, we gulped it down as is.

Our garden is beautiful this year with cucumbers just about ready, tomatoes heavy on the vein, basil beginning to bush out, and many zucchinis! Groovy Girl does not like this delicious squash and will do anything to avoid it. Tonight I decided to disguise it in a curry soup. She likes curry!

Also from August edition of Bon Appetit:

Curried Squash Soup

4 servings

Heat 3 T. vegetable oil (I used coconut) over medium high heat. Add two chopped large summer squash, 1 chopped small onion, and 1 tsp of curry (I used 1 T.); season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Cook until tender, 8-10 minutes. Add 4 cups chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, 25-30 minutes. Puree until very smooth. Serve soup warm or chilled, topped with sour cream, cracked pepper, and cilantro sprigs.

When I got to the 3rd paragraph of this I frantically searched for veggie broth paste in my refrigerator and came up empty handed. There were some old beef cubes from a chili recipe my husband made like two years ago but I didn’t want to use them. So I added just water, upped the amount of curry powder, a little more sea salt and pepper and hopped for the best.

I pureed it using my Braun hand-held immersion blender which I adore-I’ve had it for about 12 years and I have no idea what i’m going to do when it stops working. I am pretty positive that the second one I get will not be as good or as inexpensive. This one I bought after watching Emeril use it on his early shows on the Food Network. (I wonder if I should pre-prepare myself by buying this exact replica i found on Etsy)

The soup was not perfect but again I plan on trying it again with good broth and kicking it up a notch or two. Groovy Girl ate about half a bowl with a dollop of sour cream stirred in. She asked me twice what kind of soup it was and I said simply, “curry soup”, which was true. She did not say “Ewwww” or even use the zucchini word so I think I got away with my disguised soup recipe. I think once I play with the recipe she will enjoy it more. She never needs to know the main ingredient is sautéed squash.

I spent the better part of my day reading The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth. I’m half way through and am wowed by her writing. This is the first truly lazzzy day i’ve spent this summer and I’m pretty happy with it. And because I was taking it so easy Groovy Girl stayed in her pajamas for the day. We have a busy rest of the week so it was good to relax.

Weekend Cooking; Warm soup for cold weather

Mighty blasts of cold air-that’s what I’ve felt all Spring Break. No tropical sun or sand sifting through my toes. We spent Spring Break right here in Iowa with a little weekend getaway to Minneapolis which was just as cold. A freezing Spring Break gave me plenty of inspiration for soup, reading, and writing but zero inspiration for spring cleaning. I cleaned one room over break.

College Boy (formerly Teenage Boy) -he does turn 18 this April and is almost finished with his freshman year so I think a name change is in order-anyway he spent most of the week enjoying Colorado so it was just Groovy Girl, Big Daddy, and me, all freezing together. I whipped up two fantastic soup recipes to combat the cold.

(source)

Chicken and Green Chili Stew
adapted from Super Suppers Cookbook 2
Judie Byrd

2 whole chicken (organic or farm-raised) breasts or a small whole chicken
1 cup coarsely chopped onion
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 tsp minced fresh garlic
1 T cooking oil
1 4-oz can chopped green chilies, undrained
1 14 1/2-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup chopped carrot
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp black pepper (to taste)

1. Place chicken in a Dutch oven; add enough water to cover chicken. Simmer, covered, 30 to 45 minutes or until meat is falling off the bone. Remove chicken from the pan. When cool, shred the chicken meat, set aside. Reserve the cooking liquid. I had two leftover breasts from another recipe that I’d tossed in the freezer so I just used those and skipped this step altogether.

2. In a large saucepan cook and stir onion, bell pepper, and garlic in hot oil over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Add the chicken, undrained chills, undrained tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots, simmer covered, 20 minutes. Stir in enough reserved cooking liquid to reach desired consistency. Add salt and black pepper.

My other alteration was to skip the green chilies because I had a half a can of green enchilada sauce from a Mexican dish I made last week so I added that instead. It was perfect. Groovy Girl will eat the mild enchilada sauce so I thought this was a safe yet flavorful trade-off.

Suggested sides: Tortillas, shredded lettuce, cheese, chips, or salsa.
We had a salad and some fresh bread from my mom. All three of us loved this soup and the leftovers made an easy lunch the next day.

