A Tale of Two Soups
January 31, 2012 - Written by DianaCold season is here – and we were bit. Two soups this week. I made Chicken soup for my husband on Sunday and he returned the favor on Tuesday. I returned home from work feeling clogged and gunky. My handsome knight in shining armor, the one who is slowly adding to his cooking repetoire, made some chicken soup for me. We’re big believers in those natural remedies. What about you? What do you do when you are feeling all clogged?
Sunday’s Chicken Soup…
Tuesday’s Chicken Soup…
Albondigas (Mexican Meatball) Soup
January 28, 2012 - Written by DianaWe were supposed to go to our friends house for a potluck dinner last weekend. Then there was an ice storm, and the dog was ill and didn’t eat for days. The dog also injured her spine and had much difficulty sitting and walking. Plus I was had a rumbly tummy on Friday night, and by the time Saturday came around my stomach muscles were too sore and not into food too much. Before you ask – the dog is fine. She is on a little medicine for her spine and an infection, but many vet visits later, she is doing well. I’m fine too. But we were very sad to miss out on a friendly gathering.
Anyway, these really cool friends sent a batch of this incredible Albondigas meatball soup home from work with my husband. So for a few evenings we reheated the soup, plus I took some to work for lunch. What didn’t I do? I didn’t take any photos darn it. My friend was cool enough to share her recipe with us. I think this would make a great superbowl entree. It’s not finger food, but the meatball and the peppers …
Potato, Celery Root and Broccolini Soup
December 16, 2011 - Written by Diana
This is a great farm market soup using vegetables that are still growing in the area as the choices get smaller and smaller at the farm markets. The number of stalls at some of the farm markets are dwindling, but trying to buy and use local as long as possible also means trying to be seasonal in your recipes.
There are a lot of nice late fall veggies in this potato soup hopefully making it nutritionally filling as well as warming you up on a cold day. I cut the broccolini into thirds. The bottom third of the stalk, I put away in the freezer for when I am making vegetable broth. The middle third I used for the soup and the top third I stir into the pot after steaming in white whine vinegar. I love having the whole veggie to bite into a nice morsel in the mostly smashed potatoes and celeriac broth. The celeriac I peeled and diced into bite size pieces to fill about 2 cups. I rough peeled the potatoes – because I’m a fan of skin and had …
Easy Ground Beef Vegetable Soup in the Crockpot
November 10, 2011 - Written by Diana
Last Christmas, my sister in law Pam, gave me a copy of a church recipe book – Seasoned With Love that her church had created for a fundraiser. It’s a fun family recipe book, the recipes were donated by the congregation. When I was out east taking care of mom, my mother in law stayed with my son. He’s 19 and old enough to live alone, but we knew that boys with girlfriends who live nearby probably should be supervised. That, and he doesn’t always eat enough to sustain himself. So we asked mom to come.
Mom made my college son this soup (contributed by Kellie Loudin) and since there were enough leftovers, my husband and I had a bowl when we arrived home. The soup was delicious but the best part was my son. He told us his grandmother made this soup that was easy – just cook up the ground beef, dump it and the vegetables into a pot and let it cook.
Chicken & Fall Vegetable Soup
November 2, 2011 - Written by Diana
Staying with my mom while she recovers from her surgery, I made Chicken & Fall Vegetable soup for dinner. Soup makes you feel good when you are sluggish and don’t want something heavy, especially if your throat is a little sore too. My mom is a fan of almost all vegetables, and since the fall vegetables are in season, this is the perfect time to make this soup. It is easy to prepare but will take longer than 30 minutes because it takes a while for the carrots and butternut squash to soften. The soup was served in a bowl over warmed wild rice. The rice would absorb the stock from the soup so we precooked the rice separately and then put a couple of tablespoons in the bowl and ladle the soup over top. The leftovers were stored as single servings in the freezer for meals on busy evenings after I left to go back to my family and home.
Mom can’t eat onions or tomatoes; acidic vegetables and fruit upset her tummy. If you feel it could use a few more vegetables, feel free …
Chicken, Chard, Bean and Butternut Squash Soup
February 10, 2011 - Written by DianaI told you I was going healthy for the Superbowl. We brought this soup, plus some berries and greek yogurt with honey – plus vegan chocolate avocado cupcakes. We did splurge though because my sister in law made some awesome queso with sausage that was great with chips and they also had some Buffalo Wild Wings. It was a small gathering, but there was plenty of food and even though our favorite team disappointed, we had a good time (well most of us).
