Joy in the Kitchen!

  We've just finished with our latest snowstorm.  I really wanted to say that was our LAST of the season snowstorm, but it's still March and we had a snowstorm in May last year!   The BEST part of winter for me, is that it's Soup Season!  I LOVE soup! (… and chowder! Soup and Chowder will be used interchangeably in this post!)  I could eat it several times a week.   A delicious bowl of steaming soup just soothes all of the rough, cold, places in your soul.    Lately I've needed a generous portion of soul soothing!  Corn Chowder is one of my childhood favorites.  My Mom had a recipe I've never seen anywhere else. The only thickener used is saltine crackers crushed and soaked in milk.  Perhaps it was a depression era recipe as it is very basic and thrifty!  Recently, I wanted a soup that also used chicken (more protein) and I've had a bunch of veggies on hand that need used.  This Creamy Chicken Corn Chowder was ...

It is nearing the end of tomato season here.  A few days ago we had our first hard frost.  This year we've had a bumper crop of tomatoes!  I think I've picked about 2-3 bushel so far and there's at least another bushel on the plants we covered to protect a little longer from frost. I love to eat tomatoes fresh, and one of my most favorite garden treats is a tomato sandwich!  Tender slices of homemade bread spread with mayo, and thick slices of ripened garden tomato sprinkled with salt.  YUMMMMY! My next favorite use of fresh tomatoes is Aunt Lois's Marinated Tomatoes... so tangy!  A perfect accompaniment for a summer meal. What we don't eat fresh I bottle.  My family loves salsa and I love Best Ever Canned Salsa as it can be as mild or hot as you like (we prefer mild) and makes several pints.  We also like homemade Chili Sauce and can some of that to put on meats and potatoes.... an old fashioned treat.   This delici...

One of the best things about the weather cooling off in the fall is the opportunity to enjoy soup!  It has been in the 50's and rainy the past several days so I took that as a sign that it was soup time! Crock pot Beef Barley Soup is quick to assemble and ready to eat when you get home from work or other activities.  Add a loaf of French Bread and it's a filling and satisfying meal. Crock pot Beef Barley Soup 1/2 lb. beef cut into small cubes (or use lean ground beef) 1 medium onion, diced 2 stalks celery, sliced 3 carrots, peeled and sliced 1 small clove garlic or 1 tsp. garlic in a jar. 1/2 C. barley 6 cups water 4 tsp. beef boullion (or use 6 cups of canned beef broth instead of boullion and water) 1 tsp. oregano salt and pepper to taste Toss all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.   Serve right away or freeze in individual portions to use for lunch or dinner!

Today is PERFECT fall weather!  A bit overcast, breezy, high of 60 degrees if we're lucky.  I love fall!  One of my favorite fall things is SOUP!   Garden Chowder with Ham is a hearty way to celebrate fall. We grow a fair sized garden each year.  I love to wander through it in the fall and shop for dinner.  This is what I chose to use for our chowder today.   If you don't have a garden to shop in, enjoy wandering through the produce section of your favorite grocery store and select the vegetables you'd enjoy best! (Don't discount the small amount of green pepper though - it adds such a rich flavor!) The vegetables I chose today are those that are still available in my garden in the fall.  The summer squash is finishing up and the texture of it always changes a bit, more dry maybe.  If we were making this earlier in the summer we could add peas or green beans, but those vegetables are done in my garden this time of year.  You co...

I've been wanting to try a Chicken Tortilla Soup for a while but there are so many recipes out there I couldn't choose which one to try.  My daughter is visiting this week from Tennessee.  She woke up this morning with all congested and though soup sounded good for dinner. She likes Chicken Tortilla Soup so we just made our own version (to add to the myriads out there) with the ingredients she likes best. My younger girls had a cross-country race today and we'd arrive back home just in time for dinner.  This soup cooked up nicely in a crock pot so when we got home all we had to do was bake the tortilla strips.  They could have been baked ahead, but I ran out of time before we left.  My daughter thinks she'd like to try this lightly thickened, but I liked it just like this.  If you like it spicier you could add some cayenne or other hot pepper. Chicken Tortilla Soup 6 C. chicken broth (canned or made up from water and bouillon) 2-3...

It has been rainy and cooler here the past few weeks.  Odd for August in Idaho.  Today felt like a "soup day" as soon as we woke up to clouds and a drizzle.  I remembered I had a ham bone in the freezer from a ham we used last winter so Hearty Ham and Bean Soup was a great choice! This is another dish where guidelines rather than a "measure exact" recipe are used.  My ham bone was large and very meaty and I planned to feed 9 of us and have leftovers so I used an 8 quart pot to begin with.   Sometimes I use dry beans and sometimes I'm in a hurry and used canned northern beans.  Today I planned to be home most of the day so I chose dried beans to work with.  I've had these beans for a good 15-20 years.  Sometimes when I've kept dry beans that long it takes forever to re-hydrate them (and I didn't think of this last night so I didn't have time to soak them over night!) but with the pressure cooker, these softened up nicely!  I wouldn't rec...

