Beef Barley Soup -- so warm and hearty

As of late, everyone in our household has been sick.  Nothing awful.  I think we are going on our third week of one illness or another.  We keep passing it around.  Our home is calling for a soup night. I thought I would try to make beef barley.  My grandmother (my Dad's mother) used to make beef barley soup with ground beef, but I thought I would try to make it with stew meat. 

Beef barley soup was my brother's favorite recipe that my grandmother used to make.  One night at her house was particularly memorable.  We all sat down to eat her beef barley soup and were enjoying it. As when any good meal is put on the table, everyone stopped talking and started eating.  Above the sound of our slurping, we could barley hear my baby brother say, "if this is beef barley soup, where is the barley grandma?"  It was at that point everyone started searching for the barley in his bowl as if looking for the lost treasure of the Seven Seas.  We all quickly came to the conclusion that my grandmother had forgotten the barley. For years to come, it was always a great story to relive and retell.  So when making the beef barley soup, you can use ground beef or stew meat, but don't forget the barley.  Maybe that is only a funny joke in my family. 

Now I don't know my grandmother's recipe, but here is my version of beef barley soup. The soup turned out warm, hearty, and yummy.  Here is how I made it.

Hearty Beef Barley Soup

Ingredients:

olive oil (the start of most wonderful recipes)
4 lbs. Beef Stew chunks (cut into small bite sized pieces)
1 medium onion
2-3 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
1 box chicken stock
8 cups of water
6 chicken bullion cubes
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2-3 bay leaves
cheese rind (don't need this, but if you have it use it)
2-3 red potatoes
1 cup medium barley
3 cups or so of frozen veggie mix

Directions:

Heat some olive oil in a stock pot.  Cut stew meat into small soup sized pieces. Brown the meat.  Salt and pepper after the meat is brown.  There will be a liquid at the bottom of your pot -- this is fine and only adds to the flavor of the soup.  Add chopped onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. Add some salt and pepper.  *mommy hint - salt and pepper after each section of steps to build flavors. Add one box of chicken stock, 8 cups of water, and 6 chicken bullion cubes. *mommy hint - I  know many people would use beef stock and beef bullion, but I just wanted to use what I had in the house. And it worked just fine;  plus I prefer chicken stock to beef stock. But if you like beef stock better, use it.  Continue to add layers of flavors.  Add one can of diced tomatoes, bay leaves, diced potatoes, and one cup of barley. If you have a cheese rind this is the time to add it; if you don't just skip this step you will  not miss it.  *mommy hint - I always have cheese rinds in my freezer for the express purpose of making soups.  It adds a saltiness to the background of the soup.  It is not needed; it is just a little secret my Nonna (my mom's mother) taught me.  Simmer for 1 hour.  Then after the barley has been cooked, add 3 cups or so of your favorite frozen veggie mix.  Bring to boil again and serve.  So filling and yummy.  Enjoy.

No Cream - Cream of Potato Soup

Cream of whatever soup is my husband's favorite soup.  You got it -- it almost doesn't matter what the soup is -- it will get his attention if the word cream is in the soup title.  The first time I made artichoke soup (which I will share some other time - it is so good), my husband was convinced it was cream of potato.  It was creamy (yet had no cream), and it was potato colored.  Ever since I made that soup -- he has been asking me for cream of potato soup.  I am somewhat against making cream soups.  I feel like it is my assigned task as Sole Keeper of the Family's Health to cook as healthy as possible for my family.  Because it is a free-for-all of food choices the second we eat out.  Hence I have maintained a no-cream-soup-zone in our home for the past eight years.  But that era has come to a close.  I finally made MY version of cream of potato soup. It has a splash of half and half, but even that was a last second toss in, and I don't believe it MADE the soup.  So if you don't have it in your frig -- don't go to the store to buy it. I would say if you were unwilling to make a cream soup before -- try this version of cream of potato -- it may just change your cream soup free home - like it did mine. 

No Cream - Cream of Potato Soup

3 tablespoons butter
1 or 2 onions thinly sliced
salt / pepper
5 potatoes (keep them whole or half them)
1 box of chicken stock
2 cups water
2 bullion cubes
salt / pepper
1-2 tablespoons of corn starch

1 1/2 x 4 inch chunk of cheddar cheese cut into cubes / or 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
a splash of half and half (optional -- I added it because it was in my frig for my morning coffee)

In the bottom of a stock pot, add 3 tablespoons of butter, onions, salt and pepper on low to med heat. Once onions are softened, add potatoes (* hint they should all be about the same size), chicken stock, water, bullion, a bit of salt and pepper.  Let potatoes cook -- about 20 minutes.  Then when potatoes are cooked, pull some potatoes out and cut into bite size chunks - leave them out of the pot. Use your immersion blend to blend soup (cream). Start out with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a mug with some cold tap water - not a lot - just enough to dissolve the cornstarch. Mix together until there are no lumps.  Slowly add mixture back into boiling soup (soup must be boiling or you will get lumps).   Add cheese chunks, a splash of half and half (if you don't have this in your house -- forget it -- you will not miss it).  If it is not to the thickness you like, repeat cornstarch step. Add potatoes back in the soup.  Serve. If you want, you can add a bit of fresh chives to the top of the soup in each serving bowl -- and/ or a few chunks of crusty toasty hard bread.  Enjoy your no cream cream soup.

The perfect time for soup (Lentil Soup, That is)

When you are a soup person, there is no bad time for soup.  Unless you don't have air conditioning -- then summer can be a no-soup-zone. But if you have air, you can even find soup days in the middle of the summer.  So there might not be a bad time for soup, but there still is a perfect time for soup.  And today is a perfect soup day in Chicago.  A few days ago was the first day of Autumn, it was 59 degrees, it was cloudy and misty outside all day.  If you cannot hear the day yelling make soup today Mommy, you must be taking a nap.  And then good for you.  Today is a lentil soup day at my house. Lentil soup is comforting, healthy, and tasty.
Lentil Soup  

You have to start with the magnificent trio -- I would use the term Holy Trinity of Cooking, but it is a bit offensive, but true.  Onions, carrots, and celery.

1 medium onion
2 carrots
2 celery

salt/ pepper
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1   32 oz box of chicken stock (low sodium)

8 cups of water
2 bay leaves
3 - 4 medium potatoes
1   16 oz bag of lentils (wash and sift through them looking for rocks or foreign debris)
3 chicken bullion cubes
1 ham shank or hock (I prefer the shank. You can cut meat off of it and put it in your soup in the end.)
          * If you don't want to use meat, don't. It will still be tasty without it.
small piece of cheese rind (my secret ingredient)

          * Again you don't need this, but I love adding it to my soups.  It adds a saltiness to the background.
4 handfulls of pasta (I use digitali, but any short pasta will do.)

Chop the first three ingredients up, place them in a stock pot with some olive oil over medium heat. Salt and pepper them to help draw out the water. When the magnificent trio become softened (about 3 - 5 minutes), add two minced garlic cloves for about 1 minute until the flavors meld together. Then add chicken stock, water. bay leaves, cubed potatoes, washed lentils, 3 chicken bullion, ham, and cheese rind. Let simmer for a couple of hours.  If you want noodles add them in at the end.  Take the shank out and cube up into desired size for soup.  Lastly, drop pasta in soup and let boil for the amount of time stated on package.  Then shut soup off so to not over cook the pasta.  Serve and enjoy the warmth.

Get-well-soon-and-I-love-you-in-a-bowl-soup AKA Chicken Soup

It is a cold damp spring day -- it is perfect weather for chicken soup.  But when you are a soup person, any day is a good day for soup. My husband and I -- and now our 2 year old son -- we are soup people.  I make a lot of soups.  I used to think I wasn't too good at making chicken soup.  I mean my husband liked it -- and my son LOVES it.  He will eat bowl after bowl of it; it is the only way he will eat chicken.  But overall, I thought my other soups were just better.  And I guess I didn't give much attention to my chicken soup -- but I've received some rave reviews lately -- so I guess my recipe is worth sharing..

Recently my girlfriend Casey's little girl was quite sick (very sad -- but she is all better now), so there wasn't much cooking going on in their house -- there is no time for that when your baby is really sick.  Their time and energy was going into helping her get better.  So I thought I would make Casey and her family some chicken soup.  The only reason I chose chicken soup (even though I thought it wasn't my best) is you always hear about the healing properties of the classic chicken soup.  I don't know if it is the boiled chicken or the idea of the chicken soup that makes you feel better.  But who am I to challenge this time held belief in this healing elixir - chicken soup.  So I made it.  To my surprise, they loved it.  I mean they LOVED IT!  It turns out they are soup people too.They were more than kind with the compliments.  So their attention to my ordinary chicken soup made me revisit my impression of this soup and take the time to document how I make this soup.  And it appears that my ordinary chicken soup is not so ordinary after all -- they think it is special -- they felt the love -- and in the end that is all that is important -- isn't it?

Hence I thought I would share the recipe.

Get-well-soon-I-love-you-in-a-bowl-soup AKA Chicken Soup

4 carrots (2 chopped tiny and 2 made into chunks)
1 onion
2 celery stacks
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil
1 box (4 cups) organic chicken stock
10 cups water
3 medium potatoes or 4 small potatoes
2 breasts of chicken (chicken on the bone adds flavor, but it is ok to use boneless and skinless)
1 or  2 bay leaves
 8 chicken bullion cubes
half pound digitali pasta
salt and pepper to taste

* Mommy hint -- If you have a chunk of cheese rind, toss that in too -- it puts a nice salty flavor in the background of your soup. But it is not necessary.

Start by chopping two carrots, celery, and onion -- all should be chopped up fine.  Put in a stock pot with olive oil on the bottom add some salt and pepper to help the veggies sweat. Cook until soften and onion is translucent.  Add two cloves of garlic, stir, and wait a minute for flavors to come together.  Pour in a box of chicken stock and ten cups of cold water.  Cube up the pealed potatoes and other two carrots into bit size pieces - add to pot. Lastly, add in two chicken breasts, bay leaf, and eight chicken bullion -- and cheese rind if you have one. Simmer on low with cover off for one hour and a half. After chicken is cooked, take chicken out of pot and shred it using two forks.  Keep chicken out of pot while you boil noodles.  I use about a half a pound of digitali (it is my family's favorite for chicken soup).  Once noodles are done, take soup off flame and add chicken back in.  At this point, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.  It is ready to serve.  Enjoy the healing bowl of love!

* Mommy hint -- If you use too much pasta, it sucks up the liquid after it sits in the pot for awhile.  Sometimes it sucks up the liquid after you put the leftovers in the frig.  You can add a bit of water or some chicken stock to bring it back to life.

 
*My closing Mommy thought - If you have a friend who is sick or the friend has a sick person in the family she is nursing back to health, there is nothing that says I am thinking about you and care about your struggles like a pot of chicken soup.  No matter how you make it and what ingredients you use, love is always felt -- it is the most important healing property of the soup.

P.S. Bring it to their house in the same pot you cooked it -- it screams homemade, and I love you -- more than Tupperware does.

Crock Pot Chicken Chili

My neighbor Kristy doesn't love cooking.  She likes it --- and she loves the idea of cooking for her family.  She knows I love cooking, so she asked me to give her some ideas for good family dinners.  Now let me start off by saying that her crew isn't the easiest to cook for -- they have some food -- shall I say dislikes.  They don't like eating vegetables.  And Kristy is endlessly trying to get veggies in their tummies.  They are a meat and potato family. But I told her that the vegetables and beans can always be hidden in the meal. Last week she asked me to come by and cook dinner with her.  I thought I would show her an easy chicken chili recipe.  This recipe has a bit of sweetness to it because of the marmalade, and it can have as much heat as you can take. 

What is great about this recipe is it is easy and when I say easy, it is EASY.  This is a great meal to go to when your day has been too crazy to even make yourself and peanut butter sandwich. There is nothing better than smelling a crock pot dish coming together.  The end result is warm and fills your belly.  The crock pot allows the flavors to become fully married, and oh the best part -- only one pan to clean up after dinner.


Chicken Chili -- (with Mommy hints)

2 -3 chicken breasts
1-2 Tablespoons of taco seasoning (Mommy hint -- use your favorite kind -- if you want more heat use 2 Tablespoons -- my  favorite is La Preferita)
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of salsa (Mommy hint -- use your favorite -- my favorite is Newman's Own all natural medium salsa.  If you want the chili to be spicier -- use a hot salsa)
1/2 cup orange marmalade (Mommy hint --  if you don't like orange marmalade don't worry - you don't taste the orange - all you taste is the sweetness in the background.  My husband hates orange anything -- and when I tried to make it with another preserve for him, he didn't like it as much -- the marmalade is the best of the different fruits that I have tried.  But take a chance and change it up with any fruit you want)
1 can black beans (Mommy hint -- my neighbor's husband doesn't like beans, so we pureed the beans.  We were able to keep the nutrients and fiber and hide the scary beans from Mike)

Directions:
Brown cubed chicken in a saute pan with olive oil, taco seasoning, and garlic. Once browned place chicken mixture in crock pot.  Then deglaze pan (Mommy hint -- get all the flavorful brown bits off the bottom of the pan) with salsa and marmalade. Once deglazed, place mixture in crock pot with chicken. Cook on low for 2 - 3 hours.  Mommy hint -- don't put beans in until last half hour before serving. 





I like to serve this over noodles. Use a short fat noodle.

Mommy hint -- If you don't want to use the crock pot, and you want to go from refrigerator to stove to table quicker, you can.  Do this whole process in one pot.  Cook on low for 45 minutes and serve.