Celeste's Tomato Soup

Historian's Note:  This recipe was created, taste tested, and perfected by Celeste back in 2014.

Instructions:

Start with a can of your favorite Tomato Soup as a base.  Whether it be Campbell's or Progresso or Western Family.  Add to a sauce pan and prepare as directed.

Add the following ingredients (sprinkle and adjust to taste):

• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Italian / Pizza Seasoning
• 1/4 tsp "Season All" seasoning
• 1/4 tsp Pepper

Heat soup to hot, but without boiling.  

Now cook up some tasty grilled cheese sandwiches and enjoy!

NOTE:  The purpose of the seasoning is to enhance the flavour and give it a restaurant or home-cooked zest!

Butternut and Acorn Squash Soup

 Ingredients: 

• 1 acorn squash
• 1 butternut squash
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 1/2 T olive oil
• 2-3 garlic cloves (these don't need to be chopped or minced or anything)
• 1 can (family size - 22.6 oz) cream of chicken soup
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 t red pepper flakes

Directions:

Cut acorn and butternut squashes in half and scoop out the seeds. Place cut side down in a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes at 350°.  (The butternut squash was not yet squishy at that point, but it still worked out fine!)

Put onion & garlic cloves at the bottom of large pot with the olive oil (at least 5 quarts probably - we used Ben's stockpot which was 10 quarts and it was about half full). Cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes until onion is translucent-ish. Put into your food processor or blender. 

Add the cream of chicken soup, nutmeg, cinnamon, brown sugar, and red pepper to the onions and garlic in the food processor.

When the squash is done, add about 1/3 to the food processor (something like that - we loaded the food processor 3 times so 1/3) and pulse until reasonably smooth. Add to pot. Keep filling & dumping the food processor with squash until there is no more.

Cook on medium heat on the stove for a few minutes.

It was so creamy and yummy with rolls! We made the "Pandemic Bread" recipe as rolls and they complemented it perfectly. Very filling!

Celeste's Tomato Soup

Celeste has been picking up the culinary touch during the past couple of years, and she has created her own blend of spices to enhance the traditional canned tomato soup!  It actually tastes quite good.  My main complaint with tomato soup fresh from the can (even Campbell's) is that it tends to taste bitter, and even a touch metallic, depending on how long it has sat in food storage.

Celeste likes extra flavour too, and her unique combination of spices tastes very good.  It actually reminds me of a basil tomato soup, and it greatly improves the canned experience.  So I made her measure out the ingredients tonight, and thus the recipe has been solidified! :-)  She makes her soup the way all great chef's do... she sprinkles everything into the soup until it tastes just right.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of tomato soup
• Italian Seasoning (sprinkled to taste)
• McCormick Season All Spice  (sprinkled to taste)
• Salt & Pepper added to taste (be conservative since the other spices include salt)

Directions:

1. Bring two standard sized 10¾ oz. cans of Tomato Soup to a simmer.
2. Excepting Progresso, most canned soups call for adding water or milk. Use water. 
3. Add the spices to taste.  These spices really make the soup more flavourful!
4. Have the cheese sandwiches grilling while the soup is heating
5. Only heat to a simmer, avoiding a boil.

Note:  Celeste often swaps one of the cans with Progresso 19 oz. "Hearty Tomato" or "Tomato Basil" soups.

Celeste's recipe goes very well with grilled cheese sandwiches (we cut them angle-wise into two triangles) and dip them in the soup.

Best Dang Crockpot Beef Stew EVER

This is from AllRecipes: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-beef-stew-i/detail.aspx but a couple minor changes.

Ingredients

• 1-2 pounds beef stew meat, cubed

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 2 onion, chopped

• 2 beef or vegetable bouillon cubes 
• 4 cups water

• 5 potatoes, diced

• 2 c. carrots, sliced

• 3 stalks celery, chopped

Directions

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; sprinkle over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, onion, bouillon cubes, water, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

1. Cover, and cook on Low setting for about 6-8 hours.

Wonderful Wild Rice Soup

Cut 4 oz. of bacon into small pieces and cook. (Or you can use a cup of chopped, cooked ham.)

