Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

I grow several herbs indoors year round.  One of my best producers is sweet basil and honestly, you simply can't have too much basil!  Sweet basil germinates easily and is rather problem free.  New plants can be started simply by putting the cuttings in water.  Properly looked after, you will have all the sweet basil you can use.  Basil can easily be dried, works well as a canning ingredient and basil pesto freezes well. 

Working the rule of three, I kicked up a cold weather, pantry favourite that starts with a base of home canned beef stock and home canned tomato basil sauce.  In this case, the three were: frozen, canned, dry all from the pantry.  Yes there are home canned tomato soup recipes and I do a couple but I find certain sauces lend themselves nicely for soup.   I added ditali pasta, ground beef and few more ingredients but the special ingredient, cream cheese really took this soup to the next level! 

Wow, the cream cheese addition was a huge winner!  This soup was rich and creamy with just a wee hint of tang.  It was a true comfort meal, perfect for a chilly winter day that paired nicely with a loaf of homemade sourdough bread.

Homemade Cream of Roasted Garlic Mushroom Soup

Carrying on with the focus on soups for National Soup Month, I am making a few of our family favourites.   There is honestly nothing more comforting than a steaming bowl of hot soup on a cold winter's day.  It's been cold and grey here with freezing rain adding a chilly dampness to the air, perfect soup weather. 

The beauty of making soup is its simplicity.  You don't need special equipment, fancy ingredients or even a lot of time.  I recommend using a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time of long simmer soups but you don't need too.  There are actual soup cookers (blender with heating element) and blenders (blade friction) that make soup as well.  Soup cookers tend to have bad reviews and the blenders are pricey.  Soups can also be made in the slow cooker.  A blender or stick blender is useful if you want to make smooth soups.  I personally use a food strainer to make purée soup bases. However, the only real equipment you need to make delicious homemade soups is a large pot and stirring spoon. 

You don't even need a recipe to make delicious homemade soups.  All you need is a bit of creativity combined with basic know-how.  Essentially you need: a meat, fish or vegetable stock; vegetables; seasonings (salt, pepper, bayleaf, etc.) and miscellaneous (pasta, rice, barley, beans, milk or cream).  Ingredients can be fresh, frozen, from the pantry or a combination of the three.  There is no real need to measure either.  I generally start with an idea for a soup and evolve from there.

This is the time of year I focus on reducing pantry and freezer supplies in preparation for the new growing season.  My homemade soups this month have something from the pantry (stock, vegetables) and something from the freezer (meat, vegetables, miscellaneous).  Local mushrooms are available year round from the mushroom farms making them the perfect ingredient in many of my dishes.  Their mild, creamy flavour never disappoints!  I made a delicious cream of roasted garlic mushroom soup, a slight spin on our traditional homemade cream of mushroom soup.

Note:  Roasted garlic freezes nicely so I roast several bulbs then freeze in 15 ml (1 tbsp) portions for use later.

Cream of Roasted Garlic Mushroom Soup
recipe by:  Garden Gnome

1 kg white mushrooms
1 large sweet onion
30 ml roasted garlic
1 L mushroom stock
1 bayleaf
15 ml olive oil
60 ml butter
750 ml whole milk 3.25% M.F.
250 ml half & half 10% M.F
30 ml organic white flour
salt/pepper to taste

Wash and slice mushrooms.  Chop onion.  Heat olive oil and butter in a large pot.  Stir in onions and mushrooms.  Cook on medium low heat until mushrooms are cooked through, stirring often.  Stir in the mushroom stock and bayleaf.  Increase heat.  Bring to a low boil.  Reduce heat.  Stir in milk and half & half.  Bring to a simmer.  Put the flour in a small ramekin.  Sprinkle a dash of salt and two dashes of pepper on top.  Mix with a fork.  Add enough water or milk to make a smooth slurry.  Slowly pour the slurry into the soup stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Serve.

National Soup Month

Waving hi and Happy New Year!

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere it is easy to see why January is National Soup Month.  The cold, blustery, snowy winter days are perfect soup days!  Soup is much more than comfort food.  It is one of the most frugal dishes you can make.  When made from scratch soup is a mere pennies per serving, considerably less expensive and healthier than commercially canned version, and an ultimate budget stretcher.   They are a lot easier to make than the food industry would have you believe.  The best part about homemade soups is you can easily tailor them to your tastes.

As our time in the sunny south drew to a close, my craving for homemade soups grew.  We left there a week ago Saturday making the trip north, not making a good of time as we wanted.  We were delayed due to a system going through Georgia and somehow during the last few days there, I picked up a bit of a stomach bug.  We arrived home Sunday.  I went immediately into winter mode!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup is a winter staple.  It really is just what the doctor ordered for cold and flu season.   Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup is a quicker way to make the longer cook version.  Both versions are delicious, easy to make, soups. 

Ontario, Canada is currently experiencing a hydro crisis with rates soaring.  Gosh, when I started this blog over 10 years ago, our hydro rates were one the lowest in Canada but those days are long gone.  I am so glad we switched to natural gas for cooking.  If you live in Ontario or anywhere where hydro is expensive, I highly recommend using a manual pressure cooker for making soups and stews.  This is one of the most cost effective tools you can use in the kitchen especially when trying to conserve cooking fuel especially hydro.  Many long simmer soups and stews can be made in a pressure cooker in about 40 minutes. 

