Soup, Soup, Soup and More Soup

Soup has been the theme of the week here. It was like the perfect soup storm; it was cloudy and cool outside, I had a drawer full of random veggies and greens to use up and everyone in my house has a cold. So three times this week, I made soup for dinner.

Of this week’s versions of chicken noodle, minestrone and Italian wedding soup, the Italian wedding was my favorite! Now, I can’t claim authenticity on this one because I have only ever had Italian wedding soup that I have cooked and I have never been to Italy. BUT, I’m in love with my version! I may never try Italian wedding soup anywhere else for fear it will ruin my relationship with my version…

This soup is right up there with chicken noodle as far as being comforting and soothing for a cold. It is broth based with carrots and greens, plus meatballs! I also serve mine with small pasta such as orzo or rings. I can’t even pick a favorite part. Of course I love pasta, always but the meatballs! They are so savory and soaked in broth. They just make such a perfect bite! The carrots are shredded so you get some in each spoonful. This is the first time I have used collard greens in this soup but they turned out awesome! I liked them better in this soup than when I braised them with bacon and garlic.

I grabbed my trusty bouillon cubes for this one. I have made this soup with bouillon, stock from a box and homemade stock. Homemade is always the best but this soup has never not turned out! It takes more time to make the meatballs than to put all of the rest of the soup together (unless you are making homemade stock!). I like to mix and bake my own meatballs in large batches and toss them in the freezer. Having those on hand helps this soup come together in minutes. Of course I didn’t have any in the freezer but I do now!

Meatballs, broth, veggies and tiny pasta make this soup a meal in a bowl. Served nice and warm to take the chill right out of your cold and make you feel comfy cozy! It is definitely in my top five soups to make at home!

Easy Italian Wedding Soup

1/2 batch meatballs (recipe follows)

6 cups chicken broth (homemade, stock in a box or bouillon and water)

2 carrots, grated

3-4 large collard green leaves, spines removed, cut into 1 inch squares

1 tablespoon butter

Small pasta, cooked per package instructions

Melt butter in soup pot over medium high heat. Add collard greens and sauté until they begin to wilt. Add chicken broth and bring to simmer.

Simmer collard greens until tender, about 15 minutes. Then add carrots and simmer 2-3 minutes longer. Add meatballs and small pasta* and warm through. Serve immediately.

*I like to dish my pasta into each bowl and then pour the soup over it rather than adding all of the pasta into the soup. This way I can store the pasta separately if there are leftovers without it bloating in the broth.

Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

1 lb bulk Italian sausage

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 grated Parmesan

1 egg

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp basil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Add all ingredients to a bowl. Use hands to combine thoroughly.

Use roughly 1/2 tablespoon of the mixture per meatball so they fit on your soup spoon. Roll into balls and place on un-greased cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes.

It came with an egg, it must be breakfast

About a week ago, our family had a little weekend getaway with some good friends at an indoor waterpark resort. Of course, an important part of any getaway for me is having some good food! When we went out for dinner, my meal was good but my husband ordered something I just had to try to recreate at home!

 I believe what he ordered was called "Carnivore Tots". I’m pretty sure it was like the equivalent of a full bag of frozen tater tots covered in some sort of gravy with shredded pork, shredded cheddar cheese, a fried egg and sprinkled with green onions. Now, I didn’t dive in until there was just tots and gravy left but that was enough. I wanted more!

When we got back home and I made my meal plan for the week, tots and gravy were on my brain! Even though the original dish had pork on it, my husband was not overly impressed with that part. He said it was a tad dry. Instead of pork, I was thinking pot roast with a nice, rich gravy. Most of the time, I just pop my beef roast in the slow cooker and cover with 1 packet onion soup mix, 1 can cream of mushroom soup and 1 can water. The roast always comes out super tender and the drippings are already like gravy! Perfect set up for recreating the tater tot dish; shredded meat and gravy – check! At some point, I had to ask my husband if the egg really added anything to this. After all, I was digging just tater tots and gravy. He assured me it did and that’s when I decided I was serving it for breakfast. I mean why not? Potatoes, meat, eggs… Sounds like breakfast ingredients.

The morning of “carnivore tots” was really quick and easy. I used half a bag of frozen tots (next time I’ll probably go for the whole bag!) that I just had to spread on a pan and put in the oven. My left over pot roast was already shredded and covered in its own gravy so I just warmed it on the stove in a sauce pan. All that was left was to shred a bit of cheese, dice a couple green onions, and fry a few eggs. About as challenging as bacon and eggs. Once all the pieces were ready, I just had to pile them up! I was so excited to dig in, I forgot to even put the green onions on before I snapped a picture!

Tots are just delicious and tots for breakfast are just plain fun! This is a savory, satisfying breakfast. I suppose it could easily be done over hash browns or American fries to be more breakfast-like. Any which way you pile it up though, crunchy potatoes topped with tender meat and a little velvety egg yolk is a spectacular way to start the day!

Carnivore Tots

1 bag frozen tater tots

2 cups shredded left over pot roast in gravy

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1-2 eggs per person

Green onions to garnish

Prepare tater tots per package instructions.

