Soup's On

We have been in a cooking frenzy here in the Gale household.  I pulled out a recipe that I've been wanting to make for a long time:  No Cream Creamy Broccoli Soup.  Again this is from my favorite place for super easy recipes:  Kraft.

If any of you have been to Panera with me, you know that I absolutely love their Broccoli Cheese Soup in a bread bowl.  No, I'm not saying this is as good as that...but it's not a bad substitute. 

No Cream Creamy Broccoli Soup

INGREDIENTS
1 cup chopped carrots (about 2 medium)
1 cup chopped celery (about 2 stalks)
3/4 cup chopped onions (about 1 medium)
3 Tbsp. oil
2 cans (14-1/2 oz. each) fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp. pepper
4-1/2 cups broccoli florets (about 2 small bunches)
1/2 cup instant white rice, uncooked
2 cups milk
1/4 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

DIRECTIONS
(1)  Cook and stir carrots, celery and onions in hot oil in large saucepan on medium-high heat 5 min. Add broth and pepper; stir. Bring to boil.
(2)  Stir in broccoli and rice. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 10 to 15 min. or until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently.
(3) Add soup, in batches, to blender or food processor; cover. Blend until pureed. Return soup puree to saucepan. Add milk and cheese; cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.

It was definitely a hit...at least amongst the adults.  Carter opted for fish sticks instead (he's really not much of a soup eater).  Ben ate 3 bowls, easily exceeding his Vitamin A & C requirements for the day.

What's Cooking?

Many of you have asked what my little (half) naked chef was making in a previous post.  Carter was helping me with CornBread Muffins.  Ben had made a batch of chili (which he'll hopefully post about soon) and so we thought cornbread would be the perfect counterpart.  This is a recipe that I found at allrecipes.com.

Golden Sweet Cornbread

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
(1)  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
(2)  In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
(3) Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Instead of baking in a cake pan, I used a mini-muffin tin for (nearly) bite sizes muffins.  By doing this, the baking time is greatly reduced so monitor them carefully.

And, no, I don't have any pictures.  We ate them too quickly!

Move Over Jamie Oliver...

There's a new Naked Chef in town!

OK, ok...so he's not naked. BUT, he's definitely cooking without any pants.

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Sunday Supper #10

We are officially a couple of weeks into autumn and, here in Cologne, that means rain.  Lots of cold, damp rain.  This is the perfect weather for soup, chili, and the crock pot.  This Sunday I will be sharing with you a delicious recipe from Better Homes and Gardens for Buffalo Chicken Soup.  Hopefully in the coming weeks I can share some of my favorite slow cooker meals and maybe I can get Ben to post his chili recipe.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

Ingredients
1 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 lb. deli-roasted chicken, skinned, boned, and coarsely shredded
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 14-oz. cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1-1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. bottled hot pepper sauce
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (6 oz.)
1-1/4 cups crumbled blue cheese (5 oz.)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (2 oz.)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Bottled hot pepper sauce (optional)

Directions
1. In 4-quart Dutch oven melt butter over medium heat. Add celery and onion; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in broth, milk, and the 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce.

2. In bowl toss together mozzarella, 1 cup of the blue cheese, Parmesan, and flour. Add gradually to soup, stirring after each addition just until melted. Stir in three-fourths of the shredded chicken; heat through. Top with remaining chicken, blue cheese, and hot sauce.

Makes 6 servings.


*********************
Of course, I am always tweaking the recipe.  Here are the changes I make:

• I cook a couple of chicken breasts in the oven instead of buying a deli-roasted chicken from the grocery (about 25-30 minutes at 350 F)
• I double up the celery and onion...both 1 cup (roughly) each.
• Increase the amount of hot pepper sauce (we use Frank's).  The small amount the recipe calls for is completely undetectable. 
• Since we are not fans of blue cheese, I use cheddar instead.  Of course this takes away some of the flavor or "tang," but we make up for it.
• I serve with a bottle of Buffalo Wild Wings Hot sauce.  Everyone can add as much/little as they want according to their ability to handle spice (here's where we make up for not having the blue cheese flavor...we compensate with hot sauce).
• Note:  shredding the chicken is the worst part of this recipe.  Once, I threw the chicken into the food processor to cut it up into tiny little pieces but the texture just wasn't the same.  It's worth the time it takes to shred.  I have also found it's easier to shred by hand.  You can at least do this in front of the TV on a Sunday afternoon watching the game.