Let It Snow, I'm Making Soup

I have always been a winter lover. Snow bunny. Ice queen. Call me whatever you like I have always been in love with the winter season. Maybe it's in my DNA, being a Minnesota girl by birth. Every year I looked forward to that first snow, the first time I get to shovel, and hoping and praying for a BIG snowstorm and a snow day. A lot of my friends called me crazy for shoveling snow. I have never even considered owning a snowblower, instead preferring the quiet solitude of time spent outside with the newly fallen snow and my shovel. Not a sound around me, just the crystal white sparkling snow and peace and quiet. Now that I'm older I don't get to shovel like that anymore, and while I still love the beautiful snowfall, the cold weather is a little harder to enjoy.

These days instead of bundling up in a heavy coat, boots, gloves and hat and heading out into the cold, I like snuggling up with a blanket and a warm cat, throwing the curtains wide open and watching the wind whip the flakes of frozen beauty all around. These days it's The Chef who is out there manning the shovel and I concentrate on cooking up some of my favorite winter foods.

Winter foods.....what a wonderful category of recipes. Stews, baked pastas, roasts. I don't know about you, but I tend to think of soup as a winter food. There is something so warming and comforting about a big bowl of chili, or chicken noodle soup, or beef and vegetable soup. Homemade bread baking away while the soup simmers, warming the home and filling the air with amazing scents. It's my favorite time of year. 

Ok, so let's talk about this soup for a minute. It's easy, and I mean kindergarten easy. The hardest skill needed is the ability to crumble up and cook some hamburger. The rest takes care of itself. Probably the most bizarre part of this recipe is in the ingredients- I actually used fake cheese. You know what fake cheese is- it's a weird yellow rubbery loaf of cheese flavored....something, and normally I am a cheese snob extraordinaire, but in this case I needed something that would melt easily and not break down. So the old bechamel and cheddar cheese just wouldn't do it. I also cheated with store bought shredded frozen hash browns and packaged chicken broth. Sometimes, especially work days, a girl just has to cheat, and that's perfectly ok!

Easy Cheeseburger Soup

1 pound hamburger

1 small onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, diced

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

small handfull fresh parsley, chopped

32 oz. carton chicken broth

2 lb chunk Velveeta, cut up

1 bag frozen shredded hash browns

assorted toppings (see below)

Place the hamburger, onion and garlic in a stockpot. Cook until hamburger is cooked through and onions are softened. Drain off fat. Sprinkle the Worcestershire sauce over the meat.

Add the chicken broth, hash browns, and chopped parsley. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and add cheese. Simmer over low heat at least 45 minutes. 

This recipe is great in a crockpot too- just brown the meat, and add everything but the toppings. Cook over low heat about 8 hours.

What to top this creamy yummy soup with? Think cheeseburgers! Crumble some crisply cooked bacon over each serving, or chopped pickles and fresh onions. Oyster crackers are great, croutons even better and so is a chunk of garlic toast. Chopped tomato is great too, or a sprinkle of shredded cheese. A couple shakes of hot sauce kicks up the heat a bit.

Yes.........this soup is definitely going to be a regular in my "winter foods" lineup of dinners. Right after I finish watching him shovel........

Dragging home the skeletal remains again

Usually I'm hauling home the turkey carcass. Or a big pile of beef bones. This time however, it's a nice big monster of a ham bone from the middle of the spiral sliced ham lovingly prepared by my son in law for Christmas Day dinner. Yep, as I have said before, I am THAT relative, the one who asks "are you gonna save those bones?" as I'm getting ready to head home.

A lot of my canning friends make and can ham stock. I don't really use all that much ham stock. Generally speaking I make one pot of stock after a holiday, which evolves into one big pot of ham and beans and then leftovers get frozen in individual portions for lunches and solo dinners. So while it's not something I make gallons of, I do like to make one big stockpot full. Making the ham stock is easy- throw the bone and any meat clinging to is in a large pot. Cover with cold water. Add seasonings- I used a chopped onion, 4 cloves chopped garlic, 3 bay leaves, a palm full of whatever herbs on my shelf looked good to me- thyme, parsley, basil, marjoram, and a couple big grinds of pepper. Lay off on the salt at this point- ham is salty and you can always add more later but you cannot remove it if you oversalt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for several hours. After a while prop the lid open a little to let the stock reduce slightly- it intensifies the flavor.

Remove the ham bone and set aside to cool. Pop that pot of stock in the fridge overnight (strain it if you like) to let the fat harden on the top. Scoop that off and discard the next day. When your ham bone is cool enough to handle, cut off any remaining meat and throw it back in the stock. I don't strain my stock. I will fish out the bay leaves if I can but I don't freak out over them. Lots of meaty bits come off that bone during simmering and I want that to stay in my soup. Add the meat you've cut off the bones back to the stock in the pot. Now you can either continue on with your soup or divide the broth into freezer containers and freeze (you CAN process in a pressure canner and jars but I never make a big enough batch to bother with that).

I am continuing on with my soup today, so I have also soaked one and a half pounds dried beans. I used a mix of navy beans and pinto beans, roughly half and half. I always prefer to soak beans overnight versus the quick soak method, I think the beans are more tender and cook without falling apart as much. Drain the beans and rinse. Add to the ham stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmering until the beans are tender which can be a while depending on your beans. Expect about an hour, and sometimes two. 

During the last 45 minutes or so of cooking I sometimes add chopped carrots and sometimes diced potatoes. I had no carrots on hand but I did dice up a couple small potatoes and added those. They thicken up the broth and really bulk up the soup. Served with hot and buttery cornbread, crusty rolls or breadsticks this is the perfect winter meal and provides plenty of leftovers. Today I had half a round loaf of Italian bread to use up so I cut it into "pull apart" bread, sprinkled with some shredded Parmesan cheese and drizzled liberally with a mixture of melted butter, crushed garlic and herbs. Pop into the oven at 375 until browned and toasty and serve with the soup. So so good! The soup was the perfect dinner on an evening that includes a winter storm warning, with heavy snowfall, ice and howling winds in our future. Even the Chef, the self-proclaimed Soup Master, had compliments for the cook. The only person who was somewhat dissatisfied was Louie.....no ham bones for him!