Pinto Beans and Ham

This recipe dates way back in my family. It has been passed down at least three generations if not more than that and is by far one of my favorite family meals. My Grandfather, who had a rough childhood, used to eat this growing up. It was super inexpensive to make and only has three ingredients. All you need is a ham bone, dried beans, and some water. Some very basic ingredients that make a spectacular dish. It may not be the prettiest thing you've ever eaten but it will be the tastiest.

Ingredients:

1 ham bone

1 (16 oz) package of dried pinto or cranberry beans

water (between 8-12 cups water) 

In a large bowl or pot, add beans and about 6-8 cups of water. Cover and allow the beans soak overnight, at least 6-8 hours. 

We always get our ham bone from Honey Baked Ham and usually buy 2 or 3 and put the extras in the freezer. Usually there is almost too much meat on the bone and we always cut some off and make ham sandwiches before we make this soup. 

Place the ham bone in a large stock pot. You will want to fill the pot with enough water so that the water goes halfway up the ham (about 8-12 cups). 

Below is how much water we usually use. Our family has been making this so long we just eyeball it. You can always add more water later in the process if you need to. 

Bring the water to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 1-2 hours or until it starts to fall off the bone. You will want to turn the ham bone over 2 to 3 times during the cooking process. This will ensure that all of the meat get boiled and falls off the bone. 

Once the ham is falling off the bone and the liquid is a golden color, turn off the heat and remove the ham and bone from the stockpot and set it aside. Your house will start to smell heavenly at this point! 

When the ham and bone have cooled down, pick through the ham and remove all the bones and fatty pieces. 

Drain the soaked beans and rinse them in cold water. 

Add the drained beans to the to the stockpot with the reduced down ham liquid (aka liquid gold). Bring the beans to a boil over medium heat.  

Once the beans have started to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and stir back in the ham to the stockpot. 

Stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, cook the ham and beans covered for about 1 & 1/2 hours or until the beans are tender.  

Once the beans are tender, remove the pot from the heat and serve with cornbread and chow chow. 

I hope that you enjoy this Southern comfort dish! 

'Till next time,
Caroline 

White Bean Soup with Rosemary and Bacon

I've always loved cannellini beans. They are light, smooth, and full of flavor and work perfectly in this soup! The combination of cannellini beans, bacon, rosemary and the olive oil just work so well together in this soup. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. When I originally made this recipe I used shredded parmesan cheese. I do not recommend this. It clumped together and stuck to the bottom of the pot and was just weird and a little awkward to eat. Learn from my mistake, grated parmesan is definitely the way to go! 

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

4 strips of thick cut bacon, chopped

1 large onion, diced

5 cloves of garlic, diced

2 quarts of chicken broth

2 (14.5 oz) cans of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

2 bay leaves

2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon dried thyme

¼ cup heavy cream

¾ cup grated parmesan cheese 
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stockpot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add bacon to the oil and cook until crispy, about 7-9 minutes. 

Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. 

After removing the bacon from the pot, add the diced onion to the reserved bacon drippings and season with salt and pepper. Cook the onion for about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften and become transparent.

After cooking the onion for 5-7 minutes, add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. 

Add the chicken broth, cannellini beans, bay leaves, rosemary, and thyme. 

Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Stir in the heavy cream and parmesan cheese and cook for 5 more minutes. Remove the rosemary stems and season with additional salt and pepper to taste.

Serve each bowl with a ladle of soup and garnish with crispy bacon pieces. 

Hope you enjoy this delicious rustic soup!

'Till next time,
Caroline

Chipotle Chicken Soup

Photo Credit: Katrina Runs for Food

When it's cold outside all I want to do is wrap myself in a big cozy blanket, sit next to the fireplace, and eat a hearty bowl of soup. A bowl of soup that warms you from the inside out. You know the kind I am talking about! It has the right amount of heat, is hearty, and makes you want to take a nap after you finish eating. 

