Ugly Soup

This soup is uglier than anything I've ever made before, but it's SO yummy I can't eat just one bowl. Ha, isn't this a great introduction to this recipe?! Aren't you excited to try it now? (laughing to myself here) If any of you kitchen-savvy cooks have a suggestion on how I can improve the appearance of this one, please let me know. It's definitely a keeper in my book, but I need to make it look more appetizing to the children. Erg.

It's technically called Mushroom with Tortellini soup. Here is the recipe for one batch of soup:

2 slices bacon, diced 

2 cups onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups fresh mushroom, diced (I make these really small so the kids don't know it's mushroom.)

8 cups beef broth (real broth, none of that bullion garbage. Trust me, it's worth it to use real broth here.)

2 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced

1/2 cups fresh parsley, minced (no cutting corners here- don't use dried parsley.)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 9oz. package cheese tortellini

2 cups fresh spinach, chopped 

For serving day: Fresh Parmesan cheese and garlic croutons for garnish.

In a stockpot, saute the bacon. Remove bacon and saute the onion until golden. (Don't try to cook them together. I did this the first time and the onion juices ended up boiling the bacon, so the bacon didn't get crispy  Disgusto.) Add mushroom (you could substitute cooked Italian sausage if you don't like mushrooms), beef broth, basil, parsley, garlic, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. In a separate stockpot, cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain. Add tortellini and spinach leaves to soup. Simmer until tortellini is heated through (this is what the original recipe says here, but I'm thinking, wouldn't the tortellini still be hot from the boiling water it just came from? I skipped that step, but included it since the book said it.) Remove from heat and cool. Pour soup into a labeled gallon-size freezer bag. Freeze. 

On serving day, cut the plastic off the frozen block of soup. Place soup in a crock pot and set on LOW for 8-10 hours, or until heated through. (You can also thaw the soup and reheat it on the stove if you have an aversion to crock-pots, just be sure not to boil it.) Top with generous amounts of fresh parmesan and croutons. Enjoy.

Okay, okay, I know it takes forever to make this soup. That's precisely why I make a super-huge batch all at once (Think 6 to 10 gallons.....yeah, I have a huge stock pot.) and freeze enough to last for several meals.

My sweet husband set up speakers and his MP3 player in the kitchen so I can listen to audio books or lectures while I work. I detest doing tedious work without something stimulating to occupy my mind (and in my world, chopping 20 pounds of vegies=tedious). Since I was listening to conference talks, it was a beautiful, uplifting day in the kitchen. (Isn't it so rare an occasion that we can say that we loved working in the kitchen?)

Butternut Squash Lasagna recipe

Sarah on a lovely winter afternoon

Nathan and I have very different views on culinary arts. For me, food usually serves the utilitarian purpose of filling hungry tummies.....it's basically a chore to check off my list everyday. For Nathan, it's an art. He's happy to spend hours on a beautiful meal because he enjoys the process. He's a true artist in the kitchen....and his creations nourish not just the body, they feed my soul. You know what I mean? His food is made with so much love and care that it satisfies me in a very deep way. I usually want to get the cooking finished as quickly as possible so I can move onto other activities. I hate cooking.

Some people go to restaurants when they don't want to cook. I would rather not, for two reasons.

Reason #1- I hate feeling like we are a circus sideshow with all of our children squeezed into teeny little restaurant tables, all vying for elbow room or whispering urgently that so-and-so took the wrong straw or stole a crayon that is needed RIGHT NOW or bumped a glass and sent ice water sliding across the table. (Okay, it's really not that chaotic in reality, but this control-freak mama FEELS like it's always a madhouse. If it's like this in my brain, it's almost as bad as the real thing.)

Reason #2- I'm frugal with our food budget..... because  honestly I would rather spend money on something that will last longer than one meal. It kills me to pay $40 for a mediocre restaurant meal when I could make several amazing meals at home for the same price. 

So....we almost never eat out, unless we're on a long road trip or it's a birthday.

