• 2 lbs. butternut or calabaza squash
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 stick butter (4 T.)
• 2 cups bottled clam juice (mmm…Clamato) or shell stock
• 3 T. coarsely grated peeled fresh ginger (about a three inch piece) (have you seen those fancy tubes of ginger in the produce section of the grocery store?  They are awesome!  No more withered pieces of ginger in the vegetable drawer making me think that someone left a dessicated finger in my refrigerator!)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 T. fresh lime juice
• 1/2 lb. fine-quality crab meat, checked for shell and pieces of cartilage
• Chopped basil, cilantro and croutons for garnish (optional)

Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds, and peel with a vegetable peeler.  Cut the squash into 1/2 in. cubes; there should be about 5 cups.

Cook the onion in the butter in a heavy pot over moderate heat for five minutes. Add the squash and cook, stirring occasionally, for ten minutes, or until the squash is easily mashed with a fork.

Puree the soup (really, don’t.) in a blender or food processor in batches (it is so messy, and really, what is the benefit?) and return to the pot.  (Have you ever scraped squash puree off the ceiling?  So unfun.)  Stir in the lime juice and crab.

The soup can be made a day ahead, covered and refrigerated, or frozen for 3 months.  (Let cool, uncovered, before freezing.)

Serve the soup hot.  (Really?  Hot soup?  Wha?)

Makes about six cups. Serves 4 to 6.

Cook onion in butter in large saucepan until tender.  Add water and contents of rice and seasoning packets.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 mins.  Combine flour and dry mustard in a small bowl.  Gradually add about 1/2 c. of the broth, stirring until smooth.  Stir remaining broth, flour mixture and milk into rice mixture.  Heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally.  Continue simmering until slightly thickened.  Stir in cheese.  Sprinkle with green onion.  Makes four to six servings.

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Trashtastic!

The best time to make vegetable soup is a day or so after you have had fried chicken and out of which you have saved the necks, ribs, backs uncooked. (The chicken is not essential, but does add something.)

Procure from the meat market a good beef soup bone, the bigger the better. It is a rather good idea to have it split down the middle so the marrow is exposed. In addition, buy a couple pounds of ordinary soup meat, either beef or mutton, or both.

Put all this meat, early in the morning, in a big kettle. The best kind is heavy aluminum, but a good iron pot will do almost as well. Put in also the bony parts of the chicken you have saved. Cover it with water, something on the order of 5 quarts. Add a teaspoon of salt, a bit of black pepper and, if you like, a touch of garlic (one small piece). If you don’t like garlic put in onion. Boil all this slowly all day long. Keep on boiling until the meat has literally dropped off the bone. If your stock boils down during the day, add enough water from time to time to keep the meat covered. When the whole thing has practically disintegrated pour out into another large kettle through a colander. Make sure the marrow is out of the bones. Let this drain through the colander for quite awhile as much of the juice will drain out of the meat. (Shake the colander to help get out all the juices.)

save a few of the better pieces of meat just to cut up a little bit in small pieces to put into your soup after it is done. Put the kettle containing the stock you now have in a very cool place, outdoors in the winter or in the ice box; let it stand all night and the next day until you are ready to make your soup.

You will find that a hard layer of fat has formed on top of the stock which can usually be lifted off since the whole kettle full of stock has jelled. Some people like a little bit of the fat left on and some like their soup very rich and do not remove more than about half of the fat.

Put the stock back into your kettle and you are ready to make your soup.

In a separate pan, boil slowly about a third of a teacupful of barley. This should be cooked separately since it has a habit, in a soup kettle, of settling to the bottom and if your fire should happen to get too hot it is likely to burn. If you cannot get barley, use rice, but it is a poor substitute.

One of the secrets of making good vegetable soup is not to cook any of the vegetables too long. however it is impossible to give you an exact measure of the vegetables you should put in because some people like their vegetable soup almost as thick as stew, others like it much thinner. Moreover, sometimes you can get exactly the vegetables you want, other times you have to substitute. Where you use canned vegetables, put them in only a few minutes before taking the coup off the fire. If you use fresh ones, naturally they must be fully cooked in the soup. The things put into the soup are about as follows:

• 1 quart of canned tomatoes
• 1/2 teacupful of fresh peas. If you can’t get peas, a handful of good green beans cut up very small can substitute
• 2 normal sized potatoes, diced into cubes of about 1/2 inch size
• 2 or 3 bunches of good celery
• 1 good sized onion, sliced
• 3 nice-sized carrots diced about the same size as potatoes
• 1 turnip diced like the potatoes
• a handful of raw cabbage cut into small pieces

Your vegetables should not all be dumped in at once. The potatoes, for example, will cook more quickly than the carrots. Your effort must be to have them all nicely cooked, but not mushy, at about the same time.

The fire must not be too hot but the should should be kept bubbling.

When you figure the soup is about done, put in your barley, which should now be fully cooked, add a tablespoonful of prepared gravy seasoning and taste for flavoring, particularly salt and pepper, and if you have it, some onion salt, garlic salt, and celery salt. (If you cannot get the gravy seasoning, use one teaspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce.)

