Soup Battle, Part 1 - Cream of Mushroom Soup

Photo and recipe courtesy of Chungah at DamnDelicious
http://damndelicious.net/2014/05/10/cream-mushroom-soup/

There have been a handful of soups that Elizabeth and I have very different opinions on making... and we keep vetoing each other when these specific soups come up. However, we had a very busy weekend last weekend and then nothing to do on Sunday and sister came up with the suggestion that I make a soup she doesn't want to eat, and she make a soup that I don't want to eat, and then we make everyone try both.

She HATES mushrooms. I do not understand this because I will eat mushrooms on almost anything. I used to eat the Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup from the can when I was in college. And my sweet husband will always throw a packet of mushrooms on the grill when he is making chicken or burgers.

So I was excited to make this soup and Elizabeth was decidedly UN-Excited.

This was super easy to make, and smelled so good. My only issue is that I could NOT get it to thicken. I made the cornstarch and water mixture three different times and it still would not thicken. But honestly, I liked it soupy. I ate it for lunch three days and then froze the rest in 10oz containers for recipes later.

Also, Colby HATES mushrooms too. I wanted him to give it a chance, so I didn't tell him what kind it was, and gave him a blind taste test. That went well. NOT.

Scoring:

Marty: I give it a 6.5... it does need to be a little thicker, but the flavor is good.
Elizabeth: 3. GAG.
Colby: Blind- I give it a 5. It tastes weird. / Reveal the Soup - GROSS!! A TWO!! I give it a TWO!!!
Me: 7 - Yummy! I am the best cook ever!

Soup Battle, Part 2 - Buffalo Chicken Soup

Photo and recipe from Susan at:

http://doughmesstic.com/2015/02/05/buffalo-chicken-souplow-carb/

Buffalo Chicken Soup was Elizabeth's choice for Soup Battle. She loves all kinds of Buffalo Chicken, and is obsessed with Blue Cheese Dressing.

I have never been a fan of wings, buffalo chicken, blue cheese or anything related to such. However, I have tried to make things that the kids like over the years, even if I wasn't a fan.

About three years ago, I made Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sliders... I ate one, wasn't impressed. Kids loved them. That night, the worst stomach virus ever hit me. I was so sick. I won't go into detail, but it was SO NOT GOOD. The smell of buffalo chicken was EVERYWHERE. In my house, in my nose, in my brain.

So as soon as Elizabeth started making this soup, and the smell started permeating the house,  I started having flashbacks. My stomach was staging a revolt against the soup immediately.

Another thing... this soup calls for a rotisserie chicken. Super easy, right?

Confession: I have never de-boned a chicken. Cooked nor raw. I sent my mother a photo and was all, "GUESS WHAT I AM DOING??" Like I was running the NYC marathon or developing cancer vaccines or something.

I have always had a weird thing about food with bones. It just grosses me out. If Marty had known this from the beginning, it is safe to say he would not have married me. As I don't do boney food, I never made it for the kids either. One of the Famous Family Stories is the time my aunt gave 3 year old Elizabeth a chicken leg and she tried to eat it like a corn dog, from the top... and then says, "I can't eat this chicken, it has a STICK in it." From then on when someone asked if she wanted chicken, she would ask, "Is it the stick kind?" Even NOW, she will tell me that she went to a sleepover or out to eat and "Mom, they gave me stick chicken.." THE HORROR.

Yeah. Marty is ashamed. Horrified and ashamed.

Anyway, so I did a total hatchet job on the chicken. I probably threw out more than I kept because I was trying to make sure there were no veins, or weird spots, or anything too close to the bone...

It occurs to me that maybe I don't need a food blog... I am not quite Alton Brown... LMAO!!!

Once it was all said and done, I was prepared to gag at the soup. And I didn't. It wasn't bad. I ate more than my allotted two bites. Not much more, but more.

Scoring:

Marty: 6.5 - Pretty good!! I actually like this more than I expected
Natalie: 6 - I do not hate it.
Colby: 8 - I really like this soup! I like that it is spicy! (he ate two bowls.)
Elizabeth: 8 - I am the best cook ever!

