Category Archives: Soups/Stews

Asparagus Soup with Dill Oil

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I’ve collected many cookbooks over the years, but one of my favorite’s remains Eating Royally by Darren McGrady. Mr. McGrady was a private chef to Princess Diana after starting out as a junior chef at Buckingham Palace. I love his cookbook because it is much more than just recipes, it tells stories of life at the palaces of the royal family, including both the lives of the palace cooks and the royal family themselves. I can tell you the Queen’s favorite foods, and what Prince William and Prince Harry liked to eat as children because of this cookbook. I have a love of history, but more so when it’s on a personal story level.

One of my favorite Spring vegetables is asparagus. I’ve been making this soup ever since I found it in Eating Royally, and I love it! I never really do much with asparagus besides steam it, otherwise, so this immediately caught my attention. I have made it many times since, and think it’s great for rainy Spring days.

Asparagus Soup with Dill Oil - Adapted from Eating Royally

For the soup:

2 pounds asparagus

1 stick unsalted butter

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 cups chicken broth

salt and freshly ground pepper

For the Dill Oil:

1/2 cups chopped fresh dill

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

salt and pepper

Cut the flowered tops off of the asparagus, about an inch long and set aside. Chop the remaining asparagus into 1/2-to 1 inch pieces, discarding the bottom two inches.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a 4 quart pot. Add the onions and asparagus and saute until the onion is translucent and the asparagus begins to soften. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the asparagus is soft.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Blanch the asparagus tips for 1 minute, drain and run under cold water. The tips will be bright green and still crunchy, giving a great texture to the finished soup.

Once the asparagus is fully cooked, puree the soup well using a hand blender or traditional blender. Pass the soup through a mesh strainer into a clean saucepan, pressing down with a large spoon to achieve a perfectly smooth texture. At this point you can refrigerate the soup until the next day or continue.

For the dill oil, put the dill, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth and bright green in color. Taste and adjust the seasonings if the flavor is too bland.

Reheat the soup over low heat, don’t allow it to come to a boil. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the asparagus tips, drizzling the dill oil over the top. Enjoy while pretending you are royalty!

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Homemade Ramen Noodle Soup

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This hasn’t been the best week. My mother-in-law got the flu or some kind of bronchitis, and she’s one of those types that refuses to go to the doctor so she just got worse and worse, until my husband convinced her to go to urgent care. Once there they suggested she go to the ER, where she was finally admitted for dehydration and low oxygen levels. Come to find out that not only hadn’t she been eating, the only thing she was drinking for days was diet soda! Diet soda has no nutritional value whatsoever, at the hospital they have told her WATER, juice, Gatorade, even regular soda if she must. She’s still there, but getting better.

Before she ended up in the hospital, I caught the same flu or something. I had a fever for a day, sore throat, my ears hurt, and it’s since turned into a cough. The day I had the fever I decided to make homemade ramen noodle soup. I just happened to have the ingredients on hand, and since the only chicken I had was a whole frozen chicken, regular chicken noodle soup wasn’t happening. I needed something like it, though. I wouldn’t have been able to eat anything else I had available, or feel good enough to make it

Keep in mind I was sick and didn’t exactly measure everything, but I’m sure what I remember will be good :) Also keep in mind I wanted this done as quick as possible.

Homemade Ramen Noodle Soup

1 package Chinese Noodles

12-16 cups chicken broth ( two 32 ounce cartons and a 46 ounce carton)

2 carrots, peeled and large diced

2 stalks celery, large diced

2 scallions, ends removed and sliced fine including the green and white parts

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large pot. Add the carrots, celery, scallions, and garlic. Reduce heat to medium ( it will still be boiling, just not as hard) and cook until vegetables are soft, then add in the noodles, soy sauce, and sesame oil. You can break up the noodles into bite size pieces or leave them long and eat them with a fork. Continue cooking for 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Ok, it’s not the fanciest, best soup I ever made, but when you’re not feeling good and still need to make dinner, this was pretty good! My husband liked it, and even my daughter who doesn’t eat much ever loves long noodles, so she liked it!

I linked this recipe to http://hunwhatsfordinner.blogspot.ca/2013/03/simple-supper-tuesday-9.html

Beef Noodle Soup

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I have become horribly behind on posting new recipes. These “party” links I’ve been posting are wonderful and very useful if you’re looking for recipes in a particular category, but I feel it’s time to give all of you some more of my own recipes :) How does yummy homemade Beef Noodle Soup sound?

There was a bit of debate over this soup as to whether to add potatoes or noodles or both to it. How do you like beef soup? I was originally going to do just potatoes, no noodles, but my husband wanted noodles. He said do both, but I felt that was too much starch. So I made it with just the noodles.

