Time to get the big old soup kettle out, and put some water on the stove to simmer.The cold winds are blowing, and even if the furnace is on,your going to want to ward off the extra chill of that wind with some moisture in the air,and keep the house cozy, so make use of that old homemakers trick,and put something in the pot, so let's play! Regardless of what flavor of soup you like best, there are always ways to improve upon the natural flavors that the pioneer women didn't have at hand as we do today.My favorite is chicken, because it is so versatile, and proven to be the best for you when you are feeling under the weather, and because I am nuts about chicken.It doesn't matter which way you are going with it, the first thing you do is boil the chicken.Some do remove the skin and bones and fat before they cook it, and where this may sound easier, it will also remove a lot of the flavor.True, you can add bullion cubes, and /or canned soup to the mixture, but then you are still missing out on some the natural nutrients that make chicken soup a bona fide cold fighter, so I go the whole route, boiling the whole chicken, removing it from the broth, cool it down enough to handle, skin and debone, and then returning the meat to the broth, to finish cooking, adding the veggies you like, the canned soup or bullion,( or both) simmering it a long time, and then finally, adding your noodles, and /or the dumplings. I usually go the either/or way, because I can't enjoy two carbs in my dishes, but it's all a matter of preference. Lets say, just for the sake of argument, that you want your soup to last longer than three days.Of course you have already scoped out what containers you will store the soup in, and made sure there's room in the fridge for them,or it,but don't forget that if you extend the volume and flavor with canned soup as part of your base,that this will also add a preservative, which will retard the spoilage for at least an extra day or two, and then, of course, there is always freezing the left-overs, which will keep your soup good almost indefinitely, as long as it is packaged well. This is a nice little rule of thumb for almost any kind of soup, because nearly anything you make homemade, has a canned counterpart with which you can enhance the flavor and " shelf life" of your soups and stews. On the other hand, I rarely have any left overs to worry about when I make homemade soup,unless I intentionally make enough so that I can freeze several portions, because we love it so much. The only exception to that rule, would be beans and ham, although there is bean with bacon soup which I am sure would work fine, the canned soup never comes up to homemade bean soup in my estimation, and would also add extra salt, which I could not handle.I am so accustomed to low salt foods by now, that there are a great number of pre-cooked, pre-packaged foods that I cannot stand because they are too salty. Even in my homemade version of bean soup, I use a minimum of ham...such as a nice large thick center slice, to a whole bag of beans, the ham should be trimmed out, chunked up and added only after the beans are cooked, otherwise, you will boil out all the ham flavor, and unless you have a jar of that wonderful ham flavoring lurking in the cupboard, you only want to cook the ham until it is done, not let it simmer for hours and hours.There's nothing worse than tasteless ham.
As for other flavors of soup, Naturally, you will not want to start with boiling the meat first, but sweat the veggies and garlic first, and then add the meat to brown, and then the water, bullion, and fillings.
Don't forget that fresh go-alongs make the soup or stew even better, such as home baked breads or corn bread or muffins, and this wonderful new margarine, Smart Balance? Oh! That is good, and healthy! Try it, you'll like it!
Add to all that a nice fresh salad, and You will have a dinner or lunch that will be an event! Have a nice warm and cozy, tasty winter...make lots of soup!
OUI?
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