Category: Recipes

With summer quickly approaching, our lives are filled with family activities, laughter, and making memories. In my family we always use our scraps from the garden to make soup stock. Our Summertime Stock Up!

Dinner time is a great time to reconnect as a family after a day of activities. I used to think of soup as a winter or cold weather meal.

Soup is one of the most comforting foods to the soul. This past year, I made a goal to master soups. My soups were always too thick, no flavor, or just a plain flop.

After doing a lot of research and studying and plain pondering over recipes, I found that a good soup starts with a good foundation.

This foundation is stock or broth. I use the best ingredients available and love the mixture of slow cooked vegetables, herbs, and seasonings that blend flavors into rich chicken stock or vegetable broth.

Traditionally a stock uses bones and broth does not, but I will use the terms interchangeably.

Delicious vegetable soups will spotlight your garden harvest. What a great application of sustainable living as well as sharing with our children and grandchildren where our food comes from.

Last summer, I was invited to dinner with some dear friends and we had stew and home cooked bread on the patio as sun was starting to set.

Again, that stew was a comfort food and I hope that as you try soups even in the summer, you will have that comfort and hygge feeling that brings contentment and happiness to your soul.

With the stock that I am going to share with you, just yesterday I made a chicken noodle soup along with home baked bread and a fresh salad that created a wonderful luncheon memory with my mother. Make a memory that will last a lifetime.

Soups warm not only your tummy but your heart and soul.

Living in Utah, the melting snow shows signs of spring on the ground. As I walk in my neighborhood, I see neighbors cleaning up their yards and lawnmowers firing up for the first smell of cut grass.

As my walk continues and I round the corner to my house, I smile. My lawn is filled with spring and no lawnmower. My yard, and I am very proud of it, is filled with dandelions. Some may feel sorry for me and even leave me notes to help mow. I kindly tell them thank you and wish them a good day. I love my dandelions.

Last year, my friend, Dawn Mikesell posted a blog on the Kitchen Kneads blog about dandelion jelly, and that started my journey with dandelions. Dandelions are, yes, edible — the flower, the leaves, and the root are loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber.