Homemade Hearty Hamburger Soup

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The other day, I had mentioned making homemade soup on a blustery, snowy day.  Well the soup turned out delicious and I thought you might like the recipe or file it away for a day when soup sounds good.

My recipe is easily adaptable and oh so many ingredients can be added or omitted.  This is one reason why I love homemade soup .... anything goes!  I believe any soup can be good when using good, wholesome ingredients.  Soup is a complete dinner or lunch in a bowl and one of my favorite meals to serve in winter.

Ingredients:

1 pound of hamburger, browned

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil (for browning the onion)

3 celery stalks, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 bay leaf

2 cups of water

3 cups of beef broth, either homemade or from a can

1 can yellow or green beans

1 large can diced tomatoes (28 oz)

2 cans of condensed tomato soup

1/2 cup of Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes

1/2 cup barley

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon fresh or dried parsley

Optional: fresh mushrooms, peppers, pasta, diced cabbage, carrots or any vegetable you might have in your fridge!

Directions:

Saute onions in olive oil.  Add hamburger and brown until crumbled.  Drain well.  

Add all ingredients to a large stock pot and simmer on the stove for approximately two hours or to a large crock-pot.  If using a crock-pot leave on high for two hours then turn to low for approximately six to seven hours.  I use medium barley and the barley seems to take the longest.  If the soup tends to be on the runny side, add a small can of tomato paste.  Mix it in well. 

Serve with homemade bread slathered in homemade butter. (the 'slathered' butter isn't healthy but the soup makes up for it!) Oh so delicious!

This will generously serve 8 people.  

Enjoy and remember to give your loved ones a hug .... along with homemade soup!

December ..... the planning and holiday month

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Where oh where did November go?  Time slips through my fingers oh so very quickly.  Soon the holidays will be upon us.  I need to sit down and write out a plan ...... soon!  My baking, shopping, decorating plan.  My writing the Christmas card plan, mailing parcel plan, my picking up Lucas and my Mom for the holidays plan.

This holiday season will be a little different.  Lucas has decided to stay with Sarah this Christmas.  Sarah is unable to cross the U.S. border and through customs due to her nationality and her Chinese passport.  We did not realize the paperwork involved for her just to enter the United States for a visit.  Oh me, oh my.  What a disappointment for us all.  My son Lucas has taken the caring/loving/protector role and will visit with us for a week soon and then return to her and they will spend the remainder of the Christmas break together in their little apartment.

When I drive Lucas back, I have plans of a small artificial Christmas tree finding its way into the trunk of my car along with the gifts that they will open on the 25th.  I made Lucas promise that they will at least pick up a  rotisserie chicken from the supermarket on the evening of the 24th and enjoy that with some potatoes.  He promised.  It saddens my heart to think of these two young adults spending the Blessed holiday alone .... but they are together and together they are making their own memories.

photo credit

Again, time slips through my fingers oh so very quickly.  I remember when Lucas was only a year old...celebrating his first Christmas.  Soon Bob and I will be in rocking chairs on the porch watching grandchildren running through the yard..  That, however. will come all in good time.

For now I reminisce of Decembers past while I sit at the kitchen table with a hot bowl of cabbage and ham soup, catching up on some reading and admiring the pine cones I gathered during my morning walk.  After I am done lunch, I will quickly wash up the dishes and get started on some projects that need to be attended to now that it is December.  With the snow beginning to fall softly outside my windows, maybe some Christmas cookies are in order this afternoon.  How are your plans for December coming along?  Are some of your traditions being adjusted as children grow and family members change their plans or will your holidays look like holidays past?

December is upon us.  The holidays are here.  Enjoy each day as it unfolds as soon these days will be only memories.  Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Cabbage and Ham Soup

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It's beginning to get chilly.  Real chilly.  The type that a "good, large bowl of homemade soup helps to warm the tummy" kind of chilly .... and that is just what I did yesterday .... made homemade soup.

Cabbage and Ham.  I have never made this soup before but I had half a ham steak in the refrigerator that needed to be used up and I also had half a bag of the pre-packaged coleslaw cabbage mix (I never buy these but they were on deep discount last week for 29 cents a bag!).

I had been wanting to try this recipe and it was just the day to do it.  I had the ingredients but best of all, I had the chilly weather that is needed for homemade soup.  I love reading Lynn's blog and when she posted this recipe, I bookmarked it saving it for the perfect day.  Here is a copy of Lynn's Cabbage and Ham Soup:

Quick Ham and Cabbage Soup

1 Tblsp olive oil

1/2 C chopped onion
1/2 C thinly chopped celery
1/2 C thinly chopped carrot
1/8 C chopped red bell pepper
3 shakes of celery seed 
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 C chicken stock
3 C shred cabbage (about 1/4" thick and 1" long)
1 C diced ham
heaping tsp of Chicken Better Than Bullion
S&P to taste

1. Heat olive oil to medium.
2. Add onion, celery, carrot, pepper and celery seed, saute until onion gets translucent.
3. Saute garlic for one minute more.
4. Add chicken stock and heat to a simmer.
5. Toss in cabbage and cook until it just begins to wilt, about 15-20 minutes.
6. Add ham and heat through.
7. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:

• The thing that takes the longest is for the carrots to soften up, make sure you slice them thin.
• If you don't have enough chicken stock use approx 1 C water to 1 tsp Chicken Better Than Bullion.
• It's important to add salt to this soup

As always with recipes however, I had to improvise a little.  

Hubby had used up all the fresh garlic and of course forgot to mention it on grocery day sooooo..... I used garlic salt instead.  Lynn mentions that the soup needs quite a bit of added salt and pepper so I reduced the amount of regular salt and it worked out just fine.

Wanting to use up the entire leftover ham steak and bag of coleslaw mix, my amounts were quite a bit larger than she mentions...it was alright though....I just adjusted the other ingredients to be comparable to the ham and cabbage.  

I also added barley....I love, love, love barley in soup.  It reminds me of my Grandma for some unknown reason.  Maybe she used it quite a bit.  I don't remember but it brings me warm fuzzies so she must have.  Mom, do you remember?

Not to be without warm, homemade bread when eating the soup, I started a loaf in the bread machine.

As the day progressed with the soup simmering on the stove and the bread baking, the house began to lose the chilly feeling.  It began to warm and smell divine.  The clouds were rolling in and the sky was darkening.  Just as we were about to sit down to dinner, the rain began to fall.  Perfect.

Sorry there are no pictures of the finished product...we were all just too hungry!  

Remember to give your loved ones a hug!