Cut up the few bits of meat you have saved and put a handful in the soup.

While you are cooking the soup do not allow the liquid to boil down too much. Add a bit of water from time to time. If your stock was good and thick when you started, you can add more water than if it was thin when you started.

As a final touch, in the springtime when the nasturtiums are green and tender, you can take a few nasturtium stems, cut them up in small pieces , boil them separately as you did the barley, and add them to your soup.

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Holy politician recipe Batman!  Add some garlic!  No wait!  If you don’t like garlic add onions!  But only if you want!  I typed this whollllleeee thing out because I thought it was funny.  Now laugh!  Laugh louder!

–From Christ Church Cookbook, Savannah, GA

Technorati Tags: Dwight D. Eisenhower, presidential recipes, soup, vegetable soup,

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 bunches green onions, sliced
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 10 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can petite tomatoes in juice
• 1 purchased roast chicken, meat shredded, skin and bones discarded
• 4 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
• 3 (15-ounce) cans golden or white hominy in juice
• 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add green onions, cumin, and paprika; sauté 5 minutes. Add broth, tomatoes with juice, chicken, and hot pepper sauce. Puree hominy with juice in processor or blender. Mix into soup; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes. Stir in cilantro. Ladle soup into bowls.

From Bon Appetit 02/2007

Technorati Tags: soup, quick, chicken, high fiber, hominy

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add squash and next 5 ingredients (through coriander); sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add broth, peanut butter, tomato paste, and pepper, stirring well to combine; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes or until the squash is tender. Sprinkle with cilantro.

Cooking Light December 2005

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I made this last year for Thanksgiving Eve.  I cut back on the peanut butter by half, added some chile garlic sauce and pepper flakes, and cooked it longer than it said to.  I served it over spinach.  It was fabtabulous.  The husband guy didn’t like it.  Don’t listen to him.  He eats potted meat.

Technorati Tags: soup, squash soup, pureeing is for pussies, squashass, quick recipes,

Brown beef in oil, add remaining ingredients except cabbage.  Simmer for 30 mins.  Add cabbage.  Simmer until vegetables are tender.

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I like that the first ingredient in my Grandmother’s “good vegetable soup” recipe is a pound and a half of beef.

• 1 lb. extra lean ground beef
• 1 T. veg oil
• 1 c. diced carrots
• 1 c. diced onions
• 1 c. sliced celery
• 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 can (14 or 16 oz tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 3 c. wide cooked noodles
• 1/4 c. chopped parsley

Cook meat.  Set aside.  Heat oil in skillet an cook carrots, onions, celery and garlic five minutes.  Add broth, tomatoes, thyme, salt, pepper and meat.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.   Just before serving, add noodles and parsley.  Makes 8 cups.

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I am not sure how I feel about hamburger soup.  I am not a huge fan of the hamburger, but I do love the soup.  My Grandmother got this out of Ladies Home Journal.

• celery
• onion

cook in 1/4 c. oleo

• 2 T. flour
• 3 c. milk
• tsp salt
• pepper

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Wow. this sounds pretty gross. Milk soup. mmm.

Technorati Tags: recipes, soup, gross, yuck, barf, boring, family recipes,

Grandma B’s Shiksa-ized Matzo Balls.

• 4 large eggs
• 4 T. butter/oil/chicken fat (pick whichever one you like)
• 1 c. matzo meal
• 1/2 c. club soda (seltzer water)
• 1/2 t. salt (not necessary if you use chicken fat)
• 1/2 t. dill (i usually use fresh dill, a handful minced)
• 1 medium carrot–grated then minced

In large bowl, beat eggs with butter or fat and soda until well blended.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Place in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.  Bring salted pot of water to boil.  Wet hands and roll mixture in gumball (ping-pong ball if you want the giant fill up the whole bowl ones) size balls.  Cover.  Cook for 30 minutes without looking at them.  Pull out a tester ball, cut it in half and see if it is cooked all the way through.  If it is not leave for ten minutes.

Place beans in a large saucepan.  Add enough water to cover by 4 inches.  Let stand overnight.

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat oil in heavy large ovenproof pot over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  Working in batches, cook chicken until golden brown, about 7 minutes per side.  Transfer chicken to large plate.  Add pancetta, vegetables, and bay leaf to same pot.  Cook until vegetables begin to brown and soften, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes.  Add garlic; stir 2 minutes.  Add flour; stir one minute.  drain beans.  Add beans to pot; stir to combine.  Add broth; season with salt and pepper.  Place rosemary sprig and chicken atop bean mixture.  Cover pot; transfer to oven.  Braise until chicken and beans are very tenter, about one hour.  Transfer chicken to plate.  Season beans with salt and pepper.

Mix 2 T. finely chopped rosemary, parsley and lemon peel in small bowl.  Divide beans among 6 shallow bowls.  Top each with chicken.  Sprinkle with parsley mixture and serve.

From Bon Appetit.  They got the recipe from the Papoose Creek Lodge in Cameron, Montana