Magic Soup (More Sick Food)

Everything In The Fridge Soup... just so happens to also be very healthy and immune-supporting. We're finally feeling human again, like there's a light at the end of the snotty, hacking tunnel. My appetite returned, along with my will to live, so I wanted more than a bowl of broth for lunch. But still wanted some broth, with all it's magical goodness. So I made this... whatever it is.



I started with half an onion, diced/minced... cut up small, whatever. I sizzled it in some bacon fat (for flavor) and coconut oil (for immune-boosting lauric acid). Then I tossed in 3 cloves of chopped garlic, about a teaspoon of cumin, half that of coriander, and maybe a quarter teaspoon of ancho chili powder. When those were ready, I dumped in about a cup of diced canned tomatoes, with their juice, 2 cups of chicken broth, and then the leftovers. I had about half a cup of the black beans/corn Thing from Iron Chef Mom night, and about as much plain black beans. I also had about half a cup of leftover taco meat. Once that was all warmed, I tossed in a small bunch of cilantro, chopped up, and some extra salt. And.. um... some Fritos, for the crunch.

Geek Sweeps?

I think it must be Geek Sweeps Week. I've just watched Alton Brown get "stranded" on a tropical island and now there's a MythBusters marathon with the theme of "supersized myths." I'm in heaven.

We ate our proscribed lucky meal last night...

Collards and onions in bacon fat, vermouth, and chicken broth, with some leftover smoked pork... and rice with coconut milk and chicken broth... and blackeyed peas (from a can, I confess) warmed in chicken broth. Healthy, wealthy, and happy... that's what our new year will be.
Yumm-o.

Today was Leftover Day. Because we have a fridge full of fabulous leftovers. Lunch was potato skins, onion dip, veggies, hummus, shrimp, and cocktail sauce. Dip whatever you like into whatever you like. Delicious.

Dinner was...I don't really know what to call it. Like so many wonderful meals, it was born of leftovers, with a little new stuff added. In our house, with the microwave used only by The Grill-Master (Grill-Geek, Geek, whichever) for his Jimmy Dean breakfast sammiches, leftovers aren't a way to save on cooking time or dirty dishes. They are simply something one uses to ensure no good food is wasted. So... I cooked up another mess o' greens (my biggest pan is too small for a true "mess," so some of last night's greens had to wait) with bacon fat and onions and vermouth and chicken broth, and cooked some rice pasta shells. The main event was some of the Solstice Roast Beast, with it's resulting gelatinous broth, and a sploosh of crushed tomatoes. Then I decided to toss them all in a bowl together. I'm guessing it's sort of Italian.

Soup and Salad

Yesterday's lunch. Yummy, and surprisingly, I wasn't hungry 5 minutes later. Maybe it's because I'm a Taurus, or perhaps it's due to being at least half Hobbitt, but I'm generally not convinced that soup and salad can, by themselves, comprise a meal. I grew up in meat-and-potatoes land. I think there's magic in homemade balsamic vinaigrette, though. Especially when it's accidentally too tart. It slams into the tastebuds so hard that your brain says "Ok, that's it, we're full!"

The soup was Potato and Leftovers Soup. Classy. But delicious. I won't bother calling it a "recipe", but the basic idea was: onions and celery in bacon fat until getting soft, some garlic and fresh-ground pepper, some chicken broth. Then a diced Russett potato and a small-chopped parsnip, simmered until soft. I put most of that in the blender, then back in the pot with some leftover steamed veggies and chopped chicken. Voila. Lunch.

Dinner last night was FIC: Fabulous Italian Creation. The nickname stuck a few years ago when I was planning the menu and didn't care specifically what would be served. The base ingredients were all the same. It's always pasta (rice pasta these days), with meat, marinara, sometimes a veggie, used to use lots of cheese, maybe pepperoni, mushrooms, and/or olives... pop it in the oven to meld together. Pretty fabulous.

Well... it was a lot more fabulous with cheese. But, it's still pretty good. Pretty Good Italian Creation doesn't have the same ring to it, though.

The greens there are mustard greens. I will never make mustard greens again as long as I live.

I love kale and collards and excel (if I may say so) in their preparation. I somehow went very, very wrong with the mustard greens. I didn't even finish them.

I'm late, I'm late

Sheesh, the pressure of blog upkeep. I probably would have quit already, if hubby wasn't obsessively taking pictures of everything I heat up.

Last night's dinner was so good I had to go sit on the couch for a while afterward. So... I never got around to posting. I watched the Bills vs Cowboys game, which was supposed to be a lopsided beat-down. It turned out to be a crazy game with trick plays, false hope, and finally a last-minute game-winning field goal. Two last-minute game-winning field goals, actually, but only one counted.

But this isn't a blog about football. I don't eat football.

Last night's dinner: the smoked pork butt (it's so hard to figure out how to slice stuff like that), storebought oven-roasted rosemary potatoes, and steamed broccoli and green beans (the end of two bags.) Simple and delicious.

Now, for the stock. It actually came first, but... the pictures aren't as pretty. Stock/broth/whatever is so easy, I don't know what took me so long to finally make it. Now I make it a lot and feel guilty whenever I buy it from the store. Canned and boxed just can't compare. The gelatin in stock (and natural glucosamine and chondroitin, for those with achy joints) is the secret to it's magic. And the best gelatin comes from the feet (and heads, if you can get 'em.) Chicken feet don't look like good eats, but they make a much better stock.

So, you start with the bones of a chicken you've roasted, smoked, whatever. (Some people start with the whole chicken, but I don't like boiled meat, and it's the bones that give up the goodie.) Or you can save the bones from whatever chicken you eat for a while- stick them in a bag in the freezer. Also stick onion peels, carrot butts, and chopped bits of whatever veggies you go through into that bag.

When it's full, plop it in a big pot, cover with water, add a splash of vinegar, and let it sit for an hour (longer if the stuff is still frozen.) The vinegar pulls minerals out of the bones. Add a couple stalks of fresh celery, a carrot or two, a smashed garlic clove, and a parsnip, if you've got it. An onion, chopped in fourths is nice, as well.

Then, bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer... that means the water is barely moving, no constant bubbling. Simmer for a long time. Overnight. Less than two days.

If you've got some softer stuff in there, like I sometimes do, (mushroom stems, pepper tops, collard stems) take that stuff out a bit sooner.

The leftover stuff looks kinda gross, huh?


Then you can either turn the heat up a little on the chicken stock, to reduce it down, or just let it cool and be done. Almost done, anyway. Some people like to put it in the fridge and skim the fat off the next day. I am not a fat-skimmer. I do like to put it in the fridge for a day, though. Because that's how I find out if it gelled. I used to get really good "chicken jell-o," but now I don't. Same chickens, same feet, no idea why.

Now I'm out of those good pastured chickens. But not the feet- I bought extra!

Speaking of the feet... when I first managed to find some in a store I was perplexed. How many feet go into a pot of stock? My recipes don't say. They just say to use feet, if you've got 'em. I spent a good deal of time thinking about it. I mentioned it to my hubby. We puzzled.

Until finally, one day, as I was pulling my stock bag out of the freezer, the idiocy of my wonderment hit me.

How many feet go into a stock pot?

Um, duh... probably two per chicken.

Unless it was some sort of mutant chicken... or had a run-in with a fox.

Yeah.

I'd like to point out that this was way before I gave up gluten and dairy, so my brain didn't work very well.