STUFFED PEPPER SOUP

We just had our last Soup Night of the season. In October, we'll start up again. I'd been toying with the idea that maybe I'd lay off Soup Night for one season thinking maybe it was getting old and I was getting tired. But we had such a nice crowd last night, and it was so much fun, that I just tossed aside the thought of laying off Soup Night for the coming Fall season.

Not only did we have a fun crowd last night, the soup I made was a pretty big hit ... bigger than I thought it would be. Stuffed Pepper Soup. I've made other soups that start out as a "stew" and end up as a soup. I just made my favorite recipe for Stuffed Peppers as usual, and thinned it down, and spiced it up to make it into a soup. My stuffed pepper recipe is deadly easy. I wish I could remember exactly how I made it, but here is my best recollection.

By the way, you can just your own version of stuffed peppers. To make it soup, just crush up the meat after it's cooked in the peppers, and slice up the cooked peppers to put back into the soup. Thin it down with a little water or chicken stock until it's the consistency you like.

My recipe was for a fairly large crowd, so you can cut everything in half or even quarter it. I used a mixture of ground turkey and ground beef, but you can use whatever you like. Some people like the combo of beef, pork and veal. Turkey makes it a little healthier, beef lends flavor.

2 cups of rice (cook per directions on package - makes about 4 c. of cooked rice)
6 large green peppers, cut in half.
2 pounds lean ground turkey
1 pound lean ground beef
1 T. dried garlic flakes
1 T. dried onions
1 T. salt
1 T. cracked black pepper
1 t. ground coriander
6 26 oz. cans of condensed tomato soup
(The store brand is just as good as the brand name and much cheaper and it's not name in China)

Wash the peppers, cut them in half (so you have a top and a bottom), and clean out the seeds and ribs as much as possible. Leave the stem in so there is no hole in the top half. Set aside the prepared peppers.

In a very large bowl, combine the cooled cooked rice with the ground meats and all the seasonings. mix well, buy try not to squish the meat too much. It changes the texture and makes it hard when cooked if you mush it up to much, so toss it more than mix it. You mixture should have a very nice aroma from ingredients you added. If you aren't sure, take a little tiny piece of the meat and cook it in a small skillet so you can taste it. Add more of any seasoning you like at this point.

In the bottom of your soup pot, pour one or two cans of the soup. Rinse each can with just about 1/2 c of water and pour into the pan. Don't use too much water - you can thin the soup down later if it's too thick.

Now, fill each pepper half with the meat mixture and place into the soup pot. No need to overfill. When the first layer is complete, add two more cans of soup rinsing each can with a little water.
Place a second layer of filled pepper halves, and now add all the rest of the soup.

There should be plenty of meat left. You can make tiny meatballs to add later (which I did), or you can make fist sized balls with the rest and put that into the soup pot as well.

Place the pot over medium low heat until it begins to bubble. Turn the heat down very low. NOW BE CAREFUL. Because you are using canned tomato soup, with has starches and sugars in it, you will have to scrape the bottom of the pan fairly frequently so it won't scorch. I used a long handled spatula. Be careful not to knock around the stuff peppers too much - you want the meat to cook inside the peppers to pick up flavor. As soon as it starts to bubble, turn the heat way down and simmer very gently, stirring frequently, until the peppers are soft, but not mushy and ready to fall away from the stuffed meat.

Remove the finished peppers and fist sized meat balls if you made them to a very large platter. Now I took the meat out of the peppers and smashed each ball with a potato masher and added it back to the soup pot. Do this will all the meat that was in the peppers. If you made fist sized meatballs, cut these up with a knife into smaller chunks, like small meatballs, or you can just smash all of them. Your choice. I personally made tiny meatballs which were added at this point to cook so there would be meat all through the soup, but then meatballs for something to bite into.

Take the cooked peppers on the platter and cut them into thin strips and put them back into the soup along with the tiny raw meatballs if you made them. Simmer the soup for another 20 minutes or so to make sure the little meatballs are cooked and again, making sure the bottom of the pan doesn't scorch. If you didn't add raw meatballs, here the soup is finished.