An Easy Dinner - Home Canned Condensed Tomato Soup

The Gnome family continues to battle a very bad strain of cold.  That means we are relying on a lot of healthy, home made comfort foods.  One of those foods of course is soups because you can pack in a lot of nutrition to help heal the body.  At the same time, a lot of the ingredients not only help clear mucous but are just down right comforting.  Home canned condensed tomato soup is the perfect substitute for the store bought condensed soup and it doesn't have BPA, preservatives or anything artificial in it.

I made 30 - 500 ml jars of home canned condensed tomato soup in September 2012.  The problem is and I knew it then that there was no way that would be enough condensed tomato soup to get us through the winter.  So, I have been using it sparsely.  Still, one of the best ways to enjoy this soup is as a soup.

A couple of days ago, I opened two jars of the condensed soup then added about a cup of milk and warmed it up.  More milk could have been added but I like the deeper flavour using less milk.  I garnished the soup with a bit of fresh Parmesan cheese along with plain crackers for my husband and crackers with cream cheese for me.  The entire comfort meal cost under $1 for two people with left-overs.  That is not bad on the frugal side but more importantly it scored big time on the comfort level!

Frugal Kitchens 101 - In The Soup Pot

Now that the holidays are over and a new year has begun, it is time for many to turn their thoughts into paying for that expensive holiday season.  That means cutting back on expenses as the bills start to roll in.  If you have been frugal during the holidays, January will pass on by without so much as a worry.  For others, a bit of a helping hand is needed to make those payments usually in the form of cutting back on expenditures.  In days long ago, our ancestors had a pot of soup on the hearth for much of the winter.  It was added to as the family was lucky in getting a bit of wild game or fish but more often than not stretched from their larder using carefully stored root vegetables.  Fast forward to present times and hard core frugalistas do the same thing only using a slow cooker.  The slow cooker is turned on in the fall then constantly being added to with left overs and anything else that can be added, not to be turned off again until spring.

Now, I am rather hard core when it comes to frugality in the kitchen but the never ending soup pot is not something I do.  First, I am not comfortable with a slow cooker going 24/7 for four or five months even on low.  That is not what it was designed to do nor is it an economically good use of electricity especially if you are on TOU electricity pricing as we are.  Second, we now spend about 3 months of the year in Florida with at least one period during the time the never ending pot of soup would be going and we take a lot of impromptu overnight and weekend get-aways.  Instead of the never ending pot of soup, I make clean-out the freezer or refrigerator soups.

Here's a few thing I do to make quick and economical soups using left overs from the freezer or refrigerator:

• freezer packets - I freeze bits of left-over food, pieces of left-over meat, bones and anything else that can be used for soup. 
• basic stock - My basic stock uses bones, unpeeled onion, unpeeled carrot, unpeeled parsnip, bayleaf, and peppercorns.
• fair game - Anything in the freezers or refrigerator is fair game for the soup pot although I do target left-overs if at all possible.
• time savers - By far my pressure cookers are the biggest time savers when it comes to soup making.  I can go from frozen bones to soup on the table in less than an hour.
• thickeners - Small bits of left-over mashed potatoes (frozen, refrigerator) thicken soups nicely as does mashed up zucchini.  The immersion blender thickens soup nicely without any additions depending on the ingredients.  
• extenders - Pasta, rice, barley and beans can all be used as soup extenders.  Even the half cup of brown beans can be tossed into the soup pot, especially in a beef based soup.  If I don't have left-overs I just cook from fresh or add a jar of home canned.

French Canadian Split Pea Soup

Home canning is a year round venture in our home.  I've even canned foods in our RV when we had it and now at our vacation home.  When we arrived home from our vacation home the end of October there were a few good deals on produce.  I had spent a good three weeks without doing a lot of cooking so I was definitely in the mood to cook.  What many don't realize is, cooking is a stress releaser for me.  When I am stressed, I cook and quite frankly it doesn't matter what time of day it is.  If I get up at 3 AM and can't sleep, much to my husband's dismay, I am cooking.  The smells of me cooking wakes him up and of course he has to do a bit of taste testing.  I'm sure you can see where that is going :)

Our local Walmart had hams on for a decent price, not on sale but a good price.  I bought a Country Naturals smoked ham that has no preservative!  It was only 700 g compared to the less expensive per unit 900 g smoked ham with preservatives.  I wanted the smoked ham for French Canadian split pea soup that I planned on canning.

I am seriously a bit particular about my ingredients when home canning.  If I have to buy any ingredient that will be home canned, I want organic and preservative free, so chose the Country Naturals brand over the store brand that had preservatives in the ham even though the store brand was 900 g and less per unit than the Country Naturals brand.

French Canadian split pea soup is simply delightful.  I always make it from scratch.  Habitat French Canadian split pea soup was on sale 796 ml can for 97¢, regular price $1.57.  I decided to can up a batch that would be every bit as convenient as the commercially canned version but without any additives and less expensive.  Now at 97¢ a can, it is hard to see where homemade would be less expensive, but it is.

I rummaged through the freezer to find the ham bone I had kept from a charcoal grilled ham.  A ham bone really brings out the flavour in French Canadian split pea soup.  The bone from a ham that has been charcoal grilled has an unbeatable hint of smokiness to the soup.  Ideally, dried whole yellow peas are preferred if you can find them but I use split peas as that is what is available in the grocery store.  I used a carrot and onion from the Ontario produce purchase.  I ended up with 10 - 500 ml jars of the soup at a total cost of $4.99 including the cost of the natural gas to run the canner.   It was just a little over a litre more of what I could have bought the soup on sale for.

French Canadian split pea soup is a warm, creamy, filling and comforting soup perfect for a winter evening meal.  It is quite filling and very inexpensive to make from scratch.  Serve with homemade sourdough bread  and a side salad for an easy meal.  I like canning this soup for an easy homemade convenience soup but it will freeze nicely as well.

