Soup is Good Food

[lgb&dtuba]

It's snowing here today so I opted to work from home.

Seemed like a good day to put on a pot of soup. Soup is an adventure in recycling here.

In a stock pot, put in about 4 qts of water and some kosher salt. Whatever seems like the right amount. It cooking, not a science experiment. We'll correct for taste later. Bring it to a boil.

Stare into the freezer for a while for inspiration. Those 2 chicken breasts looked like soup today. Throw them into the pot. Don't bother thawing them out. The boiling water will do that for you.

Stare into the fridge for futher inspiration. Chopped up some celery, the leftover half of a red pepper, an onion, some carrots. Toss into pot. Leftover blackeye peas and cabbage, into the pot.

Back to the freezer. Hmmm, wife bought a bag of mixed soup veggies. Okra, carrots, corn, half a dozen other veggies. OK, into the pot.

Look in the pantry. Grab box of instant mashed potatoes. These we'll add straight from the box about 10 minutes before serving to thicken the broth some. (Didn't have any fresh potatoes on hand.)

Add some Italian seasoning, black pepper, a little seasoned instant chicken boullion. Whatever inspires you today.

Chicken breats have cooked, so pull them out, cut them up, toss back into the pot.

Keep at a rolling boil.

The smell is spreading through the house now and it's getting tough to wait for lunch time to roll around.

Time to add the instant mashed potatoes. Do this a little at a time unless you want a pasty lump with raw flakes inside to form. Sprinkle a thin layer, stir, repeat until you have the consistency you want. Do this enough and you'll have more of a stew than a soup.

Now that the potatoes are in, taste and correct the seasonings. Unless you dropped the kosher salt box into the pot earlier you'll probably need a little more salt.

Turn the heat down to a simmer and you're ready to eat any time in the next few hours. It will be even better reheated tomorrow.

Time for lunch. Keep on snowing. See if I care.

[Chuck(G)]

Who would ever believe that the national dishes of Vietnam are chicken noodle soup and a submarine sandwich?

I've heard that the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig is now considered to be "exotic" there, being replaced by more conventional breeds.

[LoyalTubist]

Potbellied pigs are still very popular. Those who own them say they are cleaner than others and much easier to care for than a dog. Many sleep in bed at night with their owners. When they feel nature calling in the middle of the night, they pass a little gas audibly, stand up on all fours, and wait for their masters to get up to take them outside. If the master sleeps through this, there will be a big mess of Number 2. Most pig owners only make this mistake once and it never happens again.

[Chuck(G)]

Potbellied pigs are still very popular.

I meant to be raised as food.

The thing that few know about Vietnam is that its GDP growth rate is second only to China. Good times for Karl:

[Dylan King]

Good times for Karl:

"It is not by chance that the greatest famines have occurred within the Soviet Union (about 5,000,000 dead during 1921-23 and 7,000,000 from 1932-3) and communist China (about 27,000,000 dead from 1959-61). In total almost 55,000,000 people died in various communist famines and associated diseases, a little over 10,000,000 of them from democidal famine. This is as though the total population of Turkey, Iran, or Thailand had been completely wiped out. And that something like 35,000,000 people fled communist countries as refugees, as though the countries of Argentina or Columbia had been totally emptied of all their people, was an unparalleled vote against the utopian pretensions of Marxism-Leninism." R.J. Rummel (http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM)

[Chuck(G)]

"I am not a Marxist."
- Karl Marx

"Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity."
- Karl Marx

"Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough. "
- Karl Marx

[LoyalTubist]

I am a Marxist...
...the LoyalTubist


From left to right: Zeppo, Groucho, Chico, Gummo, Harpo.

[Dylan King]

Even as a young child I was a "Marxist".

Then...



Of course, things haven't changed much.

Now...

[LoyalTubist]

I have to be careful about being political around here, so I will do my best to turn political threads around.

[ken k]

well I thought I would get this thread back on track and say, I was inspired by the soup nazi....

Last Sunday i made up a pot of Jambalya (I know it is not realy soup but it is sort of soup-like and a pot of Lentil soup made with ham hocks, mmmm..... goooood...... the house smelled so wonderful good (as they say here in PA Dutch country) I put a casserole full of the jambo in the freezer for the future and enjoyed the Lentil soup the rest of the week.

Next I need to get a new bread machine. This time I just bought a loaf of good hearty rye bread but it is not the same as fresh bread. Our bread machine died about a year ago and we never replaced it. It is now on my wish list....

ken k

[Chuck(G)]

Here's a great recipe, illustrated and all for good bread:

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Ch ... stica.html

[LoyalTubist]

Bread here in Vietnam is tasty and cheap. It's done in the French tradition. Most Vietnamese houses (including mine) don't have an oven to bake it.

[tubatooter1940]

"Round here, whatever washes up on the beach plus whatever we have in the pantry = Gumbo!

[Dan Schultz]

Even though we made a pot of chili yesterday, enjoyed it for two meals yesterday, and still have some 'left-overs' in the fridge.... we got the hongries for soup and salad Sunday afternoon after a quintet recital and made a stop at Olive Garden for their 'soup & salad special' and a glass of wine. We sampled the usual minestrone but also had the gnocci and tuscano varieties. YUM! Soup is goooood.... especially when the temps are below freezing.

[bearphonium]

Love that mid-winter bump!

With scheduling issues abounding at Christmas, I got to partake of two Christmas Dinners (a week or so apart) and scored both ham bones. As a result, we had an excellent pot of split pea soup, and then a big ol' bean soup (made with navy beans and black beans that ended up turning purple). The last container of (frozen) bean soup will travel with me this week when I go stand by for my sister while she has surgery, and reside in her freezer until she is ready for it. Fair trade for her "root vegi stew" she made at solstice (yes, she's an earth muffin) and sent a big container home with me.

Ally"who thinks soup and cornbread make a great meal"House

[OldsRecording]

Lentil soup made with home-made chicken stock. Mmmmm.

[TMurphy]

I enjoy a good soup, but right now, I don't have the makings for a good soup in the house. Nor do I feel like taking a trip to the store, so I think tonight is going to be a tomato sauce night. Last week I whipped up a Chicken Carbonara, and that was very delicious. Tonight, though, is a more traditional sauce. Or maybe a vodka sauce. I haven't decided yet.

I decided....Vodka sauce. And with the leftovers, I can make a very tasty pizza. Mmmm.

[ken k]

hey ele,
another way to thicken some soups is take it and puree it. You could try pureeing (is that a word?) only half of it if you want to leave some of the chunky stuff in it. My wife does this with her tomato veggie soup and it is delicious that way.

k