Stranded by an ice storm with nothing but time and a chilly house, Jen and I found ourselves rediscovering the warmth of homemade soups. This episode is a steaming bowl of comfort, as we recount our journey from the convenience of canned creations to the aromatic world of soups made from scratch. We'll stir through memories of family traditions and debate the merits of bone broth, all while sharing the heartwarming satisfaction of a chicken soup that's been given the time and love it deserves. You'll hear our tales and get the scoop on how a simple pot of soup can turn into a nourishing remedy for the soul—and the body—during the coldest months.
As we simmered our way through the ice storm, we realized there's an art to the perfect stew, from the decision to sauté vegetables or let them meld their flavors directly in the stock. Listen up as we spoon out our thoughts on batch cooking's practical side, saving you time without skimping on taste. From the secret of a quick rotisserie chicken fix to making your vegetable stock sing, we'll share how personal touches and a dash of creativity can transform any recipe into your signature dish. Pull up a chair, and let's chat about making those one-pot wonders that are sure to warm up your kitchen—and your dinner table.
Stranded by an ice storm with nothing but time and a chilly house, Jen and I found ourselves rediscovering the warmth of homemade soups. This episode is a steaming bowl of comfort, as we recount our journey from the convenience of canned creations to the aromatic world of soups made from scratch. We'll stir through memories of family traditions and debate the merits of bone broth, all while sharing the heartwarming satisfaction of a chicken soup that's been given the time and love it deserves. You'll hear our tales and get the scoop on how a simple pot of soup can turn into a nourishing remedy for the soul—and the body—during the coldest months.
As we simmered our way through the ice storm, we realized there's an art to the perfect stew, from the decision to sauté vegetables or let them meld their flavors directly in the stock. Listen up as we spoon out our thoughts on batch cooking's practical side, saving you time without skimping on taste. From the secret of a quick rotisserie chicken fix to making your vegetable stock sing, we'll share how personal touches and a dash of creativity can transform any recipe into your signature dish. Pull up a chair, and let's chat about making those one-pot wonders that are sure to warm up your kitchen—and your dinner table.
And welcome to Sweet Tea and Tacos. I'm Dave and I'm Jen and we're back. It's been a while it has. Since mid-November.
Jen:
Yep, way too long.
Dave:
Yep, we keep saying, okay, we've got to do this, we got to get back to this.
Jen:
Yeah, so we apologize. Yeah, life got real crazy busy with the holidays and the new year, and.
Dave:
Yeah.
Jen:
I don't know.
Dave:
We didn't get the number of the truck that ran over.
Jen:
And now what we're dealing with is an ice storm.
Dave:
Yeah, another. We're an ice quarantine now instead of COVID quarantine.
Jen:
Yeah, it's been really interesting. We live in Mississippi and we don't usually get this kind of weather this late in the year, which sounds kind of funny if you live, you know, up north, because it's obviously still Winter. But yeah, we don't ever get snow this late or anything. It's always Usually January and that that's it.
Dave:
We get ice storms. Okay, we haven't had any in a long time. This is the worst one we've had that I can remember. I mean, I know we've had some bad ones.
Jen:
Yeah, but usually if it's ice storm, it's just been ice. Like where it would just sort of start precipitating turn, you know. I mean it would freeze and then all the power lines would crash, Snap it would crash or we get snow. Now we've had just a mix of everything.
Dave:
We've had sleet, snow, yeah, rain, you name it, and it's been. This is a day four now.
Jen:
Yeah, going on. Five Kids are not in school, people are not going to work.
Dave:
Stories aren't open. The mail's not running.
Jen:
Right, no, we've not gotten mail all week yeah the airport was shut down.
Dave:
Fedex, EPS all of them are not yet, so it's been interesting. So now we actually have time.
Jen:
Yeah, we have a minute to sit down and do some podcasts you should have a bunch done after this week, you would think.
Dave:
So we're talking about soups.
