Corn Chowder with Jalapenos and Bacon

This was another recipe we enjoyed from the Homesick Texan Cookbook.  I'm sure it's wonderful  with fresh corn, but we made it out of season with canned sweet corn--still very good.   Maybe you can enjoy this on a cold night, assuming you have cold weather in your neck of the woods.  We, apparently, don't.

Corn Chowder with Jalapenos and Bacon

8 pickled jalapeno slices, diced
4 slices bacon, dliced
1/4 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cups corn kernels, frozen or fresh (about 3 cobs shucked)
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cayenne
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cilantro and tortilla chips, for serving

In a large skillet, saute the bacon on medium heat until crisp.  Remove bacon from skillet.  In the skillet with bacon grease, add the diced onion and jalapeno on medium for about 5 minutes.  Add the corn and cook for 4 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. 

Turn off the heat, and pour the cooked corn mixture into a food processor or blender.  Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth, and blend on high until a smooth puree has formed. 

Pour pureed corn into a large pot.  Add the remaining chicken broth, cumin, nutmeg, cayenne, cilantro, cooked bacon, and lime juice.  Bring to a boil, and then turn the heat down to low, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in the milk, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve either warm or cold with a cilantro garnish or tortilla chips.

Turkey Vegetable Soup

My mom tells me that this originated as a Weight Watchers recipe, so if you have a certain new year's resolution to keep, this soup will keep you in line.  She jazzed it up with the onion, celery, and Cajun seasoning, which departed from the original recipe, but those additions only made it better.  (Half a teaspoon of Cajun seasoning doesn't sound like much, but it adds a considerable kick to this big pot of soup.  Remember that you can always add more seasoning, but you can't take it out once it's in.  Start small.) 

My mom also told me for probably about a year how good this soup was, but I was wholeheartedly not interested.  For whatever reason, nothing about it sounded appealing. 

I was so wrong.

This really is very good and satisfying.  You can make it with ground turkey or lean ground beef; you won't be able to taste the difference.  It's a hearty soup, so feel free to add more broth if you don't want it to be so thick.  This warm, healthy soup is perfect for cold, rainy evenings.  A warm bowl of soup has the power to lift your spirits besides raising your body temperature.  Try it once, and you'll see how very good it is.

Turkey Vegetable Soup

1 lb ground turkey (or lean ground beef)
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
1 (12oz) can V8 juice
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 can original Rotel tomatoes
1 can Veg-All (liquid drained)
1 (14oz) can chicken broth
1/4 to 1/2 tsp Tony Chachere's Seasoning (or other Cajun seasoning)

Brown turkey, celery, and green onions slowly in a pot sprayed with cooking spray.  Add the garlic, and cook for 1 minute.  Add the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil.  Lower heat, cover, and simmer for 30-40 minutes.  Serve warm with cornbread.

Tomato Bisque

This is my mom's recipe.  A few years ago, my dad started planting a huge vegetable garden in the summer, and it produced more tomatoes than they knew what to do with.  BLTs?  Check.  Marinara sauce?  Check.   Then she started making this tomato bisque, and it is SO delicious.  She, of course, makes it with her abundance with fresh tomatoes during the summer.  During the winter, I make it with canned diced tomatoes that I smooth out in the food processor, but I'm sure tomato puree would work the same way.

This recipe is always a treat and a crowd pleaser.  There are also some changes you can make if you want to use ingredients you already have or cut some of the fat out of the original recipe.  As with everything, the full-flavor version is better, but I couldn't notice much of a difference at all when I used 1% milk (instead of whole milk) and 1/2 stick of butter (instead of a whole stick).  I'll let you decide for yourself what you want to do. 

I strongly recommend that you try it.  You won't be disappointed.  Like Buck said over the weekend, this soup is good for your soul.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipe, Mom!  I love you!

Tomato Bisque

2 lbs tomatoes, peeled and seeded OR 3 (14oz) cans diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 Tbsp sugar
1 qt milk
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup flour
1/2 or 1 stick butter

If using canned diced tomatoes, pulse in food processor until in small bits, not large chunks.  Place tomatoes in a large pot over medium heat.  Stir in bouillon cubes, sugar, salt, bay leaf, basil, and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.  Whisk in flour all at once to make a roux; cook 1 minute.  Whisk in milk a little at a time, cooking and stirring constantly until thickened.  Stir into tomato mixture and heat through.

Easy Tomato Soup

This is a really easy and fast soup recipe.  We sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on top to make it even better.  You can get 4-6 servings out of this recipe, and it's pretty easy on the wallet, too.  It would be easy to double if you're feeding a crowd.  It's great for a simple dinner with a sandwich or a salad.

Easy Tomato Soup

1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes

1/2 (14oz) can chicken broth

9 fresh basil leaves, minced OR 1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup cream or half-and-half

2 Tbsp butter

In a large saucepan, bring the tomatoes and broth to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add basil and sugar.  Reduce heat to low; stir in cream and butter.  Cook until butter is melted.

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tortilla soup is one of my all-time favorite foods, and I love all of Pioneer Woman's recipes.  PW knows what she's doing, and all I had to was follow her directions, but of course, I didn't.  I like spicy food, but I was a bit too heavy-handed with the chili powder on this one.  The taste was saved, though, by a nice dollop of sour cream, which mellowed everything out and made it just delicious.    