Creamy Pumpkin Bisque

Photo and recipe courtesy Kelly at designcrushblog


http://designcrushblog.com/2012/11/21/creamy-pumpkin-bisque/


Elizabeth has been wanting to make this soup for a while. She tried a version of it at our favorite local coffee house, Java Primo. If you have never been there, you need to drive over there RIGHT NOW, and try a Panini. Preferably the turkey. It is what sister and I get EVERY TIME. Also their sweet potato pie is HEAVEN. Anyway, sister raved about how delicious their bisque it was and how I had to try it sometime.

Here is where I admit - I had no desire to try it. Pumpkin is a dessert food. I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cookies... but pumpkin soup is a little hard to think about. But that is the whole purpose of this year long experiment. Learn to cook! Try new things!! Have fun!! Love each other!! Gain weight! Be fat!

I let sister make this one from scratch. While I had a hard time wrapping my head around pumpkin soup, she had a hard time wrapping her head around trying to sautee large chunks of carrots, celery and onion. I wish I had videoed her! She makes me laugh.

We made bread bowls for our soup... I tried to keep an open mind. I DID. But BLECH. I didn't like it AT ALL. However, she really liked it and said it was much like Java Primo's.

I am beginning to think maybe I don't like BISQUE. (bisques? bisqueses?)

Ranking:

Me: 3 - and that is because of the bread bowl.

Elizabeth: 7- Mom is weird, I thought it was great. Oh well, more for me. Ha!

Colby and dad were camping and didn't get to try it. If there is enough left for a taste test, I will update!

Asiago Bisque

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2015/03/asiago-bisque/

Photo and recipe from Nikki at Chef in Training



My cousin Julie sent me this recipe last week and we couldn't wait to try it! It quickly moved to the top of our list.

I wanted to use fresh asiago cheese, so we picked it up on a trip to Kroger which is about an hour away. Man, I wish we had a Kroger here in Arkadelphia. Don't get me wrong, I love Brookshires! But something about all the fresh food that Kroger offers just makes me want to move in. We also don't make a trip to Kroger without Elizabeth getting fresh sushi for lunch. Talk about a princess!

We started prepping for the soup by chop, chop, chopping all the veggies. My potato peeler broke last time I used it, so I had to use a knife to peel them,  like a commoner. Channeling my inner Caroline Ingalls, as it were.

Elizabeth was quite concerned that this recipe had wine as an ingredient. So we had a bit of a chemistry lesson. I explained that most of the actual alcohol evaporates, and there might be a miniscule amount left, but nothing of concern.

While cooking, this soup smells delicious.

I do not have an immersion blender, so I used a regular blender, which I admit is pretty redneck. Que Sera! It did blend a little smoother than what I wanted, I wish I had reserved some chunks for texture.

This is another soup that the kids really liked, and the adults were pretty unimpressed. Elizabeth took it the next two days for lunch and said it actually tasted better each time.

Scoring:

Marty: 5 - There seems to be a bit of a bitter undertone, and the soup is quite bland. In all honestly, the bacon is the star of this show.

(I think maybe he has been watching too much Food Network.)

Natalie: 5- Meh. It is very bland. Reminds me a bit of baby food.

Elizabeth: 7 - (and then an 8 the next two days) It's really good! You can really taste the cheese and the soup is very filling.

Colby: 7 - I really like it. I also like the bacon.

Copycat Panara Chicken and Wild Rice

Photo and recipe courtesy of Chelsea at Gal on a Mission

http://www.galonamission.com/copycat-panera-chicken-and-wild-rice-soup/

Spring break is upon us! Even though I still have to work, that extra hour of sleep every morning is AMAZING. Especially since I don't have to make lunches or hustle kids out the door! I can be super lazy, drink my coffee in bed and drive myself to work... and I don't have to listen to Taylor Swift, or Twenty One Pilots, or the new Kelly Clarkson song that Colby is obsessed with!

Marty actually took a few days off so that he can Colby can go camping with his dad at the lake. Lots of fishing and bike riding and card playing. Colby was excited to spend time with his dad and his PopPop, but was not so keen on no internet.

Beth and I decided Friday night would be a good night to make a new soup, and then we could have leftovers for lunch on Saturday before going to the movies. I still had carrots and celery leftover from our last soup so really just looked for a recipe that would allow me to use up my vegetables.