Jen:
Yeah, we figured well, hey, soup weather, and it has been for a while, so let's talk about soups.
Dave:
But it doesn't really need to be soup weather for us. We're soup people.
Jen:
We are Now. We don't do it in the heat of the summer when it's 100 degrees. But pretty much any other time we're up for soup.
Dave:
Yeah. I don't remember, though, making soup much, my parents making soup much. When I was growing. I remember eating soup. Now we eat the canned soup. You know the chicken and tomato, canned noodle and tomato. My favorite are tomato and grilled cheese. Grilled cheese. Yeah, what a combination.
Jen:
And see, I didn't eat that at all growing up. I know I don't know it just well, you know me. I wasn't into tomatoes for the longest time, I guess. But then I learned when I grew up. I'm like, oh, tomato soup and grilled cheese, that's like a thing.
Dave:
Something. Yeah, I remember you know we'd eat soup, but I don't remember my parents making soup a whole lot. That's something they did, but not like we do. We make soup a lot.
Jen:
We do.
Dave:
We rarely buy canned soup.
Jen:
Right.
Dave:
Right, except for like we, you know, went and did the milk and bread and soup canned soup from the other day before I was hit. But normally we make soup and the reason I think now I know I remember we kind of started making soup and you and I started dating.
Jen:
Right, because a lot of our dates were Cooking. Get together and cook, you know.
Dave:
And your mom made a soup.
Jen:
Yeah, she made a soup that was really hard to eat and good. It had ground beef in it, some other vegetables, kind of whatever she had on hand, like maybe some like frozen limas or corn. You know like a bag of corn, frozen corn, green beans, things like that, but it was kind of a tomato-y based, I guess, with some probably broth.
Dave:
Right and it wasn't hard, it was easy to put together?
Jen:
No, Really really easy, you know you have some hot, fresh cornbread.
Dave:
There you go.
Jen:
Yes, absolutely.
Dave:
But we've kind of stretched out from there and you know, you hear a lot. You hear the sayings of chicken soup with the soul. And how chicken soup, will, you know, cure anything? You know, when you eat the canned chicken soup you're like, yeah, but if you've never had, you need to have homemade chicken soup with a broth made with chicken cooked. That is a whole different ball game.
Jen:
It really is.
Dave:
And there's even levels within that, because I mean, we started out because we make chicken breasts a lot and we would just take, like the boneless, skinless breasts and boil them and that's good Right, and we would save the broth and use for other things.
Jen:
But yeah, then when you get like a whole chicken, that's cut up Whole chicken. And you know say thighs and legs and all that and it's got the bones in and skin on.
Dave:
That really adds a lot yeah.
Jen:
You get the collagen and you get a lot of the minerals and all that.
Dave:
Yeah, and that's a whole different kind of soup, you know which? The whole chicken, boil it, stew it, whatever you call it. Right? Add carrot, celery, garlic, leeks, whatever, and it doesn't take a lot after that, right? And man, that is just so kind of good.
Jen:
And now you start to understand about suit right after that, and it's just so nourishing and easy to digest. You know, I mean, even if you didn't put anything else in it besides, maybe just some salt and some spices, you could just have that right, and you know, I mean in bone and that's a bone broth it is bone broth and you hear a lot about bone broth kind of in the popular culture right now right health popular health culture.
Dave:
It's the people who recognize the benefits of bone broth, again because of the way people used to cook right, which is kind of funny things, things come back around.
Jen:
You know, things that have wisdom and that are that work. They just they'll come around again because people they're like oh yeah, this, this is good.
Dave:
Yeah, what people used to do, this is how it used to be, and we've done. Bone the beef ones too now right, we're trying to eat more vegetarian these days we are, those are still. You just cannot beat those kind of home and honestly it's not that hard no, it's not it's really not. I mean, if you're into cooking at all, if you're whatever, if you're into health, it's really not that hard. Now I would say, maybe the beef is a little more involved it is the chicken.
