Chili Pg. 84

Last night I made the chili dish. With no prep work or pulling things from my pantry, It took me 40 minutes, I had set the timer out of curiosity. :)

I had never used chilies in adobo sauce, and don’t think I ever would again to me it was a strange sweet with an underlying smokey taste. I would use maybe habenero or something for some kick and flavor rather than the chili in adobo. I also thought the chili was too soupy so I had to add a little flour to thicken it up.

For us, the chili was a little too sweet and the adobo sauce was really all we could taste. We prefer a spicy chili.

With that being said, it wasn’t the worst dish I’ve ever had. In fact, paired with some corn chips, a little cheese and sour cream garnish my husband and I had two bowls. However in the end, my husband asked that I never make this dish again that he was much happier waiting several hours while it cooked in the Crockpot than this quick dish. I ended up throwing the rest of the pot out.

Green Pea Soup page ~ 84

This soup was very pretty...I'm not sure if I would make it again though. I thought it was a little too thin, I would have liked it better if it was thicker. The taste was not bad, mainly tasted like peas, which is expected since that is all it is really made up of. It was definitely very healthy. I might freeze the leftovers and use it as babyfood for my 5 month old. :) --Carissa

Sherried Tomato Soup Minus the Sherry

Since it was a little cooler yesterday, and maybe our last cool weekend for a while, I made this easy tomato soup. Like Michelle said in an earlier post, this soup is a nice creamy bisque. I omitted the sherry, used the chicken bouillon cubes, and only used 4 tablespoons sugar, instead of the 6 she recommended. Next time, I will make sure to finely dice the onions so that they aren’t so chunky. As a testament to the flavor of this soup, as I was writing this blog entry I got an email from my husband at work telling me that he really liked the soup I packed him for lunch.

My Last Recipe--Roasted-potato fennel soup without the fennel

Well, I decided I needed one last recipe to post, but didn't want to go to the grocery store....so I shuffled through what I had and decided I could do the roasted potato fennel soup, but I would have to make some substitutions. I did have some leeks, so those stood in for the missing fennel. I also had a box of baby portabella mushrooms that needed to be used, so I decided to add those also. By the way, you have to read the intro to this recipe--it sounds so desperate, the pioneer woman could have written it: "I love to make this soup in the dead of winter when just about all you can find are potatoes and fennel..." (Good grief, just go to the grocery store Ina!)

Halfway through roasting my potatoes, I added the sliced mushrooms to roast along with them, then added the whole pan of roasted veggies to my sauteed onions and leeks and the broth. I did not find it needed to be simmered an hour as Ina said--within 30 min. it all was soft enough that I smashed it with a potato masher. This is when I realized the mushrooms were a very good idea. When mashing the potatoes, the skins came off and kind of floated separately in the soup. I don't think I would have liked a whole bite of just "skins," except that the mushrooms did not mash, so they were chewy along with the skins. And that made the skins easier and less noticeable to eat.

This soup was very nice. My husband, who does not like potatoes (weird, I know) even sort of liked it. Next time, I think I would only mash up half the potatoes--I kind of liked the potato chunks (although hubby will probably like it even less, if he can actually discern a potato in it...).

Lentil Vegetable Soup was perfect!

I have never cooked with lentils, although I was particular interested in this recipe because of the fiber content of lentils--12 grams/ 1/4 cup...oh my goodness, that is a fiber lover's paradise!! I did not care to try to locate Ina's French green lentils that she says you can get by mail or specialty store, so I just bought the orange lentils from Walmart, cause they are available, cheap, and pretty.

I cut the recipe in half, but leftovers were so good, I would not have minded the whole recipe for several days of lentil soup. I am afraid I did not measure very much, but it did not seem to matter. My soup was brothier than Ina's picture, but I liked it like that. I debated a good deal over the last ingredient of either red wine or red wine vinegar--seemed to me there is a big difference! I chose the red wine, since I had some, and I only had white wine vinegar. However, in retrospect, I actually think the vinegar might be the better choice. I can see how that little punch of tang would be a nice bright taste in the soup. The Parmesan cheese added more flavor to this soup than it does to most things. I often think Parmesan is more for looks than anything, but on this soup it does seem to take the lowly lentils to a fancy level of taste.

