Soup Recipes

Sorry I'm a bit late with today's post.  I am under the weather, which stinks.  My daughter is also ill, making for a not-so-fun household of late.


I have been on a soup making kick lately.  There is nothing quite as satisfying on a cold day than warm soup!  I think that broth made from boiling a carcass is the best flavored broth and makes the best flavored soup.


I tend to use a recipe as a guide...and change things up to make the recipe my own.  Last week I made both broccoli cheese soup and tomato soup, both of which I thought turned out really well.
For the broccoli cheese soup I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks and a recipe online that I used as my guide.  Here's what I did!

Broccoli Cheese Soup:
Chop one red onion.  Melt 1 stick of unsalted butter in a large saucepan.  Add onions and cook until onions are tender.  Add broccoli.  I had broccoli in my refrigerator that needed to be used.  I would estimate I used about 2 1/2 stalks of broccoli. Stir the broccoli in the onion and butter mixture.  Cover this with chicken broth.  Let that simmer until broccoli is tender (I cooked mine for about an hour).
Blend (in batches) the soup using your blender.  Don't add too much at a time!  I usually filled my blender about 1/2 way full, and blended that.  Be careful blending hot food/liquid!  Blend in batches until all the soup has been blended.  Return the blended soup to the saucepan.  Cube 1/2 of a loaf of velveeta cheese.  Add the cheese to the soup, stirring constantly until the cheese is melted and blended in to the soup.  Let the soup simmer.  Just before serving, stir 2-3 tablespoons of cornstarch into 1/2 cup of milk.  Add this to the soup, stirring constantly until soup thickens.  Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Tomato Soup:
Chop two onions.  Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan and add onions.  Cook until onions are tender.  Add 4 cups of chicken broth, 1 large can of whole peeled tomatoes and 1 smaller can (soup can size) of fire roasted tomatoes.  Stir in 2 tablespoons italian seasoning and pepper.  Simmer for 1 hour.  Blend soup in batches (like you did with the broccoli cheese soup).  Return blended soup to saucepan.  Add a pinch of sugar.  Cook and stir with the lid off to reduce down a bit.  Serve the tomato soup with some freshly grated parmesan and croutons!  Yummy!

I hope you enjoy the soup recipes!

Holiday Food

I know this is normally a craft blog, but I have made some holiday party food that was too cute, so I thought I’d share here on my blog.

First, the Cheese Tree:

I found this on Pinterest and thought it was too cute. I HAD to make one! I used rosemary instead of thyme (what the recipe called for) but I thought it was just adorable.

Next, Crab Stuffed Mushrooms:

This one is a recipe from a work-place cookbook so I’ll share it here. I did not get this one from Pinterest! The photo above is before they were cooked. They were delicious!

1 pound fresh mushrooms

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1/4 cup finely chopped celery

2 tablespoons finely chopped green pepper

1/2 pound crab meat (imitation works)

2 cups oyster crackers, crushed

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (or seafood spice)

6 white cheddar cheese slices

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sauté celery, onion, and green pepper in 1 T butter for 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to refrigerator. While vegetables cool, wash mushrooms and remove stems. Set caps to the side and finely chop half of the stems. Discard the rest of the stems. Combine the sautéed vegetables, chopped mushroom stems, and all other ingredients (except cheese slices). Mix well. Place mushroom caps in a shallow baking dish and fill with stuffing. Drizzle filled mushrooms with 1/3 cup melted butter and top with cheese slices. Bake in oven for 15 minutes until cheese is lightly browned.

Note: I did not drizzle the 1/3 cup of butter or top with cheese slices to cut back on the calories and fat. Nobody complained and there were none left!

And finally…Santa Hat Brownies!

These were a hit! My kids are asking me to make them to take to school. I bought the brownies and strawberries at Sam’s Club. I did make the frosting, but you could also use purchased frosting. Pipe some frosting onto top of brownie…set strawberry on frosting. Pipe frosting around “hat rim” and some on top! Done! Cute and super easy. Oh, did I mention they’re so delicious too? Of course they are!

I hope you enjoyed these fun recipes!

Lori