Three Soups that are Perfect for a Cold Day

♪ Make yourself at home ♪ ♪ Enjoy the time we share ♪ ♪ With the dash of this and a pinch of that ♪ ♪ Mixed all up with care ♪ ♪ The best company and conversation ♪ ♪ Recipes and neat creations ♪ ♪ We’re cooking up something good ♪ ♪ Here at home ♪ ♪ We are cooking up something good ♪ ♪ Here at home ♪ Well, hello and welcome to our program today. It’s always nice when the family gets together, and especially that you’re with us today. You know, I’m always amazed when I go through the malls, particularly since we just come out of the holiday season, and now it’s cold outside, and people still go out and shop, it doesn’t matter. And there you are, and you always stop me, and you talk to me, and you say will you pray for this one, or I made this, and oh, my family loved it. You know what, that is just so neat because really it makes us family, ’cause family tells each other about happenings in their lives. And people are so apologetic to say, “Oh, I’m sorry to disturb you, I don’t mean to disturb you. I’m really, really sorry, but I just have to tell you this.” Well, you know what? It’s okay, I don’t mind that at all. That’s fine, because you’re telling me that you’ve tried one of the recipes and it worked out for you, your family loved it, so you’re making it very often. And then I’m always amazed at the ones who have such a heartache that they’re bearing in their lives, something that’s very, very, very hard on them and they just don’t know what to do. And they always almost apologetically say, “Could you pray for me, Arlene?” Do you know, family, that that’s a privilege. I call it a privilege that you would ask me to pray for you and Paul and I do pray for you because we care what happens to you. You know, recently we were in a restaurant and a person came up to us, and she just laid bare her heart. And it was heartbreaking. And you say, Lord Jesus, how do these people, how can they go on if they don’t have a relationship with you? So I want you to know that when you ask us to pray, we pray. And we’re always thankful when God does something special for you. Don’t ever apologize that you’re asking for prayer, because all that does is says I need God’s help in this situation. And he’s always willing to help you if you ask him. So just remember that, okay? And don’t apologize. I love to talk with you and to hear from you. And today we’re doing soup, because it’s cold outside. So we wanna warm up our innards with a big bowl of good tasting, hot piping soup. Don’t give me that lukewarm stuff. I like the hot stuff. And we’ll be back in just a minute to get started with our program on soups today. Here’s today’s “At Home” definition. Soup, any combination of vegetables, meat, or fish cooked in a liquid. It may be thick, thin, smooth, or chunky, served hot or cold. They can be served as a first course or as a meal, or accompanied by a sandwich. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we’d like to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. Well, thanks for joining us. And we’re getting started with our soups today. I’m gonna show you how to make a really quick chicken soup. Like you get home from work and you think, boy, a nice hot cup of soup would be great. This is the one you wanna do. First of all, we have three 14 1/2 ounce cans of chicken broth already in our pot. And then to that, it’s over medium-high heat, we’re gonna bring it to a nice boil, okay? Needs to get up there and get going. Now we’re gonna add two cups of the little baby carrots. Convenient. You can get them very easily at the store. You don’t have to clean them and peel them and all of that. And we’re also gonna add a medium onion that’s just been chopped. That’s gonna go in there. Okay, and some garlic. This is just like one clove minced. You know what’s another time saver is like, if you buy it in a jar already minced, that will help you get things done quickly so that you don’t have to stand and mince or whatever. This will come up to a chicken soup very, very quickly and you’ll enjoy it. Okay, and some celery seed. That’s all going in there. If you wanna put some fresh celery in there, you could do that. Now, you wanna bring that to a boil. Once that gets to a boil, then we’re gonna reduce the heat a little bit, and we’re gonna add two chicken breasts. Or if you’re really in a big hurry, you can buy the already cooked chicken pieces. Or if you get like one of those rotisserie chickens, take the chicken off that you need, two cups about, or about a pound. And then you’re gonna add that to it. And you’re gonna put some salt and pepper, put a lid on it and cover it, let it cook 25 minutes, you have chicken soup. It’s wonderful. It’s easy to do. I’m gonna go ahead and put my chicken in here now. This needs to come to a boil. And we’re gonna pretend like it has. I’m gonna do some pepper, like that. And I’m gonna do some salt. Okay, and this is that coarse