Ok... this soup was the biggest hit. It was pretty easy, took a bit of time. But it is seriously delicious. Very flavorful, and filling. In fact, it was so good, I made another batch yesterday. I had planned to take some of yesterday's batch to my neighbor, but I got distracted folding laundry and some of the rice stuck to the pan. That is my only warning... once you put the rice in, you still have to stir it every couple of minutes. The first time I made it, I didn't use a non stick pot, and it tried to stick. Yesterday I used non stick but put too much faith in that, because it really stuck!

Scoring:

Marty: 8 - This is really good. Like REALLY good. The flavor reminds me of chicken and dumplins. Delicious.

Me: 9 - YUM. Very flavorful. This is now one of my favorite soups.

Elizabeth: 8 - I did not expect this soup to taste this good. I thought it was going to be really bland.

Colby: 7 - This soup is pretty good.

Stuffed Pepper Soup - by Skinnytaste

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/12/stuffed-pepper-soup.html

Recipe and photo by Gina over at www.skinnytaste.com

This recipe is kind of a cheat... because we have had it MANY times. It is one of mine and Elizabeth's favorite soups. We decided to make it this week because we have had so many "fails" in a row that we wanted a winner!

This soup is super easy and delicious. It also has fewer calorie than some of the other soups we have been making.

This recipe calls for marjoram spice, and let me tell you - don't cheat. I have been out of marjoram in the past and used oregano... it's not the same. The Marjoram is what gives it that "stuffed bell pepper" taste. According to cookthink.com: "Marjoram is oregano's calmer, sweeter fraternal twin. Oregano = zesty + peppery + lemony. Marjoram = delicate + floral + round. The two are often used interchangeably but if you get up in their mix you'll see some big differences." I agree!!

Scoring:

Mom: 10 - Easy, delicious, and leftovers are even better!
Elizabeth: 8 - Very good in cold and rainy weather
Colby: 5 - It's pretty good, if you took out the tomatoes it would be a 10
Dad: 6 - It's okay, but not my favorite.

Spinach Artichoke Parmesan Soup

http://redefinedmom.com/slow-cooker-spinach-artichoke-parmesan-soup-recipe/#_a5y_p=4422862

Photo and recipe by Kelly at www.redefinedmom.com

Soup #7

Ok, in case you haven't noticed, there is constantly something going on in my house. I don't know what the deal is, but we absolutely cannot get it together. This soup is a metaphor for our life right now.

To backtrack, Colby had an allergy shot last week that went crazy. This was actually his second one to go crazy. For some reason all of a sudden he is having reactions to his shots. It takes a few days for the reaction to completely go away. Meanwhile, he takes Benadryl and we keep a positive attitude. And by "we", I mean ME. Colby isn't quite as positive as I am. Ha!!

Well, Friday night, Elizabeth tells me that her head is itching so bad that she is actually going a little crazy. I automatically think "lice" and then I think about the "super lice" that is in the news lately and immediately start thinking about how we are all going to look with shaved heads... I have her sit in front of me and start to go through her hair with a flashlight... it's not lice. She has some weird rash all over her head... and down her neck... and behind her ears.... and she says, "Hmm... that may be why my stomach itches," ... pulls her shirt up... She is broken out in hives. Awesome. We start back tracking on what she ate and where she has been. She convinces me to text a friend of mine that is a nurse, and after texts back and forth, I remember the acne medicine she started taking three weeks ago. Nurse Melanie does some research and finds that 1 out of 100 kids have hives after three weeks of use. I gave her a benedryl, and she just keeps getting more and more hivey... give her another benedryl. She sleeps for 12 hours. Saturday night, breaks out in hives again. Same thing. Sunday morning we go to the grocery store... hives.

Basically I need stock in Benedryl right now.

We get home from the grocery store with our big plans of making this soup and also making chicken salad for lunches this week. I pull out the crock pot and put Elizabeth completely in charge of preparing the soup while I start cutting up and boiling the chicken for the salad, doing a load of laundry, loading the dishwasher, and cleaning out a kitchen drawer that had something spilled inside of it.

In the middle of all my chores, I glance over at the crock pot Elizabeth is working on and notice the flour on top.... I ask her, "Did you read the recipe??" and she says, "Well, I was going to put all the ingredients in first, and then read it."

Oh cooking!!!