French Canadian Split Pea Soup
modified from Ball Blue Book (2001) Pp. 61

900 g (2 lb) split yellow peas
16 c water
1 ham bone from charcoal smoked ham
1/2 lg Spanish onion
1 extra large carrot
1 bayleaf
1 tsp celery salt
1 1/2 c cooked ham

Bring the water, ham bone, bayleaf and split peas to a boil.  Reduce heat and let simmer until the beans are tender.  Remove 2 c of the peas and set aside.  Stir in the chopped onion, carrot, and celery salt.  Cut the ham into small cubes and set aside.  Cook the soup until the carrots are tender.  Purée the soup with an immersion blender until smooth.  Stir in the reserved split peas and cooked ham.  Ladle into hot prepared jars.  Place lids and rings on the jars.  Tighten rings finger tight if using the metal snap lids.  Tighten rings finger tight then turn back 1/4 inch if using Tattler lids or glass inserts.  Process in pressure canner at 10 lb pressure for 75 minutes at altitudes up to 1,000 feet above sea level.  Adjust the processing if at higher altitudes using the altitude adjustment chart.  Remove from canner.  Do not adjust rings if using metal snap lids.  If using Tattler lids or glass inserts, fully tighten the rings immediately after removing jars from the canner.  Let the jars cool undisturbed for 24 hours.  Remove the rings and test the sea.  Wash rings and jars then dry well.  Rings can be put on the jars loosely for storage if desired.

Yield: 10 - 500 ml jars

Frugal Kitchens 101 - What's in Your Chicken Noodle Soup

I was recently rather ill at our permanent home looking forward to going to our vacation home.  Now, seriously avoiding contact with folk even if doing a bit of shopping is a prudent thing to do at least a week before traveling.  I have both allergies and asthma which really means I can catch a cold if you are a mile away and it can develop complications quicker than a blink of an eye!  My serious go to dish for colds and flu is homemade chicken noodle soup.  It is a family tradition but why?

My homemade chicken noodle soup is always made from scratch right from the chicken and raw ingredients.  Everyone has heard of chicken soup being called Jewish penicillin.  The thing is, this soup cures right from the start of cooking.  It is chuck full of nutrition, antioxidants, and everything to help your body heal AND it is just good comfort food!  Even the cooking processes adds moisture and antibacterial properties into the air that get into your respiratory tract to start the healing process before you even eat the soup.  The hot, moist air opens your sinuses helping them to drain.  All the way around, homemade chicken soup lives up to it's reputation as a healing, comfort food when feeling under the weather.  So, have you ever wondered what is in homemade chicken soup that earns it such a wonder reputation?   Here is a breakdown of the ingredients and how they help you get back on your feet quickly:

• fluids - Water is necessary for proper hydration.  When you are sick it is very easy to become dehydrated which can lead to complications.  The problem is excessive sweating when you have a fever or fluid loss through a gastrointestinal infection can cause dehydration and electrolyte loss quite quickly.  Drinking plain water is always a must when sick as it helps flush the body of toxins but plain water does not replace the electrolytes lost like the liquid in chicken soup.  The broth in chicken soup is rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants that support the immune system, the liver, the kidneys and respiratory tract.  The warmth of the broth is soothing as well helping to keep you well hydrated and nourished so your body can heal.
• onions - Any soup destined for the sick bed should be rich in onions.  Onions are ideal for getting your mucous running.  Onions are rich in Vitamin C, have anti-bacterial properties and strengthen your immune system.  Onions are also rich in sulfur which is good for the liver which is in overdrive when you are sick ridding  your body of toxins.  When I make homemade chicken noodle soup there is onions in the initial stock followed by onions in the actual soup.
• carrots - Carrots contain Vitamin A plus they give a rich flavour to stocks.  This is a must ingredient when making the initial stock for making the soup.  Carrots have antiseptic properties that prevent infection and support the liver in ridding the body of toxins while reducing bile and fat in the liver.
• celery -  Celery when eaten raw is a diuretic but when added to soups gives a wonderful flavour while adding a lot of nutrients.  It is high in Vitamin C, calcium, sodium and Vitamins B2, B6 and B1.  In soups, celery adds a subtle flavour element that is only noticeable if it is missing.  Celery also has anti-fungal properties and anti-oxidants to help ward off complications from the cold and flu.
• chicken - Chicken is what the soup is all about but aside of that it adds protein in an easily digestible form.  The proteins in chicken help prevent bone loss.  Chicken is rich in the trace element selenium that supports the thyroid and immune system. In the soup you get the actual chicken pieces that by the time it is soup literally fall apart in your mouth without any effort AND you get the essence of the chicken in the stock so if you aren't up to solids, you can strain them out for just the soup stock.  It adds fat that increases the absorption of carotenoids in carrots by 1,000 percent.  Chicken is rich in Vitamin B6 and niacin that support metabolic actions in the body along with phosphorous that supports the healthy functioning of the liver, kidneys and central nervous system.  
• chicken fat - Chicken fat adds flavour to the soup.  It is contains monosaturated fat that is high in the antioxident Vitamin E which helps to reduce cholesterol levels and fight cellular damage.  It contains polysaturated fat rich in essential fatty acids, Omega-3 and Omega-5 that helps with brain function and tissue growth.
• bay leaf - I add bay leaf when making certain stocks and soups including chicken noodle soup for flavour but it does have health benefits as well.  Bay leaves have antimicrobial properties against many common pathogens like Streptococcus  pyogenes, Staphlococcus aureus, Aspergillus fumigatus and Canadida albicans that could arise due to complications with a cold or the influenza.
• black pepper - I add black peppercorns to most stocks and soups including chicken noodle soup.  They are further seasoned with fresh ground black pepper to taste on serving.  Black pepper adds flavour as well as health benefits.  It aids in digestion and has antibacterial properties.  More importantly, black pepper helps your body absorb vitamins and minerals
• salt -  I don't add much in the way of salt when cooking anything.  Rather salt is added to taste when serving.  Salt (sodium chloride) is very important in the human body because sodium is needed for the proper functioning of the sodium-potassium channel which pumps out 2 potassium ions for every 3 sodium ions pumped into the nerve cells (neurons).  Simplified, sodium triggers action potentials in neurons which is how your body feels pain.  If you step on a pin, an action potential travels along your nerve cells to send the message of pain to your brain.  When your run a fever or sweat a lot as would happen with influenza, you lose valuable salt in your system which needs to be replaced.   
• noodles - I use broad egg noodles in my homemade chicken noodle soup.  

