I had purchased over two pounds of asparagus to eat on Father’s day and the week after. Going on two weeks later, I had barely touched the stuff and knew I needed to find something to use up the remaining asparagus. Many, many years ago I made an amazing cream of asparagus soup. What really…
Category: soups, stews and chilis
Spicy Sweet Potato Chicken Black Bean Chowder
I had an awful day yesterday. I have two dogs one of which isn’t in the best of health and the other of which usually is. My healthy one wasn’t eating. He hadn’t eaten much in about 60 hours by the time I got to my vet appointment. Prior to heading over to my vet…
Turkey {neck & giblets} Stock
Whenever I make a turkey I do one of two things: throw away the turkey neck and giblets or freeze them. So I can throw them out later. I don’t really ever use the neck or giblets. I know you can make giblet gravy but I have to say I’m a bit afraid to try…
{crockpot} Chicken Bacon Gnocchi Soup
I flew home over Christmas break for the first time in about four or five years. I had great plans for my trip home. Lots of people to see. Lots of things to do. And most importantly, lots of food to eat. When I arrived at LAX for my flight to Chicago, I went to…
Smoked Salmon Chowder {Seattle style}
One of the things I loved about living in Portland, Ore., was how close it was to Seattle. I love, love, love Seattle. I love Pike Place Market. I could walk around it for hours and I have before. One of the things I’ve never tried while in Seattle was Smoked Salmon Chowder. Clam Chowder,…
Taco Soup
One of the reasons I really like this soup is because it reminds me of one of the soups the day kitchen manager, Christine, used to make when I worked at the Wauwatosa Chancery.
Turmeric Red Lentil Soup
It’s no secret to anyone that I’ve talked to recently (my coworkers, my friends, my soon-to-be-bride friend) that I’m on a last-ditch effort to detox (and shed pounds) before the wedding. So I found what seemed to be a relatively easy two-week program from everyone’s favorite quack doctor whom I happen to love (Dr. Oz)…
Pulled Pork Chili
I had a hankering for chili all week long. Mainly I’ve been dreaming about beans, as strange as that may sound. I’ve been obsessed with finding ways to implement beans in my diet so as not to get sick of them. (I’ve been eating may through bean and cheese burritos and bean and wild rice…
Tuscan White Bean and Kale Soup
If it seems like I haven’t been posting in a while, it’s because I haven’t been. Instead I’ve been out living my life, which must make me sound like a loser who never left her house until February 2014. I swear that’s not true! But I have been eating out more recently and trying to…
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
A few weeks ago I was on this broccoli-roasting kick wherein I was roasting broccoli every night for dinner. This was in effort to sneak more vegetables into my life. More recently I’ve been on a smoothie-for-dinner kick. I like the smoothie a lot better than making roasted broccoli for dinner for two reasons: 1)…
Vegetable Stock
I figured since I’ve declared myself a vegetarian for one week a month that I need to find myself a good recipe for vegetable stock. Most could-be vegetarian soups call for chicken or vegetable stock. I always use chicken stock because a) I’m not vegetarian and b) I only ever have chicken stock on hand….
Spicy Chipotle Pumpkin Soup {vegetarian, with vegan option}
It’s fall and I’m obsessed with pumpkin. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin drinks. Pumpkin seeds. And, the latest, pumpkin soup. I found a delicious-looking recipe while searching for a good technique to roast pumpkins on the website, Simply Recipes (where you can find tons of pumpkin recipes). Both the technique and the soup are spot on. Here’s my…
Condensed Cream Soup Substitute
Recently I was making Browned Butter Hamburger Stroganoff and needed condensed soup for the recipe. Instead of adding condensed soup, I wanted to make a homemade substitution. I found an awesome creamed soup substitute recipe at centercutcook.com. My recipe is slightly fattier and uses brown butter. A condensed soup substitute is perfect for people who don’t like…
Crock Pot Chicken Stock
It seems like I have a lot of recipes that call for chicken stock. And I never have any on hand. So I end up using chicken broth, which works fine, but I always think a recipe is probably just that much better when using stock. This recipe allows you to have homemade chicken stock…
Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
Today is the last real day of summer and autumn weather is taking over here in Portland. Clouds kept the sun away most the day and finally in the afternoon the sky opened up and dumped rain. This probably annoys most people, but I was glad for it. I’ve been dying for an autumn-like day…
Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew)
It seems like a long time ago that I last cooked and blogged. Reality? I cooked and blogged last weekend. I had a long, stressful, emotional week punctuated with a mid-week jaunt to the vet emergency room after my little elderly dachshund suffered from such a severely bloated belly he couldn’t fit through his little doggy…
Polish Borscht
Last week I brought my leftover Roasted Beet Risotto with Feta Cheese, Thyme and Poppy Seeds to work for lunch and got two very different reactions from two coworkers. When I showed Coleen my lunch, she wanted to dig in, too. We sat facing each other eating the risotto commenting on how amazing it was…
Easy Potato Soup
It’s winter. It’s cold (relatively speaking – cold and damp in the Pacific Northwest). It’s time for soup! My grandma sent me a potato soup recipe a few weeks ago. This below recipe is based on the one she sent me. The main difference is I used way more potatoes, way more garlic and way…
Chicken Enchilada Soup with Quesadilla Croutons
One of the best things about winter is getting to make (and eat) soup. I can’t pass up any sort of mexican soup – especially if it’s got cream or cheese in it. My grandma sent me this recipe, and I’ve been waiting to try it for a few weeks now. (Sadly I’ve been ‘saving’…
