Soup's On!

Remember my decorating consultant, Missy? I don't think I mentioned, but she's also, on occasion, my food consultant. Missy and I were talking the other day about possible soups I could make for my son who doesn't like onions, and she mentioned a pasta/meatball soup that sounded good.

Today I didn't feel well and came home from work early. No big deal--I just think it's a combination of lack of sleep and hormonal fluctuations. In any event, I was pretty sure that putting on my jammies and climbing into bed for a nice little nap would help me feel much better, so that's exactly what I did. But first I spent about 10 minutes hauling out the crockpot and tossing some soup ingredients in. I turned the crockpot on high, took my nap, and about three hours later, we had a delicious, hearty winter soup. I thought I'd share the recipe with you--it's really perfect for these chilly winter nights! Simple, too, to put in the crockpot to cook while you go quilt, take a nap, or do whatever other important things you may have to do.

Chicken stock/broth--use about three of those "milk carton" containers of stock that the grocery stores are carrying now. I like to keep a couple in my pantry for quick soups. Or you can use a couple of the big cans of chicken stock. Or three or four of the smaller cans.

Turkey meatballs--one package of frozen meatballs. I'm sure that you could use any type of meatballs but the frozen turkey ones are convenient and don't add as much fat/grease to the broth.

Tortellini--a couple packages of the fresh kind. I actually used two 7 oz. packages of mini cheese raviolis.

Spinach--a bag of baby spinach from the salad/lettuce section of the grocery store.

Any other veggies you like--I added a handful or two of those baby carrots that come in the bags all ready to munch. I just sliced them in half.

Seasoning--whatever you like. I have a seasoning mix for soups that I like to add, but it's not a national brand, so there's probably no point in telling you what it is. But do add salt and pepper to taste and maybe some garlic, rosemary, thyme, a little oregano--whatever suits your fancy.

Put everything in the crockpot and cook--it took about three hours on high; allow about five to six hours on low.

Sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese on the soup and serve with crusty French bread. Yum! Bon appetit! And thanks, Missy!

Little Ms. Domestique

I finished quilting a Halloween quilt last night and wanted to get the binding on today, but so far, no luck! What have I been doing instead?

Well, this morning I did a whirlwind job of cleaning my house. I think I broke all known land speed records. Admittedly, with us gone for a few days, it wasn't too bad, but then dust is dust, and it waits for no man.

So, that done, I got my shopping list in order and did my grocery shopping. Once I got the groceries put away, I figured I'd start on my apple butter, chicken soup, and potato leek soup. In between, I'd make my binding. Of course, you already KNOW that didn't happen!

So I got the apple butter started--which starts off with boiling down apple cider and then adding a bunch of quartered apples. While those were cooking, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on everyone's blogs--I'm happy to say that I'm now caught up! Even if I didn't leave comments on each and every blog, I DID read them.

But here's a tip. Actually a couple tips.

1. Don't read blogs while cooking apples. Why? This is what happens:



2. Don't clean house before making apple butter. Why? See above.

And that photo doesn't even show the part where it boiled all down the front of the stove!

So, once the apples are all cooked, you press the whole mess though a strainer to get rid of the peels, seeds, etc. What a pain! After that, you put all the "pulp" back into a pot and add a bunch of sugar and spices and cook it for two hours, stirring almost constantly. WHAT? No way! Okay, so I cheated and didn't stir almost constantly. What I pretty much did was read a blog, go out and stir, read another blog, go out and stir. That went pretty well for the first hour or so, but then--

Well, read tip number 2 above. See what happened?

It's like making spaghetti sauce! It bubbles and bursts all over the place! Okay, so what's next? The directions say to cook it until it "sheets." I've made candy before and I'm familiar with sheeting, but this stuff is a much coarser texture than candy. I figured, though, that when it got to the "sheeting" point, I'd know. Eventually I got tired of testing it to see if I would consider it to be sheeting, so I just filled the jars I sterilized--nine of them. Bad news! Nine jars were filled and about two thirds of the apple butter is still in the pot. Needless to say, I'm sterilizing more jars. I'll be known as the apple butter queen! Everyone I know will be getting apple butter for Christmas! Well, unless that sheeting thing was important and I didn't wait long enough. In which case, I'll be known as the apple butter jester.

Oh, and those two soups? Nope, they're not done either. The chicken soup is about half done but I need to go cook some veggies in the broth and finish that up. The other soup, potato leek, will have to wait. And that binding? Well, maybe I'll get around to that once I clean my kitchen again.

From now on, I'm just BUYING apple butter. Except I won't need to for maybe ten years. I wonder if it's just like child birth--you forget the pain after awhile?