I also served Braunschwieger Dip, Celery Cream (fresh celery pureed with low fat cream cheese), Cheddar and Swiss Cheese with crackers, a Sharp Cheddar Cheese ball, black olives, and a home made cucumber salad with home made dressing. Bread and butter too.

The simple cucumber salad dressing was made with 3 T of sunflower oil, 1 T. rice wine vinegar, 1 t. dill, 1 t. dried onions, salt and pepper to taste and 1 t. sugar. Spin it up in a food processor, or just mix really well with a fork and pour over cucumbers that have been sliced very thin, salted lightly and let to drain for about an hour and drained very well. Adjust any of the ingredients to your taste - use another herb if you don't like dill, or leave the herb out all together. The one thing I know about salad dressings - a vinaigrette is usually a 3 to 1 ratio. 3 T of oil to 1 T of lemon juice or vinegar. 3 cups of oil to 1 c. of lemon juice or vinegar. Change up the kind of oil you use, the kind of vinegar you use, add any flavorings you like. Depending on the salad, I add things like Dijon mustard, anchovies, bacon bits, dried basil, tarragon, fresh garlic. Make any flavor you like, just remember the 3 to 1 ratio for the base.

I also made a smaller pot of Cream of Potato Soup which also turned out pretty good for a vegetarian version. Actually, it was pretty tasty! I normally use some chicken stock to make potato soup, but this time I didn't. I added some coriander, a little dried tarragon, some dried leeks, shallots and scallions (a combination mix I bought) and just a pinch of red pepper flakes which brought the soup to life.

So Soup Night will go on. As long as we have wonderful friends who enjoy coming, we'll keep on make soup!

NOT MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT TODAY

I don't really feel like writing my web log today. Not really in the foodie mood this morning. I have too much laundry to do and I have to go grocery shopping and in just kind of a funky mood today. Grocery shopping should put me in the mood to cook, and to think about food, but I'm not going until later. For now - "I got nothin' "

There are two things I recently decided to do. Who knows how far I'll take them. I really don't have the time some of these projects deserve to have devoted to them, but I like having the ideas and acting on them, even if they don't go anywhere. Its what keeps my creative juices flowing and one day, I can pick and choose from all the little projects I want to do and make something out of one or two of them. Anyway, once you are out of ideas, what else is there to do but sit around and watch the Kardasians display their butts or yell at each other because one of the other sisters has been selfish! I'd rather sit on a cactus! Well, I don't have to worry about that - I usually come up with something else to keep me away from those insipid television shows.

Anyway, one of the things I want to do is take my blogs and turn them into books. This Blogger has a feature whereby you can submit your blog pages to them, and the will format, print and bind them into a book for a mere $14.95 for 25 pages and an extra 25 cents for each additional page. I'm sure I'll do this one. I'd love to have this on my cookbook shelf, and $14.95 + is affordable.

The second thing I am already working on is putting together a cookbook for kids. Recipes that are healthy, delicious, and most of all, easy. And I'm not talking about how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Some of my favorite dishes are ones that are supremely easy to prepare. I will target the cookbook at kids who are old enough to help Mom in the kitchen and are allowed to use kitchen utensils and cook on the stove with a parent's supervision. Probably starting at around 10 years old. Obviously a parent would have to be the judge about whether their kids are capable of working in the kitchen safely. Here's one example of the kind of dishes I'll include:

Take a package of chicken wings, put them in a foil lined baking pan. Salt, pepper, bake until almost done. Douse in your favorite barbecue sauce, bake another 15 minutes. Voila, barbecued wings that your kid made!! And I'll be sure to include the ways to make the dishes as healthy as possible, like removing the skin from the chicken before you sauce it. It's a little extra trouble, but removes more than half the fat!

Hmmm, what will the title be? "Hey Mom! Look what I made!" or "That's right! I made it!" or ..... I'm open to ideas!

I was cooking simple things at home when I was 10 or 11. I learned just by watching and helping my Mom. The most important thing about kids cooking is make sure they are safe, of course. So if the recipes they are provided are as simple as possible, you can spend a lot more time on teaching them technique and safety in handling kitchen equipment and using the range.

Listen, any kid who can tell Mom to take a break from cooking dinner one night is a great kid in my book!

