Vegetable Beef Soup

I was sitting at home one day last week when I received an email from my sister Jean, asking me if I would like to get together over the weekend to make vegetable soup. Since I didn’t have any plans, it was the first weekend of Fall and the weather was a little cool and dreary and felt  like soup weather, I agreed to help her make soup.

On Friday Jean called and asked if I wanted to go to Kroger with her to shop for the ingredients. I knew, since we double the recipe (I take some home, she keeps some and gives some to her son and daughter and their families and her adult grandchildren who are now out on their own), it would involve buying and carrying a lot of canned goods, I agreed to help. I drove to her house, picked her up and headed in to town for our shopping but our first stop was at a local Italian restaurant for lunch. We went on to Kroger and after spending 45 minutes to an hour we had our cart loaded with fresh vegetables, canned vegetables, beef broth, beef and cat food. There is no need for concern, the cat food wasn’t used in our soup; it was for her cat and the strays that she has adopted. We loaded the groceries in my car and were soon headed back to her house. The hardest part was yet to come, unloading my car and carrying in all those heavy bags.

Saturday was soup day. I drove to her house where she already had two 12 quart stock pots on the stove with the beef, beef broth and spices simmering. We soon got to work peeling, chopping and slicing the fresh vegetables and then adding all the ingredients to the stock pots. Soon the house started to smell wonderful and not long after that, the soup was ready.

This recipe was originated by my mother. As with most of her recipes, since she cooked according to taste,  mom didn’t have a recipe for her vegetable soup. I remember on soup day, Mom would start out with one pot of soup and by the time she got it to taste the way she wanted, she usually ended up with four large pots of soup simmering on the stove. Fortunately, she had plenty of family and friends to share with. Jean had helped Mom make the soup many times so she knew the ingredients that Mom used and tweaked it a little by adding the bouquet garnet (Mom was a plain cook and seasoned with salt, pepper and plenty of fat), which made it even better, then a few years ago Jean and I worked together to get measurements for the ingredients - we wanted to avoid what I call, Mom’s growing pot of soup.

Vegetable Beef Soup
Print Recipe

1 1/4 pounds (approx.) beef shank center cut or soup bone (cut in half)
2 lbs beef shoulder roast, (2 to 3)
2 cans beef broth, (48 oz.)
1 bay leaf
10 pepper corns
1/4 tsp marjoram
6 cups crushed tomatoes (2-1 pound cans)
1/2 cup chopped onions (2 small)
2 cups celery, sliced (about 12 small stalks)
4 cups chopped carrots (about 8 large)
1 small head cabbage cut in pieces (about 8-10 cups)
6 potatoes large dice, (6 to 8)
1 can cut green beans, (28 ounce)
1 can white cream style corn, (15 ounce)
1 can yellow cream style corn or 1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel sweet corn, (15 ounce)
1 15 ounce sweet peas
1 can baby limas, (15 ounce)
1 can kidney beans (optional), (15 ounce)
2 Tbs instant beef bouillon, (or to taste)

1. Wrap bay leaf, pepper corns and marjoram in cheese cloth. In large stock pot, boil beef, broth and spices for about 2 hours.
2. Remove beef and discard spices. Strain broth and return to stock pot. Allow beef to cool. Once cool, cut into bite size pieces, removing and discarding fat. Put beef back in pot. Add crushed tomatoes, onion, celery, carrots and cabbage to beef broth - cook until tender.
3. Add potatoes, and remaining ingredients and cook until potatoes are done.
4. Once all ingredients are combined and the soup has cooked a little, taste the soup and add, salt, bullion or more beef broth if desired.

I arrived at my sister's house after she had already started on the soup. This contains the beef broth, beef and bay leaf, pepper corn and marjoram. This is one of the two 12 quart stock pots that we were making.

After about two hours, the beef was removed, allowed to cool and then cut into bite sized pieces or shredded.

Onions, carrots and celery.

We added  the carrots, onion and celery to the pot and let that simmer while we prepared the cabbage.