Apple Queen

Remember those apples we brought home from Apple Hill? Well, we've been making applesauce. My husband and I do this almost every year, because at Christmas time, we often make up food gift baskets for family members. Last year in September, we went to visit Kairle in Utah for a quilt retreat and made a stop at the Lehi Roller Mills where we bought several pancake and muffin mixes for last year's baskets. We aren't sure what we'll put together this year, but applesauce seemed like a good start.

After several years of making applesauce, my husband and I have the process down to the efficiency of a production line. When I got home from work, he had already prepared (peeled, sliced, cored) two batches of apples. Later, while he made a Starbucks run and I was cooking the second batch, I zipped out another batch.

Do you have one of these nifty contraptions? If you do anything with apples and don't have one, do yourself a favor and buy one--buy them as gifts for anyone else you know who peels apples. I've been using these for about 20 years now and this is the second one I've purchased--the first one finally gave out a couple years ago. They are super fast!

If you're interested in making applesauce and don't have a recipe, read on and I'll share mine.

First you'll need about 12 to 13 apples per batch--9 cups of peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples. Use a pot large enough to accommodate the apples, and to that you'll add 1/2 cup of apple cider and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Cook over medium/high heat until the mix comes to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue cooking for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

Once the apples are cooked, add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/8 tsp. of salt, and about 1 tablespoon of cinnamon (can you tell I don't really measure much?!). Add nutmeg if you like--it's not my favorite, so I don't. Continue to cook the apple mixture for about a minute or two.

Applesauce can be refrigerated for a week or two, or you may want to can the applesauce for longer storage. If you aren't familiar with the canning process, you may want to read up on it--I'm sure there are sources on the internet. You'll need canning jars with seals and bands, but the process is fairly simple and worth the effort. I managed to process three batches of applesauce in about an hour and a half.

Oh, and on the last batch, which we'll probably keep for ourselves, I added some raisins and blackberries, which resulted in a reddish pink applesauce. Kind of pretty to look at, and I suspect it will taste pretty good too! This chunky applesauce can also be used as a base for pie and pastry fillings. Yum!

I have another box of apples, but it will have to wait until my husband and I come back from Ft. Bragg. I'm thinking about hunting down a good recipe for apple butter or, better yet, apple pumpkin butter similar to the jar I bought at Apple Hill--that stuff is seriously good!

Iron Chef Sacramento

I came home from work tonight and enthusiastically told my husband we were going to play a fun game. Iron Chef Sacramento! He'll be Bobby Flay and I'll be Alton Brown. We'll pretend the other chef didn't show up for the competition, so he doesn't have to cook four or five gourmet courses; just one will be enough to qualify. He'll have an hour. And the secret ingredient is:

BLACK FOREST HAM!

He just looked at me and asked, "Have you had a couple cocktails?"

Sheesh! I really can't trick that guy into much of anything! At least he didn't wait for me to do a back flip or two to start off the competition.

Missing!

Remember that cake I didn't bake for you yesterday when you came to see the Sweat Shop? Well, I baked it tonight, and it's just come out of the oven--it's cooling now, and I should be able to frost it soon. Chocolate torte with a mousse frosting--doesn't that sound yummy? I'm afraid, though, that it's not going to look as pretty as I would have liked. You see, I have a house in which things disappear. Like my cake pans. I used to have the greatest cake pans with removeable bottoms but I haven't been able to find them for quite some time now. I suspect my son took them--he likes to cook. I even had some not-so-great cake pans, but they're nowhere to be found either. I'm sure it's my husband's fault. It always is.

You know those plastic containers you can buy at the grocery store now that are fairly inexpensive (much less expensive than Tupperware!)? Some companies are selling lunch meat in them. You know the ones I mean. Every now and then, I'll buy a package, or save the containers when the lunch meat is gone. And every now and then I'll hear my husband packaging up leftovers for the kids or other family members and friends, saying, "Oh, don't bother returning them. They're just throw aways." Yep, easy for him to say. Every dollar spent on those "throw aways" is one less dollar for fabric! (Our household is based on a fabric economy, by the way. That stash I showed you yesterday? It's kind of like a 401k plan for my retirement.) My husband loves to take leftovers to work for his lunch every day. Wouldn't it be funny if one of these days there's nothing to package them up in? Ha!

You know what it probably is? Doing the dishes is my husband's "chore." Maybe if he convinces himself that everything in the kitchen is a "throw away," he can justify not washing anything. After all, I'm sure that taking out the garbage is much less time consuming than washing dishes!

So, anyway, I have cake. Funny looking cake. No, it won't look anything like the picture that began this blog. Since I have no cake pans, I made the two layers in pie plates. I think I'll take my husband's piece out to him, where he's watching TV in the living room, on a spatula and serve it into his hands; I'll tell him the dishes are missing--must have been throw aways.

Would you like to come by for that piece of cake now? You're more than welcome! I'll put the coffee on . . . .