No recipes today yet though - I guess because I'm not inspired. Maybe later tonight.

.......... It's about two hours later and I've been inspired by hunger, and nothing that I can grab and eat. So I had to make something for lunch.

Refrigerator first - a few pieces of celery left from a veg tray, a half bag of those little carrot short cuts. Next, the pantry. Tomato soup and some tri-color corkscrew noodles.

QUICK MINESTRONE
Makes 4-6 servings

1 - 2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 1/2 cups of short cut carrots, cut into pieces
1 T. canola or olive oil
1 26 oz can tomato soup (naturally low fat, low calorie!)
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
Water or chicken stock
1 can white beans (kidney, cannelini, navy)
1 T. dried oregano
1 T dried garlic flakes
1 T dried onion flakes
1 cup full of any kind of chunky noodles
( I used what I had - corkscrew - and I broke them up a little in the food processor)

Saute the cut up celery and carrots in just a little canola or olive oil or medium high heat. Just let them color a little. Now, dump everything else into the pot. Add enough water or chicken stock to bring the soup to the thickness you like. Stir and let the soup simmer on low heat until the noodles are done; about 12 - 15 minutes depending on the pasta you use. Be sure to stir occasionally to keep from burning the bottom of the soup. The flavor of the oregano, dried garlic and onions will bloom while the soup simmers . You would never know it was made from a can!

Instant Minestrone! Mmmmm. It was really good! Low calorie, low fat, low sodium, lots of veggies, savory herbs, and just a little bit of comforting pasta! Enjoy a bog bowl of this!

I think this one will go into the kids cookbook!

It's Every Man for Himself!

It's Thursday night, I just got home from the gym, I'm tired, hungry and don't want to go out. I don't really want to cook. My husband had enough to eat during the day so he doesn't really want any dinner tonight. Good. It's every man for himself. He can find whatever is left in the refrigerator if he gets hungry. There should be a piece of two of the Shrimp and Sausage Quesadilla I made last night.

I feel like having mushroom soup.

When my late husband died, I lost my appetite for more than a month. Couldn't eat anything but mushroom soup. It went down easy and it was warm and comforting. Every afternoon I warmed a can of the low sodium, 98% fat free version of Campbell's Mushroom soup and sipped it with a few crackers. Eventually I could add a 1/2 sandwich of some kind, but the soup was always what I wanted.

For some reason, I wanted mushroom soup tonight. I opened two cans of the low sodium, 98% fat free. There's nothing wrong with my appetite now, so I wanted to make it a just a little more hearty.

Mushroom Soup with Green Beans

2 cans Campbell's Mushroom Soup low sodium, 98% fat free
1 can of water
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/2 t. dried thyme
1 10 oz. jar of sliced mushrooms (or 12 oz. of fresh mushrooms sliced and sauteed.)
1 c. of cooked green beans
1/2 t dried onion flakes

I put everything into a saucepan and let it warm slowly for about 15 minutes. This allowed the dried thyme and onion flakes to rebloom in the soup and the green beans to lend their flavor to the rest of the pot.

That's it! I ate it with some whole grain wheat crackers. It was delicious.

As much as I love to cook, it's also very nice to have a night where I can just throw something together that only takes a few minutes. Warming the soup actually took longer than assembling it. And like so many of the dishes I make, I already had everything in the pantry. I always keep several cans of mushroom soup to use for sauces, etc. I was in the Sav-A-Lot and saw sliced mushrooms in a jar for $.89. I bought two to keep in the pantry. The freezer always has frozen vegetables of all kinds to use whenever the urge strikes. Tonight I used some green beans I found on sale at Harris Teeter in a Steam in the Bag variety for $.75, regular price - more than $3.00.

Try this same soup recipe with Cream of Chicken, dried basil, and frozen peas or corn. Add the mushrooms if you like. Add a little garlic powder or Lawry's Season Salt.

Or try it with Cream of Celery, parsley, and corn or diced potatoes.

I'm full. I'm going to finish checking e-mail and turn in for the night.

MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING - AGAIN

This is another perfect example of not wasting food.
I'm not a cheapskate. I buy things I want and need if I have the money, but I truly hate to waste my money. And that includes spending good money on food and then having it end up in the trash. I always clean out the refrigerator every time I come home from grocery shopping and always try to make something out whatever is still in good shape. Unfortunately, sometimes something ends up in the trash. Food poisoning is not on the menu at our house.

Fortunately, my husband and I are both good about eating leftovers. I take them for lunch most of the time, and he will eat whatever is in the fridge during the day. (He works at home.) I wanted to make salad for dinner so I started to gather what I need from the refrigerator, only to find that the lettuce had frozen! Arggh! I had turned down the temp in the fridge for some crazy reason, only to find that a lot of what was in there froze or formed ice crystals. The baby carrots froze in the veggie crisper, as did the baby zucchini. Usually carrots don't thaw well to eat raw, they get kind of mushy, but they were ok. Maybe they weren't frozen solid. And the zucchinis are never the same again unless you have blanched them before freezing. But, I WAS NOT going to let them go to waste. I made what I like to call Spaghetti Vegetables. But more on that later. Let's get back to that frozen romaine.

Lettuce absolutely does not come back to its original form once frozen. But I WAS NOT going to throw that away either. I put it back in the fridge grumbling under my breath about the $2.89 I was going to have to throw away. Since the lettuce froze and I couldn't make salads, I had to figure out something else to make for dinner. I checked everything else in fridge and found that I had some carrots left from last shopping day, three parsnips and some celery. Hmmm. Vegetable Soup was in the making and I knew exactly what I would do with the now frozen lettuce. I started slicing and dicing and sauteing, and before I knew it I had a really yummy pot of Vegetable Soup. Yes that's right, I used the lettuce in the soup. Just like you would have put spinach or kale into a soup. I cut up the lettuce and dropped it in the pot to let it simmer with everything else. Once everything was soft, I tasted it. It was delicious! Other than the lettuce, I used only root vegetables in the soup so it had that sweetness that only root vegetables can lend. It was so satisfying and aromatic. The lettuce was softened nicely, and tasted .... well.... green. It only had a very slight taste of lettuce and it was wonderful in the soup. I really don't think that anyone would have know it was lettuce unless I had told them.


Here's how I made my Root Vegetable Soup with Romaine Greens

2T canola or corn oil
1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
2-3 large cloves of garlic, peeled
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced
4 parsnips, peeled and sliced
4-5 stalk of celery, washed and sliced
3 cans of chicken or vegetable stock (about 6 cups or enough to cover veggies by an inch)
salt/pepper to taste
1 head of romaine lettuce, sliced
1/4 lb. Orzo pasta (optional, or use any other small pasta or cooked rice)

Dice the onion and saute on low/medium heat while you do the rest of the slicing/dicing.
Mince the garlic very small, add to the onions and give it a stir
Peel and slice the carrots and parsnips, add to the saute pan and stir.
Clean and slice up the celery and add to the other sauteing vegetables.
Let the veggies saute until they are about half way done.
Add the stock. If its not enough liquid to cover the veggies by an inch, add some water and some chicken flavoring, or another can of stock.
Add the sliced romaine, salt and pepper
Let everything simmer on low until the lettuce and veggies are just done. Re-season as necessary with salt and pepper when done.

I loved this soup and will make it again for one of my soup nights!

Spaghetti Vegetables

Here's how I dealt with those frozen baby zucchini. Ughhh! I was thinking I'd have to puree them to be able to use them. After all, they weren't spoiled! The skin on a zucchini gets kind of mushy if you freeze it fresh and then thaw. Well as it happens, I fell for that ad on TV for the Titan Peeler. It came with another tool that juliennes vegetables really well. Almost as well as an expensive mandolin! Not as fast, but it works really well. All you have to do is run the tool over the veggies with a little pressure, and voila! Lovely thin strings of veggies! (I recommend the Titan Peeler and the other gadgets it comes with, I love it!) So, I started thinking and thinking. I julienned the two frozen baby zucchinis into strips the whole length of the zucchini. Then I julienned two large carrots, the whole length of the carrot. I sliced three scallions long ways so they looked like the zucchini and carrots. I wanted everything to be long like spaghetti noodles. Then I took some of the biggest mushrooms I could find, and although I could not use my tool on them I sliced them into very thin slices. So now I had a whole table full of these "strings". I sauteed everything with garlic, and when the veggies were soft, about 5 minutes, I added all the seasonings at once, some ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and some cooked and drained whole wheat pasta. This is one of those dishes where the whole wheat pasta works well with the other flavors.