Place in crock pot. 

Add:
2-10 3/4-oz cans condensed cream of potato soup
1 pkg prepared Uncle Ben's instant wild rice
2-2-oz cans non-fat or 2 % evaporated milk
1-2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese

Put on warm all day long and thin with additional regular milk, if desired.  

The original recipe is from Mom (Kathryn)'s co-worker but used a pound of bacon, whipping cream and much more cheese - so this is very tasty but a healthier version that Kathryn adapted.

Navy Bean Soup

Mom has very good memories of this - her mom used to make it and Mom thinks this is pretty darn close.

Boil and simmer ham bone until meat falls off the bone. Discard the bone and cut up the ham.

Add:

1-2 T minced garlic
1 chopped onion
Boil until done. Add 16 oz. canned white beans or soak and cook 1 pound dried beans instead.

(If you want to do this in the crock pot, boil the ham bone, onion and garlic first.)

Alison's Taco Soup

This recipe is an amalgamation of three different taco soup recipes, therefore, I might as well call this one my own (need just a little ego stroking today, thank you very much). It has quickly become one of our favorite and quick soups.

1 onion, diced
1/2 green pepper
ground beef
1 can kidney beans + liquid
1 can corn + 1/2 liquid
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
taco seasonings (One of those packets or your own favorite combination. Ours is chili powder, cumin, mustard, paprika, and a little Mrs. Dash (she's like my third grandma).)
tortilla chips
shredded cheese
sour cream

Saute one onion and half a green pepper (optional) in a little Worcestershire sauce. Add ground beef and brown. Add taco seasonings. Add beans, corn, and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil. Simmer until ready to serve. In your own bowl, sprinkle on some shredded cheese, crushed tortilla chips, and a dollop of sour cream.

Eryn's Crockpot Chicken Soup

This is nothing fancy, but turned out pretty good!

Ingredients:
8 cups chicken broth (I just used 8 cups of water and some bouillon cubes)
2 cups diced celery
1 medium onion
2 cups diced carrots
1-2 lbs chicken, diced (can throw it in raw or throw it in a pan for a couple minutes with the onion to seal in juices)
Bag of frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups rice (I used brown)
3 cloves garlic
Some lemon pepper
Some thyme
Some basil

Preparation

Throw (or place) everything in the crockpot except for the rice and leave on high for 2-3 hours. Throw the rice into the pot for another hour and you should be good to go!

I will post a picture later - I took one using my phone.

Chicken Corn Chowder

Saute in butter until tender:
3/4 c. chopped celery
3/4 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. butter

Add:
1 3/4 c. milk
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can corn
1/2 t. basil
1/2 t. salt

Heat until chowder is hot but not boiling.

Baked Potato Soup

This is probably the first soup I ever made that didn't come from a can because I durned well felt like making soup from scratch one night. The recipe came from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Eat At Home, but I left out the bacon because I didn't feel like getting frostbitten fingers searching for it in the freezer. I also added broccoli because Thayne loves it on his baked potatoes. So my rule is - put whatever you usually like on baked potatoes!

4-6 baked potatoes
1 onion, chopped
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
6 cups milk
1-2 cups cheese
Steamed Broccoli (frozen California blend veggies work, too)
Seasonings of your choice

Bake the potatoes (microwave or oven is fine) and scoop out the pulp. I got tired halfway through and just ended up cutting the rest into chunks instead.
Melt butter and saute onion, add milk, WHISK in flour. DO NOT BOIL!
Add potatoes, cheese, broccoli.
Season to taste with what you generally like to put on baked potatoes. We like Mrs. Dash, garlic salt, and pepper.
Mmmmm, this soup is tasty! I don't know how healthy it may be but I don't always care about that. Bad me!