I have to tell you that I'm not a cabbage fan. I do like cole slaw but that's the only way I'll eat it, except in this soup....it really adds a lot of flavor. So please try it at least the first time you make this, by the time the soup is finished the cabbage is soft and almost translucent.

Add the cabbage to the rest of the vegetables in the pot and stir.

Jean happened to look out the window and saw a couple of wild turkeys. I have never seen wild turkeys before so grabbed my camera and went outside to take their pictures. They didn't like getting their pictures taken so started to move. Unlike the deer around here, they don't stick around when humans are around, but I did manage to get a decent picture of them before they ran into the woods.

Now back to making some soup. They should be glad that we wanted vegetable beef soup and not turkey noodle.

Now the really hard part.....the opening of the cans.

The the potatoes chopped into bite sized pieces and

add to the pot along with the can of green beans and crushed tomatoes.

Add the remaining cans of vegetables.

Now we’re beginning to worry, we were running out of room in the stock pot and we still have to add the beef. As you can see the soup is all the way to the rim and the other stock pot was in the same condition. Jean pulled out a 10 quart Dutch oven and began to add soup from both stock pots to it. We were surprised that this had happened since we’ve made this before using the same two stock pots. Later Jean said that, since we couldn't find the right size cans of soup that we needed, she did add a little extra broth.

So we had the same problem my mother always ran into....the growing pot of soup. Although, as long as you have enough large stock pots or Dutch ovens, too much soup is never a problem.

Now we have enough room to add the beef. Allow soup to simmer until the beef is heated through then taste and add more salt and/or bouillon if needed. We added a little more beef broth because the soup was even thicker than we like (and we like it thick) and we also added more bouillon and salt. Then we let it simmer a little longer.

While waiting for the soup to finish cooking we saw more wild turkeys wandering around the edge of the woods. There were about seven this time but by the time I was able to take their picture, two had managed to get away from the group. It's a good thing the only thing I shoot with is a camera. Wonder what wild turkey tastes like?

The soup is finished and we are tired and hungry so my sister, brother-in-law and I sit down to a meal of delicious homemade soup....yum!!!

Now all we have to do is find enough containers to for all that soup.

Potato Soup with Rivels

Potato soup is one of my favorite soups and I’ve had and enjoyed many kinds….baked potato, cheesy, cream of potato soup, etc., but my mom’s is still my favorite and up until the last six months or more, I had never made it. As with most of the dishes my mother made, she didn’t have a recipe for this so I needed to try to find something similar and go from there. My mom was a plain and simple cook, she didn’t use spices or any unusual ingredients so I knew that her soup wouldn’t be difficult to make but I just had to figure out the procedure….I already had some idea of what most of the ingredients were. I knew that she used potatoes, of course, onion, canned evaporated milk and seasoned it with salt. She also made something like a noodle or dumpling that she added to her soup that she made using eggs and flour. Other than that, I was clueless.

My search began with my sister Jean, she has made this potato soup before and I also had a recipe from someone I used to work with, that was similar, so I took some of what my sister told me and some of my coworkers recipe and combined them. Between these two recipes I had the ingredients and the procedures for the soup but couldn’t get the hang of making the rivels (Mom didn’t call them rivels and I can’t remember what she did call them, but that's the name that was used in most of the recipes I found) so I pressed on. I eventually found the instructions in and Amish recipe that I located in a regional cookbook that covered the northeastern part of the US, and also from a blog I follow and her recipe was from her German heritage…at last success!

Potato Soup with Rivels
Print Recipe
1 large onion, diced
8  medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
water, enough to cover the potatoes and onions
salt  to taste
2-3 cans evaporated milk, (12 ounces each)
1 stick butter

Rivels (Dumplings/Noodles)
4 egg yolks
1/2-3/4 cup flour

1. Dice onions and place in a large pot.
2. Peel and cut potatoes into bite sized cubes and put in pot with the onions.
3. Put enough water in the pan to just cover the potatoes and onions, add salt. Cook until the potatoes are tender.
4. DO NOT DRAIN WATER
5. Add evaporated milk. and butter. Cook and stir until thoroughly heated.
6. To make Rivels - Add flour to eggs and toss and stir until almost dry. Mixture looks like small dumplings/noodles. Gradually drop mixture into the soup. Cook for about five minutes, until the Rivels are done, stirring frequently.
7. Add more salt if desired.

