Leek and Thyme Soup

Happy Nom Nom Monday!  Today I'm cooking up a batch of Leek and Thyme Soup.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup of butter

- 2 pounds of leeks

- 1 sprig of fresh thyme

- 1 pound of potatoes

- water

- 1 1/4 cups milk

- salt and pepper

Directions:

Clean the leeks.  It's important to properly clean the leeks or your soup will be gritty.  Chop the leeks into 1/4 inch thick disks.  Clean the potatoes, and remove their skin.  Cut into one inch chucks.  

Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat.  Add the leeks and thyme.  Cook until tender.

Add the potatoes to the pan, and cover with water.  Cover the pan, and let cook for 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally. 

Add the milk, and season with salt and pepper.  Stir, cover, and let simmer for another 30 minutes.  

Remove the thyme stem, and serve.  The recipe I was following suggested adding a tablespoon of heavy cream, and a small sprig of thyme to garnish.  I didn't have any heavy cream, so I skipped the garnish.  

This soup tasted great.  Next time I need to take better care to wash the leeks properly though.  It was a bit gritty, which made it hard to enjoy. Though I could tell the flavor would be worth making this again, and making sure to properly prepare the leeks.  

Happy Nom Nom Monday, chris!

Fun Friday Fascinations #33

#1.  I love homemade soup.  Soup from a can just doesn't compare, and tomato soup is one of my fave go-to-soups.  This Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup from Delightfully Tacky looks amazing.  

#2.  You can never have too many dish towels, and this set form Target is totally my style.  

#3.  I've been thinking about homemade advent calendars a lot, and I'm torn between this one from A Beautiful Mess ...

#4.  and this one from the Norwegian blog Englemor.  Though I'm cheap and might not make either, so I don't have to buy 25 little gifts.  Even if I only bought stuff from the dollar store, that's twenty-five bucks that could have been spent on more necessary items.  

#5.  This ornament is beautiful from A Subtle Revelry, and I think I have all the needed materials already.

Happy Fun Friday Fascinations, chris!

Chicken Soup

Happy Nom Nom Monday. Since Hurricane Sandy is in full swing for us I made us some Chicken Soup.  It's an adaptation of Aaron's mom's Turkey Soup.  It's the same recipe but with a chicken instead of a turkey.  

Ingredients:

- 1 large onion

- 1 whole cooked chicken (bones & all)

- water

- 4 cups potatoes

- 1 cup celery

- 1 cup carrots

- 1 cup mushrooms

- salt and pepper

Directions:

Begin by dicing up the onion and placing that in a large pot with the whole chicken.  Cover with water and let boil.  Cook for 30 - 40 minutes if fresh, or an hour if frozen.  Next remove the chicken from the stock.  

Drain the stock, and check the onion and remaining chunks for bones.  Return the onion to the large sauce pan.  Hold the stock off to the side for a bit.  

Let the chicken cool a bit, and then clean all the meat off of the bones.  Return the meat to the large pan, and discard the bones and skin.  Add the stock to the pot, and bring back to a simmer.  

Cut the potatoes, carrots, celery, and mushrooms up.  I actually did this ahead of time, which worked out great.  Whatever works for you though.  Add the potatoes to the simmering chicken stock, they will take about 50 minutes to cook.  Twenty minutes later add the carrots and celery.  They take about thirty minutes to cook.  When there is only 10 - 5 minutes remaining add the mushrooms.  

Everything should be perfectly cooked and ready to serve 50 minutes from adding the potatoes to the simmering chicken stock.  Once served I seasoned with salt and pepper.  This is the perfect meal for being trapped indoors from a hurricane. 

Hope everyone in the surrounding areas are staying dry and safe!  Happy Nom Nom Monday, and DIYing, chris! 

Soup To Soothe The Soul

We are keeping on with things.  It's hard in the morning not having the usual Moose things to do, and I miss him sitting on the couch.  He'd sit next to me, and every so often he'd push his little body up against my leg, and it was dang cute.  

Anyway we still need to eat, and I always like to eat soup to soothe my broken heart.  We had a bunch of mushrooms in the fridge that needed to be used, and we happened to have almost all the ingredients for this soup.  When I want to make a soup, the first place I look is The Soup Bible.  I love this cookbook, 250 pages of awesome soup recipes.  Any soup ingredient you want to use, there is probably a soup for it in this book.  Today I'm sharing a recipe called Mushroom, Celery, and Garlic Soup.

Ingredients:

- 4 1/2 chopped mushrooms

- 4 celery stalks

- 3 garlic cloves

- 3 tablespoons of white merlot (the book calls for dry sherry or white wine)

- 3 cups chicken stock

- 2 table spoons Worcestershire sauce

- 1 teaspoon nutmeg (the book says freshly grated, I wanted a milder flavor)

Directions:

Clean and chop the mushrooms, and celery stalks, and garlic cloves.  Then place them in a large saucepan, with the white merlot, or whatever alcohol you use.  Let cook, covered for 30 - 40 minutes, or until tender, stir occasionally.  Once cooked pour into a food processor with 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock, and blend until smooth.  Pour back into the large saucepan, add the other 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock, worcestershire sauce, and nutmeg.  Bring to a boil, and add salt and fresh ground black pepper to season.  

Serve warm.  It had a tiny bit of a kick to it.  The soup was fresh and earthy tasting.  A great vegetarian option.  

Hope you enjoyed, and happy Nom Nom Monday, chris.