So...this lentil vegetable soup gets a 10 from me, and will become a winter regular (pun intended) for me.

french onion soup (failure)

While it was fun cooking with wine for the first time, this picture makes the soup look a lot better than it tasted.



I halved the recipe, but instead of Cognac or brandy I just used more stock. Also, as I started making it I realized my beef stock was crusty... evidently it expired in 2007. This was a couple of months ago, but I think I ended up using all chicken broth instead of the beef/veal mix that Ina says. So maybe those are some reasons why more of the soup ended up getting thrown out than eaten. The consensus was that it was far too salty. The wine was good, however. ;)

Rosemary White Bean Soup, Pumped Up

I used dried Navy beans for this soup. I only had one onion on hand, instead of the 3 that were called for, so I was deficient there...I did have an ultra amount of rosemary though, just because I have such a huge bush of it and love to use it. I got a little worried the rosemary flavor would be too strong, but it was not. However, maybe because I cooked mine all afternoon in the crock pot, the rosemary "needles" all came off into the soup. I picked a reasonable amount out by spoon...but couldn't get them all. My husband did not seem to mind them floating in his soup, surprisingly. I think I might put the rosemary in a little cheesecloth bag nesxt time, so it can be removed intact. I used a hand potato masher to mash about half the beans in the pot. I wanted the soup pretty chunky.

After eating a small bowl of the soup to say I tried it as it was meant to be, I added two diced steamed organic carrots and 1/2 cup or so of chopped ham to the soup, to make it more substantial. This was our meal along with fresh baked bread. This is a pic of my steamer of carrots and ham before I added them to the soup.

If you are using this soup as the main course of a meal, and everyone wants 2-3 bowls, it probably will serve more like 4-5 than 6 people. I thought the rosemary flavor was amazing. I like my additions also, and think I will always add the carrots and ham too.

Cheddar Corn Chowder

Once again, I halved the recipe and it still made a lot of soup. Right now I have 3 different kinds of leftover soup, from the cookbook, in my freezer. I think I should have a soup party!! HEB didn't have any fresh corn, so I bought frozen corn on the cob. My thinking was that the frozen corn on the cob might taste more like fresh than the frozen kernels. I also substituted yellow cheddar for white cheddar. The soup was quite yummy and comforting!

Cheddar Corn Chowder...With a Secret Weapon

Two weekends ago seemed like great soup weather to me, so I went for it and made the Cheddar Corn Chowder.  It turned out to be an extra good time to make soup, since my husband got sick over the weekend and about all he could eat was soup and bread. 

The soup was really pretty simple to make.  I used frozen corn instead of fresh, and I used red potatoes instead of the white boiling potatoes she calls for in the recipe (if anyone knows where to find these, let me know).  Both ingredients worked great in the soup.  The potatoes held up perfectly and the corn tasted great. 

The recipe makes a LOT of soup, so if you're not one to freeze extras or eat leftovers, you will probably want to only make half a recipe.  We've been eating on it for days and have loved it. 

Oh, and about my secret weapon...  As I've stated before, cutting onions is just about my most hated task ever.  No exaggeration.  I was really not excited to have to cut up the 4 onions required for this soup.  Usually I could ask my sweet husband to do it for me, but he was sick, so I was really in a bind. 

Then I remembered the nice white swim goggles that had last been used for my triathlon in July.  I hadn't touched them since that harrowing event, but I thought maybe, just maybe, they would come in handy for the soup making process.  So, I strapped them on and wore them the entire time I cut up the onions, and viola, they worked great!  No tears, no screaming, no sticking my head in the freezer to stop the burning sensation.  If you hate cutting onions as much as I do, I recommend heading over to your local sporting goods store and picking up some swimming goggles.  They made my soup making experience much more pleasant! 