Searching for the perfect recipe was quite a challenge. You can't just type in "soup to eat by a fireplace that makes you want to nap" in Google and expect to get a good result. So I headed to my favorite websites when searching for recipes: FoodGawker, Tastespotting, Pinterest, and Foodnetwork. 

I am an extremely visual person when it comes to finding recipes. Food has so many visual components to it and you usually eat with your eyes first. I'll admit that if a recipe doesn't have a picture with it I am usually very hesitant to try it. While on FoodGawker, I found this recipe for Chipotle Chicken Soup. It has the perfect combination of chicken, vegetables, and heat from the chipotle peppers. Check out this fabulous recipe on the blog Katrina Runs for Food. Oh and did I mention it is gluten free! Definitely a plus! 

'Till next time,

Caroline 

Tuscan Ribollita

This recipe for Tuscan Ribollita is as authentic as they come. While traveling around the world, my brother's girlfriend, Reva, spent some time in Italy. While in Tuscany, she learned quite a few recipes, one of them being this recipe for Tuscan Ribollita. There are quite a few variations on this hearty soup but the main ingredients always include leftover bread, cannellini beans, and inexpensive vegetables. 

Ingredients:

2 carrots

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

olive oil to taste

1 bunch of kale, shredded

7 cups vegetable broth

3 (15.5 oz) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper 

In a food processor, pulse carrots, onions, garlic, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a small to medium dice. In a large stock pot, heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté vegetables in oil for about 5 minutes. Next stir in the shredded kale to the stock pot and cook for about 10 minutes. In Italy, they use cavolo nero kale or also known as black leaf kale. If you can find it, use it. If not, your traditional grocery store kale will work just as well.   

Once your kale has cooked for about 10 minutes, or looks like the picture above, stir in 2 cups of vegetable broth. Bring the soup to a simmer and simmer for about 5 minutes. While simmering, put 1 & 1/2 cans of the cannellini beans into a food processor with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Puree the beans and olive oil until smooth. Stir the pureed beans into the soup.

Add the remainder of the broth, whole beans, and seasonings into the soup. Simmer for approximately 30 minutes. Just before serving, tear bread into bite sized pieces and let soften in soup. Drizzle with olive oil and enjoy. 

'Till next time,

Caroline 

Vegetable Soup

Over the years, many have inquired about my vegetable soup recipe. The only problem is I don't actually have a recipe. The good news is you can't hardly mess up this soup.

I love vegetable soup. It's probably up there in my top five and here is why: it's incredibly healthy, it's rich in color and taste and it reminds me of home and family. I think there is a nostalgia to vegetable soup. It's timeless and suitable for almost any occasion.

The best thing about vegetable soup: it's an organic process. Ever-evolving. If you don't like a vegetable or it's out of season just eliminate it and try something else. 

Ingredients:
Obviously, fresh is always best, then frozen, then canned. I'm going to write this recipe for exactly what I used this Souper Sunday.

Carrots (1 bag of mini-carrots)
Green pepper (1)
Yellow onion (1)
Potatoes (3 baking size Idaho potatoes)
Garlic (4 cloves)
Celery (5-6 stalks)
Okra (1 package frozen)
Green beans (1 package frozen)
Lima beans (1 package frozen)
Black eyed peas (1 package frozen)
Corn (4 stalks of fresh corn and 1/2 package of frozen corn)
Diced tomatoes (1 can)
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of beef broth
2 bottles of V8 juice ( I bought a bottle of low-sodium and 1 bottle of spicy) You will find the container of V8 in the juice section.



Warning: This makes ALOT of soup so depending on the size of your pot, you may want to put the ingredients in evenly in case you can't use everything or you could always do two pots. This freezes very well so I always make up a ton or eat off of it all week.

Chop up your carrots, celery and potatoes. I chopped my garlic, onions and bellpepper in my food processor. 

