Best Veggie Soup Ever

'The Hubs' was out of town at a bicycle race yesterday so he was grabbing quick food where he could find it and in the evening I treated a friend to a restaurant meal for her birthday--so no cooking for the family. I therefore concentrated on finishing up the beef veggie soup that I started the day before. Time and again I'm asked for the recipe for my veggie soup. I have to chuckle at that---who uses a recipe for veggie soup? I'm reminded of all the grandmas I've heard of who never used recipes--just a pinch and a handful of this and that. But, certain friends insisted I try to write it down, so I've managed to at least outline the basics. So, for you, Megan, when I'm gone you can make it for your family by doing this:

YUMMY BEEF VEGETABLE SOUP

When I make this soup I make a big batch. I use an 8-quart kettle.

1-1 1/2 lbs of stew meat (if you're a major carnivore, use 2 lbs). Sometimes I brown it in a little olive oil, sometimes I don't)

Place meat in stew pot, add 2 envelopes of dry Lipton onion soup mix and 2 quarts of beef broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook at low boil until the meat is tender--maybe 2 hours, adding liquid as needed.

Potatoes and carrots: 'The Hubs' loves carrots more than potatoes so if the soup is for us I put in lots of carrots--maybe 3 lbs. When I make the soup for others I just try to get a good balance. Yesterday I used 2 lbs of carrots, sliced about 1/4" thick and maybe 5 or 6 modest-size Yukon Gold potatoes cut into 1" cubes. Sometimes I add celery, sliced about 1/2" thick. Add veggies to the kettle.

Add 2 12-ounce cans of V-8 Juice and enough liquid (water or beef broth) to cover the veggies and cook at a low boil until tender. I don't want mushy veggies so I time this step carefully. I set a timer for 10 min. and check the potatoes and the carrots. Yesterday, after 10 min., the carrots were still a little crunchy but the potatoes were done. Uh oh. I was a little fearful that the potatoes would dissolve if I cooked them longer. That actually happened to me once. I delivered a pot of soup to a friend and noticed there were no potatoes in it....and I had added a lot of potatoes to the pot. I evidently left them at the low boil too long and they disappeared. The variety of potatoes does make a difference. Russets and reds are probably the safer choice. I used Yukon Gold because that's all I had and they seemed to cook faster. I set the timer for an additional 3 min. and the carrots were then tender and the potatoes seemed about the same so it worked out fine.

At this point I add the canned veggies: corn, green beans, diced tomatoes. I start out adding one can (15.5 oz) of each. If there's room in the pot I might add more of one or all three of those. As soon as these are heated through, the soup is ready to eat. I do taste test it. I rarely need to add salt, as the dry soup mix has plenty and seems to season it to my taste. If it tastes flat I'll give it a few shakes of onion and garlic powder and/or add some concentrated broth (a new product I recently discovered--it comes in little 6-paks, each containing about a Tablespoon of jelled broth)--maybe more V-8. It just depends on personal taste.

I like elbow macaroni in my soup but my husband does not, so I sometimes will cook a little pot of macaroni and add it to just my bowls of soup. I have a friend who doesn't consider veggie soup a finished product unless it contains chopped cabbage, so I'll add that if the soup is going to her.

I can't say for sure but I think what makes this soup special is the dry onion soup mix and the V-8 juice.

Enjoy! It's a real treat in cold winter months but truly wonderful anytime.

Taking a Stab at Recording....Again!

Obviously I was living in Fantasyland when I was certain I could keep a daily record of the food goings on in my kitchen. Life just keeps getting crazier and crazier. Many trips to see the grandchildren---an 8 hour drive. And, now we've purchased a small condo near them so we will have our own digs--all well and good, except the place needs some updating, so there will be more trips to oversee/do the sprucing up. Add in a trip to Oklahoma for a family reunion and a tent camping trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone and I foresee many days when activity in the kitchen will be nil.