(Potato soup )

Because it stayed cold all week and I had time on my hands I made a potato soup two days later that was out-of-this-world delicious. With a velvety texture this soup, served with more fresh toasted bread, kept us warm while the temperatures dropped outside. Yes, the temps actually dropped during our break! The potato soup recipe can be found here at Cooking from the seat of our pants website.

I could eat soup several times a week and I’ll definitely make both of these again.

In other news it’s my husband’s birthday and I cooked up a storm for him today. We started our morning off with homemade biscuits and gravy from Bev Cooks blog. Biscuits and gravy are my husband’s total weak spot and if we happen upon a diner this is exactly what he orders. I’ve done the biscuits before for him and this time I made the gravy myself which was far superior (of course!) than the jarred stuff. I need a bigger biscuit cutter but other than that the recipe was a huge hit.

My mom and step-dad made him a Guinness chocolate cake on St. Patrick’s Day so I made him chocolate chip cookies for an afternoon treat today. I tried a new recipe and I loved how soft and chewy they were. I found it on Pinterest and was happy to see it originally came from KA Flour.

Spring Break comes to an end this weekend (Groovy Girl is already sobbing about this) but I’m cool with it. There are still so many activities to do with my students and hopefully Spring is around the corner…although the word on the street is that snow is predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Seriously.

Have a mighty peaceful day!

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click over and find many other food related posts like this one.

Weekend Cooking; Savoring Chicken

(fabulous enchiladas)

Last Sunday I cooked a whole chicken in the oven, a very traditional Sunday meal for my family. When I talk about chicken here I only mean a local farmer’s chicken-you can use what ever kind of chicken you like but mine always come from a farm. We had plenty left over and instead of just turning the whole thing into chicken soup like I usually do I picked off several large chunks, shredded it and turned it into chicken enchiladas. I looked through several recipes to make it and I realized with an odd clarity that I’d never, ever made enchiladas before. I love Mexican food and make tostados, tacos, and burritos but enchiladas just seemed so overly cheesy. So why did I change my mind? I don’t know. I guess it was the large can of enchilada sauce staring at me from the back of the cupboard. The chicken and the enchilada sauce just came together.

My kids were leary at first but took a few tentative bites. Shockingly enough they both loved them and had second helpings. Groovy Girl usually does a lot of scraping and picking of my recipes, separating the what she is willing to eat and what will remain on the plate scrapped to the edges or on her napkin. Teenage Boy eats whatever because he’s well, a teenage boy, but his look can range from sullen to less-sullen depending on the meal. He ate his entire plates-worth and asked greedily for more. Dad wasn’t home to beat him to second helpings and we managed to eat the whole dish after I set aside the last two enchiladas so he could eat between meetings. This will definetely be added to my regular rotation as they were super easy-it helped that the chicken was already cooked) and every once in awhile my mind drifts off as I think about other combinations for another round of enchiladas. If you have a favorite please leave me a link.

Yesterday I started cold water bubbling with the remaining chicken and half a dozen bay leaves before I left for school. Stopping at the co-op on my way home I bought fresh celery, two large carrots, and noodles for the pot. The house smelled wonderful as I stepped in the back door after a long day at work. Homemade chicken soup is truly a God-send and yesterday was one of them. Even though I felt a bit under the weather it was easy to stand in the kitchen and chop carrots, onion, celery, garlic to toss in the pot with coconut oil slightly simmering at the bottom of the pan. I picked at the chicken bones (hot, hot, hot) extracting as much meat as possible and dumped the meat in the soup pot and added 6 cups of the savory broth.

I crawled into bed after that and just let the soup blend together without my watchful eye. By the time my husband walked in the door he added the noodles, waited, and served. Breaking from tradition I ate mine in bed. I feel so much better today, warding off what ever was trying to take hold of my body yesterday. Lack of sleep is a major problem as I struggle through insomnia. A good night’s sleep and a bowl of chicken noodle soup did the trick though and today things look much brighter.

What did you cook up this week?

Recipes used throughout the week:

Chicken Enchilda from Home-based Mom

(we had a good email chat about plastic wrap in the microwave)

Martha Stewart’s lighter chicken enchiladas

(next time I will make my own sauce)

Closet Cooking

(I looked at Kevin’s recipe before I left work for inspiration

but just followed my own instincts at home)

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads weekend cooking weekly meme.

Click her link to find many other food related posts.

