The Real Campbell's Tomato Soup...

... and grilled cheese!

Today I wanted some good, old comfort. There's almost nothing that can say that to me more than a creamy tomato soup and grilled cheese.

To make the soup:

In a large pot over medium heat, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil and a couple tablespoons of butter. While those are melting down and together, chop one onion. It doesn't have to be diced too small, just a coarse chop. Once the butter and oil are melted, add the onion and continue to cook it over medium heat until the onion gets nice and soft. Don't forget to add a little salt and pepper - you know how I feel! =]~

While that's cooking, take about 60 ounces of whole tomatoes (if you can your own, you'd use about a quart), add it to a blender and pulse it a few times to break the tomatoes down. You will likely have to do this in two batches. Check your onions! Keep stirring them as we don't want them to brown or char, we just want them soft.

Once the onions are done, add in the tomatoes and about 4 cups of chicken stock. Add kosher salt and fresh black pepper and 2 bay leaves. Let all that come together, on low heat, for about 20 minutes.

Slowly add heavy cream to the soup until you've added about 1 1/2 - 2 cups. It's really a preference thing. I like my soup nice and creamy. Now, in our house, we sometimes need to make things stretch - feed the masses, yanno what I mean? So, to do that, I used a separate pot, boiled some elbow noodles and tossed them in the soup. It made the soup a little more substantial and even the pickier eaters enjoyed it because it had a little fun in it!

Then, for the sammiches... I used ciabatta bread that was fresh at the deli counter and American cheese and cheddar cheese sliced fresh from the deli counter. These are two important things. Too often we get caught in simple, old school grilled cheese. It's really easy to give it a fresh taste!

So, I cut the tops off the bread rolls like this...

In a small bowl, I added about 1/4 cup of mayo - not miracle whip - and some garlic powder, to taste. On one piece of the bread, I smeared a good bit of the garlic mayo. Then I added one slice of American and one slice of cheddar. Don't over cheese a grilled cheese. It's about using good, quality cheese and just enough to make it yummy. Close the sandwich up. I made 10 sandwiches, but had to go back and make some more mayo along the way. I buttered one side of all the sandwiches while they were sitting on the counter and the pan was heating up. You want to make grilled cheese over medium heat. This will give the cheese time to melt without burning the outside. Whatever you do... butter the bread and not the pan! As I got ready to add them to the pan, I held it carefully and buttered the other side.

Yes, this was a child's bowl. At least I grabbed a photo, right?

Cook until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden.

Now go eat! =]

Chicken broth

I have a couple ways to make chicken (or poultry) broth. The way I most often do it is this:

Clean one whole chicken and be sure to remove the giblets (fry giblets and feed to the dogs!). Place the chicken in a large stock pot and cover with water. When I say cover, I mean cover it and then add some more water! haha. It really depends on how much stock you want. I typically do a large pot.

Put the chicken on medium high heat. Add two onions, halved. If you have some carrots and/or celery on hand, go ahead and throw those in, too. I don't typically do that, but if I have some that need to be used up, I'll add them in.

Next come the seasonings. This is really personal preference. I use kosher salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, and garlic powder. Since I have a large pot, I use a lot of seasoning. This is something you may want to play with and develop something that suits you best.

Once the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat and let a low boil continue for about an hour. Turn down the heat and simmer for another hour or so; maybe even two. Go wild! heh. While this is cooking, you can occasionally skim some of the fat off the top of the water.

I'll tell you the rest in a minute. I promise.

The second way to do the broth is to use carcasses that you've gotten from dinner. For instance, the day after Thanksgiving is a great time to make stock. You're home and there's a good chance that you have a huge turkey carcass waiting to be stock! Follow all the same steps as above, except you're using the carcass instead of the whole bird. Remember from the beef broth post how I said when the bones have been roasted how they bring another level of flavor? Well, the same is true with chicken or turkey stock. And you can always use chicken carcass to do this as well. Do you throw away your rotisserie chicken carcass? Shame! Make broth! =]~

Okay, so now that your broth is all done - use a large strainer and place it over another large stock pot. Carefully, pour the full pan into the strainer, so it will catch all the goodies, and the broth will fall into the other pan. If you're using a whole chicken or chicken pieces, lay those out on a cookie sheet so they can cool. Once cool, pull the meat off and use it to make something yummy! You can freeze it or use it for dinner that night! =] Once again, the pups get a nice meal of carrots and celery if I used those. You could eat it, but all the flavor is in the stock now and the veggies get pretty mushy.

Cover the stock pot with a clean towel and let it sit on the counter to cool. Once it's cooled down, pour it into quart size freezer bags or freezer safe plastic bowls. Put it in the fridge overnight and place in the freezer the next day. Tada! Chicken stock!

It looks like a lot of work, but it's really very simple. Go ahead, try it. =]

Creamy soup remade!

It's been a long time since I've looked at some of these posts...

It's been a long time since I've written some of these posts...

The good news is - I'm a changed person! I see ingredients that I would never use now and even had to take something off my "pantry must-have" list over there on the side. Canned creamy soup. Any kind. It was *always* in my house. It was a well used ingredient!

I'm free of the canned creamy soup!! Praise Jesus! Right? Right!

Want to break free from the canned creamy soup bondage, too? Let me show you how!

Ingredients:
4 Tbs. butter
3 Tbs. flour
1/2 - 1 c. chicken broth (homemade!)
1/2 c. half and half (might be a little more)
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a small saucepan then add the flour slowly to make a nice roux. Remove the pan from heat (turn the burner to low while the pan is removed) and add in the chicken stock until it's nice and creamy. Place the pan back over the low heat and slowly add the cream. Bring it to a gentle boil until it's a thick, creamy consistency. Add salt and pepper.

Note: There are SO many variations to this... This recipe will just serve as a base and can be used as is. Or you can add sauteed onions, mushrooms, celery, and any other seasonings you may like. It really depends on the recipe you're putting it into. Also, the measurements are very dependent on what sort of dish it's going into. A thicker sauce or soup base will work well for things like pot pie, while a thinner one would work well to make potato soup or something along those lines. Just try it - you'll find your rhythm! =]