Here's the soup.

The soup was great and will definitely be a repeat recipe, particularly when it's cold outside and I can find my swim goggles.

Cheddar Corn Chowder

I made the whole recipe of this soup and it was quite a lot. We fed 8 adults with leftovers for a couple more meals. It was definitely tasty... brothy but creamy, which my bro-in-law enjoyed, and a little sweet from the corn. The following day I threw in some frozen peas and carrots to make a veggie soup for my boys.

As always, don't forget the side of roasted Brussels sprouts!

White Bean Soup

I forgot the rosemary and it still came out fine, I just added some dried Thyme instead. This soup was good, but I did a few changes to make it that way...first I never found dried cannellini beans beans...so I bought them canned. I discovered that I wasn't that crazy about the texture, they are basically white kidney beans which have a dried texture, not a buttery one like a navy bean. Julia was smart to use navy beans.

So, I used my emulsion blender (see below)and pureed all the cannellini beans, then added canned white navy beans. This gave it a better texture. It would be a fast "pantry meal" as I like to call it since you could keep everything on hand in the pantry. I will definitely make it again with all navy beans though. It keeps for a bit in the fridge too...I just ate my last bowl for lunch, and I think it was been in the fridge for 5 days or so!
--Carissa

Rosemary White Bean Soup

This soup was super easy, especially since we have an immersion blender so I didn't have to make any transfers. I looked at the cannellini beans that HEB sold for around $9/lb and on the package it said something like "use interchangeably with other white beans" so I used the $1 bag of great northern beans instead. My husband loved it (though by his second bowl was dripping hot sauce all over it). My guests loved the rosemary flavor; it was really nice.

Parker's Split Pea Soup and Parmesan Croutons

This weekend I ventured into the soup world.  I figured this was a good time to try a soup, since it's supposed to be fall weather this time of year (of course, it didn't really feel like fall).  I am not a fan of peas at all, but my husband loves split pea soup, so I thought I'd give it a try.  The recipe was pretty simple and had only a few ingredients.  I only made half a recipe, which ended up being plenty for 2 people, still leaving enough for leftovers.  I used chicken stock rather than water as the main liquid for the soup. 

My only complaint is the onions.  Can I just say that I HATE cutting up onions?  I don't know if I'm extra sensitive to onions or I'm just extra wimpy, but there are very, very few things I hate more than cutting up onions.  If I had a lot of extra money, I think I'd hire someone for the sole purpose of cutting up onions for me. 

Here's the finished soup.  It was pretty good!  And that's saying something coming from someone who really doesn't like peas.  The only changes that I might make the next time (per my husband's suggestion) would be to add some roasted garlic and also some ham to the mix. We did end up adding ham to ours, but it was at the last minute, as a topping.  I think it would have been better if it had been mixed into the soup as it was still simmering, but we'll have to save that trick for next time. 

Oh, and the parmesan croutons were great as well.  I could eat these on just about anything and be happy! 

Roasted-Tomato Basil Soup & Parmesan Croutons

We love the tomato basil soup from La Madeleine so I was excited to try to make some myself. I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of cutting it in half...I'm only cooking for two so half the recipe was plenty enough. This recipe calls for red pepper flakes, which surprised me, and we actually thought it had too much kick...even my husband who's from Louisiana and likes everything spicy! Since there is also black pepper, it just turned out to be a little too peppery (sp?). This is saying a lot because I love pepper and will put it on most anything! Other than that, it was very tasty! Next time I make it, I will probably leave out the red pepper flakes all together and wait until the end to add the black pepper to taste. (and yes, I did double check to make sure that I used HALF of both the red pepper flakes and the black pepper...so that is not why it was over-peppered!)