Here are the quantities:
3/4 lb. of whole wheat spaghetti or angel hair pasta
2 small zucchini - julienned
1 - 2 long carrots, julienned
3 - 4 scallions, sliced longways into thin strips
2 t salt
1 t cracked pepper
1/2 t red pepper flakes (or more if you like it spicy)
2 large cloves of garlic finely minced
1- 1/2 c c ricotta cheese
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
1/2 c chicken stock (or enough to create a nice sauce with the cheeses you added) This made enough for our dinner and two leftover lunches for me.

The Spaghetti Vegetables has become a favorite and I make once in a while now. It's low cal, loaded with nutritious veggies, and since I used whole wheat pasta, it also has lots of vitamins and fiber.

We ate this as "vegetarian" meal (it had chicken stock in it), but it would make a wonderful side dish for almost anything, garlic shrimp, grilled steak, grilled chicken, even a nice piece of steamed fish with butter and lemon.

DAWG GONNIT! MY STORE DOESN’T HAVE ANY VEGETABLE STOCK !

How do I make something that really tastes good?
My Green Bean Soup, the small pot for the upcoming Soup Night, is for my vegetarian guests. Anyone else can have some, of course, but these days I make it especially for them. There has always been a second pot of soup just in case someone doesn’t care for the main event, but my guest list has included several vegetarians recently so the second pot has turned into a vegetarian choice. And by the way, my non-vegetarian friends seem to gravitate toward that pot quite frequently! The grocery store I shop at does not carry Vegetable Stock in a can or a box. Go figure. I will often use the stocks off the shelf in the grocery – they are quite tasty and most of them are low sodium and low fat. (I try to make my soups as healthy as possible.) It’s a lot work to make your own so save yourself some time and use what you can buy when you need it. Even the generic brands are good. Just be sure to taste whatever you use so you don’t end up putting in too much salt. You may not even need any more salt depending on the brand you use.

Vegetable stock is a lot easier to make than chicken or beef stock. Obviously, you don’t need any meat. Whenever I do choose to make my own chicken or beef stock, I make sure to brown the meat very well before I add the water and other ingredients. It doesn’t have to be cooked through, it only has to have lots of brown on it. So you can brown it on medium-high to high heat. The brown color will add a LOT of flavor. You can certainly do the whole thing without taking the time for browning, but you are missing out on extra flavor that way.

Since I have to make my own vegetable stock this time, I used the opportunity clean out the vegetable bin after grocery shopping today. And keep in mind, I didn’t buy any of this today, it was all left over from last time I shopped. Here’s what I found.

A partial bag of carrots, a small zucchini I didn’t use, some celery that had slightly frozen (I hate when that happens), a large leek, some celery tops I used for a garnish and didn’t throw out, and two heads of romaine lettuce. You may remember I told you about how I used some romaine in a vegetable soup I made a couple of weeks ago and how good it was. I have some more lettuce that is not going to get used before it goes bad, so it’s going in the pot too. Everything you throw into the pot will be thrown away, so you can use pretty much anything in here. I mean, you could even use potato peelings if you had them (and of course if they were clean). I had some dried, sliced, roasted garlic in my pantry but fresh garlic will work just as well.

Here’s what I used: Keep in mind – you can really use anything you have in the fridge.

VEGETABLE STOCK
Into a soup pot with about 2 quarts of water, enough to cover everything with about an inch of water over the top:

2-3 carrots, chopped into large chunks
3 – 4 stalks of celery cut into large chunks
1 small zucchini
1 large leek chopped up and then rinsed very well (leeks can be very dirty inside)
or 1 medium yellow onion, cut into quarters, peel and all (the peel gives a lovely rosy color)
1 or 2 Romaine Lettuce heads (the whole heads, or just the trimmings (bottoms, stalks from leaves)
1 large dried porcini mushroom (throw in any kind of dried or fresh, for some extra flavor)
1½ - 2 Tbs. salt
Pepper to taste
Two cloves of garlic, smashed with the back of a knife, or the equivalent of any form of garlic you have
A dash of nutmeg (Approx 1/8 tsp)
½ of a small bay leaf (I don’t like too much of this unless it’s chicken or beef stock)
Bring it to a boil, turn it down and let it simmer for about an hour. All the veggie parts you put in there should be very soft. Notice what a nice color the stock has taken on from all the goodies you added to the pot.

Taste it. You can add salt/pepper now, or leave it as is and add salt/pepper later when you use the stock to make your dish.

Drain the stock through a large sieve. I would just throw all the veggies away now. You’ve cooked all the flavor out of everything so the veggies themselves are really not worth much at this point.

It’s now ready to use to make any kind of soup or sauce you like. If you’re making vegetable soup, just throw in some fresh veggies and let them cook to your taste. This will provide the veggies you want in the soup and add a little extra flavor to the stock at the cook.

Freeze leftover stock in small portions and you can use it make sauces or just thaw, heat and sip on it on a cold winter night.

It’ll never turn out the same twice unless you write down what you’ve used and the quantities you used. I find I like it just as much no matter what I put in the pot. However, there are a few of things I personally prefer NOT to add to any stock. I think a good stock should be fairly benign to allow you to add whatever “different” flavors you want to the dish/recipe you’re making with the stock.

Green Peppers – I find them a little bitter in the stock when simmered for a long time.
Ginger – unless you want the whole batch for something that “screams” for ginger, I would leave it out.
Green Beans – the flavor is too distinct in the stock and will make anything you use it in taste like green beans.
Whole fresh peas – same as green beans – they add too much pea flavor to the stock, unless you want that.
Corn – corn is OK, but it adds a lot of sweetness to the stock. So it’s good in chowders, or corn soup.
Potatoes – adds too much starch to the pot and a little too much potato flavor, unless you’re making potato soup or a chowder that asks for potatoes.

Just think a little about the flavor of the veggies you are adding, and about how they might taste in the finished product. This has a lot to do with knowing how to cook without a recipe, being an intuitive cook. If you think about what different foods taste like, then try to imagine how certain things would taste together. How would peas taste with a bay leaf added? Don’t know what a bay leaf tastes like? Then experiment because you will never know what it tastes like unless you try one. Here’s one good way to try a bay leaf. Make some chicken stock without one. When it’s nearly done, taste it. Then add a bay leaf, and ½ hour later. You will taste a depth of flavor that you did not have before.

I know it all sounds like too much to absorb, but this is the way you learn to know how flavors work together. Knowing what individual ingredients taste like is an important key to cooking intuitively, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

I’ve been cooking since I’m 11 years old and didn’t’ start using herbs and spices until maybe 5 – 7 years ago. I have no shame telling you that while I clean the house wash dishes, process vegetables from the vegetable garden, and even sit here writing a Food Blog, the Food Channel is on. Even if I’m not listening closely. It’s almost like “brainwashing”. But I’ve learned more from that TV show than from anywhere else! I never used fresh ground pepper from a pepper mill before! I never used rosemary before!!! It has become one of my favorite herbs! (I’ll write a Blog on herbs soon). And I will tell you that I have become a much better cook by watching/listening to the Food Channel.

I know I had a lot to say today. But don’t let it overwhelm you. One step at a time. Don’t ever hesitate to ask me a question or ask me for a recipe for something you’d like to make. Nothing could give me more satisfaction that sharing what I know with you.

(FYI -All the pictures you see are taken by me, of food I've prepared myself. I'm taking pictures of everything I make these days!)

USING MOM'S SOUP RECIPES

February 23, 2010
March Soup Night is approaching and I don't know what the big pot of soup will be yet, but I will also make my Mother's Green Bean Soup. (Disclaimer: soup menus are always subject to change without notice!) Actually, I think I make her Green Bean Soup a little different than she made it, but it's still delicious. I have some of her recipes written down and I want to make sure they are preserved. My Chicken Soup and Cauliflower Soup are also Mom's recipes.