Beef Noodle Soup

1.5 pounds beef eye round steak, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

2 cartoons Kitchen Basics Beef Stock, 32 ounces each ( or homemade, or whatever brand you prefer)

1 cup red wine

1 cup sliced carrots

2 celery stalks, sliced ( about 2/3 cup)

1/2 red onion, diced fine

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup frozen peas

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

about 3 cups egg noodles

In a large pot, bring broth, wine, and beef cubes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, covered. Add celery, carrots, onions, oregano, garlic, and pepper and continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Add in the noodles and the peas and simmer until the noodles are cooked through.

I like comments, so let me know what you think.

Pumpkin Soup

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I don’t like Fall. There I said it. While people all over are thrilled that it’s fall, I can’t stand it. Mostly it’s because I don’t like cooler weather. I could seriously live where it’s almost 90 all year-long, except at Christmas because that’s just weird in my opinion :) I don’t care for Halloween, or falling leaves, or the idea that after Fall comes winter.

I do however love some foods that are generally associated with Fall! I love chili, ok especially my chili, chicken soup, beef stew….but I don’t like Pumpkin pie. I never have and until maybe 6 years ago that was the only way I ever had pumpkin. Well, guess what? It turns out that it’s not pumpkin I don’t like, but pumpkin pie spice and some other spices used with pumpkin.

My husband and I got married in 2004, and for our honeymoon went on a Carnival cruise to the Caribbean. Let me tell you, cruise ships serve great food! In the restaurant on the top deck of the ship is where I first had pumpkin soup. It was fabulous, a creamy and smooth delight! It was so good I bought the Carnival Cruises Cookbook, which contains their recipe for it. The biggest difference between their version and mine is I use fresh cubed pumpkin instead of pumpkin puree. They also call their’s West Indian pumpkin soup, though I’m not sure what makes it West Indian.

I have made this soup every year for Thanksgiving since, and some years Christmas too! Last year the stores stopped carrying pumpkins earlier than the past few years, and I was heartbroken. I wanted to make it for Christmas! I have since vowed to buy way more pumpkins than I need at once, then freeze the sliced cubes. I also want to experiment with other pumpkin recipes this fall and winter :)

Pumpkin Soup ( I always at least double this recipe for the holidays, this year I might triple it to have some leftover for me!!)

3 1/2 cups pumpkin, cubed into 1/2-1 inch pieces

6 cups chicken stock ( if I don’t have any home-made, I use Kitchen Basics)

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme ( or 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Combine cubed pumpkin, chicken stock, onion, garlic, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper in a large pot and bring to a boil, uncovered. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, or in batches in a food processor or blender puree the soup until smooth. At this point the soup can be cooled and refrigerated, continuing with the next step the next day.

Return the soup to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for another 30 minutes, uncovered. Stir in heavy cream and serve immediately. Enjoy, and happy Fall!!

I shared this recipe on Foodie Friend’s Friday

Chicken Wing Soup

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I THOUGHT with our daughter starting preschool I would end up having more time to post new recipes. Sure, I also want to get caught up on other things I’ve been neglecting like going through our closets, her clothes, my clothes, better organizing cabinets….I could go on forever. Then, last Thursday we kind of unexpectedly bought a puppy! We had been considering getting one for about two days, went to the ASPCA to look at some beagles that had been brought in from a puppy mill, but there weren’t any puppies available just 1-2 year olds. I would have been ok with that, but my husband wanted a puppy to grow up with our daughter. When the ASPCA didn’t work out, he found a breeder about an hour away and we went to see 6 beagle puppies. I didn’t really think we were going to come home with one THAT NIGHT, but we did!!  Introducing Bella, 10 weeks old today!

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That was last Thursday. On Monday night Amanda woke up crying her ear hurt, had a fever, and didn’t sleep most of the night. First ear infection, first antibiotic, and two weeks into the school year first three days absent from school. She also decided FINALLY to start using the potty. Now, let me give you a little piece of advice. Unless it absolutely cannot be avoided NEVER EVER potty train and housebreak at the exact same time. It will only lead to tears. Your’s!!

So, I really did mean to post this recipe a few weeks ago when I made it, and some people may call me lazy, but I’m not lazy, I’m not content unless I have a ton of things to do and somehow that sometimes leads to I have so much to do that nothing gets done. And that’s life!

Now onto this soup! Several weeks ago I made a tomato blue cheese soup from Sumptuous Spoonfuls. It was very good EXCEPT I added way more blue cheese than Ann’s recipe called for just because I like blue cheese, but it ended up being too much. My husband added some Tabasco sauce to his to try to lessen the blue cheese taste, and that lead to a discussion that resulted in the recipe below!