Dave:
I feel like you can just throw in a pot, boil it and within an hour you've got your stuff.
Jen:
Yeah, the the, the beef is gonna take longer. You gotta find some good quality bones.
Dave:
You gotta roast them first, then you turn around and then make the spot put it either, you know, in a stock pot or do it in a crop pot kind of overnight, very slowly, and all that but yeah, and then you've got fo, which a lot is popular, right, what Vietnamese?
Jen:
Vietnamese soups and it's a bone broth and that's one of the reasons why people like it oh and it's so good we've got a local place here that we just love and anytime, I mean, we like to go there just regardless. But if we're feeling, you know, a little bit under the weather, maybe sinus stuff or whatever, it's just incredible.
Dave:
You're cleaning out, you're just, you're good to go the next day, yeah now as good as, and really a chicken soup from scratch does not, like you said, an hour, yeah, but the time you start cooking it's an hour minimum. You gotta cook the shit. But really you can make soup, fresh homemade chicken soup, in an hour, hour and a half. And then, of course, there's the old joke it's always better than the next day. So, yeah, so it's also kind of thing we've done to where we've made. Here's what we're making for dinner, but I've got a pot of soup going on the back cuz that's for tomorrow. You know, yeah, and it's really not that hard. I would really encourage you to try it if you've never, ever tried it. It's so simple and, like I said, just a chicken, onion, celery or leek and celery carrot.
Jen:
We loved, but leek, it adds so much flavor and don't forget your bay leaf.
Dave:
Yeah, a couple bay leaves, Yep, but then we've done quicker ones, if you can, you know, with like frozen mirepoix, which is a lot of sauce.
Jen:
There's two kinds of mirepoix. There's the Cajun mirepoix that has the celery, the bell pepper and the onion.
Dave:
It's the trinity, and then you've got a standard mirepoix with carrot, there's more of a French tradition.
Jen:
Onion celery yeah.
Dave:
So I mean, sometimes we'll do a quick one where it's a couple of cartons of chicken broth and a couple bags of those and saute it Just on that with the chicken broth that you buy at the store.
Jen:
I would recommend staying away from anything in a can. Buy those cartons. I don't know, they're kind of those cardboard cartons. But check the ingredients and if you've listened to us you know we're kind of that's our thing.
Dave:
Right the clean.
Jen:
Eating clean and there's just a lot of hidden ingredients Even stuff like yeast extract can be.
Dave:
Because we're trying to thicken the broth.
Jen:
Yeah, I mean it can be something else, maybe MSG, I'm not sure completely, but and then there's a lot that can come under the heading of natural flavors and stuff. Just look for one that is as few ingredients as possible.
Dave:
Right, and you can even find bone broths.
Jen:
Yeah, you can. There's some jarred.
Dave:
You know bone broths in those stores and it's not as good as what you'd make and they're a lot more expensive. But hey, if you don't have time, you're time limited, it's an option. You know, we've done chicken ones or I've done like a rotisserie chicken and shredded that up and threw that in with a mire poit.
Jen:
Yeah, we did that one just a couple of weeks ago. That was kind of our shortcut, yeah, but it turned out really really good.
Dave:
Yeah, so you know, and there also it's a batch cooking. So, from an easy standpoint, I'm making soup tonight, or I'm making soup for tomorrow and I'll have it for a day or two, Right, and I think that's why we are drawn to it.
Jen:
It's just because and we love to cook, but, man, you know we've talked about this on this podcast is just the pots and pans and all the cleaning up, it can get overwhelming.
Dave:
That's another good thing about soup is a one pot meal. Yes, you know, you can do everything in the same pot, Right?
Jen:
or you know you might wanna do some rice and throw it in or something.
Dave:
Yeah, if you wanna think about it, throw some rice in there after you've got some, the meat cooked off you know, Still, that would be one pot yeah exactly.
