A Month of Soups

I know, LAST month was National Soup Month, and that makes perfect sense. Really, it does. I have to agree that the dead of winter IS the time to pig out on soup. But when you live in the desert southwest, it’s not such the compelling argument. Oh, sure, it gets cold here. It was down to the low 40’s some nights, but when it is 70 degrees in the daytime and sunny, well, soup doesn’t come to mind as quickly as outdoor grilling does.

But, for my purposes, February is as good as it gets. I told DH I wanted to try out a recipe a day and blog about it, not quite Julie and Julia, but let’s say “inspired by”! He thought that was a great idea. Then I told him to have some cohesion, the month long blog needed to be on a theme of some sort and reminded him of Julie and Julia. He thought that was a great idea.

Then I told him the theme would be soup. Now, DH loves soup, especially my soups, I claim modestly. He blanched (not the cooking term). I mean, really, he turned white. “That would be a lot of soup,” he ventured. “When you make soup, you make a pot of it. It lasts us a long time. Do you even know how to make two servings of soup?”

“Well, no,” I responded honestly. “But we can have it for lunch and dinner that day and freeze the rest!”

“Freeze 30 pots of soup?” I took his point. The shortest month is February, but I forgot it’s Leap Year. So 29 pots of soup coming up!

Some of these recipes are old favorites I’ve made for years; others are “experiments”. Try them with me and let me know how it goes for you. Maybe this could be the NEW soup diet?

Nah. Not with some of the stuff I’m putting in!

See you tomorrow for “Sharon’s Fresh Corn Soup” and what to do when it’s not fresh corn season. Get that taste-o-meter tuned up. You’re going to need it.

Since some of us like to make our own broth, here are some directions for making chicken stock and beef stock. For the recipes coming in February, you can make your stock and freeze it to use in recipes or buy best-quality canned stock. It DOES make a difference.

Personally, I freeze all the poultry carcasses together (turkey, chicken, game hens, etc.). It makes a more interesting broth than chicken alone. But see below for how to make stock.

To make chicken stock, check out: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Making-Chicken-Stock/Detail.aspx

To make beef stock, see: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-beef-stock/detail.aspx

Since we’re talking soup, watch this video to see how to make really flavorful soup. Click on http://yhoo.it/xmOoNc to see Fabio’s Italian Wedding Soup (and it freezes well!).