While tater tots bake, warm pot roast on the stove in sauce pan. Shred cheese and chop green onions; set aside.

When tater tots are almost ready, fry 1-2 two eggs per person.

To assemble, spread tater tots in single layer, spoon pot roast and gravy over them to cover. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and top with egg(s). Garnish with chopped green onion and serve immediately.

Pasta! It’s What’s for Breakfast!

People, I crossed a line. And there is no turning back. I made pasta for breakfast! Pasta has been my favorite food group for as long as I can remember. I can’t get enough of the stuff! All shapes, sizes, sauced, buttered, cold in salad or piping hot in soup… I have met very few pasta dishes I didn’t like. It would appear that I have passed this pasta gene on to my daughter. It was totally her idea to have noodles for breakfast! Mom was more than happy to accommodate such an innocent request!

Not long ago, I saw a post in my news feed for breakfast lasagna that sounded delicious to me. The only problem with breakfast lasagna is that my daughter has days when her food cannot be mixed together. She doesn’t go as far as the different foods can’t touch but it’s almost like she doesn’t believe they are the same foods if they are all mixed in one dish. Also, she’s hit or miss on if she will eat cheese. Cheese is more important in lasagna at our house than lasagna noodles so I decided breakfast lasagna will have to wait.

Two things that are always a hit here are bacon and sausage. Either one or both, I never have any left over when I make them for breakfast. Eggs go over pretty well too and I thought that egg yolk over pasta sounded like an excellent idea! As I was trying to put a plan together in my head, it became obvious that this was going to have an adult version and a kid’s version. Both have about the same ingredients but assembly was altered to accommodate our different tastes.

This is the kid's version; notice the lone noodle basking itself in the sun...

Oh, there was one other minor snag in my plan; I didn’t have any breakfast sausage, only plain pork sausage. So I had to whip up a little seasoning mix from a couple of recipes I read online. My whole family loved it! Possibly better than store bought! It had a subtler flavor than what I buy at the store and I liked that I knew exactly what went into it. Today, I just browned my sausage and left it as crumbles but I will definitely be seasoning my own again for patties.

Admittedly, this took longer to make that I typically like to spend on breakfast. My little man was withering away by the time breakfast was on the table and then he was shoveling it in his mouth with both hands. For next time, the sausage and bacon could easily be browned the day before and refrigerated, freeing up a ton of time in the morning. Other than that, you just need enough time to boil some spaghetti and fry a few eggs.

Spaghetti for breakfast will most definitely happen again at our house! Making little girl’s pasta dreams come true is an awesome part of my mom job!

Spaghetti Breakfast Bowl

(yields 4 breakfast bowls)

1/2 lb spaghetti, cooked per package directions and buttered

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 slices thick cut bacon, crisped and chopped

1/2 lb breakfast sausage, cooked (seasoning mix recipe follows)

4-8 eggs (depending on your appetite!)

Green onions, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 4, oven safe, ramekins or bowls on a cookie sheet. In each bowl, layer spaghetti, shredded cheese, bacon and sausage. Bake for roughly 10 minutes to melt cheese and warm through.

While bowls are warming, fry 1 to 2 eggs per bowl. When eggs are cooked over easy or over medium, place on top of warmed spaghetti. Sprinkle with chopped green onions and serve immediately.

Breakfast Sausage Seasoning

(for one pound pork sausage)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp fresh sage, minced

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Dash ground red pepper

Dash ground nutmeg

Mix into raw pork sausage. Form patties or crumble and brown.

Life is Better with Bacon

Just a few days ago, Bacon Jam popped up in my news feed. I’m not sure if I should be thankful or just creeped out by the fact that my social media “knows” me… But either way, I had to make it! And it was worth it!

The recipe I used is from Chef John on allrecipes.com. It’s not hard but it takes a little time, like he says. I don’t really mind though because the first step is to render the bacon fat and crisp the bacon. That means bacon potpourri! Once you add onions to bacon grease… ahh that smells just promises that magic is happening in the kitchen! The only minor change I might make next time is that I will skip the salt that the recipe calls for to help sweat the onions. It just doesn’t need the additional salt and the onions have sufficient cooking time to caramelize, in my opinion.

Why have I not heard of this before? It is sweet, smoky, salty bacon spread! With caramelized onions! I already had a thing for caramelized onions and the bacon just sends it way over the top. It is addictive! I have been “testing” it on crackers and I may have to buy more crackers when I’m ready to serve it. Actually, I really want to whip up some burgers and but a big ol’ heaping scoop of this stuff right on top!

If you know any bacon lovers, make them a batch for Christmas. Seriously, it’s good!

Soup's On

Grilled cheese and tomato soup. I always have cheese and bread for grilled cheese but I never make myself a grilled cheese unless I also have tomato soup. Oh, and after trying condensed tomato soup with water once, I won’t make condensed tomato soup unless I also have milk! I’m a food snob, I know.

Grilled cheese and tomato soup takes me back to being a kid. I can remember one occasion when my mom had some tomato basil bagels from a local bagel shop. She cut them open, put slices of Swiss cheese on them and toasted them under the broiler. Then we dipped them in tomato soup… And now I wish I lived anywhere near a bagel shop that made tomato basil bagels!

