The daffodils have buds, and the crocus are opening. Spring is official.
What you don’t see is a picture of me smiling, but rest assured…I am!
Visit other gardens and their gardeners at Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.
~~Rhonda 🙂
DD loves tomato soup, so I tried this recipe for her. Served it with grilled cheese sandwiches made with homemade bread.
I basically followed the recipe, but added some basil and celery seed and changed the amounts a bit. Here’s my version.
Tomato, Bacon, and Bean Soup
1/4 pound bacon, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T. dry onion (or 1 onion, diced)
2 c. potatoes, peeled and diced
2 28-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
2 15-oz. cans white beans, undrained
32 oz. chicken broth
1 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. dry basil
1 tsp. celery seed
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
I like to dice the bacon before cooking so I don’t have to crumble it later. I eye-balled the pound of bacon, cut off 1/4 of it, and diced that.
I like a one pan method, so I started with the stock pot.
Brown the diced bacon (and the onion, if using fresh) in the stock pot until the bacon is crisp. Drain off the grease. I remove the pot from the heat, tip it to pool the grease, scrape the bacon to one side, and use a wad of three or four paper towels to soak up the grease. If I had four arms, I’d have taken a picture for you, but I was cooking alone. So no picture of grease sopping.
Add the minced garlic and stir well. Don’t cook the garlic too long or it will leave a bitter flavor.
While the bacon cooked, I peeled and diced the potatoes.
Add the remaining ingredients, except the salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
Salt and pepper to taste. I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Next time, I think I’ll add a little less.
The original recipe called for blending a portion of the soup and returning that to the pot. I skipped that step. I like chunky soup. And it’s just one more thing to wash…
Delicious with crunchy toasted homemade bread. DD practically inhaled her bowl of soup. 🙂
~~Rhonda
This weekend we did some eagle watching on the Mississippi River. We saw quite a few eagles, but the gulls were closer.
Here’s the menu for the week.
Monday
Tomato Soup with White Beans and Bacon
Toasted Cheese Sandwiches
Tuesday
Tacos
Wednesday
Hamburgers on homemade buns
Roasted Green Cabbage Wedges
Corn
Red Grapes
Thursday
Rosemary Ranch Chicken
Quick and Easy Home Fries
Friday
Scalloped Pork Chop / Potato Casserole
Corn
Sugar Snap Peas
Green Salad
Saturday
Fridge Food
Sunday / Church Dinner
Potato Sausage Casserole in the Crock Pot
Steamed Green Beans
Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake
You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda
I read a quite a few recipes for cheeseburger soup, looking for one that sounded right to me. I chose one for the crock pot. I followed the recipe somewhat, but in the end, I did my own thing. Is that a surprise?? I made the soup on the stove top in an 8 quart stock pot and didn’t measure everything, so the following is an educated guess.
Cheeseburger Soup
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced (use more if you like) [I used Yukon Gold.]
3/4 c. carrots, sliced
3/4 c. celery, diced
2 T. dry onion flakes (or 3/4 c. chopped onion)
1 tsp. dry basil
1 tsp. dry parsley
2 pounds ground round, browned [I don’t like fattier beef, but use what you prefer.]
32 oz. chicken broth
2 c. cubed American cheese
1-2 c. milk or a combo of milk, half ‘n half, and/or cream
1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 T. flour + water [I put the flour in a mug, added water, and stirred with a fork till well blended / no lumps.]
8 oz. sour cream (light sour cream is fine)
To begin, heat about 2″ of water in the stock pot. While the water is heating, prepare the veggies.
Add the potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, basil and parsley to the water and bring back to a boil. Check pot to be sure there is enough water to just cover the veggies. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, till veggies are soft. Do not drain the veggies.
While the veggies cook, brown the ground beef. If needed, drain well to remove grease.
Add the remaining ingredients to the simmering veggies, except the sour cream. Stir well, bring back to a simmer and cook until cheese is melted.
Stir the flour and water together until well blended. Add to the soup, stirring well and cook for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until soup has thickened.
Remove from heat, add sour cream, stir well and serve.
If you want to, you can first saute the veggies in a skillet, using a tablespoon of butter or oil, then add them to the stock pot after the potatoes are cooked through. I didn’t bother with that step. Takes more time, which I didn’t want to invest.
Soup recipes like this one can be totally revised to your liking. More meat, less meat. More veggies, fewer veggies. Other spices/herbs. More salt. Whatever. Another delicious additive would be 8 oz. of French onion dip instead of the sour cream. Prairie Farms is my preferred brand. You can also add chopped lettuce and tomatoes to the soup, if you like. Depends on what you like on your cheeseburger. 🙂
My recipe made a lot, which is good for us, because it makes plenty of leftovers for a quick supper or a nice lunch. The soup was delicious. DD loved it and we’ll be making it again soon.
~~Rhonda
Saturday, we had snow in shady places around the yard. Sunday, the snow was gone. That’s what two days of over 50 weather will do for you. Love it!
