Recipe Time

It's recipe time again. Tonight, with Dan gone, Ana and I decided to go all out and make some soup. You see, we love soup. Dan, not so much. As he puts it, "It's all, you know, soupy." Very articulate, Dan.

Tonight's soup was what I like to call throw it all in with a prayer soup. I kind of know what goes with what in soup, so half of these items I knew would taste good together, the other half were going to go bad in a few days anyway so I wanted to use them up. Anyone else have a refridgerator like that?

We started out with 2 medium onions, one "baby" onion (as Ana calls it while cradling it in the crook of her arm), and three cloves of garlic. Everything got chopped up and sauteed for a good five minutes on medium heat with oil. Then we added one huge chopped carrot and sauteed some more until the veggies were all looking rather delicious and smelling the same.

That's when we threw in a quart of some really dandy chicken stock we made last week. I mean this stuff was like jello out of the fridge. Very flavorful and full of gelatin from the bone marrow. Mmmmmmmmm. This, as experience has shown me, always always guarantees a delicious soup. Don't be fooled by the convenient cans at the store or those boullion cubes (however they're spelled). Sure they make soup. But homemade stock, simmered for a full day or more, adds depth and unbeatable flavor.

Okay. Enough on that. Just make your own stock.

Earlier in the day, knowing I wanted to make soup, I had started soaking some navy beans and then simmered them on the stovetop. By this point they were almost done. So, I drained them and into the pot they went.

Next, we rummaged through the freezer and found about 6 tomatoes from the summer harvest, thawed 'em, skinned 'em, kind of mushed them into a pulp, and in they went into the simmering pot of what was really becoming heavenly soup.

Then, I pulled out some butternut squash we had roasted over the weekend and hadn't finished. I would say we added about a cup and a half of this. I also found some chicken (from the same chicken we made the stock with) that needed to be consumed. So, we cubed it and threw that in too.

Lastly, we seasoned the pot with a Tablespoon of dried rosemary and about a teaspoon and a half of salt.

Everything simmered for about a half hour before we couldn't take it anymore and we dug into it with vigor. The herbs, veggies and chicken were absolutely perfect together. The textures of the creamy squash, chunky carrots and fiberous beans were wonderful. It made over 2 quarts of soup, plenty for me to have my obligatory two bowls (yes, I'm nursing), Ana to have her petite bowl, and Toby to have his wide-eyed tastes (at one point I'm pretty sure he got a big piece of garlic. I guess he didn't mind it as he kept asking for more!) And we still put at least a quart in the fridge for tomorrow. The only thing that would've made it better is if we had roasted all the vegetables before putting them in. Always room for improvement, and there's always next time!

Good night everyone!