There are very few things I like about winter. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I could count them all on one hand. Out of those few things is a hot bowl of soup. I love soup but having a hot bowl of soup on a hot summer day doesn't mix. So, when the cold descends, I look forward to my soup. I am indeed thankful for the bounties of this earth and for all of the wonderful foods it provides. Soup is a comfort food for the soul. It warms you up and brings a sense of things that are pleasant and warm. I am indeed thankful for a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter day.
I thought I would share with you some of my favorite soup recipes. Enjoy!!
Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot, the more you toot, the better you feel, beans, beans for every meal!! Couldn't resist. But I do love a good pot of chili. This is my favorite chili recipe and this year it took second place at our neighborhood Halloween party chili cook off
Baked Bean Chili
2 pounds ground beef
3 cans (28 oz each) baked beans (I like Bush's Baked Beans)
1 can (46 oz) tomato juice
1 can (11 1/2 oz) V8 juice
1 envelope chili seasoning.
(I like to add a little bit of chopped garlic)
Cook beef in soup pot until no longer pink, drain. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.
Ddeokk Mandu Gook (Korean dumpling soup) Nathan style. I love this soup Nathan makes. I watched him make it, picked his brain, and took notes. This is what I came up with
4 cans chicken broth
2 cans water
1 bunch of thick green onions
1 clove garlic
Half bag of Ddeokk (frozen, dehydrated rice cakes. You can find them at your local oriental food store. The package says, "sliced rice cake)
Half bag of Mandu (All purpose vegetable and meat dumpling. You can find this at your local oriental food store as well)
2 Tablespoons soy sauce. (Apparently not all Soy sauces are created equal. I did not know this until I married Nathan. Kikkoman is the brand I had always used. But since I have discovered a whole new world of Soy sauce. Our favorite is
For soup garnish:
Egg
Scallion
Dried seaweed (you can find at your local oriental food store)
Kimchi
Sticky rice.
Step 1:
Combine chicken broth, water, green onions (white part only and left cut in long sticks), and garlic. Let simmer for two hours. Remove and discard vegetables.
Step 2: (While step 1 is finishing up)
Soak frozen rice cakes in cold water for 20 minutes to re-hydrate and thaw.
Step 3: Add rice cakes, soy sauce, sesame oil, and cooked meat to soup stock. Bring to a boil.
Step 4: Add vegetable and meat dumpling and cook for four minutes.
For Garnishes:
Slice seaweed into strips.
Slice scallions into strips
Cook a pot of sticky rice (We use the Botan brand of rice, but any kind of sticky rice will do)
For the egg: Separate the egg. Lightly beat the white by gently cutting it with a spoon. Stir in the yoke with a spoon until smooth. Heat a lightly oiled, nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Pour each egg part into a thin layer, tilting the skillet. Cook each side briefly until no visible liquid remains. Do not brown the egg. Slice into short, thin strips.
English Brown Stew (This is probably my all time favorite stew)
2 lbs cubed beef
5 cups boiling water
3 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
Dash of allspice
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp A-1 sauce
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrots
2 cups cubed potatoes
1 cup diced celery.
Flour meat and brown in fat. Add water, onions, seasonings, lemon juice, A-1 sauce, and tomato juice. Cover tightly and simmer for 2 hours. Add more water if needed. Add the vegetables and cook until tender.
Taco Salad Soup
1 to 2 potatoes, diced and then cooked half way
Cook together:
1 can tomato sauce plus 1 can water
1 to 2 carrots, diced
1/2 onion, diced
Cook 1 pound hamburger until no longer pink; drain. Add 1 package McCormick taco seasoning, following directions on the package.
Add meat to soup. When potatoes are cooked halfway, drain and add to soup. Cook until carrots are done.
Add to taste:
Chili powder
Garlic salt
Parsley flakes.
Take a spoonful of sour cream and place in the bottom of the bowl. Place tortilla chips around the edges of the bowl. Sprinkle cheese on top. Add soup and enjoy. You could also add beans and corn to the soup....or whatever you want.
Potato Soup (Add clams and you have clam chowder)
4 slices bacon, diced
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups water
4 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup celery
ground black pepper to taste
3 cups half-and-half
2 Tbsp butter
2 (10 oz) cans minced clams (If you want to make it into a clam chowder)
1 Cup clam juice (again only if you are making it into a clam chowder)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
Place diced bacon in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Cook until almost crisp; add onions and cook 5 minutes. Stir in water and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender.
Pour in half-and-half, heavy cream, and butter. (If making clam chowder, drain clams, reserving liquid; stir clams and 1/2 of the clam liquid into the soup. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until heated through. Do not allow to boil)
Tortellini soup (one of my all time favorite soups)
8 oz package frozen Broccoli
6 c water
3 cans chicken broth
3 cans cream of chicken soup
1 pkg of 4 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and cubed)
1 package baby carrots
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
2 pkgs cheese tortellini
Combine ingredients together, bring to a boil, and add tortellini. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
Those are just the recipes from my recipe collection. I LOVE collecting recipes. I have a whole bookshelf just for all of my recipe books.
I love Pinterest!! I have discovered many yummy recipes there. I have three food boards: Must try some day, Crock-pot recipes, and Desserts and sweets. I have 591 recipes in my Must try some day, 50 in the Crock-pot recipes, and 223 in my Desserts and sweets. I love trying new things and I enjoy cooking (so does my family). Here are the links to some of my favorite soups I have found on Pinterest. (These are one's we've tried and really like. I have several soup recipes I haven't tried yet but plan on doing so)
Cheeseburger soup It tastes just like a cheeseburger.
Hamburger soup Simple, easy and delicious.
Cowboy Stew I don't usually do it in the crock pot like the recipe says. It can easily be done on the stove top.
All of these soup recipes are my go-to soups for a cold day. If you have a favorite soup recipe and want to share, I'd love it. I do apologize, you will not be able to leave comments on this blog. I do not want toxic people commenting on the things I write about.
There are many reasons why this is so and in light of things that happened last month, I cannot allow comments to be on my blog. With the adoption, no contact is to be allowed. However, back on October 13th I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize. I did not answer and the caller called right back. Thinking it was one of the kids friends, I answered. A young girl on the other end of the line identified herself as a friend of my daughter. I didn't think anything about it and handed the phone over to her. A few minutes later, Live Wire came running to me in a complete panic. She stated that one of the Ex-Step-Monster's kids had called her (I should note that this is a term that the kids and their counselor came up with). Live Wire had been understandably shaken as she hand't been treated very well. A look up of the number on okcaller.com revealed that it was connected to my ex. Fast forward to the 23rd of October and I had a weird call during the day and later that evening, another number that was only two digits off from the call on the 13th. We answered and recorded what was two young kids (a boy and a girl) making what appeared to be a "prank" call. We heard a lot of foul language. My kids listened to the call and immediately identified who those voices belonged to. A look up of that phone on okcaller.com revealed that it too was connected to my ex. The numbers were blocked and the recordings saved. We haven't had anymore phone calls, hopefully we've blocked everything. But it is extremely annoying to be harassed. Which leads me to suspect that my Facebook, blog, and Pinterest are being stalked as well. The nice thing is that you couldn't possibly even begin to pay me enough money to care, nor could you possibly even begin to pay me enough money to care about what they are up to. But in order to protect myself and my children, I cannot allow comments.
However, if anyone reads this and has an excellent recipe they'd like to share, feel free to go back to the link to this blog on my Facebook and share it there, or shoot me an email. If you don't know my email, you can email me at ellen.cute_curious@yahoo.com. Enjoy!! And thanks for stopping by :)