I explain (ok....exclaim... loudly) that it is very important to read the recipe before you start cooking because putting the milk in now will result in a curdled mess after 5 hours in the crock pot. Honestly, I got really annoyed, which is NOT the point of this whole fun year of soup. (Sorry Sister. *guilty mom face*) She admits that she has already poured the milk in... and the cream cheese.

I decide that maybe if I put it on the stove top instead of the crock pot it will have less of a chance of curdling... I scooped out what I could of the flour and I also pulled out the cream cheese. Move it all to the stove top.

 Elizabeth is perpetually apologizing. I told her it was fine.

"It's NOT FINE. This soup is going to taste like disease, misfortune, and the tears of the homeless starving children in Africa! It will taste like literal SADNESS." she cries. (My kids are a little dramatic.)

I really don't want this soup to be a fail. So I text my mom. Tell her the whole thing. She recommends pouring off all the liquid and starting over. While this is a great plan, I do not have any more chicken stock or evaporated milk on hand. After a few minutes she calls. "What if you drain all the liquid off, keep it and cook the soup in water. Once it is cooked, pour off the water, replace with the reserved liquid and finish cooking as directed?"

GENIUS.

So that is what we did. A five hour "easy" crock pot soup, turned into a three hour hot mess of a pain in the ass stove top soup. But all in all it wasn't horrible. Certainly not disease and misfortune horrible. The texture was a little weird, but I firmly believe that was our fault.

We served the soup with thinly sliced French bread, toasted very crisp with butter and fresh garlic and fresh parmesan on top.

Scoring:

Mom: 7 - Good flavor, weird texture.

Dad: 6 - The texture is a deal breaker.

Elizabeth: 7.5, but with the bread as a spoon, a firm 8.5. This bread is the BEST. How many slices are a serving?

Colby: 7 - it's pretty good. No tomatoes!

Lasagna Soup

http://damndelicious.net/2013/12/14/lasgana-soup/

Photos and recipe from www.damndelicious.net

Elizabeth has had this soup pinned on Pinterest from day one. She has asked every week if "this" is the week we can make lasagna soup. I have hesitated because as I have gotten older, I don't tolerate pastas and tomato bases as well as I used to, and it's just something I mostly steer clear on... but I finally caved.

I am pretty much going to call this soup a "user error" fail. I followed the recipe to the letter except I did use ground sirloin instead of Italian sausage (remember Marty hates Italian sausage).... What I did NOT do is follow my instincts on the recipe.

I am assuming on the blog where she talks about her herb garden that maybe she meant "2 teaspoons fresh oregano"... because I used 2 teaspoons of dry oregano, as I do not have an Aero Herb Garden... because really. I can't even keep fish alive up in my hizzy. I don't need one more thing to completely fail at doing. The list of my failures is long and wide and I don't need to add "kills tiny, innocent plants with fool-proof grow lights" to the agenda.

Let me tell you.... two teaspoons of oregano in this soup will choke you up. The whole house smelled like an Italian restaurant literally burned to the ground. I think if you could get past it, the soup would have been on the higher end of "meh". We may try this again when the smell of oregano is out of my nostrils... like maybe October.

Scoring:

Mom:  4 - Please God, I have spent an hour and a half in this kitchen. It's fine. Just eat it. It's basically macaroni. Where is my vodka?

Elizabeth: 4 - This is nothing like I expected it to be.

Colby: 2 - It's too spicy. Also, why do all the soups you make have so many tomatoes? Did you know I hate tomatoes? Because I do. And I hate spices.

Marty: 3. Call it what it is -  It's oregano soup with a little bit of pasta.

Mexican Lime Soup

Photo and recipe from Jamie at www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com.

http://www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/2013/11/mexican-lime-soup-w-chicken-recipe.html?m=1

I have tried desperately not to fall behind on this blog, and yet here I am! HAHA!! Looks like we will be making at least two soups this weekend.

I had jury duty one week and that led to an existential crisis in my life. Jury duty is no joke. I really struggled. I also started some volunteer work with CASA. Soccer has started back up, Marty has gone back to work even though the thumb is not really healed, and all the prom dresses in the windows have Elizabeth dreaming of pageant season... which leads me back to my existential crisis... ha!!

Elizabeth is never sick. But seems like this season, she has caught every single bug that goes around. Another sore throat. A little more fever. She wanted more soup.