Tips:
If you like thicker soup, add leftover mashed potatoes or instant mashed potatoes until soup reaches the desired consistency.
When adding instant potatoes, under cook potatoes a little then add the instant potatoes after the milk and butter and before adding the rivels. Cook until the soup thickens.
Can add chunks of ham.
This makes a lot of soup so unless you like leftovers or are feeding several people, you may want to cut this recipe in half.

Put chopped onion in a large saucepan or dutch oven.

Add potatoes

Cover potatoes with water.

Add salt. I know this looks like a lot but it really isn't, I still needed to add more later.

Cook potatoes until tender, do not drain, leave the water in the pan and add 2 to 3 cans of evaporated milk. If adding instant potatoes as a thickener, under cook the potatoes a little because the soup will need to cook a little longer.

Add 1 stick of butter cook until thoroughly heated.

I don't normally use instant potatoes since I prefer making my mashed potatoes from the real thing. A friend told me that she really likes this brand because they taste just like fresh, she even served them for Thanksgiving and couldn't tell the difference. So I decided to use them in the soup and they worked great. Guess I'll continue to keep a box on hand just for this purpose.

My mother never added any type of thickener to her soup, but Michael likes his thicker so I decided to try adding some instant mashed potatoes. I had read that you can use mashed potatoes or instant mashed potatoes to thicken soups. I used about a half cup of instant potatoes and cooked until the soup was nice and creamy looking. If you like an even thicker soup, just add more until you reach the desired consistency.

While the soup is cooking make the rivels. "What are rivels you ask?", they remind me a little of a noodle or chewy dumpling...not chewy in a bad way. My mother always added them to her potato soup and I do too, I like the different texture it adds to the soup. If you don't want to add them, they can be omitted but I would suggest you try them at least once. You'll need four egg yolks for this, be sure to separate the eggs while the eggs are still cold. If you don't want to use the egg whites right away, freeze them for later use....once I had enough, I made an angel food cake.

Add flour to eggs and toss until almost dry. I added 1/4 cup of flour here.

At this point I have added another 1/4 cup of flour making it a total of 1/2 cup. The yolks are still very wet and the mixture is still too sticky.

I added another 1/4 cup of flour for a total of 3/4 cup and it was just right. I was using the yolks from large eggs so if you use smaller or larger eggs, the amount of flour you need to use may be different. The mixture should still be a little damp but not sticky. At this point you'll have to use your "clean" hands to finish making the rivels.

Gradually stir in rivel mixture, add everything even any flour that may not have mixed into the rivels. Simmer for at least another 5 minutes. Add salt to taste...I even like to add a little pepper.

And here it is, potato soup like my mom used to make.....only a little creamier with the addition of the instant mashed potatoes. I like to just sit down with a bowl of this warm tasty soup and enjoy it on it's own or sometimes make a grilled cheese sandwich, but my favorite way to eat it is the way we ate it at my mom's kitchen table, with bread and butter. Mmmmmm it's so good and comforting!

