Writers Block, Thursday Trinkets, & Tex-Mex Turkey Soup

"This is for the tired and for the dreamers and for those families who'll never be like the Cleavers with perfectly made dinners and sons like Wally and the Beaver...... So when the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob and open on up, running forward into its widespread greeting arms with your hands before you, fingertips trembling though they may be."" -Anis Mojgani: Shake the Dust 

  Lately I have been stuck in a rut. It's like everything I had a passion for suddenly seemed useless and the things I strive for seemed so far beyond my reach. The reason for my sporadic and dull posts lately is when it came time to write a post, my mind goes blank and nothing I write seems to be interesting. This isn't the first time since I started blogging, that I thought about taking a break or even deleting my blog, but I never do because I know that some time later I will get back into the hang of it and enjoy it again.

  I'm trying to find out what I am destined to do in this world; I used to think I knew exactly how my life would end up, but that idea has long since faded and I'm just trying to keep head above water some days. Ever since I took debate  as a sophomore I have loved spoken word poetry and it seems to be one of the things that I can always turn to when I'm feeling overwhelmed . So I've decided to start a category of posts called "Thursday Trinkets" where I will post things that I am interested in at the time, whatever is on my mind, and they may or may not also be combined with a recipe post.  Many bloggers do it {like Tuesday Things from How Sweet It Is} and I've thought about having doing something like that for a while now, but I think this will be a good little project to help me from getting detached.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

   My cousin had her baby! She is so cute. We have only seen her in pictures because she came so sudden and I was sick so we'll have to wait for our family dinner before we get to see her. It's gonna be kind of weird having baby in the family seeing as i'm the baby and i'm 17. My mom will love having a baby in the family since she has baby fever; she goes gaga over them.

  I have also been experimenting with some items that we got from our co-op like these Lychee Popsicles (i'm still tweaking the recipe), but seeing that most of my posts lately have been of sweet items I thought I should throw in a savory one.

   I made this soup last week and it was good. I thought about using canned tomatoes and adding in jalapenos so I could manage the heat, but instead I used a can of Rotel tomatoes and chilies. And it was the hot version so my dad (who can't handle any kind of heat) only had a few bites. Oops. But my mom and I enjoyed it.

Butternut Squash Soup

Things have been busy lately.
I've been 2 differnent doctors this week, got lots of blood drawn, and 2 shots which made my arms sore the next day. This morning I somewhat finished the shopping list for our thanksgiving dinner, made pancakes,study some for my SAT , and roasted a butternut squash for soup (recipe below).

     Thanksgiving this year for our family will not be on Thanksgiving day. My grandparents, aunt, and uncle are going my uncle's sister's for thanksgiving and my mom is going to a friend's daughter's house leaving my dad and I at home. My dad will be cleaning the house while I make and prepare the sides and desserts for the 26th which is when at least 16 people will be crowded into our house talking and eating for our "late" Thanksgiving.
    Then exactly 1 week after that, I have my SAT test to take, a youth breakfast to attend, and will be testing out cookie recipes for both our church lunch in and to give as presents, and making mini loaves of bread because Garden Ridge has holiday mini loaf pans that were only 99 cents each so I bought some.
    Then somehow I have to make a few dozen cookies for our church's Holiday Lunch in, go to another church's camp where they take kids and teens who are underprivaleged to have a good meal, interact with other kids, ride horses, and such, and then wake up extra early the next day to head to church to prepare for the lunch in (and I possibly might have to be in a play on that day too, but I have no clue) all in a 2-3 day time frame.
And that is not nearly everything I have planned or scheduled to do this holiday season.
I might need to hibernate for a few months after this is all over with.

   I have another soup recipe to share. No its not the french onion soup recipe I was going to share first, but this soup is pretty tasty. Its a butternut squash soup recipe that I made up after looking over serveral other recipes for butternut squash soup. This soup doesn't have any dairy or cream in it, but you would never know that by how rich and creamy it is. Also I roasted the squash in the oven first, which took little effort and made peeling the squash extremely easy.

Butternut Squash Soup topped with pepper and bacon -
I added pine nuts too, but I was hungry and chose to eat the soup instead of taking a picture of it.

Asparagus Soup

I'm not a soup person.
Sure, I like my grandma's taco soup, Progresso's chicken and wild rice soup, and on occasion La Madeline's french onion soup, but other than that, I usually don't eat the stuff. Even when I'm sick I don't eat it, well except the time I got a free bowl of cheddar broccoli soup from Black Eyed Peas because there was a mix up with the waiters and orders which was fine by me because it was the only thing I could eat.
I'm more of a club sandwich and salad kind of girl.

But I'm trying to broaden my horizons. And that means eating (or drinking) more soup.
I already have recipes for french onion soup (coming soon), a leftover turkey soup, a winter pea and ham soup, and a carrot ginger soup. But I wouldn't hold your breathe for the carrot soup.
Here's the deal...
I like carrots; raw, crunchy carrots. Not cooked, mushy, and overly sweetened carrots that resembles baby food. You can blame my old elementary school cafeteria for that. They also almost ruined me for grilled cheese sandwiches too, but luckily my dad is an expert grilled cheese maker.
But I'm going to try and make myself try the soup before passing judgement.

Lila Mae's Taco Soup

Well the family came out tonight and we ate taco soup.

Lila Mae is my grandma.
She has a soup recipe.
Its called Taco Soup.
Its Amazing.
Even people who aren't big soup fans (me being one) crave it.
End of Story.

Every year, just as Autumn begins my Grandma makes her famous Taco Soup.
Well its famous in our family.
We love it!
Its kind of sad how much we enjoy this soup. What makes it better, it that it freezes well so we can eat it anytime.

Taco Soup

Serves: 12-16 serving

·         2 lbs. ground sirloin

·         1 large onion, diced

·         2 tsp. salt

·         Ground Cumin (starts with 1 teaspoon)

·         Chili Powder (starts with 1 teaspoon*)

·         3 cans Whole Kernel Corn

·         3 cans Pinto Beans (I use Ranch-style)

·         3 cans Ortega diced green chilis

·         3 cans Stewed diced tomatoes (use small diced tomatoes)

·         3 pkg. Hidden Valley original Ranch mix

·         3 pkg. Lawry’s Taco Mix (mild or medium heat)

·         6-8 cp. water

1.      Brown the sirloin and onion in a large skillet. (I soak up any leftover grease with paper towels)

2.      Transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot.

3.      Add in the corn, beans, chilies, and tomatoes.

4.      Add the salt, cumin, and chili powder to taste.

5.      Add in the Lawry’s and Ranch packages and 6 cups of water.

6.      Let simmer for several hours, stirring every so often so nothing sticks to the bottom.

7.      As it cooks down, taste it to see if it needs more salt, cumin, or chili powder.

We top our soup with tortilla chips and shredded cheese, but you could add sour cream or jalapenos.

*If you have people who do not like their food hot then 1 tsp. in enough, but if they do enjoy their food hotter, then you could add more.

-- Usually my grandma doubles the recipe so we can have 1 big family dinner together(usually 9-12 people) and then 3 households (each house has less than 4 people) can freeze the leftovers to eat whenever.

Broccoli, Leek, and Aspargus Soup

When we were at store, I decided that i wanted to make a leek and cauliflower soup. Well I ended up buying broccoli and asparagus and forgot all about the cauliflower that I swore I put in the basket.

Rince the leek under running water to remove any grit. Noone wants sand in their soup.

Roughly chop the onion and garlic; its gonna be pureed in the end

Its like a roasted forest in your oven