Yum. Yes the weather is chilly today in the NorthEast. We had a few snow flurries but nothing really stuck. I see some unseasonal warm for the holidays next week but still soup weather.

We made soup tonight as well. I shopped in my freezer. Onion,celery,carrot,garlic from the pantry. A pint of stock from the freezer and a pint of chile. Found a pint of white beans frozen in chicken stock as well. And a 1/2 pint of fresh frozen corn. We had pork chops last night so i made three while i was at it and planned to make tacos tonight but sliced that third one thin and added to the soup.

Made a garnish of feta, lime juice and cilantro. DH made a couple boule bread loaves.

Just stocked up on grains and beans, lentils and split peas...about a dozen varieties that i can quickly cook up a mixed small amount to add to any broth and veggie combination for a soup or chowder.

My chile is good on its own but i often use it as a soup base as it is so well seasoned.

I think it is spelled 'chili'. So tired but we are off work until Jan 5th. Much needed rest...and some good cooking' the next couple of weeks.

Funny to not want a thicker soup yet. Not had the immersion blender out this fall. Maybe i need some snow cover first...

I've got lots of roasted squash and pumpkin in 1/2 pints in the freezer. Frozen in duck stock and smoked garlic...

i did take a pic.

and another from a few days ago.

Winter is slow coming here too. It's supposed to be in the 50s by Wednesday, but I've got a cold that is hanging on, so Elery put a pork tenderloin in the smoker. Now I'm thinking about adding it to some soup, we have ends and pieces left over.

The last pot of soup I made was chicken vegetable. Relatively quick and just a conglomeration of home canned chicken stock, pieces of chicken breast and whatever vegetables I could find. It was for a family friend who has been having some gall bladder problems and needed something bland and low fat. It was not bad with lots of black pepper.

Annie

We had a brief cold snap (50s) that's already going away - it's too damn hot here!

But I quickly made a pot of red lentil & winter squash soup w/ the turkey broth I've been storing since Thanksgiving, served w/ buckwheat biscuits. Now it's even getting too warm to eat those leftovers....

A favorite in our house is Loaded Baked Potato soup

It was cold and windy yesterday, so we had this for dinner. It's going to be 70 Christmas Day! At least the kids will be able to ride their new bikes.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

4 -5 lbs russet potatoes baked or nuked and cool enough to handle. (I use 1 bag of Ore-Ida Steam and Mash potatoes)

8 slices bacon, cooked and diced. (reserve 2 Tb bacon drippings)

2 Tb butter

1 large onion diced

3 cloves garlic, smashed

3 Tb flour

2 c chicken broth

2 c milk

1 c half & half

2 c grated sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese, divided

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1½ tsp parsley

sour cream for topping (optional)

Instructions

Place 2 Tb of the bacon drippings in your Dutch oven. Sauté onion and garlic in a Dutch oven until tender and have a little color.

Scoop the insides of half your potatoes into a bowl. The other half of the potatoes, you'll peel so you can cut the "meat" into chunks, if desired. (We put all the potatoes in at once.)

When the onions are tender, add in the butter and let it melt, then stir in the flour. Cook for just a minute. Pour in the chicken broth, milk and half & half.

Cook this over medium heat until it comes to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat a little. Add in the scooped potatoes, and with a potato masher (I use a stick blender), mash the potatoes into the soup.

Stir in shredded cheese, and let it melt into the soup.

Stir in the potato chunks, if desired, and let it cook until the potatoes are heated through.

Stir in the salt, pepper and parsley.

Serve topped with extra cheese, crumbled bacon, and sour cream.

A favorite topping is chopped tomatoes and those french fried onions. We also make croutons with cheese bread.

Good stuff.

We've had Navy bean soup, chili, and cheesy cream of potato soup with ham, in the past ten days or so.

Cold weather has been on the West Coast, bringing us much needed rain. El Niño is supposed to make the West Coast cooler and wetter this winter, and the rest of the country will be warmer and drier.

I made Tom Yum mushroom soup Wednesday morning for my niece (and her husband) who have been visiting us for the past week. She said it was an unusual breakfast, but I told her that I make it often for breakfast. I started the soup by making a broth with dried galangal, kaffir limes (and leaves), and Yuzu. I would have used lemongrass instead of yuzu, but that's what I had in my yard. I added two different kinds of noodles (one wheat and one rice), mushroom from the farmers' market, and egg drop. I also added Habanero chili, fish sauce, soy sauce, and vegetable soup base.

It's supposed to be extremely cold on Christmas and might not get above 60, which only happens when it is raining. I'll have to plan something warm to eat on that day, as I will not want to go out if it is raining.

When I want quick good soup, I pull out two individually frozen boneless chicken breasts and quick thaw them in warm water. Then I dice them and saute them in a little EVOO, add onion, some celery if I have some that needs to be used up, and maybe a garlic clove or two. Then toss in mixed frozen veggies and cover with organic chicken broth. Add some marjoram, a bay leaf, a pinch of thyme and rosemary, and a dash of dried parsley, simmer for 20 min. and then add some tiny egg noddles or something like that. Simmer for another ten min. and eat. Not as hearty as a long simmered bone broth, but mighty tasty. Throw in some potatoes and kale instead of the noodles if you want a stew.

