Thursdays Are For Cooking
The subject is soup. Soup – the stuff that Immortals dream of.
Well, they just wish they could cook as well as mortals, which is why the Immortals always show up with an empty bowl and a spoon and that sad look in their eyes.
Soup of any kind is good. Onion, beef-based veggie, chicken noodles w/veggies (and I do mean noodles!), cream of potato, cream of mushroom.
So here’s a good and simple recipe for onion soup:
One onion per person – Spanish/yellow onions hold up well in this
Beef broth
Salt and pepper to taste, thyme and oregano, plus a bay leaf or two
Red or white wine is optional, but you want to make soup, not get stewed.
Kleenex
Croutons, sliced baguette and cheese (Swiss, gouda, mozzarella – it’s all good!)
Peel the onion the easy way: cut it in half, pull off the skin and outer layer. Slice each half on the mandolin if you have one; if not, then just do a coarse chop. One onion should serve one to two people.
Put the sliced onion into a pot, add the beef broth to cover. How much beef broth? How hungry are you? One 28 ounce box of broth should suffice for a couple of servings because it will cook down a little. If you want a lot of onion soup (yes, please!!!), add more as you go. The broth and sliced or diced onion cook together, so that the onion can weep tears into the broth to season it, and the broth can throw thyme and oregano at the onion to comfort it. Salt and pepper are to taste, always, and you can throw in a bay leaf or two if you like. The wine addition is optional. I don’t find it necessary, but it’s good with a hot bowl of onion soup with all that melty cheese on top.
It is very okay to cook the onions before you put them into the pot. That’s a personal choice. But it’s also okay to just cook them slowly in the beef broth without sautéing them first.
If you want this for lunch, start after breakfast. If you want it for dinner, start after lunch. Very slow simmer, lowest temp or flame on the burner; put a lid on the pot to keep the broth in the pot. Yes, you are allowed to peek, and test the flavor levels. You can also put this in a slow cooker or Crockpot for 5 to 6 hours on High, or if on Low then 8 to 10 hours.
The croutons you can buy already toasted and ready to use. The baguette slices go on the top of the onion soup, with the cheese (sliced or shredded, your choice) on top of the baguette. To get the nice browning, 1 to 2 minutes in the broiler at 375F to 400F with the door open, or bake it at 375F for 3 to 5 minutes in the oven, on a tray. It’s cheese. It gets gooey and melty. It’s good!
The Kleenex is for when you peel the onions the hard way instead of ripping the outermost layer and skin off the bulb, or for when you’re trying to slice them across the bulb by hand.
Category: Economy
As always Ex, all of your stuff makes my mouth water! I would love to have you cook dinner sometime? I bet your kitchen always smells wonderful??? Keep them coming! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with all of your family!
Right there with you Brother Willy. I would venture to say that anything Mi’Lady Ex puts on the table would make a puppy pull a freight train. Put the plate on your head and your tongue would beat your brains out getting to it.
Hunting Camp Soup
– 1 x large cabbage
– 2 x good-sized yellow rutabagas
– 1 x large onion
– 2 x potatoes per hunter in camp
– 8-10 x carrots
– At least 1/2 kielbasa per hunter in camp
– Any leftover bacon and/or ham in camp
– Handfull of salt
– Handfull of black peppercorns
Chop up the cabbage and onion into small pieces. Cut the rutabagas, potatoes, and carrots into bite-sized chunks. Cut the kielbasa, bacon, and ham into bite-sized pieces. Throw everything together in a large pot. Fill the pot with enough cold water to cover everything. Throw in a handfull of salt and a handfull of black peppercorns.
Boil it, stirring occasionally and adding water as necessary, until the rutabagas and potatoes are done (not mushy).
Serve piping hot with plenty of crusty bread and plenty of butter.
Then some good single malt Scotch and/or bourbon for dessert while sitting by the fire and telling stories with your hunting buddies.
So it’s okay to fly right past full potato and go double full rutabaga on this?