Weekend cooking; O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

We went yesterday to get our tree and I wish I could say it was a glorious event but it wasn’t. The kids argued for a bit, the selection was low from this summer’s drought, and we were in a hurry so husband and Teenage Boy could get to the movie theater to see the new Brad Pitt movie (excellent they said).

Our Christmas tree search is an annual event we do with another family but they blew us off this year with some excuse about too much to do on Saturday. We understand busy but Groovy Girl was steamed about this as she thought it was “boring” without their rambunctious young kids. She was left with just us and Teenage Boy who made her mad in the car but did get her laughing at the tree farm. What’s she going to say when it’s just me and her dad with her? Even more boring, I’m sure. O families!

We did manage to laugh together. We had glasses of cider inside the lodge while we waited for our tree to be shaken. We did run into other friends and in general enjoyed shopping for our tree at the same place we’ve gone for the last four years. After the movie my husband got the tree in the stand with NO cursing and we toasted the tree with some homemade hot chocolate to top off the day.

Did I cook this week though? No really.

It was a strange (non) cooking week for me as I spent most of the week down with a cold. Monday night I sent TB to get a pizza so I would not have to cook. Tuesday I made a quick Ramen-type meal for them and went to bed. And the week continued like that.

Last week I’d whipped up a big pot of chicken noodle soup using the chicken from our Thanksgiving meal. I sauteed onions, celery, carrots, and lots of garlic and added the broth from cooking down the chicken bones. Once the broth and the vegetables are together I added big fat eggless noodles. I make it just like my grandmother made it before me. I remember watching her fascinated as she picked the meat out of the small nooks of the chicken. For years I used this same soup method but substituted the chicken for blocks of tofu. I used Miso paste or vegetable stock and my kids still loved it, especially the thick noodles. How I got sick after eating this soup all last week is a mystery to me. Maybe though it is why my cold only lasted for four days!

This week I’m waiting for inspiration. I have sweet potatoes and a butternut squash waiting for me to get creative. Any ideas?

This post is very loosely linked to Beth Fish Reads weekly cooking meme. Check out her sight for many more cooking related posts. She has a fabulous post up about mouth-watering pull-apart rolls.

Chilly weather makes me think of soup!

Last week as the temperatures dropped down, giving me a reason to don gloves and my winter coat as I headed off in the morning, I dreamed of soup. I had lentils in my pantry and vegetables in the crisper. I have a usual lentil soup recipe but I wanted to try something different.

I pulled down Soup; A way of life by Barbara Kafka, one I don’t use often even though I love soup.

I found a delicious soup and I had most of the ingredients on hand.

Lentil Soup

(adapted)

1 T olive oil

2 strips of bacon, sliced into small pieces

3 large stalks of celery, chopped

3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 small yellow onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled, and minced

1 T cumin seeds, ground

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

3 cups vegetable stock (it called for beef but I still only ever have veg. on hand)

1 1/2 cup brown lentils, rinsed

1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Freshly ground black pepper

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and bacon over medium high heat. Stir in the celery, carrots, and onions and saute a little to soften. Add garlic, cumin, and chili powder and stir to coat veggies.

Stir in the stock, 3 cups of water, and the lentils. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the lentils are soft.

Remove from the heat. In a food processor, puree about half the lentils. Stir the puree back into the pan, add the lemon juice, and black pepper. Heat thoroughly. Top each bowl with parsley sprigs. Can be served with soar cream dollop. Served with big chunky bread to dip.

The soup was delicious…for my husband and I. The kids noticed the kick right away and Teenage Boy managed to finish his bowl using the bread to absorb the heat but Groovy Girl, even after stirring in several heaps of sour cream, still couldn’t make it through. She ate two more slices of the fresh bread to compensate.

The recipe originally called for bacon rind with an explanation of what that was, but I had good, farm fresh bacon in my freezer so I used that instead which pleased the teenager a lot as he has come to believe that every meal should include meat. So much for his vegetarian start to life. He is very much in the growing stage though. Hungry all the time.

I made this one day and served it the next and so somehow completely skipped the blender part of this recipe. Next time I will do it because I know it would add a nice thickness to the soup. I also thought this would be wonderful over brown rice.

Now it is much warmer out and it may stay that way for the next couple of weeks but I’ll be ready when it decides to get cold on me again.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Click on her link and find many other wonderful food-related posts. I’m not going to think about soup though again until the weather takes another dive.