And since it's the last Soup Night of the season, I think I will make some special appetizers and a special dessert. As always I'll put out a veggie tray, some olives and cheese and crackers. I'll add a wheel of Brie topped with apricot jam wrapped in puff pastry. Also I will add my Jiffy Braunschweiger Dip. I can't take credit for the recipe though - I think I got it from Pampered Chef. It's braunschweiger, blue cheese and sour cream pureed into a lovely smooth dip. (Recipe below). If you like braunschweiger, you will love this! It's a big hit among some of my friends. I know, I know - it's really bad for you, but it's one of those guilty pleasures. I only make it once or twice a year for parties. I will also make my Kahlua Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert. I'll share that recipe here too. (Again, I can't take credit for this one, it is also a recipe from Pampered Chef. It was actually a recipe used to highlight the Strawberry Slicer.)

But first, here's how I remember Mom's Green Bean Soup: makes a pretty large pot of soup.

1 med onion - diced
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
3 quarts of water (enough to cover beans by about an inch)
1 Tbs. salt
2 lbs of frozen Green beans ( you can use fresh - clean and cut into 1 inch pieces)

2 Tbs Vegetable or canola oil
2 Tbs flour
3 cloves garlic finely minced
1 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs parsley finely minced.
1 Tbs chicken boullion (optional, reduce salt by half if you use this)

Saute the onions in the oil. When they are translucent, add the water, salt, and green beans. While this comes to a boil again, and the beans are cooking, move on to the next step.

The next step that takes place in the small skillet will happen quickly, so pay attention!

Take a small skillet and add the oil, and flour. Cook the flour over med heat until it just starts to change color to light golden. You should already have the other ingredients ready - garlic minced, parsley finely minced, paprika measured.

Just as soon at the flour turns a light golden, add the minced garlic, stir for just about 10 seconds.
Add the parsley and paprika and stir for just a second or two. Now, don't wait another second, or the garlic and paprika will burn. Scrape the entire mixture from the skillet into the boiling green beans. This mixture will not thicken your soup but will give it some body and will add a lot of flavor. Let the soup boil for a second to get most of out the mixture you just added. Turn down the heat and let cook until beans are done to your liking.

If your soup needs more seasoning now, this is where you will add the chicken boullion or more salt and pepper. If you are lucky enough to find some vegetable boullion, you can use that to keep the soup vegetarian.

You can add any kind of starch you want here. Small noodles, spaetzle, whatever you like -- or not.

Note: While I was writing down this recipe for you I decided to call my Mom to make sure I got the recipe right. Well, to my surprise, I got it all wrong! Apparently I was making the green bean soup the same way she made her Cauliflower Soup!!!! which she actually did occasionally. So the saving grace here is, you can make the soup this way with green beans, or cauliflower. And now you have THREE Soup Recipes! because .....

Here is the way my Mom actually made the green bean soup: This is the exact recipe as she e-mailed it to me:

1 1/2 c sliced green beans

2 med potatoes, cubed

3 cloves garlic, smashed with the back of a knife

2 tsp. dried dill

1 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt

1/4 c. additional water

2 or 3 Tbs flour

1/4 c sour cream

Put the beans, garlic and potatoes in a medium sized pot. Add enough water to cover by about an inch. Add dill and parsley, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to med/low and simmer about 15 minutes. In a separate large cup, mix the 1/4 c water, sour cream and flour to make a slurry to thicken the soup a little. When potatoes are fork tender add the thickening mixture and stir quickly to avoid lumping. Mixture must come back to a boil, and then turn heat down again to get thickening results. Re-season to taste.

So how will I make the Green Bean Soup for March Soup Night? The way my Mom made it, with sour cream and dill. It'll be a great choice for our vegetarian guests. Thanks Mom!

Here's the recipe for the Jiffy Brauschweiger Dip:

1 piece of braunschweiger - 12 oz. or so

1/2 c. sour cream

8 oz piece of a good sharp blue cheese

Put it all in the food processor and whiz til it's smooth. If you think you'd like it softer, just add a little more sour cream. That's it! This is really good on plain crostini, pita chips, or even Saltines.

