Condensed Cream of Turkey

Have you ever wondered what you should do with all the turkey pan drippings that's left over after you've made gravy? Wonder no more! I have an excellent use for them: cream of turkey soup.

The original recipe, for cream of chicken, came from Tammy's Kitchen. I adapted it to make some cream of turkey that I'll use soon when I make some turkey pot pie with all that leftover turkey we (still) have. The biggest change I made was doubling the recipe. I had a LOT of turkey broth, so I actually made 4x as much as the original recipe.

I ended up with 7 mason jars worth of condensed soup. It worked out very well, actually. Each jar is 2 cups when filled all the way, but since I was planning to freeze them, I left a little wiggle room in there.

Condensed Cream of Turkey

makes a little over 6 cups 

What You'll Need:

3 cups turkey broth*
2 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 small minced onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt (more or less as you prefer)
1/2 tsp parsley
1/4 tsp paprika
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cup flour 

Udon Noodle Soup

It's been ridiculously hot out, so why am I making soup? Because I needed it. For days, I was aching for some Udon soup and no place nearby is kind enough to make some that isn't terrible. The obvious solution was to make it myself. Never having done so, however, it was a bit of a challenge.

If you don't make Japanese or Chinese food often, you'll probably have to pick up a few more ingredients than I did. You can find dashi in the ethic section of your grocery store or an Asian market. If you can't find any easily, you can use a seafood soup base with similar results.

Udon Noodle Soup
Adapted from Bon Appetit
makes 2 servings

What You'll Need:
1 Tbs dashi (powdered soup base)
1 Tbs reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp lime juice
2 tsp rice wine
2 tsp sesame oil
1 shiitake mushroom, sliced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cups spinach, cut up
2 carrots, sliced
8 ounces udon noodles, fresh if available (I could only find dried)

The Process:
Boil the noodles according to the directions on the package. If you have dry noodles, the instructions are in Japanese, and you can't read Japanese (which is what happened to me), then boil 4 cups of water and cook the noodles for 12-13 minutes, until the center is tender.
While the noodles cook, put 3 cups of water into a pot and heat to a boil, adding the dashi, soy sauce, lime juice, rice wine, sesame oil, carrots, green onions, and mushrooms. Turn heat down to medium and simmer until the noodles finish cooking. Divide your chopped spinach between the two bowls. Once the noodles are done, using tongs, divide them in half and put into serving bowls. Ladle the soup over top and serve immediately.

I used spinach and carrots as my vegetables but you could swap them out for any number of things: snow peas, green beans, asparagus, mini corn, etc. Unless you don't like mushrooms you should keep them in because they add a nice depth to the flavor. The texture of mushrooms skeeves me out, so my solution is to make it with the mushrooms and then put all of them into Hubby's bowl.

It can get a little spendy on the dashi, sesame oil, and rice wine if you don't have them already, but they keep for a while and they're also used in tons of different Asian recipes, so you can get a lot of mileage out of them. Or, if you're not as adventurous, you could just make this recipe over and over.

Hubby's French Onion Soup

This weekend was Hubby-to-be's birthday. When I asked him what he wanted me to make for his birthday dinner, I got little more than a shrug in response. So I thought about foods he likes and liver and onions was the first thing that popped in my mind. Seriously. That really is his favorite. I have never made it because I've not seen a liver for sale that didn't look diseased. It doesn't help that I grew up hearing horror stories about liver and onions from my mother's youth.

Onions, though, I can work with. I remembered that one of Hubby-to-be's favorite foods also happens to be French Onion Soup. I scoured the internet for recipes and I found one from Simple Recipes that seemed perfect. I even had most of the ingredients on hand. My favorite part was that it used olive oil and not butter to cook down the onions, which makes it a bit healthier.

Just the right amount of browned cheesiness.

 I also saw a lot of recipes that add a little flour to thicken it, but this one didn't and it is totally unnecessary. To give it a little more oomph, I added some Worcestershire sauce, because, well, I saw it when grabbing my bay leaf and I knew it would be a tasty addition. Lastly, I scaled it down a little since it's just the two of us.

Hubby's French Onion Soup
Serves 4
Adapted from Simple Recipes

What You'll Need:

3 medium yellow onions
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
6 cups beef stock (stock gives a better flavor than broth)
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used a chardonnay. You can also omit this if you prefer)
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon of thyme (I had fresh thyme from my garden, but dry is fine, too)
French bread, sliced and toasted
1 cup grated Swiss Gruyere cheese

Maryland Cream of Crab Soup

I have spent a lot of time in Maryland over my lifetime (lots of my family lives there). Therefore, I have a profound respect for the majesty of the Maryland Blue Crab and the devout culinary following it has inspired.

It's been hot as Hades out here lately, so soup of any stripe has pretty much been out of the question. But, I'm going to share it anyway because crab season is in full swing, and I just had to make it (or die thinking about it).

What You Need:
    1/4 cup flour
    1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter (if you use unsalted, just add a little salt into the pot)
    3 cups milk (I use skim because of all the cream)
    1 quart heavy cream
    3 Tbs. Old Bay seasoning (more or less to taste. I prefer more.)
    1 Tbs. lemon juice
    1/2 cup chopped shallots (I use dried which is instead 2 Tbs.)
    1 pound lump backfin crab meat (don't use the imitation stuff)
    Parsley and pepper to taste