salt, which I really, really like. You might invest in a box that doesn’t cost a lot, but it’s just, it’s more pungent, so you use less than the other salt, the table salt. Let me just stir this up here. This is for one of our other soups. I just wanna brown that down a little bit. Okay, so here we are. We have our chicken. This is gonna be great. Quick chicken soup. I’m not gonna add my fourth of a cup of pasta. Orzo, acini de pepe, any kind, ditalini, ditali, any of the small pasta, you can use that, but this is orzo. But this needs to come to a boil before I add it. So when that does, I’ll put it in. And then before you serve it, you’re gonna do a tablespoon of chopped cilantro. And this is so different from parsley. People say, oh, it’s just parsley. Guess what, when you begin to chop that, that aroma comes up. It is so different, and it really does make it delicious. It really, really does. Some people put it in while it’s cooking. I kinda like it a little bit later. But there’s your chicken. That simple, okay? That’s the first one. So let me just switch these pots out, ’cause I’m gonna start with the other one. Hey, that’s a little hot on that one. We’re gonna pop this over here. Okay, now our next pan… We got pots going everywhere ’cause we got soup going everywhere today. Okay, the next one is called tomato zucchini. And it’s a great soup ’cause it has fresh zucchini. It’s got tomatoes. In fact, this is a large can of chopped tomatoes. Or if you have fresh ones, use them. But we’re gonna go ahead and put them right in our soup pot. Have to get a nice big, tall spoon for this one because this is a deep one. Okay, now, we’re gonna do that. We’re gonna add our soup mix. Now, this is a, Lipton’s makes this, and this is Lipton’s Onion Soup with Beef Flavor. You wanna make sure you get the right bag, okay? Comes in a box with a couple envelopes. These are nice to have around as a basis for any kind of a beef soup. So we’re just gonna add that right in there with the tomatoes. Let’s see. Everything’s going good here. Let’s see. Wanna mix that around. Okay, and I’m gonna add a couple of cups of water to this, too. You can just eyeball it. That’s about two cups I would say. Maybe a little more. Won’t matter. You wanna mix that around. The soup, beef-flavored onion soup mix will dissolve in that water, and the tomatoes will cook down and give you a lot of moisture. Okay, now, we’re gonna add a medium onion. You say my kids don’t like onion. They don’t like the taste. Well, you know what, use onion salt. Just don’t put the onions in. They’ll never know, but you’ll have that flavor. And we’re gonna do, let’s see here, this would be our pepper, one medium pepper, chopped. I like these kind of soups that all you do is just drop them all in. You don’t have to keep playing with them. Add this, take this. I like them when you can just put them all in there, turn it on low, and let it cook, because that’s what’s gonna make it really good. Okay, now, this looks like a lot of zucchini, but this is three zucchinis. And we’ve just cubed them. We’ve not peeled them or anything. So we’re gonna add that to the pot, too. ‘Cause this is gonna cook down and give us moisture, too. Okay. And again. Now, what I’ve done here, this one is a pound of ground meat I’m browning in a skillet. And you just want it to brown. Make it nice, not extra, extra lean, but it doesn’t have to be real fatty. Shouldn’t be real fatty. But you want the juices of the taste of that beef, ’cause that’s also going into this pot to season this soup. So we just want it to brown off, get the red off of it. So we have this in this adjacent pan. I think we’re almost there with it. Remember, it’s gonna also continue to cook once it gets in the soup pot, so it doesn’t have to be completely and totally. Just wanna render some of that flavor. Get some of that good flavor going. Okay. We’re almost there with that. I’m mixing this one. Aha, looks thick now, but once you get that other in there and that starts, that zucchini starts cooking down and moisture releases, this will be a wonderful chunky soup. All right, let me see. What else do I have to put in here? We need to put some pepper. You wanna put some crushed red pepper in there, you wanna put some Tabasco, you know, or wait till you get it to the table, help yourself. And we’re gonna use some dried oregano. This would be one teaspoon. And a fourth of a teaspoon of garlic powder. Let’s see. Make sure I have everything. We need a little bit of salt. Okay, and when this gets rendering a lot of its juices, gets really cooking, then we’re gonna add a cup of elbow macaroni. And right now we’re gonna add all of our wonderful tasty ground beef. Yum, yum. This is gonna be a hearty soup, so it’ll be great for supper. Let me tell you, with a salad and a nice crusty bread. Tell you, you’re gonna love it, okay? All right, we’re gonna take a break. We come back, we’ve got some more soups to show you, so