Home Canned Condensed Tomato Soup

Just because I insist on doing as many home canned products as possible to avoid all the food additives in commercially canned foods, doesn't mean I don't like a few convenience products.  Two commercially canned foods I do buy are condensed tomato soup and condensed cream of mushroom soup.  I set out to create home canned versions for both.  Neither recipe are posted on this blog yet as I am still tweaking but the Garden Tomato Soup is also a good recipe to can if you are looking for a tomato soup recipe.

My home canned condensed tomato soup recipe has come about by running several small batches each season then tweaking from there.  I have tweaked for both flavour and texture.  While this soup can be used much the same was as brand name condensed tomato soup, it has a brighter flavour and it it laden with artificial additives.  It is pressure canned at 10 lb pressure for 25 minutes.

Unfortunately, 30 jars of home canned condensed tomato soup will not meet our needs until the next growing season.  I will be running another large batch of the soup with a couple more tweaks.  Once I get it just right, I will post the recipe.  Until then, I back busy in the kitchen processing tomatoes into all kinds of delicious home canned, tomato based products!

Home Canned Vegetable Beef Soup

Many perceive home canning to be making strawberry jam, canning peaches, making dill pickles and applesauce but in reality home canning is so much more than that.  With the exception of a few commercially canned foods like pickled eggs and canned pastas pretty much anything can be home canned and more.  Now, it is not recommended to home can pasta, rice and barley but I have had good success with all used in low amounts.  Home canning is an excellent way to put convenience foods on your table for a fraction of the cost of store bought.

The beauty of canning homemade soups aside of being frugal and preservative free is they are about the easiest thing to home can in a pressure canner.  You don't need an actual 'recipe' which fits into my way of thinking when it comes to soups.    There are two rules.  Only fill the jar with solids half full and always process in a pressure canner to the timing of the lowest acid ingredient.

I made a layered beef soup to home can.  Really this is just a name because the ingredients are added in layers but they don't quite stay in layers afterwards.  I had five 1 - L jars with one seal failure (right) that just happened to be testing a new homemade stock with.  Still, I put four jars in the pantry and enjoyed the other for dinner.

Home Canned Vegetable Beef Soup
recipe by: Garden Gnome

2 lb lean stew beef
3 stalks celery
3 lg carrots
1 med onion
12 small potatoes
2½ L beef stock
1 tbsp Montreal steak spice
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp herbes de provence per jar

Brown the stew beef and cut into bite sized pieces.    Stir in Montreal steak spice and Worcestershire sauce.  Let simmer 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Place each vegetable into a separate bowl.  Cut the celery into thin slice.  Cut the washed carrots into coins  Chop the onions.  Cut the potatoes into chunks.  Cut corn from the cob.  Slice carrots.  Chop celery and onions.  Heat stock.  Layer the ingredients to fill the hot, prepared jars half full.  Add herbes de provence.  Pour hot stock over the solids leaving a ½ inch headspace.  Wipe rims.  Adjust two piece metal snap lids (or Tattler reusable lids or glass inserts).  Screw bands on jars (adjust accordingly if not using metal snap lids).  Process for 500 ml for 75 minutes [90 minutes for L] at 10 lb pressure in pressure canner at altitudes up to 1,000 feet above sea level.  At higher altitudes refer to altitude adjustment chart on Canning FYI page.  Remove from canner.  Adjust bands if using Tattler or glass inserts.  Allow to cool 24 hours.  Remove bands and test for seal.  Wash and dry bands and jars.  Label and store.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - The Never Ending Soup Pot

Quite some time ago I participated in a frugal group where frugal ideas were shared.  One of the frugal ideas was the never ending soup pot.  This is not in any way a new concept.  Our ancestors, well at least my ancestors used this method well before the great land of Canada was born.  My seventh great grandfather was born on what would become Canadian soil in 1721, his father arriving in 1703 from France.   My favourite grands I've researched are my third great grandparents.  I have listings as to what was in the larder, what foods they had in barrels and what foods were stored for winter as well as what they were growing.  What I found quite interesting is they lived within a stones throw of the Great Lakes waterway but had no fish in barrels meaning they likely fished year round much the same as I do.  What I do know from the research is they had a never ending soup pot.  This was a common practice in the 1800's and one that is still in practice today.

A never ending soup pot really means that the leftover bones and meat from Sunday's dinner are turned into stock on Monday.  Leftover vegetables are added.  During the week the soup is used for lunch but any leftover dinner meats or vegetables or legumes are added to the pot. It is simply an age old way of using up leftovers.  In modern times many frugalistas keep a container in the freezer that they add leftovers to so soup can be made when the container is filled. While I have done this in the past it is not my preferred method.