My Dad grows leeks in his garden.  I am a happy recipient of a few of those leeks!  Now I have to be honest with you, I doubt I would have seen these in the produce section of the store and longed to buy some... at least not until Mom brought me some of her Cream of Leek Soup!  YUM!  Today the family enjoyed this soup so much they suggested we grow our own leeks this year so we could have this soup more often! In case you aren't already familiar with leeks, they are a member of the onion/garlic family.  They have a thick stalk and very little "bulb", unlike the large bulb and small top of a regular onion.  They have a very mild onion flavor.   Cream of Leek Soup is a wonderful first course soup, or with a side of crusty bread, would be a nice main dish soup. Cream of Leek Soup 4-6 medium leeks 6 T. margarine or butter 3 T. flour 2 tsp. chopped chives, optional 1/2 tsp. salt 6 C. milk or light cream 6 cubes or 6 tsp. of chicken bouillon  ...

When Mom first started this blog she asked if I wanted to contribute to it.  Well, I did one recipe right at first and then time always seemed to get away from me, then a broken camera, and then because of school I haven't been cooking very much.  But now I've set a goal to manage my time better and cook more plus I got a new camera (Woot woot!)  I also felt that my recipes were boring and often don't use a recipe because I'll only cook for 2 or 3.  But I figure that maybe I'll want to remember how I did certain things and sometimes you only need to cook for 2.  So here's my first of many (I hope). This is by far mine and my family's most favorite clam chowder.  I got the recipe from my mom (Joy) who got it from her mom.  My husband begs for this soup and tells me I can make it any time.  I always make the full batch so that we have lots of leftovers for lunches the next couple days.  I would normally make some kind of biscuit like cheddar ...

Today we had our first snowfall of the season!  Totally soup weather!!!  I absolutely love, Love, LOVE , the Chicken Gnocchi Soup at Olive Garden.  We don't eat out often, and this soup kept calling to me. :)   After a little search on the internet, I found a few different copycat recipes.  The one that looked most authentic to me was  THIS ONE....  you have to scroll down through the comments to find it - not the first recipe listed, but the second.  I'll post the actual recipe - but be sure to click on the link above,  it was interesting to see the different ways people fix it...  I made my own modifications. :)   Also, every recipe I found called for a package of gnocchi.  I've never seen it around here (granted, I've never looked for it either) and didn't fancy a trip to town just for that.  I searched the internet again and found several recipes for gnocchi!  THIS ONE looked the easiest, though a l...

Woohoo!!!  We've got a nice, rainy, cool, fall day here today!  I love days like this as long as I don't have to go out in them.   The BEST part of all though is that it is SOUP WEATHER !  A steaming hot bowl of soup just isn't as appetizing in 90 degree weather as it is on days like today. My friend Cherise gave me this recipe several years ago.  We were driving truck in Spud Harvest together (that's potato harvest for those of you outside of potato country ;) ) and she brought me a warm bowl of this soup one evening.  SO GOOD! Every time I fix this I can almost SMELL that good, Idaho, potato dirt.  This soup is NOT like a cheesy CREAM of Broccoli soup.  No cream added to it at all. (not counting the butter).  It also has veggies other than broccoli. The sauce is smooth and rich.  Tonight we're having it with a freshly made loaf of French Bread.   It's a great soup to dip bread in. (sort of like a thin cheese fondue with vegg...

I LOVE wandering through the garden this time of year and gathering ingredients for dinner, and luckily it's cool enough today to make Chicken Vegetable Soup !  Our garden got a late start this year due to weather and a busy schedule, but it's going gangbusters now!    The other day I canned 19 1/2 quarts of green beans (which gives me 60 quarts and 21 pints on the shelf) and 7 quarts of dill pickles (bringing me up to 35 jars of dills).  Tomorrow we'll be doing lots of applesauce.  I only have 20 quarts left and we go through 1 1/2 quarts at a time, so I'm hoping to get 70-80 quarts of applesauce this year.  I should probably pick & can green beans again tomorrow as well.... I might just check & see if they'll hold off until Monday. Oops, a little side tracked there. :)  Back to dinner .... Last night we had roast chicken, so today, I'll use what's left of that, simmer & debone, and I'll wander through my garden to add:  po...

Oh my!  If you've been following my blog long, you know that soups are one of my favorite meals to cook AND eat.  Every Tuesday is Soup Day on our menu.  I usually try to make some french bread or cornbread or biscuits to go with it. The little girls love some soups but not others - this is one they don't love, but they fill up on bread and eat some. This Ham and Wild Rice Soup is one of MY favorite soups!  I love the crunchy texture of wild rice and adding it to this creamy soup makes a wonderful flavor and texture combination.  The recipe comes from Jane, who makes the best soups at the restaurant I used to work at.  I'm not sure where she found it, but it's a keeper.  I've only changed a few things in this recipe, one of those being that the original recipe calls for butter flavored Crisco.  I MUCH prefer a more natural approach using regular butter instead.  I also use less green pepper and a bit more chicken bouillon. A bowl of Ham and...

