It's a cold day, great for soup!

I don't think the temperature here has gotten over 50 degrees today, and it's been cloudy all day.  The weather is supposed to really turn icky tomorrow.  My husband has been out hunting all day and he finally got one!!!  Don't worry, no pictures this year, although we will be processing it when he gets home.  I wanted something warm, but wasn't exactly sure what.  So I threw together a quick pot of Potato Soup!  Cheater style...chop up some bacon and brown it up

Then toss in about a half a bag of potatoes o'brian and let them brown up a bit and thaw

After it's browned up add about a tablespoon of chicken soup base.

The cube up about 8 oz of Velveeta, I just happened to have the queso blanco open so that is what I used.

And pour some milk on it and let the cheese melt, and the milk warm up, but don't let it scald!  Taste it and add some fresh cracked black pepper to taste!

Pair it with some bread and you have a meal!

Enjoy!!

Sorry Betty, we're not gonna kick it old school.

I think fall is officially here to stay! Yeah! That means it's soup weather. My favorite soup is chicken and noodles. The thick homemade noodles are the star of this dish so JoMama and I are making homemade noodles!!!  JoMama made the chicken stock and chicken in her crock pot yesterday so we get to concentrate on the noodles.  

The only noodles JoMama and I have ever made are the one from the Betty Crocker cookbook.  

But the pasta roller set I own has a different recipe....

The biggest difference is the use of the full egg, and less salt in the new recipe, which is why we are not gonna kick it old school!  Waste not, want not.  We went to get Farm Fresh eggs from The Farm Wife's Table here in Smithville and when we got there the owner had just picked up three duck eggs...so we traded three of our chicken eggs for the duck eggs for our egg noodles!!!!  If you are local, or semi local visit her Facebook page and you too can get some farm fresh eggs!!!  Tho they probably won't be duck eggs they only have one duck and until today they didn't know the duck would lay!

Duck, duck, duck...chicken?

Cracking the eggs was a bit difficult, they have a much harder shell than chicken eggs...who knew!  They also have a different smell, you can tell they are egg-ier...gonna be yummy in the noodles!  At first the dough was very dry and crumbly....

And JoMama said she wanted to add more water, but I told her to wait and see the magic.  I have seen pasta made on Food Network.  After the initial mixing, and two minutes with the dough hook it was time for 1-2 minutes of hand kneading....It's a wrist breaker, but soo worth it, and much easier than Betty's recipe which is all by hand....no thank you!

And then time to let it rest for 20 minutes.

Once it's rested, cut into four sections and then it's time for the magic to happen!  The first attachment is the flat roller and you start with a 1 setting to knead the dough some more until it's pliable and has the right texture.  You will know when it does!

Then set to the second setting and continue...

You will want to cut the pieces in half before changing to a thinner setting.  Otherwise the pieces will get very long and unwieldy

Keep changing the setting on the roller to the thickness you want, then it's time to slice the sheets into the length you want the noodles to be....and then change out the roller for the pasta cutter!  

You can see we just let the noodles drop onto a towel we put underneath the machine, then spread them out a bit.

We did half of the noodles as thick noodles, and half as thin.

There were quite a few more thin noodles, as expected.  And it was so fun and easy we may never buy store bought noodles again!  These can be dried for an hour, then either refrigerated or frozen.  Or you can cook them up fresh.  They don't take as long to cook when they are fresh.  But as you can see it makes a LOT of noodles, so I have some in my freezer for the next time I'm ready to make soup....but part of it we are going to enjoy now in our home made chicken and noodle soup!

Enjoy!

A NEW, New Year's Tradition

There is a recipe in my family, from my dad's side of the family. Ham Bone Soup. I can't think of a time I didn't just absolutely love this milk based soup...so after Christmas, with the leftover spiral ham, I have decided to start the tradition of having Ham Bone Soup to welcome in the new year.  Of course this year it's a few days after the actual new year, but it's all good.  It's cold outside, and this is a perfect day for this simple and delicious soup!

Summer Savory is the only spice in this soup.  

I keep it on hand strictly for this recipe. 

No other uses for me, yet...  

It was a bit difficult to find a few years ago, but I found it with the help of my parents. The cost is on the higher side as far as seasonings go, but it is well worth it as nothing compares, or can be substituted.

When I use the word recipe for this particular meal, it really is more of a list of stuff, with no real measurements.  But that's all good, it makes this an easy recipe to follow exactly.  Which I'm not gonna do because the only recipe I follow exactly is when baking, and I'm not baking.

