Get the soup pot out

It was a beautiful, crisp fall day. Inspired by the Green City Market and craving soup as the temperatures get chillier, I made leek and potato soup tonight. This recipe is adapted from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food:

Leek and Potato Soup

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 pounds leeks

2 thyme sprigs

1 bay leaf

salt to taste

1 pound yellow potatoes, peeled, halved or quartered, and sliced

6 cups of water, chicken broth or vegetable broth

1/3 cup heavy (or light) cream

Trim the root end and the tough upper greens from the leeks.  Cut the trimmed leeks in half lengthwise. Rinse well. Slice leeks.  Melt butter over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed pot.  Add leeks, thyme, bay leaf and salt.  Cook until soft, about 10 minutes.  Add the potatoes and cook for 4 minutes.  Then add water or broth. Bring to a boil and turn down to summer.  Cook until vegetables are tender, about 30-35 minutes. 

Remove the bay leaf and the thyme sprigs and puree the soup (I use an immersion blender for this step). Stir in cream and enjoy with some crusty bread.

We also bought some baking apples today, so I made a small batch of homemade applesauce for our breakfast tomorrow. 

Homemade applesauce

4 medium cooking apples, peeled and quartered

1/2 cup water

2 or 3 tablespoons sugar

scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat apples and water to boiling in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to low.  Simmer uncovered 10 minutes or so, until tender. You may need to pour off some of the water (depending on the consistency you like). Bust out the immersion blender again or a good old-fashioned potato masher, and mash up the apples and mix in the remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling and boil for 1 minute.

Easiest weeknight dinner ever

Seriously, I'm almost embarrassed to post this super-simple recipe from The Barefoot Contessa. But I have to - it's healthy and super-fast. I roasted the chicken breasts yesterday afternoon, so they were all ready to go when I got home tonight. This soup was ready in 20 minutes, people:

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 whole (2 split) chicken breast, bone in, skin on
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 quarts homemade Chicken Stock
1 cup medium-diced celery (2 stalks)
1 cup medium-diced carrots (3 carrots)
2 cups wide egg noodles
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breast on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through. When cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred or dice the chicken meat. Bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a large pot and add the celery, carrots, and noodles. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, until the noodles are cooked. Add the cooked chicken meat and parsley and heat through. Season to taste and serve.

Serves 4.

This dinner and clean-up were so fast that Jack and I had time to go to the playground.  On our way home, we waved to the kayakers on the Chicago River and we saw a Fonzie impersonator (complete with comb - I'm not making this up) walking down the street. Quite the evening!

Chilly nights, hot soup

In the last couple of weeks, we have used both our air conditioning and our heat at home. Oh, Chicago in spring. This week, we're experiencing some chillier temperatures, so I felt fully justified in making soup tonight. This recipe is from my mom - it warms the soul:

Corn Chowder
4 oz. sliced bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 T. unsalted butter
2 cups chopped white onion
2 T. flour
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped celery
2 large unpeeled potatoes, cut into 1/4 - 1/2-inch dice
4 cups frozen white corn
1 can creamed corn
1 diced red pepper
3 green onions, cut in 1/4-inch slices
1 cup half & half
salt and pepper

Cook the bacon until lightly browned; add butter and allow it to melt. (This is typically when Jeremy enters the kitchen and asks me what I'm doing.) Add onions and cook over low heat until translucent; add flour and stir continuously for a minute.

Add chicken broth and celery. Cook approximately 5 minutes.  Add potatoes and cook another five minutes until potatoes are just tender.

Add frozen corn, creamed corn, red pepper and green onion and cook for an additional five minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add half & half; simmer for a minute and serve.

Soup's on

After a weekend of eating, tonight it's soup for us. Our good friends Emily and Steve are making the same soup in St. Louis tonight (Emily, please post your thoughts!).

Kid sidebar: I gave Jack a handful of dried pasta and it's kept him busy for at least 15 minutes so far - he's been stirring and pouring it into different bowls with various spoons and measuring cups. It's a welcomed relief to Jeremy: Jack's previous activities this afternoon have been putting on my old make-up (he still has brown eye shadow streaked on his baby cheeks), walking around Flashdance-style in one of my pink tank tops and trying on my heels. (I implored him to try flats instead).

But I digress. 

We made Ina's Italian Wedding Soup with what we had in the house. I used whole wheat dried bread crumbs and whole wheat pasta, and it was fine and a tad bit healthier:

Italian Wedding Soup

Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

3/4 pound ground chicken

1/2 pound chicken sausage, casings removed

2/3 cup fresh white bread crumbs

2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1/4 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

3 tablespoons milk

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the soup:

2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 cup minced yellow onion

1 cup diced carrots (3 carrots), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

3/4 cup diced celery (2 stalks), cut into 1/4 inch pieces

10 cups homemade chicken stock

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup small pasta such as tubetini or stars

1/4 cup minced fresh dill

12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the meatballs, place the ground chicken, sausage, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Pecorino, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine gently with a fork. With a teaspoon, drop 1 to 1 1/4-inch meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. (You should have about 40 meatballs. They don't have to be perfectly round.) Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside.

In the meantime, for the soup, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened, 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta to the simmering broth and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Taste for salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with extra grated Parmesan.