I keep bones, any bones (not bones someone has eaten off of) specifically for making stocks and soups.  A stock (meat and bones) makes a richer, deeper flavoured soup than a broth (meat only).  When I get enough bones of one particular meat I roast them.  Roasting deepens the flavour and colour.  Once roasted I make stock.  That stock is divided with a quarter towards the soup pot for the week and three quarters home canned for later use.  Sometimes I simply use one of the pressure cookers to make stock.  With stock all I need is seasonings, vegetables, meat and either rice or pasta.  The neat thing with soup is you don't need a lot of any one ingredient, all you need is a bit of stock, which is why it was our ancestors had a never ending soup pot.

Honestly, bones you were going to toss anyway because they can't be composted are easily turned into stock.  Add leftovers and build on that for very frugal, ultra cheap soups that are sure to please.  The average homemade soup will come in at under 50¢ per serving.  That makes homemade soups extremely frugal and true budget stretchers.  So haul out those stock pot, quickly make the stock then let your imagination soar.  Use leftovers or a combination of leftovers and added ingredients base on you whim.  Have fun with making soups.  Your tummy and pocket book with thank-you!

Beef Noodle Soup Made with Leftover Chuck 7-bone Roast

A couple of days ago I was talking about the differences in culinary terms in various regions and between countries.  The term chuck is often used in the US to describe a cut of beef from the shoulder and neck region of the cow.  It is not a widely used term in Canada.  Since we live in Canada and our vacation home is in the US, I have found The Cook's Thesaurus to be extremely useful.

We bought a chuck 7-bone roast (pot roast) intending to grill it as a thick steak but ran out of propane so ended up broiling it.  After dinner, I divided the leftovers into two portions.  Of note, there were not seven bones at all but rather one large bone and three smaller ones.  I used the half with the larger bone to make beef noodle soup.

Making homemade soup is about as easy as you can, not even needing an actual recipe.  The basic requirements are a good sized bone with or without meat, bayleaf, vegetables of choice, and optional rice or noodles.  Any bone that has been roasted or grilled gives a deeper, richer flavour to the stock.  I put the bone with meat in a large pot then filled about three quarters full with water.  I added a bay leaf and brought to a boil.  At this point I usually add one unpeeled carrot, one unpeeled onion (quartered) and one stalk of celery.  These add flavour and colour to the stock.  They are removed along with the bone before completing the soup.  I let simmer about 30 minutes then removed the bone and vegetables, then cut the meat from the bone.  I added the bone and cubed meat back to the stock then stirred in 3 sliced small carrots, a half onion (chopped) and one medium potato (cubed).  I brought this to just a boil and let simmer until the vegetables were tender then stirred in a half a tomato cubed, cooking five minutes longer.  I added about 2 cups of water, removed the bone and brought the soup to a low boil then stirred in about a cup and a half of broad egg noodles.  I reduced the heat to a high simmer and continued cooking until the noodles were al dente.  I garnished with sliced green onion for serving.  The yield was enough for two adults for two lunches.

This particular soup was a bit heavier on the onions for a reason.  Quite frankly I should have added a bit more.  Both of us have been sick with some type of cold that seems to be affecting mainly the chest and throat, with little nasal congestion.  Onions have natural antibiotic properties.  They are one of the best foods you can eat if you have a cold or flu.  Be sure to include them with every meal if at all possible either raw or cooked when you have a cold or flu.

French Onion Soup

This past Thursday I woke feeling quite under the weather with a sore throat and painful sinuses.  While it is the time of year where illness increases, it is not a good time of the year for me to be sick.  Normally at the first signs of a sore throat my thoughts turn to making homemade chicken noodle soup.  It isn't called Jewish penicillin for nothing!  The noodles are easy on the tummy and throat, the soup is nourishing and the onions have natural antibiotic properties.  Slicing or chopping the onions help get the sinuses flowing which is always a good thing.  This time, I turned to French Onion Soup, chocked full of onions and quite easy to make when you aren't feeling well.

The basis of French onion soup is onions.  I like using Vidalia or Spanish onions but cooking onions work well too.  I prefer using homemade beef stock.  A stock (made with bones) has a deeper, richer flavour than broth that is made with the meat only.  I like roasting the bones to deepen the flavour before making the stock as well.  Next to tomato products, meat stocks are my most home canned product. 

A critical point in making French onion soup is the at point of caramelization as pictured.  This is just when the onions begin to caramelize and where they will begin to stick.  When this happens it is time to keep a close eye on the caramelizing onions.  The goal is good, rich caramelization without burning or scorching.  

French Onion Soup
recipe by:  Garden Gnome

⅓  c butter
6 c sliced onions
6 c homemade beef stock
½ tsp browning
sea salt/fresh ground pepper to taste
1 slice of bread per serving
2 slices cheese (eg. Provolone, Havarti, Swiss) per serving

Place the butter in a large sauce pan.  Melt over medium heat then add onions, stirring occasionally.  At the point of the start of caramelization stir often to prevent sticking or burning.  When the onions are caramelized, pour in the beef stock and browning.  Warm through then add salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a low boil.  Remove from heat.  Set oven proof onion soup bowls onto Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Ladle soup into the bowls leaving about a half inch head space.  Place one slice of bread on top in each bowl.  Add two slices of cheese of your choice.  Bake at 400ºF until cheese is bubbly and slightly golden.  Remove from oven.  Serve.

Caution: French onion soup retains heat considerably longer than other soups creating a burn risk as does the soup bowl itself.  Be sure to allow the soup to cool sufficiently before consuming.  