I love this potato soup made just like this but one day I decided to try adding chicken broth to the soup instead of the water. I had just made a large pot of stock so added that to the potatoes in place of the water and then made the soup according to the rest of the directions. At first Michael and I didn’t care for it because it changed the flavor a little…well, it didn’t taste like Mom’s soup. Naturally, with the chicken stock it had a much richer flavor. The next day I reheated it and we loved it….strange but true. Now we don’t know which we like the best so I’m thinking it’s time for a potato soup cook off, I’m going to have to make both soups at the same time and have a taste test. We’ll have to invite family and friends over because, as much as we like potato soup, even we can’t eat that much.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Several months ago I saw a post on FaceBook about a giveaway on the blog A Well Seasoned Life, for the chance to win one of two Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. In spite of being the kind of person who never wins anything, I decided to take a chance and entered hoping to win either of the cookbooks. I didn’t need either one but I’m of the belief that one can never have too many cookbooks, although if you saw my house, you might say that isn’t true……I do have a lot of cookbooks. I love books, I love to read, and I love to read cookbooks, I read cookbooks the same way I would sit and read a novel. Anyway, much to my surprise, a few weeks after I posted a comment to win one of the books, I was contacted by Kim of A Well Seasoned Life, telling me that I had won one of the cookbooks, Mom’s Very Best Recipes. Several weeks later I received my new cookbook and immediately sat down and perused the book, placing little sticky notes all through it for recipes that I would like to try.

A few days ago I took some chicken backs and other chicken parts that I had frozen after cutting up a couple of chickens, and decided to make some stock. I just have to say that there is nothing better than homemade stock, if you’ve never made it before; you should give it a try….it’s really very easy to do. I know there are some good stocks in the supermarkets and I use them frequently but once you’ve made your own, you’ll know the difference. Ok, enough said on that subject. I couldn’t decide what to do with the stock, didn’t really want to freeze it, had made chicken and noodle soup a few weeks ago and didn’t want to make that again, would love to have some chicken and dumplings but Michael doesn’t care for that, so eventually decided to make soup. While I was trying to decide what kind of soup to make, it was suggested that I make chicken tortilla soup. Well, that sounded good but I had never made it before and needed to find a recipe. Suddenly, a light bulb goes on in my head (Believe me, that doesn’t happen very often, especially now that I’m retired…not a whole lot of thinking going on up there now days.), I should go through my new cookbook to see if I can find a recipe there. So I reached for Mom’s Very Best Recipes and actually found one.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Print Recipe

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups cooked chicken, diced

2 15-oz cans diced tomatoes, drained

1 16-oz can corn, drained

1 16-oz can pinto or red beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/3 cup salsa

2 tablespoons taco seasoning mix

Garnish suggestions: sour cream, shredded Mexican-blend cheese, corn or tortilla chips 

1. Combine all ingredients except garnish, in a stockpot over medium heat. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Top individual portions with desired garnishes.

3. While soup is simmering, make some crunchy tortilla strips toppers. Brush or spray olive oil over both sides of flour tortillas. Cut tortillas into narrow strips and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes, turning once or twice, until crisp and golden.

Servings: 6-8

My Notes

I didn't have cooked chicken so took two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and poached them in the chicken broth for 30 minutes. It came to a little more than two cups but I used it all anyway.

Since all the companies are now down sizing their products (Who do they think they're, fooling?) it isn't possible to purchase the size cans listed in the ingredients. Just purchase the next size, which is generally about 1/2 ounce smaller than called for, they work just fine.

The recipe doesn't call for it, but you may want to add salt and pepper to taste.

The soup is very mild, if you want more heat, use a hotter salsa, add jalapeno peppers or whatever pepper and/or spice you desire.

If you like to crumble up crackers in your soup, try using tortilla or corn chips instead, it's very good.

 This is the cookbook that I won....lucky me!

 Two cups chicken

Two cans diced tomatoes

 On can of corn

One can pinto beans, can use red beans or even a combination of the two.

Salsa - I used a medium hot salsa because Michael doesn't like a lot of heat. I thought it could have used a hot salsa and may try that next time.

Taco mix seasoning

Add ingredients to the 4 cups of chicken broth and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

While soup is simmering prepare the tortilla strips by brushing or spraying olive oil on both sides of flour tortillas and then cutting the tortillas into thin stips.

Place on a baking sheet and

bake at 375 degrees for 5-7 minutes, turning once or twice until crisp and golden.

Garnish with tortilla strips, sour cream and cheese.

