Sunday, December 23, 2007

For BeckyW



Here's the pic that was missing from yesterday's post. It's today's lunch and I'm eating it now so I'm not baking on an empty stomach.

Becky, I don't really have a recipe but I'll try to reconstruct what I did. For soups and stews, I tend to inventory what I have on hand and go from there.

I started with a little olive oil and chopped garlic in the bottom of a large pot over medium heat. I sautéed 1-1/2 onions (the other 1/2 is in the bread), carrots and celery left over from finger food during last week's football games and cut up soup size (about 2 big handfuls of each). Those continued to sautée while I was cubing 3 boneless chicken breasts, which I added to the mix and continued to cook until the chicken was fully-cooked.

I added some dried dill (about 2 T), salt (1 tsp) and pepper (1/2 tsp) and 3 peeled, cubed white potatoes (peeled). I let all of that simmer a bit and then I added 6 cups of chicken broth and another 6-8 cups of water (my pot is a big pot!).

I looked in the fridge to see what else I could empty and toss into the soup. I found about 3/4 cup of corn (I had used the rest for quesadillas on Wednesday) and 2 green onions so I tossed them in too. I also found some leftover cooked elbow macaroni, which I put on reserve to add at the end.

I started the soup after I had the bread dough going in the machine and then let it simmer until the bread was finished baking.

Before serving, I poured about 3/4 cup of cream and 1 T of cornstarch into the blender, whipped them together so the mixture wouldn't be lumpy, and then stirred the mixture into the simmering soup. After that, I added the macaroni and turned off the burner. The macaroni was already cooked and the hot soup heated it up almost instantly.

So, that's it.

For a recap of ingredients:

3 cubed boneless chicken breasts
1-2 yellow onions, sliced
a few green onions, sliced (optional)
diced carrots, about 3/4 cup
diced celery, about 3/4 cup
olive oil (about 1 T)
3/4 cup corn (frozen or canned)
3 medium white potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup pasta, precooked and drained
chicken broth/bouillon (enough to equal 4-6 cups)
garlic, chopped (1-2 tsp)
1 T dill (or more, to taste)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream (or milk)
1 T cornstarch
water (4-6 cups)

The amount of liquids depends on your pot size and how much soup you want.

The soup is even better today. But now I'm done with my early lunch and it's time to mess up the kitchen again. I didn't really gain any space in the fridge since I have a big container of leftover soup in lieu of smaller containers, but we'll be eating it today and tonight and by tomorrow it should be gone. Still, this week I'm particularly glad I have the second fridge out on the back porch. ;-)

6 comments:

  1. MMMmmmmm yum, I love making soups. Too close to turkey day to be eating chicken for me though, but I think I'll make this with some left over turkey next week. Yesterday I made sausage, kale and white bean soup. Love having a second fridge, spoiled rotten aren't we?

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  2. I love how soups taste better on the second day. I make mine much the same way you do--see what's in the fridge and in the cupboard, and imagine what would taste good together. There is nothing like homemade soup on a cold day.

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  3. I now know I need to get me a bread machine. Yum. I love homemade soups and I don't know why I don't make them more often.

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  4. Mmmm..that soup sounds good!

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  5. Thanks so much!!! I feel special. I just love soups. I will have to make some of this. You are one of those talented people who can open the fridge and see possiblilities. I have just never had that talent. I might have to drag out the bread machine as well.

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  6. I had to tell you we made that soup and bread Christmas Eve. It was incredibly delicious. My husband just raved over it. We will be making it again. It was so good we decided to have it for lunch Christmas day and defer the Turkey and fixins for Christmas supper. My kids even ate it and they are super picky and we have a hard time getting them to try new things. - Thanks again

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Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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