This wasn't the soup we originally planned on. We wanted to make this one:
http://www.aspicyperspective.com/greek-lemon-chicken-soup/

But none of our local stores carried Israeli pearl couscous. This soup seemed like the next best thing.

I let Elizabeth make this nearly from scratch by herself. She is not a fan of chopping onions because her eyes are so sensitive, and she is REALLY not a fan of raw meat. So I did cut up the chicken for her. She also learned to roll the limes around on the counter before juicing. We did one with rolling and one without so she could see the difference in juice production... see, this is a learning experience! Alton Brown would be so proud.

The final verdict on the soup was pretty blah. If you want to make something like this, I would vote for this recipe instead:

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/5-ingredient-easy-white-chicken-chili-recipe/

We have made that several times and it has much more flavor, and more depth.

Scoring:

Mom: 5 - It's fine. It needs more solids. Basically chicken and juice.

Elizabeth: 5 - Kind of weird, but you can taste the lime.

Colby: 1 - GROSS. I don't like anything about it.

Marty: 5 - It's ok I guess, but I would rather have something else. Is that okay? Can I make something else?

Cheeseburger Soup

http://therecipecritic.com/2012/12/cheeseburger-soup/

Photo and recipe courtesy of Alyssa at The Recipe Critic

Well, a few weeks ago, Marty had a accident with a saw. Since his Serious Thumb Injury, he has been on medical leave from the fire department. Let me tell you something: I have always "joked" that the reason we have made it to nearly 21 years of marriage is a lot of laughter and love and a whole crap-ton of "My job takes me away for 24 hours of every 72". So his being home 7 days a week was quaint and lovely for about 8 minutes. After a handful of weeks, he is annoyed with me being mean and I am annoyed with his snoring and our house is shrinking like in those weird dreams you have when you are on cold medicine. Truth be told, (if you haven't already guessed) Marty is a whole lot nicer and sweeter than I am. So he decided to stay with a friend on Saturday night and I decided that would be a great time to rest and read and... wait never mind... paint the kitchen. What was I thinking?

Painting your kitchen. It takes more math than I was aware of when I came up with this diabolical plan. Basically, take the amount of paint you think you need and multiply that by 2. Then take the number of hours you think it will take you to paint the kitchen, and you really need to multiply that by 4. Take the number of rolls of paper towels you think you will use to wipe up the spatters and multiply that by a case. Then take the height of your ceiling from the floor and add one foot, and that is how tall you need to be to paint. Also, refrigerators are super heavy. Basically, Marty came home Sunday to one really pretty wall, two that needed another coat, and the walls on top of the cabinets and behind the refrigerator untouched. WELCOME HOME!! I LOVE YOU!

So that project will be finished another day.

Meanwhile, on Sunday we decided to make a soup. We didn't want to go to the store (again) so we looked around on my Pinterest to see what we could make with ingredients we already had. Thus, Cheeseburger Soup.

The whole time we are preparing this, Elizabeth is being negative. "I have never seen a cheeseburger with carrots." "This is going to be the weirdest thing." "Potatoes? In cheeseburger soup?" "Are the potatoes going to turn into fries?" "Should we MAKE fries?"

But once it was finished? It tasted very weirdly like a cheeseburger. I even chopped up pickles in mine, which totally grossed the anti-pickle-children out.

Scoring:

Elizabeth: 8   I love this soup! It's amazing!!

Mom: 6. It does taste like a cheeseburger. But a really bland cheeseburger. The pickles helped, but it needs... something. It's a happy meal burger, in liquid form.

Colby: 8   This is really good! I really like it.

Marty: (unscored) He tried one bite, said, "I'm not really sure about this. I can't even give it a number."

So basically, I am thinking this is a really good soup for the kids, but the parents might need a date night. :)

Classic beef and tomato macaroni soup

 

http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/classic-beef-tomato-macaroni-soup/

photo and recipe from Karlynn Johnston at the Kitchen Magpie

Soup #3 - Classic Beef and Tomato Macaroni Soup

Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day. Marty had to go to the doctor for a follow up on his injured hand (keeping the details clean because nobody wants to hear about that on a food blog.) Since both kids had medical issues they also needed to see the doctor about, Marty decided (or maybe I guilted him into, it's hard to remember all the details! So HAZY! :D ) taking the kids and making one big day of medical fun. Let's just say two of the three cried, and two of the three needed referrals. On top of everything else, Elizabeth has a cold (or if you ask her, it is SARS) and feels awful. I knew dinner was going to have to be something quick and easy, and when Elizabeth said that this soup was what she was craving, it seemed simple enough.