This was a good soup…a little on the mild side for my taste but as I said earlier, Michael doesn’t like a lot of heat. It can easily be made hotter by changing the salsa, adding peppers and other spice, whatever suits your tastes. I would imagine the milder soup would be more appealing to children since many of them don’t care for hot and spicy food. I like the fact that it was super easy to prepare…..a great recipe when you’re either in a hurry to get a meal on the table or just tired and don’t want to have to spend a lot of time preparing dinner.

Thanks Kim of A Well Seasoned Life and Gooseberry Patch for giving me this wonderful cookbook.  I can’t wait to try more of the recipes.

Turkey Soup

I decided that this year I was going to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for Michael and me. We spent Thanksgiving Day at my eldest sister's house and had a ton of food but I knew we wouldn't bring home many leftovers. We did bring home a good bit of dessert though. I wanted to have plenty of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and dressing...but I mostly wanted the turkey carcass.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I was out shopping and wandered into TJ Max and found the cutest pasta....it was shaped like turkeys. I purchased a package planning to make turkey soup sometime after Thanksgiving.

How cute are these?

I prepared our dinner on Friday and after Michael had cleaned the carcass of most of the meat, I proceeded to make the stock.

Turkey Stock:

Having never made stock before, I had to do some research and between doing an internet search and the help of one of my BakeSpace friends, Vicki, went to work.

1 turkey carcass
2 onions - quartered
4 celery stalks -washed and cut into large chunks
2 carrots - scrubbed well (don't peel) and cut into large chunks
water - enough to cover the carcass, but not completely
2 bay leaves (my addition to Vicki's instructions)

Put the carcass in a large dutch oven and cover with water. Bring to boil. Then, simmer for approximately 3/4 to 1 hour. Remove turkey and vegetables. Discard vegetables. Bone turkey and refrigerate. (While boning the turkey, let the broth slowly boil to concentrate the broth.) Refrigerate broth so you can skim any fat.

I changed Vicki's instructions a little...Michael didn't have a pot big enough so I managed to get the carcass into a crockpot that he had just purchased. I added everything that Vicki instructed plus put in 2 bay leaves, turned the crockpot on high and cooked for about 5-6 hours.

Once the stock was ready, I strained it using a colander placed in a pot, covering the colander with a triple layer of cheesecloth. Once the stock has been strained discard the cheesecloth and vegetables.

Place the stock in the fridge overnight - the fat will rise to the top. The next morning, using a large spoon, skim the fat from the top of the stock.

The stock was very good, but I think next time I'll add some peppercorns and garlic cloves in addition to what I used. After further research, I found out that you should leave the peel on the onion (which I didn't) and also when using garlic. Leaving the peel on makes for a stronger flavor.

Turkey Soup:

After I skimmed the fat from the stock, I placed the pot on the stove to heat up. While the stock was heating up, I prepared the ingredients for the soup.

1 large onion - chopped
2 carrots - sliced
2 celery stalks - sliced
2 garlic cloves - chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups leftover shredded turkey
1 package noodles (approx. 14 oz)
1 cup leftover peas
dried thyme - I didn't measure, just sprinkled some  into the pot.
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, I heated the oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes - add to stock, then add the sliced carrots and celery, thyme,  and bring to a simmer; cook until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Just before the vegetables are soft I add the pasta and cook about 7 minutes. Once the vegetables and pasta have cooked, gently stir in turkey and the peas. Simmer until heated through.

One thing I've learned over the years, while helping my mother and sister make vegetable soup, is that you can put just about any vegetable in. The recipe that mine is based on used corn and dumplings where I used peas and pasta.

If you don't eat all the soup and have to store in the fridge, the next time you go to eat it, your pasta may have soaked up a lot of the stock. If you have turkey stock on hand, (I had purchased two cartons for my gravy and dressing and hadn't used it all so added it to the soup) add that to the soup. Chicken stock can be used in place of the turkey.

The soup was delcious! Look at how cute it is too! Looks like the color disappeared from the little red turkeys....or the white turkeys gobbled them up....