Dave:
Yeah, I don't saute the vegetables. I mean, I'll cook the chicken in the stock pot, pull the chicken out, maybe skim out some of those. You know whatever I need to skim out. Throw the vegetables right into that stock, let them cook, shred that chicken, do whatever I need to do to clean it up and throw the rice in there, for you to use rice and throw the chicken back in there, and there you go. You know, and I used to be bad about that.
Jen:
I used to.
Dave:
I've got to saute my vegetables. I've got to do this, you know.
Jen:
You were that way.
Dave:
Yes, I'm a food snob. What's a food snob? I'm not as much anymore.
Jen:
Once you have kids, a lot of that goes up the window.
Dave:
But I've also noticed like to me. I figured it out with my red beans and rice Because I wouldn't do that I would saute my vegetables and then I'd do everything. But then if you read about what red beans in the history of red beans and rice, it was a thing that they just kind of threw together in the stove because they were doing wash Right it was on Mondays because they were doing wash.
Jen:
That was wash day in New Orleans.
Dave:
Thought to myself, got thinking to myself. You know, if they're busy they're probably not going to be sauteing vegetables. You're just kind of throwing stuff in a pot. And it was so much better when I don't saute the vegetables that I don't know, we can talk about the cooking science of it, but I just felt like you had a lot more the vegetables released there instead of sauteing the vegetable and the liquid of the vegetable coming out and evaporating, it stayed in the stock and, I think, added just a lot more flavor. So that's how I do those now. Yeah.
Jen:
Well, and speaking of red beans and rice, I mean it's not really a soup or stew, but I kind of think of it in that category almost. You know, kind of a one pot meal. I mean, you eat it over rice, but it's kind of that genre in a way, and we don't do stews much- no, we really don't. I mean you think things like beef stew and all that Probably chili is.
Dave:
Chili, red beans and rice gumbo.
Jen:
Yeah, we do gumbo and. I guess, that's kind of a stew in a way.
Dave:
I think I finally nailed my gumbo.
Jen:
Yeah, that was some good gumbo.
Dave:
I call that nailing it when I can make it more than twice the same way.
Jen:
Yeah, and people, they ask us for recipes. Oh well, you know what do you do for so and so.
Dave:
Throw this in the man.
Jen:
I mean, we try to do the same thing twice, but we just don't always write it down.
Dave:
This was a good example. So we were cooking. What were we cooking? We had Helen. Look at some recipes. I was trying to cook something and I can't remember. Yeah, I can't remember what it was. But I said why don't you grab some recipes?
Jen:
Yeah.
Dave:
And so she started like reading a recipe from like okay, you need four of these. I don't have that, so she just read me the process. Right right, and that's where that's how I do recipes. Oh look, okay, I'm gonna cook, you know whatever this is. And then I start Googling recipes. Well then I you know, I look at five, six, seven, eight, 10 recipes and oh, it's the fried rice. That's what it was.
Jen:
Yeah, oh yeah.
Dave:
And see what the general consensus is. You know cause, you'll find outliers, you know people doing things original or whatever, and you get a lot of consensus and then I go, okay, well, that's kind of how it's done. Then I take that plus what I have in the time I want to spend to do it, and there you go.
Jen:
Right.
Dave:
You know. So again, that goes back to why we don't have written down recipes a lot, but the general idea is you just kind of think it through, you know Right. You know, fill your pot with water, put your chicken in it, bring it to a simmer, let it simmer for an hour, you know, pull it out, skim it off, throw your vegetables in there what vegetables, whatever you want, you know Right. And then we've done vegetable version, vegetarian versions with the vegetable stock. Now, that's one thing we haven't done is try to make a vegetable stock from scratch.
Jen:
I know and I think it's more difficult.
Dave:
Yeah.
Jen:
I don't know, we'll have to kind of venture into that.
Dave:
Yeah, cause we've used some couple of different store bought store bought stocks.
Jen:
Vegetable stocks and they're pretty good. Some are better than others. Yeah, the first one we got was not good. Yeah.