Edited: I forgot to mention that instead of using a food mill like Ina says (don't have one or even know what that is...), I used the blender to mix it all up. We don't have a large enough food processor, but if you do you could use that.

The parmesan croutons caught my eye and I thought they'd go perfectly with this soup, so I made those as well...delicious!!! (except I did put too much salt on my first batch - learned my lesson there. Ina said to "sprinkle liberally"...well I was a little too liberal with my sprinkling!) I made them again tonight (because they are sooooooo good!!) and used less salt but added garlic powder. They were even better with the garlic powder. I think these would make a tasty appetizer as well.

We always eat tomato basil soup with grilled chicken caesar salad. I broke up the parmesan croutons and put them in my salad, too...mmm!

Random Ina Meal...by Janice and Julia

My daughter-in-law, Julia, and 2 sweetie-pie grandsons were visiting me for a few days, so Julia and I cooked an Ina meal--though it was kind of an uncoordinated meal, as we got to the grocery store without a list..we were just trying to remember enough for any recipe! Julia had brought me some fennel from Houston, but we couldn't remember all the ingredients for any fennel recipe, so we just bought random stuff for random dishes!

We wound up fixing the Cheddar Corn Chowder, though I didn't have the bacon, however I did have some bacon grease. (My son, Ben, tells me only old people have bacon grease sitting around in their fridge--I use it for breakfast gravy. ) I added rotisserie chicken to the soup, just to make it more hearty for our dinner. I steam/blanched the corn, which turned out easier than boiling I thought. But in the end, I think I would have been fine with frozen corn. The fresh corn makes the soup really sweet I thought, and I am not sure how much I like sweet soup...

But the chowder was ok--no real problem with it. My husband David's comment was it is good, but nothing to write home about. When I questioned what that meant, he said, "Well, I wouldn't break a leg to get to the table to eat it, but it is ok." So I guess it was just so-so for us!



With the chowder, Julia and I tried slightly steaming the sugar snap peas, on Carissa's suggestion. And because I did not have the sesame oil and seeds, I just added some "good" olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper. They were good--might add a nice addition to a plate of food that needs some color and a little interesting spark of taste...(probably a strange side for soup though, except it gave the grandsons the required green vegetable for dinner!)


I bought one baby pumpkin for my grandson, Gabriel, to eat out of--and we made the curry couscous to put in the pumpkin. Julia did a wonderful job of perfectly dicing all the loose veggies from the fridge into the dish. The last time I made this dish, I thought I might cut the oil in half, from 4 T to 2 T--and I tried this. I think I will up it next time to 3 T, and that will be perfect. We love this dish. Hubby loves it too!! However, little Gabey did not like it in the roasted pumpkin, and we had to take the couscous out for him to eat it. He did just get up from a nap and was a little grumpy...but he seemed to think the pumpkin with food in it was very weird--unlike his cousin, Evelyn, who loved food in her pumpkin!


Julia and I did make the applesauce the day before, and had it at every meal while Julia and the boys were here, and we all love it. I like the idea that it will last for weeks in the fridge. It was great on pancakes yesterday! Sorry, I didn't get a pic of that.

Well, that is all our Ina cooking for this week.

Corn Chowder

This soup was really easy to make and very yummy!! I used fresh corn, potatoes, carrots and onion. I think the fresh corn is a must for this soup!! I only made half the recipe, which fed 6 people (as an appetizer) with plenty leftover for the next few days. I'm not sure I was very strict to the measurements as far as the vegetables go....I just added what I thought was good. The recipe really didn't call for much "cooking" time and I found that in order for the corn to get soft enough and for the potatoes to get crumbly enough to help thicken the sauce, it needed alot more boiling time than was recommended. I think all in all I probably left the soup boiling for at least 20 more minutes than was called for before adding the cream and cheese. We had a few friends over from our S2S class and they thought it was delicious! Definitely a keeper!