French onion soup is simply delightful!  Doesn't it just look delicious?  A bowl of French onion soup usually costs around $6 in the grocery store and yet homemade, it is one of the most frugal soups you can make using your own homemade stock.  A bowl of homemade French onion soup costs about 75¢ if that meaning you can make 8 servings of French onion soup at home for the same price as you would pay for one serving in a restaurant.   It is a great way to use up those last couple of pieces of homemade or bakery bread that is not quite a fresh as it should be.  French onion soup is the perfect soup for a cold winter's day!

Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

I mentioned previously that I have been relying on tried and true dishes to get to know my new natural gas stove.  I'm also keeping the meals a bit simpler until we get settled into our new home.  So far, I have not attempted canning on the gas stove simply because I'm too tired and the opportunity hasn't presented itself.  The weather has turned cold and rainy so soup season has started!  Tonight I made use of one of my pressure cookers to make a quick and easy chicken noodle soup. 

Pressure cooking is my preferred method for making soups.  From freezer to stock it only takes 45 minutes for tender meat and rich stock.   I add vegetables if desired then bring the pressure cooker back to pressure to cook them or if using noodles, dumplings, rice or barley I just de-bone then add to the hot meat stock mixture and cook without pressure.

Tonight's soup started with two frozen chicken legs with backs attached.  I added a stalk of celery, a quartered unpeeled cooking onion, and two bay leaves then filled the 6 qt pressure cooker to the 2/3 mark.  I brought the pressure cooker to pressure then cooked for 45 minutes. After de-pressurizing, I removed the lid the de-boned the chicken placing skin and bones in a small sauce pan, covering just barely with water and brought to a rapid, hard boil.  While that was in process I strained the remaining stock adding it to the meat in the pressure cooker bottom.  Once the bones boiled hard I strained the resulting stock into the meat mixture then added one chopped onion and brought the mixture to a boil then stirred in extra broad egg noodles.  When the noodles were cooked, I stirred in salt, fresh cracked pepper and Worchestershire sauce to taste.  That's it.  The whole soup took about 75 minutes from start to finish. 

I was quite pleased with how the pressure cooker performed on the natural gas stove.  It came to pressure quicker and de-pressurized quicker which is a very encouraging sign for running the larger pressure canners.  I am planning on putting the pressure canner through its paces this weekend since the pantry is quite close to being organized.  I likely have another half day's worth of work in there then it will be tweaking as need be.  I'll be posting pictures hopefully on Friday!

Italian Wedding Soup

Niagara Falls being a tourist area offers ample dining attractions.  We ate at East Side Mario's on Fallsview Ave in Niagara Falls during our recent visit.   East Side Mario's is a chain restaurant featuring Italian cuisine.  The average entrée costs under $20 but includes soup or salad (all you can eat) as well as fresh baked bread.  The atmosphere is quite lovely.  During our visit we found the food to be average and the service lacking.

My husband ordered the Italian wedding soup rather than salad as a starter.  Italian wedding soup is an Italian-American consisting of green vegetables, meat and pasta, quite often spinach, endive, escarole, cabbage, lettuce, or kale in a chicken based broth.  It is popular in the United States.  The meat is usually in the form of small meatballs.


The term wedding soup is derived from the mistransation of minestra mariata, the term for married soup.  However, the term married soup actually means green vegetables and meat go well together.  There are ready-to-serve cans of Italian wedding soup on the market but in all honesty, this is an extremely easy soup to make from scratch.  The soup does freeze nicely and if you are a home canner, it could be canned for convenience without all the added preservatives as well as believe it or not high fructose corn syrup. 

Chicken Penne Soup

It is easy to get into a rut when cooking, falling back on the tried and tested family favourites.  One way to break out of that rut is eating out.  Restaurants tend to put a bit of a new spin on dishes that the home cook might not think of simply because they have always made the dish a certain way.  During the summer months we like to boat to Decker's Landing located  the mouth of the St. Clair River where it meets Lake St. Clair.  There are special events as well as various bands playing during the afternoon and evening.  It's a gorgeous spot to enjoy a meal, and watch the sunset over the lake. 

Decker's offers pub grub and full dinner meals.  My husband ordered the soup of the day, chicken soup.  I make a lot of chicken soup, usually chicken noodle and occasionally chicken vegetable soup.  Invariably the pasta of choice is broad egg noodles.  Decker's chicken soup was made with penne!  I thought this was a rather interesting pasta to use in a soup.  Penne with its deep grooves and hollow centre is usually paired with thick, cream based or tomato based sauces.

The soup was in between a chicken noodle and chicken vegetable soup.  Another interesting touch was the parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.  Parmesan cheese is a wonderful cheese for adding that extra flavour.  It really was a nice soup that can easily be duplicated at home.

Hearty Beef and Tomato Soup

Old Man Winter just refuses to release his grip on what has been a rather long, drawn out winter.  We've had snow on and off since the first week of November and just had snow April 18 so we have been dealing with snow for about twenty-two weeks.  If anything this long winter will go down in our culinary history as the Winter of Soups.  I think I made a pot of soup for each of those weeks, sometimes twice including the four weeks we were away on our winter vacation.  This year I was a bit more adventuresome in soup making, adding ingredients or using combinations I haven't tried before.  The beauty of soup is as long as you have the basic stock you have the makings of soup!

