Because It's Cold

I'm basically a soup nut. Anyone in my family will vouch for this, seeing as my favorite food growing up was my Grandma Jo's homemade vegetable soup (strangely containing beef...). There is just something so cozy and comforting to me about sitting down with a steaming bowl of soup and a small spoon (another quirk, I hate soup spoons. We'll leave that for another time). But aside from this love of soup, I am also cold. Always. Well, aside from two weeks ago when I was on a Caribbean cruise. So needless to say, between my fond childhood memories and the desire for warmth, soup is a big hit in this house.

On the way home tonight, I heard that the "feels like" temperature for tomorrow morning is -4 degrees F. Yikes. That settles it. Time for soup.


This one is so easy that I had to post it. It's one of those "one dish wonders" as I like to say, where you barely have any dishes to take care of once dinner is prepared. The prep is minimal so it isn't a huge time constraint, which is always a plus. I don't usually go for the open-can-make-recipe types, but this tastes good. Period.


Santa Fe Soup

Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes (my recipe suggests Rotel, but I just use regular Hunt's, better yet the fire roasted if I can get my hands on them)
1 can chili beans (your desired spiciness)
1 can whole kernel corn
1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 to 1/3 lb velveeta mexican cheese ("cheese" used loosely...)
1/2 c ketchup
1/2 c water
1 tsp garlic powder
Cayenne to taste
Salt and pepper to taste


Brown beef with onion, season with salt and pepper; drain fat (this will cause your house to smell like a diner, which isn't the worst thing). Add tomatoes, corn, and chili beans (with liquid) to pot. Also add chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne as desired, ketchup, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. While simmering, add cubes of velveeta cheese until the desired consistency and flavor is achieved.

A few notes: cook all of this in the same pot and save yourself a few dishes. Remember that "spicy" seasonings tend to grow as you simmer, so taste and adjust the flavor after the soup has been simmering a while. Also, the original recipe calls for a pound of velveeta which I find to be overkill. I used 1/4 lb cut in small cubes (melts faster) and it gave the soup good flavor, color, and consistency. I normally object to velveeta but it works well here. Use your judgement.

Spring Chowder (and the only way I eat asparagus)

I realize that the words "spring" and "chowder" seem to be going in completely different directions, but hear me out. I normally think "chowder" and my stream of consciousness goes something like this: sausage, hearty, fall, cozy. I think spring and the words "light, sunny, flowers, fresh" come to mind. How do we reconcile these things? For me at least, the solution was...leftovers.

My sister had a baked potato BONANZA fundraiser last week: hence the leftovers. We took home a large ziploc bag of cooked broccoli florets as well as several baked potatoes. What to do with these giant things? I did what I usually do for inspriation. Go to the grocery store when I'm hungry. I picked up some milk, heavy cream, and (believe it or not) asparagus.

For those that don't know my dislike of asparagus, here it is. My Grandpa Floyd had a great big garden, and one of the things that he would always grow was, you guessed it, asparagus. Sounds great, right? A grandpa sharing his lovely home-grown vegetables with his kinfolk. Wrong! This is a vegetable that I DO NOT like. Not to mention the added pressure from my parents (asparagus-lovers) that "Grandpa grew this fresh, you should eat some!". Sorry folks, not my thing. So due to that, I've avoided that veggie like the plague.

Until...they were roasted. I went over to a family friend's house for dinner, and when given the menu report I heard the vegetable on the menu was asparagus. Well...I should be polite I suppose. I will eat a few bites and then quickly move on to the other offerings. I was sorely mistaken. This asparagus was roasted on parchment paper in the oven, drizzled with olive oil, salt, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. My whole asparagus world changed that day.

Back to the chowder. I had determined that I would use the potatoes and broccoli to make some type of chowder. But I wanted a little extra. So, I grabbed that beautiful asparagus, roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, and went to work. The result was a hearty, yet healthy solution to my leftover dilemma. It resembled a homemade "cream of" soup, but with some nice substance added in. Creamy, light, but somehow still rich because of the broth. And a little zip to boot.