Dave:
And I was kind of like mm mm.
Jen:
Yeah.
Dave:
But then we found another one that was really good. We like it a lot, so we use it a lot too. I mean, the chili we made was a vegetarian, so I mean, you know, right, it's more about eating more vegetables than meat, I think, for us.
Jen:
But yeah, we have a vegetarian chili.
Dave:
We kind of make chili mostly vegetarian now these days.
Jen:
Yeah, and it's really good. I mean, I enjoy it. I don't miss the meat at all.
Dave:
No.
Jen:
But one thing that we really enjoy. Mm-hmm is to do it Cincinnati style, which is kind of a tradition that came, I guess, out of your family. I mean you know, because some of your family's from Ohio, but it's got. If y'all don't know, or familiar with that, it has some different spices in it, like I mean it has all the traditional stuff like the chili powder and Garlic. Good, name. And then it has things like cinnamon and allspice and nutmeg maybe I don't remember all of it Cocoa sometimes.
Jen:
Yeah, sometimes they even throw a little cocoa in it, but it's just, it adds kind of a real roundness to the flavor.
Dave:
Right, so growing up we didn't really add those. We ate it. We ate it Cincinnati style.
Jen:
Okay, so over the pasta.
Dave:
Over the pasta with beans. Right Now in Cincinnati, you get it. The chili is a really fine chili, really finely ground meat, and it doesn't come with beans in it, Gotcha. You can add the beans, Gotcha, so it's like it comes on spaghetti. Mm-hmm, right, but then it's like you can have it.
Dave:
You know one way, two way, three ways, all the way, which is like pasta, chili, beans, onions, cheese and like two pounds of cheese, but it's fantastic. But that chili is that kind that has the spices in it. So Cincinnati chili, eating it Cincinnati style, which is kind of what we did growing up, gotcha, yeah, so yeah, but yeah, I mean we like those because they're one pot meals, they're kind of easy, just comforting party, very comforting.
Jen:
You know when it's so cold out. I mean it's kind of like our daughter Helen says it's warm food you know I mean, when it's so cold you don't really want to eat in a bunch of salads and just cold sandwiches and things Warm food.
Dave:
That's Helen's thing you want to really. What do you want? I want warm food.
Jen:
Warm you up from the inside out.
Dave:
Yeah, that's descriptive. So, yeah, you know, try some soups. You know, really I would say start with a chicken soup.
Jen:
Yeah.
Dave:
A chicken in a pot. Salt and pepper, bay leaf.
Jen:
Lots of salt. I mean, don't like, yeah, it takes a lot of salt, go crazy with it, right, but you're going to put salt and then you're going to taste later obviously after the chicken has cooked and you're going to be like there's no salt and you're going to say, oh, it needs more, and so just keep tasting yeah and keep adding until you get it right.
Dave:
Right, lots of garlic.
Jen:
Lots of garlic Leeks add a huge flavor.
Dave:
Celery carrot and that's a basic soup right there. Absolutely my measurement for garlic. I think everybody's measurement is wrong. So if they say one or two bulbs, one or two cloves, that's a bulb. I just substitute a bulb of garlic.
Jen:
I mean, you really almost can't have too much, and it's so good for you it is.
Dave:
But yeah, you think about all those fresh vegetables. You could use a frozen mirepoix or just coat it fresh while your chicken's cooking. And there you go and I would say start with that soup. Takes an hour and a half and it'll change your life and you won't look back. Not really, I won't eat anybody else's chicken soup.
Jen:
Yeah.
Dave:
So yeah, I've not made a tomato soup.
Jen:
No, we've never made that, but yeah.
Dave:
That's one thing we ought to try.
Jen:
Sure.
Dave:
Yeah, ok. Well, so for the first one in three months or whatever it's been.
Jen:
Yeah, since November, I think, so yeah.
Dave:
Something like that. There you go, that's Sweet Teen. Takas for February, finally back.