PW's recipe tells you to sprinkle a mixture of cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder on chicken breasts and then bake them; I just sprinkled on salt and pepper and browned the chicken on the griddle.  To make up for the chili powder I didn't put on the chicken breasts, I sprinkled it (too generously) in the soup.  I won't do that again.  The main differences between the recipe I'm posting here and hers is baking the chicken (her) vs. pan-frying (me) and the cutting down of spices (me).  I also cut down on the cooking time, mainly because I was hungry and I didn't want to wait. 

This really is so good on a cold night or any night you need a pick-me-up.  You'll like it!

And on another note:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! 

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 small onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 can black beans, drained
32 oz low sodium chicken stock
3/4 cup to 1 cup water
3 Tsbp cornmeal
Corn tortillas

Garnishes:
Sour cream
Avocado
Cheese
Cilantro

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and cut into strips.  Cook chicken in skillet sprayed with cooking spray until no longer pink.  Set aside. 

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add onions, bell pepper, and minced garlic.  Stir and begin cooking; add some of the spice mix (of cumin, garlic powder, and chili powder).  Stir to combine, and add chicken strips.  Pour in diced tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato paste, and black beans.  Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat.  Simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered. 

Mix cornmeal with water.  Pour into the soup, then let the soup continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Check seasonings, adding more if needed.  Turn off heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  Add corn tortilla strips before serving.  Garnish with sour cream, shredded cheese, sliced avocado, or cilantro.  Yields 6-8 servings. 

Baked Potato Soup

One of the best things to have on a cold night is soup, and since we're headed for a few cold nights in a row, this is a good one.  This recipe requires you to bake the potatoes beforehand, whether in the oven or in the microwave.  Just make sure you make cook them until they're nice and tender before continuing with the rest of the recipe.  The recipe also calls for a cup of half-and-half, but I used 3/4 cup of sour cream and the rest milk.  The soup is delicious!

Baked Potato Soup

2 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 strips bacon, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or Louisiana Hot Sauce, etc.)
Shredded Cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp.  Drain and reserve one tablespoon of drippings.  Set bacon aside; saute onion and garlic until drippings until tender.  Stir in flour, salt, basil, and pepper; mix well.  Gradually add broth.  Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes.  Add the potatoes, cream, and hot sauce; heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon and cheese. 

French Onion Soup

Mmmm....this was perfect for our cold weather over the weekend.   It's delicious!  I love this soup, and I used Tyler's Ultimate recipe.  It makes a pretty big pot of soup, so make sure you have 4-6 big eaters around, or cut the recipe in half. 

I'm putting the original recipe up, but I made some changes to it.  It calls for you to use a baguette, but I'm not a huge fan of French bread, so I just cut some dinner rolls in half and melted the cheese on top of those.  I used Swiss cheese because it's cheaper than Gruyere, and I'm on a budget, especially this time of year.  I also didn't have any thyme sprigs, but I had some ground thyme, so I added probably 1/4 of a teaspoon. 

French Onion Soup

1 stick butter
4 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 fresh thyme sprigs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup red wine
3 heaping Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 qts beef broth
1 baguette, sliced
1/2 pound grated Gruyere cheese

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme, and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes.  Add the wine, and bring to a boil.  Then reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes.  Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.  Add the flour and stir.  Turn down the heat to medium low so that the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.  Add the beef broth, bring back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler.  Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere, and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3-5 minutes.  Ladle the soup into the bowls, and float a few Gruyere croutons on top.  Alternately, you can ladle the soup into the bowls, top each with two slices of bread, and top with cheese.  Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese. 

Mexican Chicken Soup

I love Mexican food, and I'll often just get some tortilla soup at a restaurant, hoping that the chicken broth and vegetables will be good enough for me to counteract the three bowls of chips I inevitably eat by myself. Sometimes the soups are better than others. This one is excellent and healthy! It also feeds an army, so be prepared to cut the recipe in half, or make room in your freezer. Five people had bowls of soup, and we didn't make a dent in it. It was SO good though, so eating more isn't a problem. I served it with cheesy cornbread muffins and pineapple margaritas, and all of the recipes were from Ina Garten. I followed her recipe exactly, except I didn't have coriander, so I left that out. I would definitely make this again!


Mexican Chicken Soup

4 split (2 whole) chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
olive oil
kosher salt and black pepper
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
2 1/2 quarts chicken stock
1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes in puree
2-4 jalalpenos, seeded and minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro (optional, if you're one of those people who doesn't like it)
6 tortillas
For serving: sour cream, shredded cheese, sliced avocado, and tortilla chips

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat 3 Tbsp olive oil over medium low heat. Add onions, celery, and carrots, and cook for about 10 minutes or until the onions are slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, one tablespoon of salt (depending on the saltiness of the stock), one teaspoon of black pepper, and the cilantro, if using. Tear the tortillas in half; then tear them into 1/2" strips, and drop into the soup. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and season to taste. Serve the soup hot, topped with cheese, sour cream, avocado, and broken tortilla chips.