Remove your corn from the cob. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add in chicken broth and the bottle of V8-low sodium. Bring to a boil and add your potatoes, celery, carrots and corn. Slow boil for about 15 minutes. You can then add in everything else except the okra.  If the okra cooks too long it falls apart. At this point, you can add in the V8-spicy (3/4 a bottle), your beef broth and water depending on how thick you like your soup.

Let your soup simmer (not boil). Stir occasionally and add okra about 30 minutes before you are ready to eat it. I usually add salt at this time too. I do not put a lot. If you usually salt everything then I would suggest that you not add it at all and just add it to your individual serving. Also, add pepper the last 10 minutes or so. I LOVE pepper so I add even more pepper in my serving but pepper really makes this soup come together if you ask me. I also add a pinch of sugar. This is my secret weapon for almost every soup.

A nice glass of sweet tea felt the most suitable for this Sunday afternoon. Oh and by the way, a shout-out to my alma mater is a must. ROLL TIDE! 

This soup is good enough to eat completely by itself but I also like it with saltines or cornbread. It's a very healthy soup as you can see and I love using V8 juice because you are getting so many more nutrients beyond what is in the ingredient list. I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

'Till next time,
Natalie

Southwestern White Chicken Chili



Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

This holiday season my family got together to celebrate early for Thanksgiving and to do some serious shopping. We were also celebrating my cousin's birthday and wanted to have a big meal together without slaving over the stove for hours.

We decided to have baked potatoes and soups! My aunt took dibs on chili and I pondered for several days what my soup of choice would be, afterall, it needed to pair nicely with a baked potato. I came across a recipe for white bean chili, made some changes and discovered this little gem. I can honestly say this is one of my new favorite soups.

When my staff came over last week, I made this soup again and it was a hit. I hope you enjoy as much I did!


Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

3 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth

1 (18.75 ounce) cantomatillos, drained and chopped

2 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes

3 (7 ounce) can diced green chiles

1.5 teaspoon dried oregano

1.5 teaspoon ground coriander seed

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

6 ears fresh corn

3 pound diced, cooked chicken meat

3 (15 ounce) cans white beans

salt and black pepper to taste

I made soup to feed 16 comfortably and had plenty leftover. Divide everything above by three if you are feeding a family of four.

A quick look at our ingredient list.

Boil your chicken breast and place in the refrigerator to cool so that you can easily shred.

Chop your onion and garlic. I used a food processor to chop mine fine and quickly.  Add your onion and garlic with olive oil in your stock pot. Cook until translucent. If you are cooking the same amount as me, I would use the largest stock pot you have.

Add your chicken broth, spices, green chilis, tomatillos and canned tomatoes to your onion/garlic mixture. I also added a pinch of sugar at this stage. A hint on the tomatillos...these are odd little boogers and dicing them is not as easy as you would think because they just fall apart. I ended up holding two at a time in my hands over the pot and squeezing the juices and pulp out but discarding majority of the actual skin of the tomatillos. Either way you choose to add them, diced or squeezed, will work just fine.

While your flavors are marrying in your pot, remove your chicken from the refrigerator and shred with your hands. Some people put their chicken in a food processor and this is fine but I think it shreds the chicken too fine. I don't like chunky chicken or super fine chicken so I hand shred mine.

I absolutely love fresh corn and given the opportunity, I always chose fresh over canned or frozen. Take a good knife and slowly cut down the sides.

Drain your white beans and add your beans, corn and chicken to your mixture.

Drink of choice this week: Bud Light Lime. There is just something about a beer and southwestern food. 

My new phone case: please note how nicely the design matches the color palet of this blog. I literally squealed when I saw it.

Yummy. I think this soup is best with fresh avocado, a little sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla chips. Enjoy!

Here's my staff enjoying this tasty dish!

'Till next time,
Natalie 

Chili Con Carne

I currently work at a college in Rome, GA. A couple of years ago, I started inviting student staffs over to enjoy Souper Sunday with me. It’s a BYOB event (meaning bring your own bowl) because if there is one thing I hate about cooking it would be the clean-up!

