Tag Archives: soup

My Girly Moment

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I could never be accused of being a girly girl.  I am not a frilly, hearts and glitter kind of girl.  I hate shopping.  I don’t like pink, and I think unicorns are early genomic experiments (or creatures brought here by the aliens….)  But I digress…

I grew up with two little brothers, and I have two sons.  I have been surrounded by boys close to all of my life.  But saying all of that I do have moments of girly-ness…I love butterflies.  For one, they are pretty. 🙂 And secondly, from a scientific standpoint, metamorphosis is fascinating.  And from the life lessons file, how wonderful it is to know that even if you start out as a weird caterpillar, some day you can be a fantastically beautiful butterfly!

So of course, as I walked down the pasta aisle at the grocery store, my eyes were drawn to the farfalle pasta.  You know the ones…the bow-tie pasta…but then I saw the farfalline…baby butterflies!  (ok as I just pointed out “baby” butterflies are catapillers, which look more like ziti, but I don’t have to be that critical ALL the time!)

I grabbed the box of pasta excitedly.  The wheels in the creative side of my brain started turning!  I had to find the perfect way to use these tiny butterfly noodles!

The days are much shorter now.  Fall is definitely arriving.  The days are tending to be more gray and wet.  As much as I want to hold on to summer, I am looking forward to autumn.  BUT butterflies are a spring/summer kinda thing…some how I need to find a way to make an autumn-y dish more summer-y.

This is how I created Butterfly Garden Soup

Butterfly Garden Soup

No butterflies were harmed in the making of this soup!

This soup is far from complicated.  Some of the best meals are ones that are just thrown together.  I browned a pound of ground beef with a bit of Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic. While that was cooking away, I filled a pot with a bag of frozen vegetables.  My favorite would have to be vegetables for soup:  stewed tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, carrots, celery and okra. Cover the vegetables with water and put on medium heat.  I drained the grease from the ground beef, and slid it into the pot with the vegetables.  I used three beef bouillon cubes and two cans of condensed tomato soup.  Season with salt and pepper after the bouillon has dissolved.  If you season before, you could end up with too much salt.  Lastly I added two handfuls of little butterflies.  Honestly I did toss the butterflies in…so that they could fly into the soup…hey I never said I wasn’t easily amused!

Like most soups or stews, the next-day left-overs are much better than day of soups…not that I would know with this soup, I didn’t get any left-overs! 🙂

Chicken and Dumplings 2.0

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The more "mature" version

One of my oldest son’s favorite meals would have to be chicken and dumplings.  I had a tried -and-true recipe that I have been using for quite a while, but as I pointed out in the first recipe, I tend to deviate a bit from tradition.

I decided my previous recipe needed to mature a bit, which really just means I needed to add some veggies and stuff.

I tend to use chicken thighs in my recipes.  I know that they aren’t as lean as chicken breasts, BUT I enjoy the flavor of the dark meat as opposed to the white.  I boiled a large package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  I used seven thighs and the stock for this recipe, and I have chicken in a baggie in the fridge for chicken and rice later in the week!

Chicken and Dumplings 2.0

Chicken
Water
1 T. Garlic Garlic (TM)
1 T Onion Onion (TM)
3 stalks of celery, tops and bottoms for stock/hearts for soup
Onion, quartered
4 carrots, sliced
6-8 mushrooms, diced
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
I can refrigerated flaky biscuits
1/2 c flour
1 t. pepper

In a large pot, add chicken, seasonings, celery (tops and bottoms), onion and water.  Heat to a light boil.  Allow to cook until chicken is done.  Scoop chicken out of the pot and place on a plate to cool.  Remove and discard celery and onion.  DO NOT THROW OUT THE WATER!!!  Save that yummy goodness for your soup!

While your chicken is cooking, prepare your veggies and stuff (you know, the things to make this more “mature”)  I cut the carrots and celery into slices on the diagonal, because I just think it looks pretty.  I didn’t really need the mushrooms to look pretty for some reason so I just diced them up.  After removing the chicken and veggies from the stock, add the freshly cut “mature” ingredients.  Let that cook on a slight boil while you shred your cooled chicken.

There have been debates on the best way to shred cooked meats for recipes.  Most people will tell you to take two forks and just pull the meat into pieces.  I say to wash your hands and use your fingers! (this is a common approach for me)  Add chicken back into the pot with veggies.  This would also be a good time to add a can of cream of chicken soup.

I let this cook until the carrots are not quite finished.  Now it’s time to add the dumplings.  These are the secret to quick and EASY dumplings:  Refrigerated FLAKY biscuits.  I used a little can (7.5 oz) of 10 biscuits.  Peel  the dough apart at the layers so that you have two pieces, then I put them apart again.  This is completely up to you, depending on how big you want your dumplings.  Dredge the chicken in a mixture of flour with a bit of pepper.  Then add the biscuit to the pot.

The next statement is one of the most important, so pay attention!  DO NOT STIR THE SOUP ONCE THE BISCUITS ARE IN! This is an incredibly valuable piece of information.  Stirring the soup will cause the dumplings to disintegrate.  You will end up with a delicious dumpling flavored soup…but no dumplings.  Also important, don’t have to heat too high.  A rolling boil would have the same effect as stirring!

To get all the dumplings to cook, using a spoon or ladle or something (this would not be an appropriate place to use your hands…ouch) gently push the dumplings into the liquid.  Just give them a little dunk.  The dumplings need to cook about 10-15 minutes depending on how thick they are.