This is why I love using freezer meals. I can make a bunch of dinners all at once and stash them away for later when I don't want to cook. I like to make several batches of the same recipe all at once, because it's so much easier to do it that way. I line up several lasagna pans on the counter and just go down the line layering the noodles, cheese, sauce, etc. It usually doesn't take much more time than I would have spent making just one lasagna anyway. I like to make between 3 or 6 meals of each recipe. I bring them out once a month for the next several months when I don't want to cook.

If you have a Costco Membership, this is a really great way to do your cooking. All the food comes in such huge quantities, so it's perfect for this culinary approach. (Honestly, who could REALLY eat a 15 pound bag of carrots before they go bad?)

I like to take one day each month and cook all morning so I have a stocked freezer full of meals waiting for me. This week was my cooking day, and I made 12 gallons of Creamy Vegetable Chowder (imagine it topped with bacon and served in crusty bread bowls- YUM!), 6 gallons of Mushroom and Tortellini Soup (Oh my word, I feel like I can't eat enough of it! It's SO delicious!), 10 pounds of orange-glazed carrots (for a side dish), 3 Butternut Squash lasagnas, and 24 marinated Pineapple/Lemon chicken thighs (It's a sticky sweet and sour dish served over rice).

Can I interject here how much I love soup recipes for the freezer? On serving day, all I do is plop the frozen block of soup/stew/whatever into our crock pot and turn it on Low for the day. Done! No mess, no dishes, no work. I love it. (Unfortunately, Nathan's not a soup fan unless it's below 40 degrees outside....in Texas weather this means I don't get to cook soups very often! I have to seize the chance during our cold snaps of winter.)

I've been asked to share some of our favorite recipes for the freezer. Here is my favorite lasagna recipe.

Butternut Squash Lasagna -A delicious vegetarian dish I find myself craving often!-

For one lasagna:

2 lbs butternut squash

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

3 1/2 cups whole milk

1/8 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated is best!)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup fresh basil, chopped (In a pinch, use 1/3 cup dried basil instead)

12 lasagna noodles

2 1/2 cups shredded mozerella cheese

1/3 cup grated parmesan (in a pinch use romano cheese, it tastes so similar and costs half as much)

Slice squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seed. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, place squash facedown in 1 inch of water. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until squash is soft enough to scoop out with a spoon. Scoop squash into bowl; mash with fork or potato masher.

For the Bechemal sauce, warm butter and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, salt and nutmeg and cook, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken. Pout sauce into a blender; add basil, and blend until thoroughly combined. 

Cook lasagna noodles until slightly firm, according to package directions. (or avoid this step by using 'oven-ready' noodles that don't require cooking). Drain noodles. In a 9 x13 pan, layer 3/4 cup bechamel sauce, followed by a layer of noodles, squash, and finally mozerella cheese. Repeat three times. Top with parmesan cheese. Cover pan with plastic wrap, excluding as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. Cover with a layer of foil and freeze. 

On serving day, thaw until slushy and remove plastic wrap. Bake, covered with foil, at 350 degrees for one hour, or until bubbly. (I never can remember to bring it out of the freezer early enough to thaw for hours....so I just bake mine at 350 degrees for 90 minutes, or until bubbly) Serve with cheesy breaksticks and green salad.

Okay- here's the deal with this recipe. It looks really bland. How can this be tasty without at least garlic added to it? And who cooks anything without onion? That's exactly what I thought the first time I read this recipe. I decided I'd make it as written ONE TIME so we could at least see what the original authors intended, then we'd modify it with a bunch of flavors to make it savory and flavorful. I was shocked with how much I adored the flavors in the original recipe. The nuttiness of the squash combined with the aromatic nutmeg and salty/savory cheese in an unexpectedly appealing way. I couldn't get enough of it. I actually had visions in my head of hiding the leftovers so I could eat them all alone without sharing with anyone (Okay, I didn't really do this, but I thought about it for a couple seconds).

Day in the snow

Are words really needed? I think not.