Cooking
What's this? Two weeks in a row?
I'd better be careful or you might start expecting more from me.
A 'quick' & easier Italian Wedding Soup for dinner (and Souper Sundays). As always, we made two versions of this. One for Matt & another for Alex & me.
Already-made smoked chicken stock or vegetable boullion was boiled with finely-diced (or, as I like to call it, 'confetti') carrots & celery. After a few minutes, add first the orzo & cook until al dente, then the meatballs (the recipe wants them one-inch; I made mine considerably smaller, while Matt's were only a bit larger than that) made from either ground pork or a vegetarian ground 'sausage', breadcrumbs, grated cheese (Asiago, in this case) & a bit of salt & pepper. This gets simmered, then chopped spinach goes in & simmers a bit more.
The recipe also calls for chickpeas, which is an unfamiliar ingredient for this soup (to me), but we decided to omit them on the grounds that a few years ago, sillyAlex (TM) declared he didn't like them.
And some nights, you just don't want to deal with the whole 'try it before you say you don't like it' debacle.
For something that came together quickly & with so few ingredients, it was surprisingly good.
Matt & I prefer to brown our meatballs before adding to anything liquid, but despite a short cooking time, they came out nicely-done.
Results were flavorful, but not overwhelming.
And after Alex quite literally cleaned his bowl & went off to play, Matt & I did a parenting-win high-five.
Love ya, Deb.
- Cambodian Chicken & Rice Soup For Souper Sundays
, I like the cooler temperatures a lot more than Matt. My feeling is that you can add more layers to get warm, but when it's hot you can only take off so much to get cool! There's another, and more recent, reason I like this time of the year:...
- Feel Better Soup
Last weekend, Matt came down with...something. I don't know if chicken soup really is the cure-all to end-all, but I'd recently made a smoked chicken stock (remains of a whole chicken Matt had smoked with many vegetables & herbs), so it seemed...
- Italian Chicken, Bean & Pasta Soup For Souper Sundays
This was a pretty awesome soup. Making stock from the remnants of this roast chicken, & using the recipe for Pasta and Bean Soup from Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews & One-Pot Meals...proscuitto crisped in oil, then lots of veggies, Stock, water, potatoes,...
- Potato-cheddar Cheese Soup
This was a loaded baked potato. Just in soup form. I'm serious! This recipe was so simple, came together quickly, and proved hearty. Fry some bacon (or the fake stuff Alex & I eat) in a pot; drain on paper towels. With the rendered fat (or some...
- Souper Sundays: Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup
Another Sunday, another soup. Another chance to join up with Deb & Souper Sundays. This soup was all for Matt. I think the name explains all. I used this recipe, with a few changes. First, for the broth, I roasted the chicken beforehand, giving it a...
Cooking
Something resembling Italian Wedding Soup: Souper Sundays
What's this? Two weeks in a row?
I'd better be careful or you might start expecting more from me.
A 'quick' & easier Italian Wedding Soup for dinner (and Souper Sundays). As always, we made two versions of this. One for Matt & another for Alex & me.
Already-made smoked chicken stock or vegetable boullion was boiled with finely-diced (or, as I like to call it, 'confetti') carrots & celery. After a few minutes, add first the orzo & cook until al dente, then the meatballs (the recipe wants them one-inch; I made mine considerably smaller, while Matt's were only a bit larger than that) made from either ground pork or a vegetarian ground 'sausage', breadcrumbs, grated cheese (Asiago, in this case) & a bit of salt & pepper. This gets simmered, then chopped spinach goes in & simmers a bit more.
The recipe also calls for chickpeas, which is an unfamiliar ingredient for this soup (to me), but we decided to omit them on the grounds that a few years ago, sillyAlex (TM) declared he didn't like them.
And some nights, you just don't want to deal with the whole 'try it before you say you don't like it' debacle.
For something that came together quickly & with so few ingredients, it was surprisingly good.
Matt & I prefer to brown our meatballs before adding to anything liquid, but despite a short cooking time, they came out nicely-done.
Results were flavorful, but not overwhelming.
And after Alex quite literally cleaned his bowl & went off to play, Matt & I did a parenting-win high-five.
Love ya, Deb.
- Cambodian Chicken & Rice Soup For Souper Sundays
, I like the cooler temperatures a lot more than Matt. My feeling is that you can add more layers to get warm, but when it's hot you can only take off so much to get cool! There's another, and more recent, reason I like this time of the year:...
- Feel Better Soup
Last weekend, Matt came down with...something. I don't know if chicken soup really is the cure-all to end-all, but I'd recently made a smoked chicken stock (remains of a whole chicken Matt had smoked with many vegetables & herbs), so it seemed...
- Italian Chicken, Bean & Pasta Soup For Souper Sundays
This was a pretty awesome soup. Making stock from the remnants of this roast chicken, & using the recipe for Pasta and Bean Soup from Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews & One-Pot Meals...proscuitto crisped in oil, then lots of veggies, Stock, water, potatoes,...
- Potato-cheddar Cheese Soup
This was a loaded baked potato. Just in soup form. I'm serious! This recipe was so simple, came together quickly, and proved hearty. Fry some bacon (or the fake stuff Alex & I eat) in a pot; drain on paper towels. With the rendered fat (or some...
- Souper Sundays: Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup
Another Sunday, another soup. Another chance to join up with Deb & Souper Sundays. This soup was all for Matt. I think the name explains all. I used this recipe, with a few changes. First, for the broth, I roasted the chicken beforehand, giving it a...