I bought my butternut squash last fall at the farmer’s market. We put them into baskets and stored them on shelves in the unheated basement. The food doesn’t freeze down there, but it does get rather nippy downstairs. Last year I tried storing them in a warmer spot, but some of my squash went bad. This year, they are in perfect condition and not even drying out. I’m thrilled that we put up a nice shelving unit to use for winter storage.
Anyway, I also have been trying to work with beans more, but not canned beans, dry beans, and so that was the start of this soup. I …
Birthday Tribute for Shirley Plus Her Italian Vegetable Soup Recipe
December 4, 2010 - Written by Diana
Happy Birthday Mom (Shirley). Today is my mother in law’s 80th birthday, which I think deserves a little bit of a tribute. Pam (my sister in law) wrote up a little bio and provided a recipe for me:
Shirley Virginia Cline was born at home in Martins Ferry, Ohio in 1930, the oldest of eight children. She graduated from high school and from the Ohio Valley School of Nursing becoming a Registered Nurse. Shirley married William Hayes in 1951 and chose to stay home to raise seven children. This year, 2010, Shirley is 80 years old and her large family includes her seven children and their families, 14 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
Mom and I have our differences over plenty of things, but there are many similarities also. We were both oldest daughters who helped keep things in line. We once discussed that we both went away to college and felt freedom from the family obligations without feeling guilty. We also agreed that being the oldest girls (I did have an older brother), and having to help out made us stronger and taught …
The Earthbound Cook & Butternut, White Bean and Chard Soup
October 15, 2010 - Written by Diana
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of The Earthbound Cook – 250 Recipes for Delicious Food and a Healthy Planet by Myra Goodman. There’s a contest going on currently (ends tomorrow) where Earthbound Farm Organics is giving away free copies of this book and my recommendation is that you try to get on that list of people getting a copy of this book. Myra Goodman is one of the founders of Earthbound Farms, and has taken the things she has learned using fresh organic farm grown ingredients and compiled them into a great recipe book. You would expect that every recipe would start with one head of Earthbound Organic Lettuce or a big bunch of Earthbound Organic Chard, or cup of Earthbound Organic baby carrots, but the truth is that there are no labels on any of the ingredients used in the recipes.
There is a short narrative in the front of the book that tells you how Earthbound Farms came to be and their family, but the book isn’t about …
Steak and Roasted Corn Salsa Stew(p)
March 7, 2010 - Written by DianaI found a bag of roasted corn in the grocery store that inspired this stew/soup. Salsas always make me think of summertime, sitting on the deck reading a book and snacking on salsa and chips. Well, the deck is being used to stain wood right now, and my husband’s hands got really cold while he worked, so a warm meal was in order. I had some chuck roast that I diced and sautéed with onions and peppers, before cooking the rest of the way in a beef broth and adding the rest of the ingredients. This is a quick soup to make, and was on the table in about an hour. If you double the ingredients, you can freeze a batch for another meal. I dolloped sour cream on top to mix in, which my son thought was great – and oh by the way dear daughter, we do not have any avocados in the fridge like you promised – those are limes! I would have chopped up some avocados to place on top with the sour cream if I had some – I was assured that I did. Even without the avocados this was a fantastic stew(p). Summer and …
Chicken Lemongrass Chard Soup
January 21, 2010 - Written by DianaI got my inspiration from the Chard that I picked in the garden today – smack dab in the middle of winter, and starting to drip freezing rain. I knew I had to pick it before it was frozen again and it had to be used quickly. I used barley in the soup, though you could use rice, or bulgur or substitute any grain you’d like. I loved the barley, but my braces wearing son says that the barley is the perfect size to get stuck. If you teen wears braces, definitely use a different grain. The broth was really great. I wasn’t sure if tomatoes and lemon grass went together, but it was a fantastic combination. I added ginger because I love lemongrass and ginger together . The lemongrass was from my summer garden, that I froze for later use; I’m very happy when I can use ingredients from my garden. It makes it more mine.
Ingredients:
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