stay right where you are. Well, we’re doing soups, quick and easy soups, soups for supper, soups for a snack, soups to be served with a sandwich, soups that could be a main meal, main entree. Just incredible soups today, okay? We have our chicken soup going. We’ve got the zucchini. Look at that zucchini tomato soup. Oh boy, with the ground beef. Now, we’re gonna add some elbows to that when that starts cooking down. About 20, 25 minutes, that thing will be ready, okay? And the third one, now I’ve made creamy potato soup for you before, and we’ve all loved it. This one’s different. This one was from a one of our viewers, C.D., who said, “Family and church members all ask me to make potato soup, ’cause yours is the best.” She said, “My doctor friend says it is her comfort soup when she doesn’t feel well.” Well, when you see what’s in it, you’ll say, wow, that doctor’s pretty interesting because we’ve got potatoes, about three to four pounds of potatoes, and they say just to quarter them, okay? So we’ve got them cooking. They’re almost to the point where they’re gonna start to fall apart. So you don’t want them real, real well done. But I think these are just great. And we’ve also taken one large onion and chopped it up, and we put it in to cook with the potatoes, and just covered it with water, okay? Now what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna take some eggs. We have a couple of eggs. And flour. Now, what we’re gonna do with this soup, it’s gonna make it creamy, is the starch comes out of the potato. And then we’re gonna whisk a couple of eggs. And C.D. doesn’t tell us how much flour, but he says that, “Add enough flour and mix it until a batter forms like a pancake consistency.” So you know if you’ve made pancakes what that’s like. So we’re gonna start with a little bit, because you can always add more. But if you get stuck, you have to add another egg if it’s too thick. So we’re just gonna add a little bit at a time, and we’re gonna blend it well, like this. Nothing like a pot of soup when you come in the door, when it’s a cold, cold day, been freezing. Maybe you’re working an area where it’s really cold, or you had to sit on a bus to get home or something. You know what, there’s nothing like a bowl of soup. And these aren’t huge big vats of soup. These are soups you can make, freeze some portions and eat some portions, give some to a neighbor. Think we’ll add a little bit more flour to that. ‘Cause it certainly isn’t a pancake consistency. We might have it there now. We’re getting there. Okay. I think we’re gonna need even some more. Probably takes a little bit more than you would think, but just add it by a tablespoon at a time when you get to this point so that you can have control of it so that when it gets into that batter… See how much thicker that’s getting now? I think we’re almost there. It depends on how you like your pancakes. We like kind of thin pancakes, and some people like thick ones. So potatoes are bubbling away, and they have to be boiling away. You don’t want to sacrifice this, because this has to go into a boiling liquid. I don’t know, maybe just a little bit more, except but don’t make it stiff. Okay, so we’re not gonna make it stiff. Takes a little while to adjust to that. Two eggs, you probably need about, I’d say probably a half a cup of flour, but you really need to try it, okay? I think we’re there. Okay. Now, we’re gonna go ahead, and with a half teaspoon, imagine, just something that small, we’re supposed to just drop this, because these are dumplings. This is, that’s a fourth. This is a half teaspoon. You see how little that is? Look if you can see that. Can you see that? That’s a little bit of dough, which isn’t very, very much at all, okay? So I’m gonna take this spoon out. I love it when you send recipes and I try them for the first time, ’cause I feel like I’m you when you try my recipes for the first time. Now we’re just gonna drop them in. Okay, you know what I think? We’re gonna make it a little thicker, ’cause I can tell that that consistency isn’t quite right. Needs to be a bit thicker, ’cause it will hold together if it’s the right consistency. Okay. I think we’re there, but I’m gonna do one little bit more. We’re gonna have enough to feed the neighborhood. That’s for sure. But I like trying new things. This is fun. ‘Cause you know what, then you’ll try them and you’ll say, I can’t believe I actually made that and it turned out well. And why not? You don’t know until you try. That’s one thing I always tell you, just try. I trust that through the holiday season, you tried some new things, you made some stuff, you surprised yourself at how good it was. And everybody said, “Yeah, that was really good.” And you were there saying, “Hey, I did it.” That’s great. I’m proud of you. That’s all I ask you to do is try. Okay, now let’s try it this time. Now we’re gonna drop it like a little dumpling. Oh, yeah. See how it stays together? That’s