I wrote earlier about a fundraiser one of our grandkid's school had with bean packets from the Bean Ladies.  One of the packets I bought was a simple bean mixture to be used for soup.  The next time I was at the grocery store I checked to see what kind of mixes they have.  Now I know there are a number of dried soup mixes available but I didn't want anything with seasonings, just the actual dry mix.  The intent was if I liked that combination I could make up a few jars ready to use when desired.  I bought a soup mix by Bella Tavola that consisted of green split peas, yellow split peas, long grain rice, pearl barley, alphabet pasta and red split lentils in about equal portions.  The 450 g package (about 2 cups) was 99¢.  

I made a hearty beef and tomato soup using half of the package of mix, two soup bones, carrot, parsnip, onion and seasonings.  The total cost from scratch came out to about $3.65 with the most expensive ingredient being the soup bones.  Cooking time costs for electricity would add about 70¢ for a grand total of $4.35.  The yield was 8 - 10 servings of soup so the cost per serving was 44¢ to 54¢ bring the meal when served with homemade bread well under the $1 mark.  These numbers would make any frugalista jump for joy.  Talk about a budget stretching meal!

I apologize for the quality of the picture.  This soup has a little olive oil in it that makes it very difficult to take a good picture.  Olive oil not only helps to caramelize the soup bones adding colour and flavour but makes the lycopene in the tomatoes more accessible so this is a healthier soup.  The soup was an absolute winner hands down!  I made it from scratch using soup bones but you could start with pre-made stock to shorten the prep time.  There is a lot of room to tweek as desired as well.  I think it would be excellent substituting wild rice for the long grain rice for added flavour.  The only complaint I had with this particular mixture is the pasta cooked considerably faster than the other ingredients so I wasn't pleased with the softer pasta texture.  When using a homemade mix I will omit the pasta then add it to the soup in about the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Hearty Bean and Tomato Soup

2 tbsp olive oil
2 lg soup bones
1 onion, unpeeled and quartered
1 carrot, unpeeled
1 parsnip, unpeeled
5 peppercorns
1 lg bayleaf
water

Heat oil in bottom of pressure cooker with lid off.  Brown the soup bones.  Add remaining ingredients.  Fill with water to the ⅔ mark.  Place lid and regulator on the pressure cooker.  Bring to pressure and cook 40 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Allow to depressurize.  Strain the stock returning stock to pot.  Cut any meat from the bones adding to stock.

Add:

1 L (4 c) chopped tomatoes
500 ml (2 c) beef stock
1 c Bella Tavola soup mix
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp onion powder
salt to taste

Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a low simmer and continue cooking until barley and lentils are tender.  Serve with dinner rolls, crackers or homemade bread. 

Bon Appétit!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Beef and Barley Soup

Old Man Winter is not letting go of his chilly grasp just yet.  In fact we encountered rather ugly roads with heavy slush and freezing rains coming home from the kids this past weekend.  As a result I'm still in soup making mode.  Soups are just so easy to make and they are one dish where you can let your creativity run wild.  Basically anything goes with soups as long as you have a stock or broth and one or more vegetables then one or more of optional ingredients like meat or poultry, grains, lentils, dried beans or noodles.

Barley is a rather underused grain in our home and yet is it very easy to cook.  It goes quite nicely in a soup especially anything beef based.  I made a delicious beef and barley soup a couple of nights ago.  Unlike a lot of my beef soups I added tomato paste to the stock for a zesty flavour. 

While I keep a lot of home canned stocks on hand and use a lot of stocks in cooking I often make soups right from scratch.  That is I make the stock first usually using a pressure cooker than I finish off the soup on the stovetop or in the slow cooker.  This allows me the greatest level of creativity to take the soup in which ever direction desired.

Beef and Barley Soup

2 beef soup bones
1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 parsnip
1 stalk celery

Wash but do not peel vegetables.  Cut carrots, parsnip and celery into 3-inch pieces.  Cut unpeeled onion into quarters.  Place vegetables and soup bones in 6 L pressure cooker.  Fill with water to the  ⅔ mark on the pressure cooker.  Secure the lid.  Place on high heat to bring to pressure.  Reduce heat to just the point where the pressure cooker maintains pressure.  Cook for 40 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to de-pressurize.

Add 1 lb stew beef and about 2 c of water.  Bring pressure cooker to pressure then cook 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and let de-pressurize.  Remove meat pieces and any meat from the bones.  Cut meat pieces into bite size and place in slow cooker.  Strain the stock mixture pouring stained stock into slow cooker.

Add:

1 bay leaf
6 oz tomato paste
⅔ c barley (soaked using quick method)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Cook in slow cooker on high 2 hours.  Sauté a half pound of sliced mushrooms in butter.  Drain and stir into soup.  Add 2 cups frozen peas.  Continue cooking on high 10 minutes.  Remove bay leaf and serve.

Meatballs with Nidi Capellini

 Pasta is a fun addition to any dish.  It is available in so many shapes, texture, sizes and now colours.  While a large portion of pastas are wheat based with high quality pastas using durum wheat semolina, rice based pastas are also available.  Various colours are derive from the addition of spinach (green), tomato (orangish red), whole wheat (brown), buckwheat (brown) and beets (purplish red).  Low-carb pastas are available as well although they have a bad reputation for poor taste. 

Pastas should be cooked to al dente meaning with bite.   When you bite into a piece of cooked pasta there should be a slight resistance.  In general thinner pastas cook faster.  Angel hair pasta is a long, very thin pasta with a short cook time.  It is available in strands or formed into angel hair nests (nidi capellini).  The nests are dropped into boiling salted water.  A gentle stir may be needed but avoid if possible so the nests keep their shape.  Once the nidi capellini is cooked, carefully remove it from the pot using a wide slotted spoon.  Allow to drain on the spoon then place on a plate or in a bowl to add the toppings for serving.