I made lentil soup yesterday evening, partly because it is fairly quick, especially in the pressure cooker. I used 1-1/4 cup lentils (I forget which kind, but they were Sadaf brand from the Lebanese market), 1 cup minced celery (with leaves, from the farmers' market), 1/2 large onion minced, a can of Rotel tomatoes + 1 can water, 1-1/2 Habanero chilies, 1 tbsp dried thyme, 1 tbsp dried oregano, 1 tbsp dried basil (it was too wet to pick herbs outside), two large Yukon gold potatoes, 2 tbsp Knorr Tomato-chicken soup base, and three large cloves of garlic. Normally I also add grated carrot, but I forgot this time. I cooked the soup under pressure for about 12 minutes, and the beans were not tender, and so I added 1/2 tsp baking soda and cooked it another 10 minutes. I think the salt in the soup base prevented the beans from getting done, and I did not presoak them, although I did rinse them first. I often add other spices to this, such as Garam Masala, but I wanted a simpler flavor this time. We ate the soup with tortilla chips, and about half of it is left over. I will probably add parsley when I reheat it.

One of my favourites is a Zuppa Toscana that was posted here a year ago. Kale, sausage (or ham), potatoes. Hubby doesn't care for it, because of the kale. I also make cabbage soup (tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and hamburger, when I feel like putting it in).

agmss, those are absolutely beautiful. I love wood, although I'm not so good at "seeing" what it should become. Dad could look at a piece of wood and just see a spoon or bowl or shelf, whatever. He'd be impressed with those!

Annie

Awesome spoons. Here's a link to my favorite soup featuring kale. http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chicken-soup-with-kale-131067

Kale and Chicken Stew

Serves 6-8

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
5 medium mixed potatoes; diced (I used Yukon gold, red and purple)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
4 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion; chopped
1 large shallot; minced
2 carrots; peeled and diced
6 cups chicken stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese; finely grated
5 cups chopped kale
15-ounce can cannellini beans; drained
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan. Rub with olive oil and
season with salt and pepper. In a separate sheet pan, toss the potatoes
with olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes,
until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. When
the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat. Cover and set
aside.

Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and
shallot and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the
carrots and cook 15 minutes until softened. Add in chicken stock, thyme,
chicken, potatoes, Parmesan, salt and pepper bring to a simmer. Add the
kale and beans and simmer for another 20 minutes, until the kale is
tender and the beans are hot.

Lpink's note: I don't roast the chicken and potatoes ahead of time. I saute them in EVOO and then just cook them along with everything else.

angel-aid, can u post your navy bean recipe, please??

Agmis, what gorgeous spoons. I broke my favorite wooden spoon years ago and still cannot find another one like it. It had a hole in the center of the bowl so that you won't splash while stirring and the tip of the spoon had an angled flat edge that came to a point at the tip for scraping the bottom of the pan well and the join of the bottom to the sides when stirring. I cannot find that combination.

I finally made turkey soup as good as my mother's this last Thanksgiving, and now I want more. I am contemplating roasting a small turkey just to make more soup! I will make split pea soup this week with the Christmas ham's bone. I also plan to use up a couple of pounds of potatoes making cream of potato soup. Kale would be good in potato soup, wouldn't it?

Sheilajoyce, somewhere I have a spoon like that. IIRC the "bowl" is very shallow and I believe the hole is oval-ish. There is that sharp angle and point. When mine was new, the wood was pale and unfinished. I have t seen mine for a while as I seldom used it; it might be packed away in the extras box.

Agmss -- those are gorgeous spoons. You make these? What sort of wood and with what do you finish them? Last year we had to cut down one of our largish sassafras trees. I was thinking it might be cool to make some spoons from it. Did you ever use sassafras?

Thank you!

These spoons are cherry. We (my sister and I) also make them out of walnut, birch, various maples, pear... No sassafras yet. We finish with walnut oil and then a walnut oil/beeswax most often.

We have only made a few with holes - they make carving harder. And there isn't much that is more frustrating than carving a whole spoon and then attempting a whole and getting tear out. But we are gradually adding to our skills and tool arsenal.

Here is a link to our facebook page.

https://m.facebook.com/Sprigwoodwork/

Back to soup. I just got a book on hand made pasta. I think I want to try one of those recipes on this snowy day. Clearly will not be a quick soup.

Your spoons are gorgeous. We missed our spoon guy. He wasn't at the fall craft fair this year . DH did find me a couple of nice olivewood spoons. He built houses and cabinets and furniture for years but wouldn't attempt a spoon, lol.

I made a pretty good African stew last night. Leftover pot roast and broth, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn, onion, celery. Seasoned with Penzy's peri peri seasoning and thickened with some creamy peanut butter.

Made a delicious quick soup with turkey stock (frozen from Christmas), mire poix base (frozen), cannellini beans and fresh chard with fresh herbs, Yum.

Made a chicken enchilada soup this week that turned out really good. Cooked chicken thighs in some broth from the freezer along with 2 diced dried arbol chiles plus 2 other long dried Anaheim type chiles and 1/2 of medium onion, diced. After the chkn was cooked, skinned, cut up and returned to the pot, I added a pint of home-canned Rotel tomatoes, oregano & cumin and simmered for a while. Mixed 1 cup of masa in a couple of cups of water and stirred in. (Needed to add some low-salt powdered chicken bullion at this point because the flavor was a little thin.) After the soup thickened, I added some chunks of Velveeta and cooked/ stirred until the Velveeta had melted and combined.