I’m pretty sure I could go on for days on this topic… Tomato soup is the perfect pairing for gooey, melted cheese held together by glorious toasted slices of carbs! It’s a simple meal, kids love it and it will warm you right up on a blustery fall day.

I’ve been wanting to try to make my own tomato soup for a while now. I still have love for the “Mmm… Mmm… Good” stuff but I have always thought there was probably a way to make it at home with less sodium and no preservatives. And what better time to find out than when you have a CSA box full of season’s end tomatoes.

When I started tossing ingredients in my roasting pan for this, it occurred to me that I was really making a roasted vegetable soup. I promise, tomatoes are still the star! There’s like a 50:50 ratio of tomatoes to all other vegetables! I wanted some sweetness from the carrots and bell pepper to balance the acidic tomatoes and things like garlic, onion and celery to add some flavor. Otherwise, this would be a tomato sauce recipe!

As often happens when I cook; there was way more soup than my family was going to eat in a reasonable amount of time so I froze three quarters of it for later. This way I have soup ready when I need a quick, hot lunch or a good goulash base!

Roasted Tomato Soup

4 pounds garden tomatoes, cored and chunked

2 carrots, chunked

2 stalks celery, chunked

1 small red bell pepper, chunked

1 medium onion, chunked

3 cloves garlic, pealed

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp dried basil

1 Tbsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

½ tsp black pepper

½ cup cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°F

Fill bottom of non-reactive roasting pan with tomato chunks. Layer remaining vegetable chunks and garlic on top of tomatoes. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper.

Roast at 425° for 1 hour. Allow to cool slightly then blend in batches until all soup is smooth. Taste and adjust salt as necessary.

To serve, heat on stove until hot then remove from heat and add cream if using.

Note: If you plan to freeze soup, I suggest freezing without the cream and adding it after reheating.

Saucy Apples

Since making mud pies last weekend, my little girl has been asking if we can make real pies; “like blueberry,” she says while jumping up and down. So today, I asked her if we could make apple pie with some of the apples we picked.

Me: “Do you think we should make an apple pie today?”

Her: “Yeah. Hey mom, can we make apple sauce this day too?!”

Me: “Sure. Did you know that sometimes we eat ice cream on apple pie?”

Her: *Wide eyed* “Mom, can we make apple sauce first and eat it at the same time as pie?”

I interpreted that last bit to, “Mom, can we eat ice cream on our apple sauce?” I’m pretty sure that’s the picture in her head.

Have you ever tried to duplicate something you ate at a restaurant? I do it all the time with varying degrees of success. There was a diner near where we used to live that served homemade apple sauce as a side. Really, it was like apple pie filling but it was sooooo good! Tender chunks of apples bathing in warm, caramel-like cinnamon sauce… Mmmmm

So that’s the apple sauce I was dreaming about while my little girl was dreaming about ice cream in hers and honestly, combining the two would probably make a fabulous dessert!

The variety of apples we picked last weekend is called “Sweet 16” and they are indeed very sweet. They have been great for sweetening vegetable juice and the kids have been dipping them in peanut butter to snack on all week. I think they are the perfect amount of sweet for apple sauce too!

Cinnamon Apple Sauce

4 medium sweet apples, peeled and cubed

¼ cup water

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

½ tsp (heaping) ground cinnamon

Combine ingredients in medium pan. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 5-7 minutes then remove cover. Continue to cook until apples are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Leave apple sauce chunky or use a potato masher for apple sauce consistency.

Why is the Rum Gone?

Did I mention I was a Disney fan? Anyone picturing a ruggedly handsome, wildly entertaining pirate?

Anyway… This past weekend was simply gorgeous! Beautiful sunshine; mid 70’s with a breeze; just perfect. The best part was that my family spent the whole weekend enjoying it together. Everything from mud pies in the back yard, chalk drawings on the driveway, swinging on the swing set, a walk through the neighborhood and even apple picking for the first time. Gorgeous weather, amazing family, I am truly blessed.

Such perfect weather lends itself so well to blended beverages! Something about such a relaxing day enjoying the outdoors and cold drink, match made in heaven! While shopping our favorite wholesaler last week, I let my daughter pick out a type of fruit. This resulted in two 2-pound containers of watermelon chunks, one gallon bag of watermelon slices and two gallon bags of frozen watermelon chunks… Watermelon for days! Watermelon punch seemed like a tasty solution!

Watermelon Punch

Roughly 4 cups frozen watermelon chunks

2 -3 limes, pealed

1 cup juice cocktail (I had apple blueberry on hand, I think most anything but a cranberry blend would work. Cranberry may be too tart with the limes)

Lemon lime soda

1 cup-ish (I didn’t measure, just used up what I had) coconut rum (optional)

Blend frozen watermelon, limes, juice cocktail and rum (if using) until smooth. Fill glass about half full with soda and top with blended mix. Stir and garnish with lime slice if desired. You may want a deck chair and sun glasses ready for enjoying this beverage.