If I had actually read the recipe.

Instead, I gave the ingredients a quick perusal, knowing by the looks of it, that this soup is basically what we call goulash, and told Marty what to pick up at the store.

It wasn't until I got HOME that I realized this recipe is actually a crock pot recipe. Oops!! I didn't have 8-10 hours... I barely had 8-10 MINUTES.

So, Elizabeth browned the hamburger meat while I started chopping.

Side note - we have been buying fresh ground American only hamburger meat at the butcher instead of buying the pre-packaged Mexi-Canadi-Japan hamburger mixture at the local store. The difference is amazing. More flavor and less fat! We just don't eat it as often because it is a little more expensive.

Anyway, after chopping and browning, we basically threw everything in a pot and hoped for the best. I did eliminate about a cup and a half of the beef stock since this wasn't going to be simmering all day. I also probably should have waited a few minutes before throwing the uncooked pasta in, because it wasn't AS firm as I would have liked. (Marty tried to warn me but I quickly reminded him that obviously *I* am the cooking expert since *I* am the one with the blog.)

This recipe called for a couple of things I have never put in goulash - brown sugar and Italian seasoning. I don't know if that is what made the difference or not, but it really tasted good. Better than I expected for sure. The only thing I would change, if you are making it on the stovetop, I really think one can of tomatoes (either the chopped or the whole) would be plenty. I love tomatoes but it really seems like a LOT. This might not be an issue in the crock pot version.

Scoring:

Elizabeth: 7 - It's really good. I'm really sick. Do I have fever? I need a blanket.

Mom: 7 - Good southern comfort food. Very flavorful.

Colby: 0.01 - All. The. Tomatoes. I will try it because of your blog but just looking at it makes me gag. Ok yeah, it's awful. This is just horrible. I can't. I can't.

Marty: 7.5 - I will not be able to eat this because of my acid reflux but I will try a bite for your blog. Ok, two bites. Hang on, let me try one more bite. This is really good. I think I will take another Prilosec. I need a bowl.

Panera Copycat Broccoli Cheese Soup

http://www.averiecooks.com/2015/01/best-broccoli-cheese-soup-better-panera-copycat.html

Soup #2 - Better than Panera Broccoli and Cheese soup

Photos and recipe from Averie's website above.

I have never been a big fan of Broccoli Cheese soup, but I tried a bite of a friends from a local restaurant a few weeks ago and couldn't stop thinking about it. So I thought that might be a good try for our second soup. On the day we made the soup, it was SUPPOSED to snow. It sounded like a catalog day! Snow on the ground, red cheeked children, gleefully enjoying a day off of school, coming in with snowy lashes and wet gloves to enjoy a hot, thick bowl of soup.

Instead, it didn't snow, and I had two grouchy children, grumbling around with homework and sadness, trudging through the leaves we haven't raked.

This soup was not super hard to make, especially with sister helping me. She sautéed the onion while I made the roux (my FIRST ROUX!), and then she stirred the soup while I chopped the veggies. She still isn't keen on chopping.

It is a very pretty soup. Lots of colors, and very photogenic. I used Kerrygold imported butter simply because it called for unsalted and the only unsalted butter the grocery store had in stock was in a big value pack. And we usually use salted butter. Also, Averie was insistent on good cheese so we used Tillamook Extra Sharp.

All said, the recipe was not hard at all, a bit more complicated than I am used to, but I think I was mostly nervous about the roux. There was a lot of "Does this look thick? No really, when I push it, it takes a minute to fill the gap, do you think that is thick enough?" Keep in mind I am asking a 16 year old who is just a beginner cook, whose only experience with a Roux is the little baby of Kanga in Winnie The Pooh.

In the end, the soup was fine. Someone that LOVES Broccoli and Cheese soup might be a better judge of this recipe. It WAS some of the best B & C soup I have had in my limited samplings, so there is that!