Here's the Kahlua Ice Cream Dessert:

12 ice cream sandwiches ( low cal ones are fine for this)

1/4 c. + 2 T Kahlua or any coffee liqueur

12 oz. container Cool Whip. (I use the fat free)

12 Strawberries, sliced (optional)

1 c. Chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional)

Use a 9 x 12 cake pan. Put ice cream sandwiches in the pan to cover the whole bottom. Usually all 12 will fit just right. You can cut one or two of them into pieces to make them fit.

Now pour the liqueur over the whole thing. Try to make sure you get some liqueur all over. MORE IS NOT BETTER HERE! This is going back in the freezer and it will not freeze properly if you put in too much liqueur.

Spread the slightly softened Cool Whip over the top. Cover with saran and put it back in the freezer for at least 4 hours. You can make this up to 2 days ahead of time. The Kahlua will get all soaked up into the ice cream sandwich cookies.

Optional: When it's time to serve, top the whole thing with chopped nuts, and sliced strawberries. The strawberries are really yummy on here so I would recommend not leaving them off. It's good plain too, but ... well ... I love the berries and nuts on this.

Just cut squares and serve. Everyone will want seconds and thirds!

SOUP NIGHT

For the longest time now, I've wanted to blog about food. I love to cook, I love to entertain, I love to plan parties and menus, I love to eat, I love to feed other people. For someone who loves to cook, it's wonderful to have a husband who loves to eat. I thought No Reservations, Ratatouille, and Julie & Julia were three of the most entertaining movies I've ever seen! I even loved the parts in all the James Bond books (and I've read all the Fleming ones) where Ian Fleming was so good at describing what James was eating! It made my mouth water and I always wanted some of it right then and there.

So I feed my passion for food by cooking a lot. I even cook when I'm not hungry. It turns into leftovers for the following night or lunch the following day. When the urge strikes, I start searching the fridge and the pantry to see what I can concoct. My husband is a wonderful taste tester. He will eat anything I put in front of him. There's isn't much he doesn't like - not a picky eater which would depress me, I think.

I started this blog today because I was thinking a lot about my Soup Nights. Before I moved to the Ocean City, MD area, I lived in Cleveland, Ohio. A friend of mine hosted what she called Soup Night. She invited "everyone" she knew and had a big pot of soup on the stove, some crackers, bread, butter, and whatever anyone else brought along to add to the buffet. It was an open house type affair beginning at 6:30 in the evening, and finished when everyone was gone. When you got there, you helped yourself to soup whenever you wanted, and got to eat as much as you like. We each brought our own "cocktails" and she provided soft drinks.

We loved Soup Night. It was held once a month on the 1st or 2nd Saturday. We met a lot of nice people whom we'd never known before. The crowd was different each time. She had a really big house and two kids, so her friends brought their kids along too. They all usually went down to the lower level where they played until they fell asleep. They had a blast.

After we moved back to Ocean City (that's a whole different story - we met on the internet) I realized I missed Susan's Soup Nights. So I began having my own. Every year from October through March - 6 Soup Nights a year. We will finish up our third year coming up with the last Soup Night of the season next month.

My house is much smaller than Susan's, so ours is adults only. We don't have that many friends who have small kids anyway. There is simply not enough room in my house to have a lot of kids running around. The crowd is different each month. We started having what we call our 65th Street gang most of the time, about 10 people, and we have evolved to include people I work with, new friends we've made since living here, and a bunch of women that my husband takes yoga with! Last month, most of the guests were single which we found interesting. The guests are invited to Soup Night and never need another invitation. Once invited, always invited. Of course I do send out e-mails as reminders for the date or a change of date.

Each month I make a different, huge pot of soup, and smaller pot of something else. For example, I made a huge pot Chicken Paprikash Soup, and a smaller pot of Vegetable Soup. We have several vegetarian guests so I always try to make something for them too. I always have a table full of appetizers too. Cheese board, dips, crackers, veggie tray, etc. In some later posts, I'll include some menus and recipes and some anecdotes.

Soup Night. It's becoming a very warm tradition in our household and among our friends.