Minestrone.

There's not really a lot soups I like. Stews, chowders are ok. But I was never a big fan of chicken and noodles or even chicken and stars when I was younger. Too much broth, too salty, and ultimately not enough quality substance.

I had couple cups of tomato puree leftover that I needed to use along with some celery. I forgot to buy stuff for cabbage rolls and I also didn't feel like putting forth the effort for them so I opted to make minestrone.

I like my soups on the thicker side so I only used 2-3 cups of beef broth (much deeper than chicken broth) and about 2 cups of tomato puree. I thought that I might have chopped too many vegetables (a couple stalks of celery, 4 carrots, 2 cubed Yukon potatoes, half a zuke, half an onion, lightly sauteed) but the broth was just enough to cover. Some oregano, basil, garlic, a lot of parsley, some salt and pepper, simmered for about 40 minutes. Tastes good with some dashes of Frank's and plain crackers.

Also, I guess I forgot to take a picture.

Addendum: This picture is from a recent pot I whipped up, probably March 2011. I used a cup of merlot, and it was pretty good.

Clam Chowder.

Looked over this and that and tried to merge them. I love clam chowder and, in cooler weather, remember eating a lot of the canned variety when I was younger. Mostly I had a half bottle of clam juice leftover from this and wanted to use it; I also had a bag of Yukon Golds because I was sick of eating Russets.

Needed more clam juice (only had half a bottle) and more clams (only used two cans). I used flour and milk instead of heavy creme, but I think next time, I'll try the creme method. The flour didn't cook through so it ended up more like gravy than chowder. I wonder if going full-on fish and clam chowder is too much.

Kimchi Chigae.

Kinda surprised I haven't gotten around the making this before. Or maybe I did? I don't remember. But it was delicious. Could have used a bit of gochujang and green onions would have been good but I didn't have any. I also used pork shoulder instead of pork belly since I don't know where to get pork belly, but the shoulder had some good marbling that worked out well. I need to make Korean food more often.

Italian Sausage, Lentil, and Swiss Chard Soup.

Sourced from Closet. Coincidentally, Elise also had a sausage and lentil dish at the same time. Originally called for kale, I subbed Swiss chard which is pretty good, kinda like spinach but more buttery in texture, and added a nice combination of colors. Turned out pretty awesome and hearty. Pretty minimal in ingredients, didn't require a million spices, not even salt and pepper, just a couple bay leaves. I think the simmered sausage brings all the spice necessary. I'd make it again.

Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup.

Sourced from 365. I adjusted the proportions a bit since I was using more black beans and wanted it to be thicker. But it was pretty disastrous. The salsa was nonexistent, and it was too soupy. I used dried beans this time instead of canned, and some of the black beans were still a bit harder than I would have liked, even after soaking them for quite a while and cooking them in the crock pot for a long time. I'll try it again some other time. I can probably guess my way through it better.

Roasted Red Pepper, Cauliflower and Crab Chowder.

A conglomeration of recipes, I used shallots instead of onions because I had them. Roasted red pepper, boiled cauliflower, simmer, puree, milk, meh. I like the combination of red pepper and crab generally, but it didn't mesh as well for me here.

It was a little grainier than I would have liked and lacked the chowder-y consistency. I had skipped the heavy creme, since I didn't have any and it wasn't universal across recipes, but I think it would have helped.

Albondigas.

Sourced from Elise. The outstanding addition in this is the mint mixed in with the meat, which was turkey. As always, I'm very hesitant with the salt so it ended up missing something. I also tried to reconstitute some tomato paste into tomato sauce but didn't use enough paste.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup.

Butternut squash is one of those things that people don't know what to do with or something like that. Maybe? I've made a number of new soups this semester, not all of which turned out that well, but a prevailing theme seems to be pureeing things. Boiled with onions before processing and then simmered with chicken broth, curry powder, salt, and pepper. The spice from the curry and sweetness from the squash went over really well.

One squash produced about 4 small-but-large-enough bowls which is just right to go along with a sandwich.

Split Pea Soup.

Sourced from another new food blog. All pretty explanatory, but I fiddled with the meat. You're supposed to use ham hocks, but the source used Canadian bacon and bacon (wat.). I actually bought what I thought was a ham, which it was, but it was a picnic pork shoulder. That's apparently a pork shoulder with the skin still on. And I think already cooked. Pretty sure of that. Anyway, I had to boil this thing, I wish I had just used the ham broth instead of chicken broth (as source indicated), but I guess it was leaner this way. Garlic, onion, yeah.

I froze some and refrigerated the rest which congealed into a sweet green brick.

Shit's fucking awesome. Here's the thing about split pea soup. It's super easy, you can make it taste however you want, and it can be an accompaniment or a main course. I need to make more soups.

I also made some red mashed potatoes, but I mixed in some boiled cabbage which is also awesome.

Also, refried black beans are awesome.

Pork and Black Bean Stew.

I think I found this recipe on the back of a can of black beans. You would think I would a can of black beans better than that. In any case, this was...

• Black beans
• Corn
• Green chiles
• Chicken broth
• Pork (I ended up using trimmed portions of country style ribs. It was a lot of work but worth the price. Looking for something easier? Use lean stew meat, obviously.)

I believe...that's about it. Bring to boil, simmer. Use whatever seasonings you want, especially to make it spicy, like lots of chili powder. Add flour if you want it less soupy, though it thickens on its own in the refrigerator.

I thought it served well with some japs, diced tomato, and sour cream; add a side of sourdough.