Country Mushroom soup is simple to make, yet fits into a special occasion wonderfully.  We started making this several years ago for Christmas Eve and it has been a favorite ever since.  In fact, it is Dave's favorite soup ever.  The base is so smooth and rich, the mushrooms make it hearty.  Delicious!   Last night we had this as one of the courses for our Valentines Dinner and just made a single batch.  When I'm feeding the whole family and use it as the main dish, I triple this. Country Mushroom Soup 1/4 C. butter 1/3 C. flour 2 C. chicken broth 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 bay leaf 2/3 C. celery, chopped 1/3 C. onion, chopped 1/4 C. butter 4-5 C.  fresh mushrooms, sliced 3/4 C. cream or half & half (or a combination of the two) In a 2 quart saucepan, melt 1/4 C. butter, stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually stir in broth until smooth.  Add salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasio...

Due to the below ZERO temperatures we've been having, I've had such a hankering for soup!  I've been trying to use ingredients on hand for our meals this month... and I've got a TON of potatoes stored in the garage. Okay... so actually only about 150 lbs, but still, a substantial amount.  Most of those potatoes are good old Idaho Russets, BUT, I have 1 burlap bag of beautiful red potatoes grown in our garden this summer.   So, in remembrance of warmer times, we enjoyed this Hearty Red Potato Soup for dinner.  Mmmmm!    I got this recipe from Gracie on the Frugal-Families website .  She said she doesn't remember where she found it and she mentioned she has used broccoli in place of the peas.   My family loves this soup.  My 14 year old son thinks it tastes ALMOST as good as creamed new peas and potatoes. (and THAT's quite a compliment!) If you're out of red potatoes or they are hard to find, a regular potato would work ...

Corn chowder is a wonderful warm meal for a cold evening.  This version is what my Mom always cooked, it is different than any other corn chowder I've seen because it is thickened with saltine crackers.  It is a bit thinner than a soup thickened with flour or cornstarch.  Last night we served this with homemade french bread. Corn Chowder 8 slices of bacon 1 medium onion, chopped 4 medium potatoes, chopped  2 C. water 2 C. cooked corn 8 saltine crackers 2 C. milk 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp pepper Brown bacon in large sauce pan.  Add onion and cook until tender.  Add potatoes and water.  Cook until the potatoes are tender.  Smoosh up the crackers into the milk and let soak.  Add corn, salt, pepper and milk mixture to potato mixture.  Heat to boiling.  Serve hot. Joy's Note:  Sometimes I add a tsp. of chicken boullion.  Once in a while we put shredded cheddar on top.

The temperature last night was under 25 degrees.  Brrrr!!!  My husband and son have been on a scout camp out and I'm pretty sure they'll need some warming up once they arrive home!  (Can I just say I am SO glad I was not a scout having to do that year round camping thing...  I LOVE to observe cold weather and snow from inside, while sipping hot chocolate. LOL) I decided on this Hearty Taco Soup for dinner.  It is easy to throw a big pot together, it holds nicely a long time, and it warms you to your bones. :o)  I used to work at a restaurant that served Taco Soup once in a while.  I loved it!  (I really miss working there, but am enjoying even more being a stay-at-home-Mom)  It took me a few tries to figure out what to put in it to make it pretty close to the one at work.  I usually just sort of dump, stir, and taste to get this right, but tonight, I measured just so I could post this for you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as ...

My husband is a great cook.  In fact, when we got married, he was a better cook than I.  Since I made less of a mess when cooking though and had more time, I got the job. :) (and in my defense, I've gotten pretty decent at cooking in the past 20 some odd years! lol)  Dave does a lot of dutch oven cooking.  This recipe was invented specifically for that, but I do it in the oven or on the stovetop all the time.  You almost can't compare it to regular chili, this dish is loaded with beef, sausage & beans.  I'm drooling just thinking about it. When you're ready for a hearty meal that'll warm you from the inside out, give Grand West Chili a try! Grand West Chili If you've got a cast iron dutch oven (Dave uses a 12" deep) especially one with a flat bottom, it'll work great in your oven.  Otherwise, use a nice sized pot on the stove top.  We're talking a 6 quart pot or so. (I haven't tried this in my  roaster oven, but I think it would wo...

Soups are some of my favorite meals! They're filling and inexpensive, easy to throw together for a nutritious meal. White Bean Chili is one of our favorites. Chicken, great northern beans, chili's and onion blend into a satisfying dinner. Enjoy! (I'm serving mine tonight with freshly made french bread. White Bean Chili 1 lb Great Northern beans Water Rinse beans and place in large pot with enough water to cover a few inches above the beans. Bring to a oil. Reduce heat & simmer a couple of minutes. Turn off stove, cover, and let soak for 1 hour. Drain off water & discard. In the same pot, combine: 6 cups water 1 large onion chopped 2 small cans diced green chilies 1/3 C granular chicken bouillon or 6 cubes 1 T. chili powder 2 cloves minced garlic (or 2 T. garlic flakes or 1 tsp powder) 2 tsp. oregano 1 tsp onion salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp cayenne (optional - I don't like it that hot) Bring to boil and then simmer for about 2 hours. Stir in: 2 boneless c...