Soupy Saturday

We are all sick again. I still have this cough way down deep in my chest and while it is getting better, it just won't go away. Sadly, my son and my husband have both caught my cold over the past 48 hours. My poor baby was up coughing a lot last night and now has a runny nose again. My husband decided he was going to work some overtime this week and now he's got an eleven hour work day (on the phone), a cough, and a slowly vanishing voice. What to do?

I decided that it was time to make another big pot of chicken noodle soup. I really have no recipe, just a general knowledge of how to put it all together to make a nice big put of soup.

I started out with a whole chicken t that I bought this morning for $3.89. I put the chicken into a giant pot of water. I added a bag of baby carrots (which I cut up into smaller pieces), 4 stalks of celery, and 4 very small onions. I added a little bit of parsley, 3 whole garlic cloves (because a little bird keeps telling me how much they help when you are sick), a dash of salt and pepper, and a dash of celery salt.

I let all of that cook for about 45 minutes. Then, I added a bag of egg noodles and let that all cook for another 10 minutes.

Yesterday, I went to the Breadworks on the North Side. I picked up 6 Baby Tuscan's, because they were 3 for $1. I thought they would make great bread bowls. I cut out a hole at the top of my bread and stuck my soup inside.

This was a nice treat for me and for my throat!

Awesome Cauliflower Cheese Soup!

If you need a new soup recipe, I have one for you!

Surbrina, one of my playgroup moms, made this for her daughter's birthday. It was amazing! I had to have it! I finally decided to make it today. This comes from RecipeSource.co



Here it is....


Title: CAULIFLOWER CHEESE SOUP
Categories: Soups
Yield: 3 servings

1 md Cauliflower
2 c Chicken stock
1/4 c Butter or margarine
1/4 c Chopped onion
1/4 c All-purpose flour
1/2 ts Salt
1/8 ts Pepper
2 c Milk
1 c Grated medium Cheddar cheese
Buttered bread crumbs for
Garnish
Parsley

Cook cauliflower in chicken stock until tender. Do not
drain. Cool a bit. Run through blender to desired
texture. Set aside.

Melt butter in saucepan. Add onion and saute until
limp. Do not brown.

Mix in flour, salt and pepper. Add milk. Heat and stir
until it boils and thickens.

Add cheese and cauliflower mixture. Stir to heat and
melt cheese. Garnish with buttered bread crumbs.
Makes 5 cups.

From: “Company’s Coming Soups & Sandwiches” by Jean
Pare. Copyright 1987. Published and Distributed by
Company’s Coming, Box 8037, Sta F, Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada T6H 4N9.

Submitted by Joe Sibley.

Here are a couple things that I did.
1. I guess my choice of cauliflower was too big, because I cut it all up and there was going to be a lot not covered by chicken stock. I ended up doubling the entire recipe so that it would hopefully make up for the extra cauliflower. It worked!
2. I did not have actual chicken stock, so I made it with some water and chicken flavored cubes. It was a one cube to one cup ratio.
3. I didn't have the specific cheddar listed and ended up substituting with the cheddar-jack blend that I did have on hand.
4. I didn't mess with any bread crumb garnishes, but I did put a little crescent roll on the side to eat with this soup.


All in all...AWESOME!!!

My son seems to be a little under the weather today.

My son seems to be a little under the weather today.

Last week, he was drooling and eating his hands a lot. I assumed he was teething, but there's nothing to see yet.

Today, since he's got a runny nose and cough, we're going to stay in all day until we HAVE to leave. That means, I'm going to do some of things that I do that are not scheduled into my week, I just do them when we end up staying home for whatever reason and/or my son decides to sleep longer for his nap than usual.

First, I had defrosted a roast to make for dinner. Hubby and I are rarely home for dinner. His new shift at work has him working from 11am-9pm four days a week and I leave at about 4:30 to pick up the kids that I watch and get them to wherever they need to be on that particular day. So, dinner, especially hot and homemade, is never really a priority....except for when we need some leftover for lunches and take to with us to our jobs.

So, I have my roast going. I have learned to LOVE my crock pot! I just recently started making turkeys and chickens in there! It's great and uses a lot less gas (we have a gas oven). I also make a lot of roasts....I love the taste of potatoes that have been in the crock pot and are now all moist and soft! Yum!

The reason that I actually stopped, not because my darling son decided to nap, but because I want to try a new breadmaker recipe. I almost always make a wheat bread that takes over 2 hours. I want to try the rapid version of the wheat bread and I gotta look it up.

I also plan to get done with about 3 loads of laundry. I thought I was getting close to the end, but didn't realize just how much the bin upstairs had until I this weekend. It really bums me out when I feel like I've finally come to the end of it, that I might be able to rest and not do laundry guilt-free. Then, I end up thinking about...worrying that if I decide to sit and eat ice cream during my son's nap (one of my favorite things to do!) that sometime someone is going to see the horrible overflowing bins of dirty clothes and judge me. I will never know why that thought is always in the back of my mind.