It’s Fall…time for soup!!!

No question is silly when it comes to cheese! If you use sliced cheese, about 2 or 3 slices mixed in works rather nicely. I usually put one wide slice of velveeta (or the store brand). It comes out super-creamy. You can go less or more according to your personal taste.

Hey Ginny – do you like pea soup? You can do the same thing with that! Pea soup is fun because you can add stuff like potatoes and carrots and celery and chunks of ham (drool). I’ve even added stuff to noodle soup to make it creamy. Besides cheese, add a can or corn and a tablespoon of salsa.

Yummmmm, pea soup, etc. I don’t like pea soup but this sounds wonderful!!! I’m coming to your house Joan, for a mugga soup!

This one is a year-round staple for me. The girls love to get chicken bits as i pick the bones.

Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup (I’m originally from PA)

* 2 (3 pound) whole chickens, cut into pieces

* 3 quarts water

* 3 onions, minced

* 1 cup chopped celery

* 2 large carrots, sliced

* 2 1/2 tablespoons salt

* 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg

* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

* 10 ears fresh corn (or 2-3 cans of corn, drained)

* 3 eggs

* 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

* 1/2 cup milk

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large pot over medium heat, combine chicken, water, onions, celery, carrots, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, adding water as needed, until chicken is very tender. Remove the chicken from the soup. Refrigerate chicken and soup.

2. When fat solidifies on surface of soup, remove from refrigerator and remove fat. Remaining soup should equal about 2 1/2 quarts.

3. Remove corn from cobs by splitting kernels lengthwise with a sharp knife and scraping corn from cob. Combine soup and corn in a large pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until corn is tender, 10 to 15 minutes. (or just add the cans of drained corn)

4. Meanwhile, place two of the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and chop. Set aside.

5. Chop cooled chicken meat and add to soup.

6. In a medium bowl, beat remaining egg until light in color. Beat in flour and milk until smooth. Drop batter by partial spoonfuls into hot broth to make small (1/4 -1/2 inch round) dumplings. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 5 minutes, until dumplings hold their shape and float to the surface. Stir in reserved cooked egg. (If you don’t wish to make the rivels [dumplings] you can use egg noodles)

Boy these all sound really good!! Good thing I had already eaten lunch. I love a good french onion soup…yummmmeeeeeeeeee! Unfortunately it is definitely not low fat with all the butter as well as the gruyere cheese. ::pouts::

It is a very sad day here. I have taken the last container of frozen soup out of the freezer for my lunch. I am not making any more because we just aren’t getting the weather to justify it. It’s not cold today but we do have very gusty,biting SW equinox winds today and as I’m going out to play mini putt with MiniKK I need to be warm from the inside.

Good bye soup season, enjoy it over there. (sniff sniff)

Soup… hmm, the best soup I’ve found so far this season is a curried butternut squash soup. It goes something like this:

1 large butternut squash

1 or 2 onions

butter (at least 1/2 stick)

1 small clove of garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1/4 cup yellow curry powder (more if you like curry a lot)

1 can chicken stock (substitute water if you don’t want soup so rich)

1 can vegetable stock

16 oz. sour cream (low fat is fine)

pinch cayenne pepper powder (optional)

Slice the squash longwise in half; remove seeds from cavity. Take 1/4 stick of butter and melt; brush onto cut surface of squash.

Bake squash in 400 F oven for about 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 30 min, or until soft. Remove from oven and turn off oven.

In large saucepan (3 qt), melt remainder of butter. Peel and dice onion/s; add to pan. Crush garlic clove; add to pan. Sauté on medium heat until the onion becomes clear or translucent; sauté just a little bit longer, but just shy of carmelizing. Turn heat down to low.

Add curry powder, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Stir in thoroughly. Add chicken stock (or water).

Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh of the squash into the saucepan. It should scoop out easily from the skin.

Use either a handheld stick-blender to pureé the mixture directly in the pan. Alternatively, pour the contents into a blender and puree. (If using the latter method, you may need to split the pan contents and blend in two batches, then recombine in the saucepan.)

With the thoroughly pureéd mixture in the saucepan, add the vegetable stock. Taste. Adjust curry powder and/or cayenne to taste.

Turn the heat off. Add the sour cream. Mix in thoroughly, until the soup is completely homogenous.

Serve. No crackers needed; this is a thick, delicious, sweet soup with an amazing dark golden color. It reheats easily, but please reheat it gently due to the sour cream.

These all sound so delicious! I’m no cook, but I may have to try a few of these(won’t Mark be surprised!!!) I’ve saved them to my favorites; it’s already soup weather here..50s and 60s..I love the fall…my favorite time of year!!!!