My new obsession

I have a thing for soup.  It's a recent thing.  And by thing, I mean thing.

Now that it's winter (supposedly), I feel that I can address some of my obsession with soup.

Soup, in my opinion, is pretty damn awesome.  You have a whole meal in a bowl--proteins, veggies, pasta, etc.--and it's hot and you can freeze it for a later date or slurp it up.

I discovered my thing at the Co-op.  They make fresh soups daily.  One of my favorite, apple potato bacon, is usually only available during the fall months when apples are plentiful.
But otherwise, almost every time I go to the Co-op, there's a soup option I can't turn down.
Last night it was green chilies bacon and cheddar soup.  It had jalapenos in it.  I don't even like jalapenos, but that soup was damn good!

Anyway, I first plagiarized a recipe based on Olive Garden's Pasta e Fagoli.  It was described to me, at the restaurant, as an "Italian-style chili".  With pasta.

So I hunted down the recipe for that soup.  Which then morphed into my Tuscan Stew.

The original soup at Olive Garden calls for about 9 ingredients.  I think I doubled that list.

• Beef broth
• Ground bison
• Kidney beans
• Cannellini beans
• Marinara sauce
• Diced tomatoes
• Carrots
• Onion
• Celery
• Red wine
• Spinach
• Kale
• Mushrooms
• Artichoke hearts
• Cheddar
• Garlic

And, of course, salt & pepper...
It's a very hearty soup, and full of goodness for you!


Last weekend I bought a ham.  I love ham.  LOVE ham.  If I had to pick one farm animal that I love more than any other, it's pig.  Ham and bacon.  I don't think I need to say more.

Anyway, I bought a ham because they were there.  And I knew, in the back of my mind, that no matter how small of a ham I managed to get, I'd have more than enough meat left over to put into a soup.  Or maybe I bought the ham for soup and figured there'd be some meat left over to just eat for dinner.

Ham, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth and cheese.

Since I'm not a fan of beans with my ham, I searched all over the internet for a recipe that doesn't call for beans or peas or anything else that would ruin my ham.

I found a recipe for Cheesy ham & potato soup.  It doesn't suck.

I had me some of that

Apparently my obsession, as winter continues, is going to worsen.

I bought a soup cookbook.

From the New England Soup Factory.

Today was my first attempt at one of their soups:  Spinach & feta.  Originally spinach, feta and roasted pine nuts, but I'm no fan of nuts.

Cookin' on the stove--chicken stock, potatoes, onion, celery, white wine, garlic, spinach, cream and feta.

Steaming in the bowl

My next soups include Greek orzo, lemon and chicken soup, and apple, bacon and onion soup. The freezer is slowly filling up with soups.  yay!