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Hamburger Soup

3 cans beef boullion
1 can tomato soup
1 can tomatoes, chopped, with liquid
5 - 6 cups water
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1 bay leaf
8 -10 tablespoons pearl barley

Put all together in large pot, bring to a boil, lower heat to simmer. Add the following ingredients (do them in the order named - that is, add one, and then prepare and add the next. That way, things that need a bit longer cooking time will get it.)

2 - 3 ribs celery, chopped
2 - 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large or two or three small potatoes, chopped about the same size as carrot and celery.
1/2 pound of cooked, drained ground beef
Salt and pepper to taste

Simmer for about an hour, until barley and veggies are done.

Inland Clam Chowder (mostly from cans)
This is low fat but gets a rich taste from evaporated milk - do NOT use condensed milk, it's not the same thing.

1 can chicken broth
1 can clams
1 can shrimp
1 can evaporated skim milk
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 largish carrot, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
4 tablespoons flour
Any odd pieces of fish you have in the freezer that aren't all bony go well here, too. Just throw them in towards the end so they don't overcook, and break them up a bit with the spoon.

In the chicken broth and one can of water, cook the vegetables until almost done. Take them out with a slotted spoon, and put them in a bowl with the drained clams (save the liquid) and shrimp.
Mix the flour into the clam broth, stir well until there are no lumps. Pour in a thin stream into gently bubbling chicken broth, whisking briskly at the point of contact. You want quite a thick liquid - add another tablespoon of flour mixed with a bit of cold water if it isn't thick enough. Simmer this for seven minutes (at least, a few minutes longer is fine) - since it is so thick, watch that it doesn't burn. Add all veggies and seafood back into broth. Thin with about half the can of evap milk, more if you want it thinner. Bring just to a boil, serve. Salt and pepper.

Ok - this is a soup that takes all morning to make, and needs you to do something every couple of hours. It's not fussy though, you don't need to be hovering over it. Good to stick on the back of the stove while you are doing other housework or yardwork.

The night before, soak some dried navy beans (the kind bad boys used to shoot through a bean shooter) - cover with water, bring to a boil, take off the heat. For a big pot of soup, maybe one to one and a half cups of beans.

Next morning, put beans and a ham bone into a bit pot of water, about four litres. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer - you want a little movement of the water, but not boiling. Add a big handful (1/2 cup?) of barley, some chopped onion and a little crushed garlic. Chop a couple of ribs of celery, and add. Cook this for about two hours.

Now chop two or three carrots, and add. Dice a can of tomatoes and put the whole thing in, including the juice. If you are serving this to young kids, put the tomatoes in the blender for a minute, as they tend to not like chunks of tomato in their soup. Add any herbs you like that go well with tomato - oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary... Peel (or not) two or three potatoes, dice, and add. Taste a bean at this time - they should be starting to soften. If the beans are still really hard, turn up the heat a bit and wait with the potatoes for half an hour or so. Once potatoes are in, simmer for another hour.

Now take the ham bone out and put it on a plate to cool. Taste the soup and various things in it, to see if everything is mostly cooked. If you want more flavour to the broth, add a beef OXO cube or two. You might want more garlic, too. Depending on how thick you want the soup to be, add a big handful more or less of some firm, small pasta - orzo, say, or acini de pepe, or alphabets. Turn the heat way down - the pasta will cook from the heat of the soup. There will probably be some fat from the ham floating on top - it is pretty easy just to skim this off on a tomato based soup. The part you don't want is the dark stuff that goes to the corners. There also might be little scraps of skin and ham fat floating - depends on your audience whether you scoop these out or not. Most anything you don't want will be floating and easy to skim off - the only nasty thing that will sink is a bit of bone.

Take a look at your ham bone. There will mostly likely be some bits of meat that are now very easy to take off, clean of fat, chop fine, and put back in the soup. If not, throw in a bit of chopped ham or beef or sausage or hamburger or something leftover in your fridge. If you have any cooked vegetables laying around that you think would taste good in this soup, add them now - corn is good, but peas are not so good. Once the pasta is cooked and anything you added at the last minute is hot, it's ready to serve. If you are planning to take it to a pot luck, take it off the heat about five minutes after adding pasta - heating it up later will finish the cooking process.

I can make enough to feed 7 - 8 adults and maybe 25 kids lunch for about four dollars - the biggest cost is the can of tomatoes.

Tip for making soup:
If you are making a huge pot which will hang around for a few days, don't add peas or corn. These two ingredients will shorten the life of it drastically. Best to add the peas and corn individually just before serving.

While I'm here, I may as well leave this recipe, which I suppose if cooked long enough, becomes soup. If anyone tries it, let me know how it turned out.

Recipe (in its entirety) for boiled owl: Take feathers off. Clean owl and put in cooking pot with lots of water. Add salt to taste. - The Eskimo Cookbook

I'm sure it would work fine - that's how to make soup, all right.

I'm trying to lose some wight, so I've been cooking foods which are filling, but low in calories and fat, and contain lots of "good for you". I don't like feeling hungry. This is a tasty cauliflower soup, fat free and creamy.

2 cups (or so) chicken broth, your own or canned. If you use homemade, skim the fat off the top.
1 head cauliflower, cut up
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
2-3 (or more, if you like it) cloves of garlic
evaporated skim milk
salt and pepper

Bring the broth to a boil, add all the cauliflower, the potato, and the garlic. Simmer covered for 45 minutes or so, until vegetables are very soft. Pour the whole thing into your blender and blend until very smooth - a couple of minutes. Pour it back into the pot, and add enough evaporated milk to reach desired consistency (1/4 to 1/2 cup) - without this the soup is very thick. You can just use more broth if you don't have evaporated milk, but it won't be as creamy. Be liberal with the pepper and conservative with the salt, especially if you used canned broth. If you like nutmeg, just a pinch in each bowl just before serving is pretty and gives an interesting taste. If you like a little texture in your soup, take out a half cup or so of the cauliflower when it is just al dente, and add it back in just before serving.

Since we are in the midst of the Holidays, I thought we could share some of our favorite recipes. I see friends posting and 'pinning' on Facebook - how about we share some of those yummies here as well?