Just askin’ for a friend.
How come the best food is always the simplest to fix?
Ex-PH2:
Cleared hot to go double full rutabaga on this hunting camp favorite.
“How come the best food is always the simplest to fix?”
I don’t know, but it seems like that’s just the way it always is (and should be).
Most started out as peasant food. Paella, the national dish of Spain is nothing more than rice, veg, and depending where you were either game or seafood.
Some of the best soups I have truly enjoyed especially during the winter months are Homemade hearty Navy Pea Soup with hambone and all the fixins, to include carrots and celery.
With a side of hot, steamy, crutched baked french bread and lots of butter, enough to dip into the soup.
Ok, ok, this Army Trooper does love Navy beans when cooked the proper way
Comfort food…😎
Recipes welcome!
Recipes #530 “Army Bean Soup” or #531 “Navy or Lima Beans” from TM 10-412 dtd August 1944 are the ticket./smile
Thanks, Claw!
Aahhh…I still see the famous “Baked Lima Beans” in that TM…😝
I am surprised no one has posted anything about Michael Avenatti being arrested on a domestic violence charge…
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/politics/michael-avenatti-arrest/index.html
Hi, David!
Poetrooper started the thread on Avenatti yesterday on the Midweek Open Thread:
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=82708&cpage=1#comment-3174601
Thank You for the reminder!
Yes, I believe I did post something on that, but I don’t remember which “open” post it sat in.
It was a day or two ago. It seems to be a ‘he said, she said’ and she had red marks on both sides of her face, which is probably the reason he was arrested.
Ain’t it swell boys and girls how what “goes around , comes around” LOL 😉
Sea Dragon’S Posole (GREEN)
6 ½ lb can Mexican hominy, drained
1 qt chicken stock
2 Tbs butter
3 Tbs all purpose flour
4 chicken breasts (boneless/skinless), cubed
1 red onion, chopped
1 Tbs cumin seed, toasted, ground
1 Tbs oregano
4 garlic cloves, crushed
28oz green chile, roasted, chopped
28oz can diced tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste
Saute the chicken in a tablespoon of olive oil and set aside. In a large pot, saute onions in the butter until translucent. Add flour and cook an additional 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add cumin, oregano and garlic, cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Add cooked chicken, hominy, chicken stock, green chile, tomatoes and salt & pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Filling, hearty, and nourishing. Good stuff! Thank you, Sea Dragon!
1 wish each poster here on this thread the best of health for them and their family and a full Thanksgiving Holiday.
My Best Regards for for those who served.
Picked up some sour cream today so that I can make a corn casserole for one of the neighbors who really likes it. A nice addition to a Thanksgiving table. And easy-peasy.
If memory serves, it’s just a stick of butter, a can of creamed corn, a drained can of regular corn, 1 cup sour cream, a box of Jiffy Mix corn bread mix, and a couple of eggs. Bake at around 350 for one hour.
The result is a kind of Indian Pudding thing, drier than a lot of the corn casseroles you see at church socials. Will double check the recipe and post any significant changes.
Starting in late fall, until late spring, two things are always on my stove, a pressure cooker and a crock pot.
The two pots work together in producing all sorts of soups and amalgamated stews, all of which feature carrots and potatoes but just about everything will work in an improvisation. Radishes can change a regular soup recipe into something of a different character.
If one good thing can be said for autumn it is that root vegetables are in ready supply. The other comfort food ploy that remains forever handy is the addition of a starch, from various sources. In the most primitive quicky you can always add a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch to a quarter cup of cold water and stir that mixture in, at the end.
If you don’t have many spices or herbs handy, at least have some black pepper and oregano. Throw in some butter and, buddy, you are off to the races.
Another pressure cooker fan- good on ya! It’s great when family and all their kiddies descend on the place. The PC scares ’em (their parents, too) so I have an oasis of calm, and the excuse of “I’m busy cooking” when actually I’m reading and enjoying an adult beverage as well.