So, as in the past, I am attempting to reduce my food inventory--most of it purchased at my guilty pleasure, a local Discount Grocery--small, tucked away in an inconspicuous locale. Such fun seeing what they might have on any given day and figuring out what to create with my purchases. Over two weeks ago I bought several beautiful bell peppers--orange and yellow. I used some but then we left town for 8 days and I was doubtful that the four remaining would be useable by the time I was back home. I needn't have worried. Even three days after our return home, they were perfect. So, tonight I decided to make stuffed peppers. It's not a favorite dish of ours so I pondered how to make it attractive to 'the hubs.' Didn't take much thinking: hot and spicy. Everything came from the DG. A pound of ground beef, a Utah onion, a can of extra-hot Rotel tomatoes, a cup of prepared Uncle Ben's brown rice, hot and spicy tomato sauce and grated Mexican blend cheese. There were 8 pepper halves and 'the hubs' ate 5 of them. I'm on a deprivation diet so didn't eat any of them. The 3 remaining will be lunch tomorrow. The unused rice will be added to a large pot of veggie beef soup I'm making to take to two friends who are dealing with health problems.

Speaking of the soup, I used 2 quarts of beef broth, 2 envelopes of dry onion soup mix, 2 cans of corn (one yellow, one white), 2 cans of green beans, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 2 pounds of carrots (10-cents per pound at the DG today!), Yukon Gold potatoes, and celery. All of the previously listed ingredients came from the DG. The beef was purchased elsewhere, as was the V-8 juice I'll add. Many cans came off the pantry shelves but I also purchased other items, so the shelves aren't looking bare yet.

What will be subtracted from the shelves tomorrow??

A Brand New Food Year

I enjoyed my month-long hiatus from keeping my food record but it is time to begin anew. It's too bad I fell off the food-log wagon right after Thanksgiving because I've used a whole passel of things from my larder (my choice of words, no doubt, tells my age). I made several batches of treats that used a lot of the foodstuffs on my shelves, all of which came from my little discount grocery store (DGS). I do feel proprietary toward that cute little store--that's why I call it "my" DGS. I wouldn't have much of a social life if it weren't for my almost daily shopping visits there.

But, I'm going to skip trying to list those items used in the Christmas yummies and begin with tonight's dinner: salmon fillets on the grill, chopped salad with Asian peanut dressing, sugar snap peas, carrot slices with butter and pure Vermont maple syrup. With the exception of the salad ALL other items listed came from the DGS. Can't say the volume in my fridge or on my shelves has decreased by much, though. There are still snap peas in the crisper waiting to be cooked for another meal. Just a small portion of the butter and maple syrup were used, so the butter dish and the bottle are taking up the same amount of space in the fridge. And, the carrots---well, in a weak moment at the DGS this afternoon I purchased 5 pounds--yes, 5 POUNDS!!--of cleaned, sliced and ready-to-use carrots. They were only $1.89 and, obviously, I'm a sucker for a deal. And, I have probably 4 1/2 lbs. of carrots remaining in the crisper of the fridge. Oh, my! I'm fond of carrots but I can't imagine eating 5 lbs. of cooked carrots, no matter how much butter, syrup, and brown sugar I slather on them.

Got interrupted last night so am now finishing the Jan. 2 post. Hubby loves my beef veggie soup and he especially likes it loaded with carrots, so I need to get going on a vat of soup. I'm also searching for recipes that use carrots (maybe cooked and mashed and added to something like banana bread---except it would be carrot bread). Most baked goods call for shredded carrots but mine are already cut into round slices, so grating isn't an option. The Internet should provide me with plenty of options for depleting my lifetime carrot supply.

Speaking of my weakness for a deal, I also have 10 half pint cartons of heavy whipping cream looking for a use. I could happily drink it. Some people crave potato chips or peanuts or Cheetos when they're feeling snack-happy. For me, it's cream. Not ice cream. Cream. I like it on cereal, over a bowl of graham crackers (hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it), in certain soups, in some alcoholic drinks, stirred into my skimmed milk (yeah, I know--sort of defeats the purpose, huh?), poured over fresh berries. I'm hopeless. But, they were buy one, get one free...a quart of heavy whipping cream for $1.60!! That amount would cost almost $8 at the regular supermarket. I just couldn't leave it on the shelf at that price. Yes, the sell-by date has passed but the higher the fat content, the longer the shelf life. I'll drink it/use it until it smells sour (if it ever does), then I'll bake something with it. My grandparents didn't have refrigeration (no electricity) until they were very old people. Times were tough, families were big, tossing out food was not an option. Getting rid of sour milk would've been a sacrilege--so Grandma made a cake, or cornbread or other down-home delicacy. I learned from my grandparents to make-do. Of course, my internist might not approve of any of my intended uses for the glut of heavy cream in the fridge but that's what statins are for, right?

Will report on my fabulous talent for food inventiveness later on.