The inspiration for this delicious soup came from the picture on the cover of Food & Drink (Winter 2010).  The pasta looked like angel hair nests in a beef broth topped with chopped tomatoes and green onions.  I started about my creation without looking at the recipe until I started to write the blog post.  My dish was quite a bit different in that I didn't use soba noodles or mirin.  Rather I used angel hair nests and added homemade meatballs and sliced mushrooms.  The end result was quite delicious!  I thought the dish had nice eye appeal served in shallow bowls to show off the nidi capellini.

Meatballs with Nidi Capellini

6 c homemade beef stock
1 c homemade tomato stock
1½ lb lean ground beef
¼ c milk
½ tsp garlic pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
½ lb sliced white mushrooms
½ tsp browning
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper to taste
2 nidi capellini per person
2 green onions
3 - 4 chopped home canned (or store bought) whole tomatoes

Mix garlic pepper into ground beef then pour in milk and mix well.  Form into 1 - inch diameter meatballs.  Heat olive oil in fry pan then add meatballs.  Cook until well browned.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the meatballs to slow cooker.  Add butter to reserve liquid in fry pan and add mushrooms.  Cook until caramelized.  Pour mushrooms over meatballs.  Pour in stocks then add browning, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaf.  Turn slow cooker to high and cook for 2 hours.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook nidi capellini to al dente in boiling salted water.  Remove nidi capellini with wide slotted spoon allowing it to drain in the spoon.  Place two nidi capellini per person in shallow soup bowl.  Spoon about 2 tbsp chopped tomatoes over the nidi capellini.  Ladle soup mixture over the pasta and tomatoes.  Garnish with thinly sliced green onions.

Planned Left-overs Using Homemade Shake & Bake Chicken

Having spent the majority of our time at our vacation home in temperatures above freezing and reaching as high as 72ºF we arrived at one of kids home in well below freezing temperatures.  We had take-out fish the first night and they made us a wonderful homemade cheese soup the second night.  Well that soup was enough to give the craving for good old fashioned, homecooked comfort food!  We arrived home to ice and snow with an almost empty fridge but since I wasn't cooking that night we left it to the following day when my husband picked up potatoes, milk, cream, sour cream, chicken thighs and a few fresh vegetables.  His request was he wanted homemade shake & bake chicken for dinner.

If you have been following this blog for any length of time you will know the story behind shake & bake chicken.  There were 6 chicken thighs so I decided to coat them all with   homemade shake & bake mix and bake along with potatoes with planned left-overs in mind.  I seved the chicken and baked potatoes with home canned green beans. Now you might question how I could possibly use left-over baked potatoes and with shake & bake chicken but as I pulled the first meal together the second meal was already in the planning stages.  My goal was to create another comfort type meal that would mimic some of the flavours of the first while introducing a couple of new flavours using the left-overs.

What could be better than a soup that picked up the essence of a favourite comfort meal while at the same time becoming its own unique comfort meal?  The snow was blowing, roads were closed, buses weren't running so making the left-over based soup while it howled outside was a nice diversion.  The kitchen smelled wonderful!

I had left-over chicken and baked potatoes to work with so that's what I started with and built from there.  The end result was a rich, creamy, filling soup full of warm, comforting flavour just perfect for a wintery day.  I used sour cream as a garnish but when stirred into the soup it really adds a nice flavour element.


Baked Potato and Chicken Soup
source:  Garden Gnome

2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
2 chicken thighs, pre-cooked with skin and chopped
3 slices thick cut bacon
3 cold baked potatoes
6 c chicken stock
1½ c asparagus pieces
1½ c sautéed mushroom slices
1 c heavy whipping cream
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp sour cream per serving

Cut the bacon across the slices.  Place in fry pan on medium.  Add onion and celery.  Cook until onion is just becoming translucent.  Cut baked potatoes into smaller chunks.  Place in fry pan with the onion mixture.  Warm through.  Cut chicken from the bone leaving the skin on the chicken.  Set aside.  Cut into bit sized pieces.  Transfer the potato/onion mixture to a stock pot.   Pour the stock into the pot and bring to a low boil.  While that mixture is heating sauté the mushroom slices in butter and set aside.  Wash and cut the asparagus into 1 - inch pieces.  Using a slotted spoon mash the potatoes in the stock mixture leaving just a few smaller pieces.  Pour in the mushrooms.  Let heat through.  Add the asparagus pieces.  Cook just to warmed through.  Stir in the whipping cream.  Remove from heat.  Ladle into bowls.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  Garnish with a dollop of sour cream.

Potato and Leek Soup with Ciabatta Bread

Our kids grew up with a plethora of homemade soups especially in the autumn months so it is only natural that they make their own homemade soups now that they are adults.  The beauty of homemade soups is even with starting out with a few common ingredients the soup can take a whole direction of its own.  The end result is an entirely new creation!

We recently took a day to go visit our grandkids in two Ontario communities.  One of our kids made a lovely potato and leek soup for lunch.  It differed from my potato and leek soup in that no stock had been used to make the soup.  Yet the soup was rich, creamy and full of flavour!

The soup was served with ciabatto bread.  Ciabatto means slipper.  According to the kids this bread is all the rage in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).  The modern version has only been made since 1982 and it was introduced to North American in 1990s by the Cleveland firm, Orlando Bakeries.  The bread has crisp crust with an open, airy appearance with a dense crumb.  The characteristic flavour and appearance is from the sponge the bread starts with, similar to sourdough bread.  I will be testing a couple of ciabatto recipies this week so watch for that recipe with my comments.