Parmesan Croutons

I love croutons and was excited to try this seeminly easy recipe. However, I was so dissappointed in the taste. I made them exactly per Ina's recipe, but they just lacked much flavor. The verdict...I will save my $5.50 that I spent to make them and the 20 minutes of cooking and prep-time, and just continue to buy my favorite brand at the store for $2 a bag. Somethings are just worth the convenience!

Cheddar Corn Chowder

My husband asked me at 5:00 last night if we could feed his parents dinner. He should have known when I readily agreed that I had an ulterior motive, cooking a new recipe for someone that might actually eat it. I'd bought the ingredients for the Cheddar Corn chowder, so that was my pick. I only used one onion. I'm not a big onion fan, but I remembered an earlier post that said without the onion and bacon it was bland. I also left out the bacon but not on purpose. I was sure I had bacon, so I didn't buy any at the store this weekend. It turned out that all of our bacon had been eaten sometime last week.

Both of my in-laws said it was tasty, and they even took a bowl home to Grandaddy because they said he would like it. My husband and kids would not try it because of the onion. My father-in-law complained that he couldn't find any onions in his bowl. (He really likes onions). Overall, this recipe is not going to become a favorite of mine, but I will remember it fondly since other people actually ate it and liked it.

Leftover Tomato Basil Soup Tip

Last night we finally ate our last bowl of roasted tomato basil soup that I made for a first course dinner party 6 days ago! Even with serving 10 people (small servings) we still had soup showing up at several more meals for the two of us this past week. But I remembered a little trick last night that made the last bowl a little different. My son, Ben Johnson, served me creamed asparagus soup like this once--he put a spiral drizzle of half and half (a staple in most coffee drinker's refrigerators) on the top of the soup. So I tried it in my tomato soup--and it was beautiful! I just wished I had thought to take a picture before I stirred it in and made my soup into a creamed tomato basil soup. It changed the taste just enough that it felt like a new soup!

Gazpacho with Parmesan Croutons

By Jessica and Julie

First of all, Jess and I decided we wanted to be real Barefoot Contessas with the fancy ingredients. Therefore, we are doing this project together to lessen the expense.

For example the "good" olive oil (seen below) which you can only get at Williams and Sonoma costs $30!!!!!!! And for this recipe (which we cut in half) we used a 1/4 of a cup!

We decided to start with the Gazpacho since it seemed not so intimidating and no one else has tried it. It's not a recipe that has to be cooked. You just chop up the ingredients and put them together with seasoning and tomato juice.

It's a cold soup. Which really didn't sound too appetizing, especially to Julie whom HATES vegetables.

It's extremely easy to make and not expensive (as long as you don't buy the "good" olive oil). All other ingredients where purchased from Whole Foods for $14 total. Once it's all combined you just pop it into the fridge for about an hour and let the flavor chill and marinate the veggies.

We tried the Gazpacho both before and after the chilling process and there was a definite improvement in taste after. We also made the croutons (as kind of failed at that, they are cajun style). If you don't use the baguette type bread then 15 minutes is way too long to cook it! We loved the flavor of the of the croutons and we added basil seasoning to it.
The Gazpacho was not as good on it's own as it was with the croutons or with plain bread. We also sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and that definitely added to the taste.
It's a very refreshing type soup for summertime lunches. Jess and I are not fans of onions and this had a whole onion in it. However, Audrey (Julie's daughter) had no problem eating the raw onions, ICK! So we decided to chop it up quite fine and that did well (instead of coarsely like all the other ingredients).

We also decided fresh reggiano parmesan cheese which neither of us realized how hard it is and how difficult it is to grate so we enlisted the help of Julie's hubbie.

The overall review (without knowing what Terence thinks) is, it's okay. Julie didn't care for it, but she tried it! Jose said he really wouldn't want it again because it's really only good with something else. Jess says it's alright, she would eat it again but not everyday.

We will let you know what Terence and Audrey think.