Scoring

Mom: "It's fine! I give it a 7."

Elizabeth: "I am a firm 5. I can't decide if I like it or not. I would love it if the broccoli were potatoes instead."

Colby: "I give it a 4 or less. It leaves a weird taste in my mouth. My mouth feels weird. Have I eaten enough to have some cereal?"

Marty: "I love it! I give it a 6.5!*"

*I questioned how "I love it!" equaled a 6.5. Marty said he thinks of it like the pain scale in the hospital. "Basically a '10' is literally unconscious with the soup flavors. I bet nothing gets a 10. Because I will be unconscious with flavor."

Zuppa Toscana

http://www.alaskafromscratch.com/2014/10/28/zuppa-toscana-creamy-potato-kale-soup-italian-sausage/

(photo from tsgcookin.com)


Soup #1 - January 15, 2015.
Olive Garden Copycat Zuppa Toscana

This one was sort of a cheat, since we make this often. Dare say, it is one of our favorite soups. (except Marty) But I figured since we were behind in our challenge, this was a good one to start with.

I didn't take my own pictures, but will try to do that in the future, at least of the finished product. My kitchen isn't very pretty so don't expect Pinterest-worthy photos!

The recipe we use is from Alaska From Scratch - linked above. There are several different versions, and even some crock pot versions, but we like this one the best. I do add more red pepper flakes because we like this soup with some heat. Some creamy, beautiful heat. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I also do not peel my potatoes. That's a whole lot of time wasted, because the peel cooks down where it isn't really even noticeable. Just scrub them good and call it a day.

ALSO, I don't put my kale in until the end. About 5 minutes before your soup is finished, and before you put in the cream, put in the kale. Otherwise, to me the kale becomes lost. Almost too stringy and disappears. I like the bites of kale in my soup!

We also serve this soup with fresh garlic bread. And when I say fresh, I mean - buy a loaf of soft French bread from the store, take it home and slice it long ways. Brush on real butter and at least three cloves of garlic you have pushed through the garlic press. Bake in the oven at 350 until it is crispy and smells like you want to lay your face in it and take a nap.

One warning about this soup... It is VERY FILLING. If you eat a bowl and you MUST HAVE MORE, wait about 20 minutes. Otherwise you will do what my friend Jennifer and I did one night... She needed a designated driver from the soup. We were both so full we sat around in pajama pants and moaned for like, three hours.

The scores:

Mom: 9. "I love this soup. I want it to be a person so I can marry it."

Elizabeth: 8. "This is probably my favorite soup. I never want anything else."

Colby: 10. "This is the best soup I have ever had. I love this soup."

Marty: 4 "I don't like Italian sausage. I am making nachos."

Once upon a time...

My 16 year old daughter Elizabeth and I are obsessed with soups. If there were a Soup Rehab, we would think about going, but would probably not actually go, because we aren't ready to admit we are powerless over soup.

She is very interested in cooking and I am NOT. To me, it is such a chore! But since she will probably need to be able to feed her self someday and might want something besides her beloved French Toast, we have been working in the kitchen together a bit.

The problem with any meals in my house is that the stuff Elizabeth and I LOVE, my 11 year old son HATES or it gives my 42 year old husband acid reflux. *eye roll*. So dinner is a constant battle of, "Oh I am so excited!" and, "Are those tomatoes???" and, "Can I have cereal?"

One frustrating day, I said something along the lines of, "As God is my witness they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I will find a soup everyone will eat! And they will never be hungry again!!" (said in my best Scarlett O'Hara voice...) And Elizabeth says, "We should make a new soup each week and we can all rank it!" and another friend of mine said, "You should BLOG about it!"

So here we are. 52 Soups in 2016. As it is already January 25, we have some catching up to do!

We decided each of us would rank the soups on a 1-10 scale on nothing but flavor. I could rank the ease of making or the cost of the soup, but that seems a little overwhelming. If a soup is particularly complicated or insanely easy, I will try to mention it.

And let's be honest. We will start with all the easy stuff and work our way up to October or November (or seriously, June even) and we will be grasping at straws. We might even try a Peanut Butter and Jelly soup. Well, no, probably not. But we are going to do our best to try new things like tofu and other things we aren't really used to eating. It will be a Foodventure.

Soups on!