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. ;-)