Chicken Wing Soup

2 cups cooked chopped or finely shredded chicken. I have to admit it, I cheated and used canned chicken, drained and broken apart. I use canned chicken in my chicken wing dip, so why not in my chicken wing soup! Also, I actually like canned chicken, but feel free to use fresh cooked :)

2 stalks celery, sliced in half length-wise then sliced

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon cornstarch

4 cups chicken broth

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

1/4 to 1/2 cup Franks RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce- this is going to depend on how hot you like your regular hot wings.

Saute celery in butter over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth ( leave out a splash to mix with the cornstarch) and bring to a boil. In a small bowl or cup stir together cornstarch and a splash of cold chicken broth. When broth comes to a boil stir in chicken, heavy cream and cornstarch mixture. Continue to boil, stirring constantly for one minute. Reduce heat and stir in hot wing sauce and blue cheese, stirring until cheese is melted. Serve immediately.

I had some left over so I can tell you this is really good the next day, too!

I would love to say it won’t be long until my next post, but I’m starting to learn not to promise anything :) Maybe that’s why I named it My Crazy Kitchen. If you would like to see more of me follow my Facebook page, I talk about everything on there!

New England Clam Chowder

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You’ll have to excuse me if this post is short and to the point. I’d like to get it up or at least written with just the final picture to add and tags to do before Masterchef comes on tonight. My husband is banishing me to the bedroom with our daughter ( since she likely won’t be asleep yet) to watch it!

Do you prefer New England or Manhattan Clam Chowder? I love New England, my husband prefers Manhattan. I’ll probably post my Manhattan recipe by the fall. Oh, yes it was cloudy and raining here today, perfect weather for this soup, even if it is June!

New England Clam Chowder

4  6.5 ounce cans chopped clams, drained ( save the broth!)

1  8 ounce bottle clam juice

4 cups unpeeled red potatoes, scrubbed well and chopped about 1/2 thick and long

2 cups onions, chopped fine

4 slices bacon

1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning

2 cups light cream

fresh ground pepper, to taste

Chop potatoes and put in a bowl of cold water to prevent browning. Oh, the potatoes aren’t peeled to retain nutrients and fiber. You can peel them if you wish.

Cook bacon in a large pot until crisp, remove with tongs to paper towels to drain. Leave the bacon fat in the pot and add drained potatoes, onions, bottled and reserved clam juice, and Old Bay. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover, simmer for 15 minutes. Crumble bacon and put aside. After 15 minutes check potatoes, they should be soft. Mash some ( not a lot!) of the potatoes in the soup with a potato masher or a fork, pressing against the side of the pot. Stir in light cream, fresh ground pepper and chopped clams, heat on low heat until heated through but not boiling.

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So yummy!! Let me know what you think!

Taco Soup ( and a few things)

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  I had every intention of my next post being a review of an eggplant parmesan recipe I used to love to make, and has quite an interesting story about it. Only this time I didn’t love making it, it was good but not as good as I remember, and I got distracted by just not having enough time to write it, babysitting, and just life. Then yesterday our cat had to be put to sleep :( . I was miserable. She was my husband’s cat long before I meet him, and his baby. She was the runt of a litter from a stray, born under his front porch, and he had to bottle fed her. She hated me when we first started dating, but before long I was her Mommy and she wanted me more than him.

  After all of this I wanted to make something I love for dinner tonight, something warm and comforting. We didn’t really eat yesterday, just some frozen chicken patty sandwiches (well, ok I microwaved them first). So, on to tonight’s dinner, taco soup!

  Until maybe a year ago I don’t think I had even heard of taco soup. Then one of my friend’s mentioned that another friend of hers made a really good taco soup. I love tacos! There are so many different ways you can make them, from regular ground beef, to chicken ( I make a really good crock pot salsa chicken for this, but the recipe is unfortunately not my idea.), to fish, veggie, breakfast….I could go on forever! But, taco soup? This is a brand new world!

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  Ok, to be honest it’s not a brand new world, I’ve made it at least 5 times since I discovered it. I haven’t searched for every recipe ever for taco soup, but I have to say the version I make is a bit different from any I’ve seen so far. Of course, I could be wrong. Want the recipe?

3 lbs lean ground beef

1/2 cup chopped red onion ( I usually use yellow but we had some red that grew in our garden over the winter after not growing last summer. I don’t know, don’t ask me!)

16 oz jar salsa ( I used Newman’s Own Medium)

2  15.5 oz cans black beans, undrained

32 oz carton beef broth

2  1.25 oz packets taco seasoning

1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro

Brown ground beef with the chopped onion over medium high heat, drain. Mix in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 45 minutes-1 hour.

Normally after browning the beef I put it in a crock pot, add the remaining ingredients, and cook on high for 4 hours. It comes out great either way!

Garnish with sour cream, cheddar, Mexican or taco shredded cheese, scallions, and diced avocado. Enjoy!

This recipe is now featured on http://www.wifeofthecolonel.blogspot.com and http://www.foodiefriendsfriday.com.