Simple Homemade Soup On A Cold and Quiet December Night

A simple chicken and vegetable soup was all we needed tonight. Warm and comforting to all!

Simmer leftover chicken and some vegetables, your choice, in enough water to cover. Add a little salt and pepper. Simmer about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Remove chicken and cut up/shred it. Chop vegetables. Return to stock. Add some baby spinach, herbs. For herbs, I like to use parsley and tarragon in chicken soup. Cook just a few minutes until tender.

 

Fresh Cranberry Corn Salsa And Raw Cranberry Apple Salsa

One year ago this month I started my blog and one of the recipes I featured in December was a festive cranberry corn salsa that I used to make mostly from canned goods. That's not such a bad thing, especially if you're short on time. But since I like to control the sodium and freshness of the ingredients I use I decided to make it from fresh ingredients. The salsa tastes great either way though.

Fresh Cranberry Corn Salsa 

RECIPE:

Make a basic cranberry sauce of your choice

The rest:

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, if you are not fond of cilantro, substitute with fresh parsley

1 Anaheim pepper, or 1/2-3/4 cup, diced

1/3 cup diced red onion

1 cup corn, preferably from frozen bag

About 1 tablespoon honey or sugar, or both to reduce tartness

I started with a basic cranberry sauce.

The heat you want in the salsa is up to you. I chose mild heat from an Anaheim pepper, which is the first pepper on the left below. The middle pepper is a Cubanelle and is mild with no heat and would be a good substitute if Anaheims aren't available. The dark green pepper on the right is a Poblano with stronger heat and usually needs to be roasted to reduce the heat.

I sliced open the pepper, scrapped out the seeds and membranes, sliced into strips, then diced them.

Next, I diced one quarter of a medium red onion.

Total amount of Anaheim pepper and red onion is about 1/2-3/4 cup pepper (or one Anaheim) and about 1/3 cup red onion. And total amount of chopped fresh cilantro is about 1/4 cup.

Mix it all into the cranberry sauce along with one cup of corn. I used frozen organic corn, again to avoid cans (does not need to be thawed).

I let the salsa sit for about 30 minutes to build flavor. After tasting, I thought it was a little tart so I added more honey/sugar. Please buy local honey or know your source - there have been reports of possible tainted honey. 

Fresh and delicious!

Another option for the Cranberry Corn Salsa: the Anaheim peppers can be roasted (to be more like canned chopped chili peppers), see below, like I did to make the salsa with leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. This will make them taste sweeter but also more work! It also requires more peppers to make the salsa. Either way, the salsa ends up tasting the same. If you want to roast the peppers, I used four Anaheim peppers for that recipe.

Mostly organic and local. 

Good Food and Friends!

Food brings people together. We all know that. But it wasn't long ago that because of food I went on an extraordinary adventure where I met a wonderful person.

We met through the web world shortly after we started our food blogs. Through the comments we'd leave, we felt a connection. We started cautiously learning more about each other through emails. After some time, we exchanged phone numbers but neither of us called right away. It took a few days. Then it happened. During that first phone call, we were so excited and we couldn't stop talking! We often talked about meeting some day. Then, before long, we made actual plans to meet in person. Putting my fear of flying aside, I flew to Texas with my daughter and we all just had the best time!

We meet!

Then I met Linda's girls.

Fresh honey was always around.

The rest of my visit, I couldn't stop photographing the beautiful scenery.

We went shopping and
I bought cowgirl boots for my daughter and me.

And we were ready for the Mesquite Rodeo, our first.

Which put me in the mood to buy this new cookbook.

We ate well.

Enjoyed fresh peaches from Ham's Orchard.

Enjoyed shopping at a local market.

Snacked on Linda's delicious fresh black eye pea salsa,
and her refreshing Girly Gazpacho.

Delicious also was my first smokey Texas barbecue.

My first chicken fried steak was a treat . . .

. . . at the All Good Cafe . . .

. . . with colorful origami birds fluttering about the ceiling.

A great way to end my visit.

Yes, it was all good and still is.

I hope you visit Linda at The Orange Bee soon. She has a beautiful blog with great food, photos, and fascinating information about raising bees.

Holiday Leftover Ideas

Here are some ideas for Thanksgiving leftovers. We skipped the traditional turkey sandwiches this year, which my kids really don't like anyway, and ate really well for days!

Turkey Hash
The morning after Thanksgiving, I made this easy turkey hash for a hardy breakfast before we went skiing. The hash, made from diced potatoes, red onion, grated carrots, and leftover dark meat, made a tasty side dish to scrambled eggs.

Rustic Oven-Baked Apple Pancake
Leftover apples that didn't fit into the tart on Thanksgiving were the main ingredient in this simple rustic oven-baked apple pancake for breakfast another morning. Use your favorite recipe. I found this recipe in a cookbook I have in New Hampshire.

Turkey Shepherd's Pie
For dinner one night, we had this delicious turkey shepherd's pie with some of the leftover turkey, green beans with leeks, and mashed potatoes. I added hamburg and corn to make my kids happy! There wasn't enough mashed potatoes leftover to complete the pie, so I just made another batch and blended them together. To keep the turkey from drying out, I added a little chicken broth to the bottom of the casserole dish.

 

Four-Grain Pancakes
For another breakfast, we had these four-grain pancakes (whole-wheat flour, rye flour, oat flour, and cornmeal) made with extra pumpkin puree.

Sausage, Broccoli, And Stuffing
The leftover stuffing made a nice addition to this simple sausage and broccoli dinner one night. The sausage also came from the farm where I bought our fresh turkey.

Turkey Soup
I immediately made a lovely stock on Thanksgiving eve from the bones and meat of the turkey. From that stock, I made this comforting turkey soup with bok choy, one of the fresh greens I purchased at the local farm when I picked up my turkey. I kept it simple by cooking the chopped vegetables right in the stock. The turkey was added last, once the vegetables were tender. The pasta was cooked separately and added to each individual bowl just before serving.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Turkey Hash
Leftover turkey hash was made with the leftover turkey. We ate it with leftover brussels sprouts from another meal. It made a very nice light lunch one day.

Cranberry Salsa

A great snack that my family really loves this time of year is this festive cranberry corn salsa. I make it every year and sometimes from the leftover cranberry sauce. When I started my blog last December, I posted the basic recipe here. I'll be posting my new fresh version of the recipe this weekend.