Spring Chowder
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, baked and chopped into bite-size pieces (I left the peels on, do whatever you want)
2 c broccoli florets, cooked
1 c asparagus, roasted (see below)
1/8 c freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 c heavy cream
2 c milk
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp sage
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (or go bold and add some more!)
Salt and pepper to taste
(you will also need an immersion blender, or a regular blender will work fine)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place asparagus on parchment paper (easy clean-up!) and drizzle with olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and some freshly grated parmesan (the more the better for me...in the oven it turns into an AMAZING thing!). Roast for 15 minutes, allow to cool and then chop into bite-size pieces (about 1 c).

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Put the 2 remaining tbsp of olive oil in the pot and roast the garlic until "california tan" (thanks, Guy Fieri for that term!). Add the butter and flour in equal parts and allow the flour to "cook" for a minute to get rid of the "floury" taste. Stir to incorporate the butter and flour together. Ta-da, a roux! Turn the heat down to med-low and add the heavy cream. Note how the roux thickens the cream...it will do the same thing when you add the milk. Toss in half of your potatoes, broccoli, and asparagus. Slowly add about 1 c of milk and allow the mixture to heat up and thicken.

Time to immerse and blend! If you are using a stand blender, take care not to burn yourself while pouring the mixture in and out of the blender. Blend to a smooth puree...this is the "cream of" part I was referring to.

To this creamy broth add the rest of the potatoes, broccoli, and asparagus. Add your seasonings and the rest of the milk, and keep on medium heat until everything is up to the same temperature (tip: err on the side of too runny for the broth...the potatoes can act as a thickening agent, and leftovers always thicken up as well).


Serve with some bread to sop it up, and enjoy!

Supper Club

In this area of the Midwest, we have "supper clubs". I'm not exactly sure what defines an eating establishment as such, but that is not what I am referring to. As I was cooking (see below) tonight, I couldn't help but think that one thing I love to do is talk to others about food. My common work conversations consist of:
"So, what did you eat last night?"
"So, this is what I ate last night"
"Mmm, I'm so hungry for this ____"
"Tonight I'm making _____"

You get the gist. I think about food. A lot. I talk about food. A lot. No, I don't have some type of binge eating disorder (and yes I am qualified to make that determination...). I don't think it's an unhealthy obsession. I just like to discuss food, think about food, ponder new combinations of flavors. Sort of like an athlete focuses on a game. Except I'm not super-skilled at cooking. I just really enjoy it.

So, per the title, I should start a real supper club. Not a wood-paneled Midwestern restaurant that features a small salad bar and a waitress with a smokers' cough. But a group of people who like to talk about food, share recipes, go out to eat together, etc. Doesn't that sound like a riot? Anyway, until that exists in my life I will use this blog to talk "at" someone, anyone who might be reading. Welcome to my supper club :-)

Here was tonight's dilemma:
-It is towards the end of the month and we are getting down to the end of our grocery budget. To make a long story short, we have school loans we are *aggressively* paying off, and what we save in budgeted areas we put towards our loans. Thus, I like to save a bit in the grocery line when I can. I didn't want to run out and buy a bunch of ingredients for a meal. So I just played the cards I was dealt (i.e. used what was in the fridge and pantry).
-I made stock (see previous post) and wanted to make a point of using it before it spoiled
-I have some fresh broccoli that should be used, and some uncooked chicken in the fridge.

All this leads to: soup!

What kind of soup? Oh please, I have no idea. Most nights it is the fabulous process of working with what I have creatively to make something that is tolerable on the palate. Tonight's experiment turned out well, which isn't too rare of an occurrence.

I heated up half of my veggie stock in a pot, and added a handful of soba noodles (thanks sis for getting them in little Tokyo!), half of the fresh broccoli, and a can of sliced water chestnuts (drained). I pan-grilled 1.5 chicken breasts (whatever was left from our Indian food this past weekend...I'll write about that soon) and seasoned them with a Chinese-Cajun spice mix (who knew?!). As the soba noodles cooked and the broccoli and water chestnuts softened a bit, I cut up the chicken and added it to the pot. All in all, a delicious thrown-togther-semi-Asian soup.