To start this soup you need a ham bone, with meat on it of course.

The flavors from the ham and bone will be the flavors of the soup.  My ham is of course from Christmas, and I did a copycat recipe for Honeybaked ham.  Turned out goooooood. So carefully cut the chunks of meat away from the bone, and chunk them up, put them in your soup pot with the hambone.

Then cover the ham pieces and hambone with water, and this is when you get a spice bag or fill your own teabag and put the summer savory in the bag.

Toss that on top and bring it to a boil.  This is going to simmer for a good length of time.  Because you want to make sure all of the marrow, and other goodness found in the ham bone has had a chance to seep out and into the water and ham pieces.

While the yumminess is boiling (don't leave it on high, just let it simmer) it's time to dice up the rest of the soup ingredients!  So two can's of Green beans (I'm a cheater I know, but fresh is sooo hard to find this time of year) some carrots and some potatoes. 

A few weeks ago my MIL made a potato soup that had bacon and browned onions.  So I'm gonna add some bacon browned onions to this soup, at least this time around.

Peel and cube the potatoes, and the carrots.  Plop them in a bowl of cold water because you won't add these until a half hour before you are ready to eat.

Then cut up the bacon fat, and render that out in a skillet, remove the chunks of fat and then add the onions.

A half hour before you are ready to eat, fish out the bone and finish removing whatever meat was stuck to it.  Put the bones back in the water then toss the potatoes and carrots in.  These will take about 20 minutes to cook.

Then drain off about half of the water, and remove the savory bag.

Add the onions, and green beans (drained), then add milk to give the liquid volume you desire.  This needs to sit on low heat until warmed up.  Trust me you don't want to boil the milk. Yuck!

Serve warm and enjoy!

Baby, it’s cold outside!

The weather took a turn for the colder this week.  So tonight I decided to make a hearty andsmoky beef merlot stew.  Althoug I don’t know if I can really call it a merlot stew, because I used a cabernet saviginon.  I don’t usually drink red wine, but I do love cooking with it!

And of course you can never go wrong with a recipe that starts with “chop and brown bacon”

Cutting the beef chuck roast took the longest, but it was cheaper than buying stew meat pre-cut.

After the bacon is nice and crispy spoon it out of the pot and set it aside.  I know the recipe says to do the beef and bacon in a secondary pot, but why do more dishes than necessary!!

Brown the beef in the bacon fat.

Sprinkle with Spice Agent Smoky Durango Sea Salt, pepper and about 2T of flour and stir to coat…

Then add the water, wine, thyme, and garlic.  I also added some beef bullion, because I love the beefy taste!

Cover and cook over low for 1 hour…yeah one hour…

While the beef is stewing, the onions need a quick 3 minute bath in boiling water so they are easier to peel.

Also, it's a good idea to go ahead and chop the rest of the veggies...the carrots and mushrooms that is...

Add the pearl onions and cook for 20 minutes,

Add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread for dipping!!!

ENJOY!

Soup?!? In the summer?

Oh yes, tonight's fare is all about soup!  Cold soup.  Definitely not hot!  Vichyssoise is one of my favorite soups!  And the only one I can think of that is served cold.  Recipes abound on various websites, just pick what sounds good based on the ingredient list!  My soup has a bacon base, of course! Click here for the recipe.  This can be made to be a vegetarian dish, just omit the bacon and substitute another 2 Tablespoons of butter instead, and use vegetable broth.

Bacon is first, chop into pieces, inch to two inch, as you will be crumbling this later.  Drop it into a stock pot with the butter and brown that bacon!  Once it is crispy remove it with a slotted spoon.

Toss the Leeks and Onion in the bacon butter and saute until golden!  It will be a bit brown because of the bacon drippings.  Just make sure the onion and leeks are cooked all the way through.  You can add the garlic near the end so you don't burn it.

Add the potatoes (I used yellow and red potatoes, peeled) and stock. Don't forget the pepper and Spice Agent Smoked Salt!  Bring to a boil, and cook for 20 minutes.

I have a handy Hamilton Beach stick blender so this is what I use to to blend everything together until creamy!  It's a lot easier than doing it in batches in a regular blender.

Once it is a perfect consistency, taste to confirm the spices then put in the fridge to cool if serving cold.  Before serving add the milk and stir.  This can be made ahead and frozen in serving portions, just don't add the milk until you are ready to eat it!

Garnish with the crumbled bacon, some shredded cheese and some chopped green onion!

Happy Eating!