This Sunday the students requested chicken noodle, tomato basil and chili. Even though I love all three, I thought chili was the best fit to kick-off Souper Sunday. So alas, chili was the chosen one. Now, I have made several chili recipes over the years and they didn’t quite cut it.  Have you ever been to a chili cook-off? There are a 1000 ways to make chili and only half are actually good.  

I first consulted the cookbooks that my Mammie left me. Those cookbooks are some of my prized possessions. If the house ever catches on fire, they are conveniently located by the door so that I can grab them on the way out. My Mammie was (and is as far as I’m concerned) the best baker in South Carolina. I was surprised to find that there wasn’t even a soup section in most of her cookbooks! So to the internet I went. Of course, I hit up some of my favorite sites: allrecipes.com, food.com and Pinterest. I found several that I was interested in but none that really caught my fancy, if you know what I mean. I then consulted with my dad and he described a chili that my Aunt Judy used to make called Chili Con Carne.

Okay. Let's get started. Are you excited? I am!

Ingredients:

3 lbs London broil round 

2lbs Spicy sausage

2 Poblano peppers

1-2 Sweet onions

2 Green bell peppers

2 Tbsp Liquid smoke

3 cans of mild chili beans

2 (28oz) cans Crushed tomatoes

10 cloves Garlic 
1 Jalapeno pepper (seeded and diced)

1 Tbsp Dales seasoning 

3-4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce 
1 Tbsp Ground cumin

Tabasco sauce

Chili powder

Ground cayenne pepper

Sugar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Dice your peppers. I slaved away over these (not really I used my food processor.) I like my chili to have a kick but if you don’t then I would recommend that you only use one Poblano pepper or maybe even eliminate both one Poblano and the Jalapeno. I don’t think this soup was too hot by any means but I recognize that I like spicy foods. No one was downing water, wiping their brow or wiping their nose if that helps determine the level of hot-ness.

Now, chop up your onions in the chopper as well as your garlic.   

Slice your meat into one inch cubes. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I don't like huge chunks of meat in my chili. Slowly add your sausage and mix the meat well. Add 3-4 tablespoons of Worcestershire, 1 tablespoon of Dales, 1-2 tablespoons of soy, 2 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke and season with Kosher salt. Work all of this into your meat well.

Now combine your pepper mixture with your meat mixture. I suggest you use your hands until it is well mixed. Place this in the refrigerator for a few hours. I only had an hour to let it marinate and it was still delicious. If you can let it sit overnight or several hours then fantastic. I just never seem to plan that far ahead.

Now you kill time. I had a glass of wine, checked Facebook and painted my nails in case you were wondering. The picture above is my favorite cheap white wine. It's light and yummy!

On medium-high heat, add your mixture to the pan. Don't cram too much into the pan or it won't cook as well. Brown the meat mixture.  It's okay if the meat doesn't cook all the way through because it will finish cooking in the pot  Add additional batches to your pot as you finish them. I use a 16 quart stainless steel pot for my soups and I love it!    


Add one can of beans and one can of crushed tomatoes to the pot so your meat is cooking in the liquid. I started my soup on medium heat in the pot. As you add more meat to the pot, add the other cans of beans and crushed tomatoes.

Now that you have everything cooking in the pot, it's time to spice it up!  I added 3-4 tablespoons of chili power, 8 dashes of tabasco, 1 tablespoon of cumin and a medium sprinkling of cayenne pepper. I then added 2-3 pinches of sugar.  Sugar is the secret weapon in so many recipes because it marries the flavors. I also added a light sprinkling of black pepper. Feel free to taste your soup and add accordingly based on your preferences.

I let this cook on low for about 2.5 hours. You could definitely let it cook longer, but I wouldn't let it cook for less than two hours. I served this chili with Fritos, sour cream, shredded cheese, crackers and tortilla chips.

I love this recipe and so did my guests. I even gathered their feedback in which I'll post about later.

'Till next time,
Natalie