I made the menu last week, but changed a few things before posting to make it work for what the week actually holds.
Monday
Cheeseburger Soup I’ll use this recipe, but leave out the pepper for my family’s taste.
Tuesday
Eat Out
Wednesday
Chicken Piccata
Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Green Beans
Corn
Thursday
Hearty Lentil Soup
Homemade Bread
Friday
Shrimp With Capers and Dill
Rice
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Corn
Saturday
Fridge Food
Sunday
Pork Tenderloin in the Slow Cooker
Mashed Potatoes
Corn / Peas
Green Salad
You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda
I’m waiting for spring. How about you? It’s coming, but not soon enough for me. The maple trees have been budding for several weeks. Today we had a high of 55* or so. I left the house for the first time in two weeks and took a few pictures around the yard.
It looks rather barren until you look more closely.
There are daffodils coming up all over the yard.
Even in the few patches of snow that are left in the shadier areas, there are green shoots poking through the ground.
The wild garlic is greening up.
Soon, no more snow. And then I’ll be happy.
~~Rhonda
One of my favorite Christmas gifts was the book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The first recipe I tried was Anadama Bread. Made with cornmeal, it makes wonderful toast.
The bread requires an overnight soaking of the cornmeal which I’ve never done for a bread recipe before. It also asks for 4 oz. light molasses. All I had on hand was dark molasses, so I used 2 oz. molasses and 2 oz. light corn syrup. There was no molasses taste in the bread, at all.
You can find the recipe at Apple Pie, Patis, & Pate .
Great texture to this bread and it does make wonderful toast.
~~Rhonda
PS, have I ever told you homemade bread is better than store bought? 🙂
The theme for the flickr group Macro Mondays for Monday, February 15, was “heart’s desire.” I used a Valentine card and a chocolate covered strawberry for two photo submissions.
Sugar outlines a heart on top a Valentine card.
The chocolate covered strawberries were delicious. I took about 30 pictures to get one I liked well enough to submit. No, I did not eat 30 chocolate covered strawberries…
Normally, I would submit up to five photos to Macro Mondays, but I was coming off a weekend of a stomach virus, and didn’t feel like taking more photos. Next week’s theme hasn’t been posted yet, but I’m looking forward to finding what it will be!
~~Rhonda
Chicken soup is one of those recipes you can fudge to your heart’s content. Use what you have, substitute, leave this out, add that.
Yesterday I wanted to make chicken and dumpling soup. Instead of following the recipe I found online, I put together my own combo. Near as I can remember, the following is what I used.
Chicken Soup
Dumplings
If you don’t want to make dumplings, you can add noodles, fresh tortellini, or cooked rice to the soup.
Place the chicken in a large stock pot and add enough water to cover the meat. Add the onion, bay leaves, basil, thyme, and garlic. Bring to a boil, cover and turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the meat and let it stand in a bowl. While it cools, add the carrots, celery and salt to the liquid in the pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Don’t add the chicken back until the dumplings have been cooked.
Mix the dumpling dough. Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl. Mix well. Add the milk and stir until well combined. If too wet, add a dusting of flour and stir it in. Add the dumplings, one at a time, to the boiling liquid. I drop them by teaspoonfuls. They will expand a bit as they cook. I add a cup of water at a time to the pot until the dumplings have room to cook. The dumplings can be rolled thin and cut with a pizza cutter. Toss them in a bit of flour before adding them to the water so they don’t stick together.
Simmer the dumplings for ten minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionaly, then cover and simmer for 10 additional minutes.
While the dumplings are cooking, dice the chicken. Add to the soup pot when the dumplings are cooked. Stir and heat through. Remove bay leaves, add parsley and freshly ground pepper to taste.
2025 / Fifteen years later, and we are still making this soup on a regular basis. I edited the recipe a bit to reflect the few changes I have made. Sometimes we make it with fresh cheese tortellini instead of dumplings. Enjoy!
~~Rhonda 🙂
This morning we were greeted by gray clouds and more snow. Somewhere out there, the crocus are waiting to bloom.
I hope you enjoyed your Valentine celebrations. I was sick over the weekend with a yucky stomach bug, but I finally enjoyed a few Valentine treats late in the afternoon on Sunday…and had a few today.
Because I’m still feeling a bit queasy (and now DD seems to be coming down with the bug), I’m planning a nourishing, easy to stomach soup for supper. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes…
Monday
Chicken and Dumpling Soup
Tuesday
Baked Salmon
Boiled red potatoes
corn
green salad
Wednesday
Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops
Polenta
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Spinach Salad with Pears and Walnuts
Thursday
Zucchini and Bow Ties
Homemade Bread
Friday
Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp
Stir Fry Pine Nuts with Peas and Corn
Romaine Salad
Saturday
Fridge Food
Sunday
Seafood Casserole Check back…I’m sure I’ll be revising this recipe…
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Homemade Bread
Michigan Salad
You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda