Southwest Soup For Sickly Souls

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I knew I was running late on this Friday post but just remembered that everyone else is out there barbecuing and playing with fireworks anyway.
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Happy Fourth of July!
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Sopa del Curandera

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Carteach lobbed a food wars volley in this direction. Unfortunately it struck the column of the walking wounded out here at the Rat. Mark is still recovering from 'whatever that was' and the fanciest food production I dared assail his stomach with was a medicinal soup, southwest style.

The idea was to make vast quantities of natural antibiotics seem palatable and this soup emerged. I never was a big soup fancier but even I liked this one. With the temperatures in the mid-90s to 100 degrees lately, you absolutely avoid using the oven for anything until the sun sets and the desert's cool nights return so this is a stove-top creation from start to finish.

The soup came into being as I stood there anally trimming out a tray of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Since I am fussy about meat texture, I was busy removing any fat, tendons and mystery parts and placing those scraps into a sauce pan. I added a couple cups of water and let the whole thing simmer for a few hours, adding a good dash of Montreal Chicken Seasoning to the mix. I later strained the broth into a larger pan and the dogs and cats went nuts over the solids left in the strainer. No waste! Of course, you can avoid all that time, effort and being stared at by big brown eyes by cracking open a can of chicken broth and adding it to that large pan instead.

Then I finely diced six (yes, count 'em!) cloves of garlic, ran them through a crusher and added the entire aromatic mess to the big pot of broth and set the heat to a high simmer. The garlic is the major medicinal ingredient so don't skimp, the rest of the ingredients will help absorb its booming voice. The spice rack got raided and in went paprika, some taco seasoning, cumin, turmeric (another BIG illness fighter although it stains the chicken and your counters a bright yellow), juice of one lime, a dash of smoky marinade, a splash of white vermouth, ample ginger which would help break Mark's profound chills and what the heck - a chicken bullion cube for good taste measure. Then off to the pantry; one each 14-15 ounce can of diced tomatoes and black beans plus a small can of green chiles. Don't drain them, throw the contents in with all their juices.

I took a large onion (part of the medicinals) and cut it into 1/2 wide rings and then sliced those rings only in half. I wanted larger pieces of onion as you would traditionally find in French onion soup. Then I cut up two of the larger chicken breasts into cubes and very lightly browned them with the onions in butter (another mild antibiotic) in a large skillet. When done, I transferred this into the soup pot, turned down the soup pot heat to a low simmer and let it burble for a half hour. In the meantime, I sliced up both red and green bell peppers into roughly half inch squares. I added them to the soup pot only at the last five minutes of simmering so that they remained firm, colorful and so very slightly crunchy. I added a little water to bring up the volume and we managed to get six bowls (or two meals out of it) out of it.

We used round tortilla chips to scoop up chunks or crumbled them into the soup as you would crackers. Using them like crumbled crackers is a great way to use up the broken chips always found at the bottom of the bag and you get that pleasing corn taste and crunch in the process. Be well!
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I was going to post a review on the failures and victories of seating for the Rat's UV-drenched front porch but, since I am now running REALLY late for Friday's update, I will post that one on Monday or Tuesday. We finally found solid outdoor seating comfort at a reasonable price that you might like to try as well!
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Fajita Night!

.Apologies; this is not part 3 of the Home Cummins tale. This thaw has made the processing of that elk an absolute priority now even though Mark cannot pick up the mail order new freezer until the roads improve. We will have to pack everything in the snow at the shady base of the mesa until then. We will have to empty out truck totes to pack it in so that our domestic carnivores or Slim's dogs don't help themselves. At the prospect, I have lost all concentration necessary to finish off the Cummins stories. I know me; it would read like a grocery list if I even attempted it right now. Again, apologies.

So above is what it looks like around here lately just before Mark turns on the generator for the night. Pretty outside but you haven't been able to read anything in the Rat for the last half hour. The idea is to make up for the few daytime hours we have been running lately - every bit helps.
.But it was fajita (fah-hee-tah) night! I had thawed beef strips and let them lounge around for several hours in the fajita seasoning marinade and squeezings from a lime I found hiding in the crisper. Long slices of fresh red and green peppers and onions tossed into the pan towards the end of frying and we were set. This is one of Slim's favorite dinners, too, although the roads kept him 'up top' this time.
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Dished out on to a tortilla and mine with a few dollops of sour cream and it's a wrap! Easy to make, easy to eat and a great change of pace from the usual.
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I WILL be back when the elk is taken care of, it just may take a few days.
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UFO in the Canyon

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It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's ... it's ... an Unidentified Food Object! It's what happens when you both troll through the refrigerator restlessly on a late Saturday morning looking for ... I dunno ... something. I know you've all had those moments.
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No, it's a quizza!!!

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I go over to other friend's blogs and see all these photos of delectable foods they have indulged in and gorge myself vicariously. I've tried to capture culinary moments at the Rat but this is the best I have come up with so far. It's a quizza! We had plenty of eggs and we had plenty of pizza toppings - it just seemed like the thing to do. I beat the eggs lightly, poured them into an oiled pie pan and set the pan in the oven at 325F until the eggs rose and had mostly firmed up. I pulled the pan out, brushed on a little pizza sauce, sprinkled some Italian seasoning over it and then smothered it in cheddar and mozzarella cheese. A handful each of mushrooms, green peppers, pepperoni and crumbled bacon and it was ready for the final bake at 400F - for that sizzle and browning that makes for the most satisfying Pavlovian drool fest.
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This was one time where I was able to muster the discipline and presence of mind to stop and take photos. Mark was SOOOO good since he had to hold the pan up against the scenic backdrop while I futzed with the camera. "Could you HURRY up? Ow, ow, ow ... this thing is still HOT!" Saintly comes to mind here.

I had to computer-paint out his seared fingers from the edge of the pan and add in two white lines. This is for PhlegmFatale who adores that classic B grade movie 'Plan 9 from Outer Space". She especially loved the very visible strings which held up the flying saucer (a.k.a. pie pan) in the movie. So there ya go ... my first foodie post which was "Outta this world", at least according to Mark. God love him, he is a cook's dream diner!
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