how you know. Okay, just dropping them. And this is gonna be dumplings in our soup. Can you imagine? Oh, man. Okay. Try to get them like all around. Don’t put them all in one spot. Just do them every here and there. It’s nice to have a Dutch oven to make your soup in because you have a wide surface to work on. If you have a narrower surface, that’s not real good. So we’ll just keep dumping these. Putting them all over the top. And there you have our soup. Okay, now when these start to get totally done and they come to the top and they are completely cooked, then you’re gonna add a stick of butter and stir gently so you don’t break them down. And then you’re gonna add a pint of half and half. That’s where the cream comes in. Wow, and I’ll tell you what, it’s gonna be delicious. I know it will be. And we’re gonna take a break. We come back, we’re gonna have soup on the deck, and we’re gonna have some of the closing remarks for you. Okay. We’ll be back in just a minute. Now, don’t forget, you’re gonna wanna be sure to get those recipes, and there are a variety of ways that you can do that. Number one, you can send through the mail and ask for this month’s recipes, for those soup recipes. You’ll get a newsletter that has the whole month’s recipes in, all you have to do is send a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope and a few dollars to help us with the printing, and you’ll get this one month’s recipes. However, if you’d like to have a subscription for the whole year, for 12 months, you don’t have to write in but one time and say I want to subscribe for the newsletter through the mail. And it just costs your check, $25 made out to At Home, and send us the address where you want this newsletter, our “Enjoy” newsletter to go to. We’ll be happy to put it in the mail automatically. You’ll always have it right before the new month begins, so you can have it there while we’re doing the programs, and you can make notes, okay? And then the third way is you can go to our website at www.ctvn.org, and when you go there, you can click on the At Home button, and it will take you through the process of subscribing online for our “Enjoy” newsletter. And it comes through your email address. It’s only $15 for the whole year, and it comes to your email address at the beginning of every month. You can download it, print it out. You can put it in your recipe box. And do you know what comes with that subscription is the ability to go back and watch any of the programs we’ve already done for you over the last year, ’cause you have a year’s worth on your subscription. And you can play them as many times. You can watch me demonstrate the whole program or just the one thing that you’re trying to make for your family. I’m telling you, that’s the best bargain in the world. $15 online, “Enjoy” newsletter. $25 through the mail. This is the beginning of the year. You know what, this is the time. Get it so you’ll have it all year long. You don’t have to worry about missing a program, missing a recipe. You go to church, someone said, “Did you see Arlene? She made this wonderful, unbelievable cake,” or whatever. You’ll know you have it because you have subscribed. It’s just very easy, we’re working to make it better and better and better for you, and I hope that you’re enjoying it. Okay, so if you need help, please just go to the site and we’ll be glad to help you there. Okay, let’s look at the wonderful soups we made for the cold winter days. First we have our quick chicken soup. Look at that. It’s the easiest. The broth. Wonderful cilantro. We put the cilantro in there at the very end. That’s an awesome soup. Here is our tomato zucchini. Look at that. Oh my. We just added a bit of Parmesan cheese right on top. Oh wow. And this is our potato dumpling. Now, let me just serve you a little of this. Think your family would like that. Just put a little bit of parsley flakes around the top. Oh, yeah. That’s comfort food, hearty food all the way. All we do is add a crusty bread, some crackers. We made a little tossed salad over here. Here you have your whole dinner right there in a bowl. And this is the kind of thing that as my mom used to say, it sticks to your ribs because it’s wholesome, it’s got the pasta. Remember we put the one cup of the elbow macaronis in there and sprinkled the cheese? It’s got the meat. Good for you, good tasting. We hope that it’s been a good program for you. It sure has for us because you’ve dropped by. We’re glad when the family comes by, always, always when you come by. Don’t forget, when Sunday comes, make it out to the house of the Lord, okay? Well, until we see you the next time, be sure to join us, because it just wouldn’t be the same without you here At Home, we’ll see you then.

[Announcer] Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living Collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.

[Announcer] Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.