Soup!

The best food for winter meals is soup.  I didn't grow up eating soup much.  Southern California weather and wearing shorts on Christmas Day.   But, now that I live where it snows and is cold throughout the winter, I love soup.  It warms one's bones on a chilly day.

Since I didn't grow up eating soup, I don't exactly have a lot of family soup recipes to make regularly.  I've found a few along the way from Simply in Season and America's Test Kitchen's Family Cookbook.  

But, when I saw a cookbook titled 300 Sensational Soups, I was very excited to try some new soups!

This cookbook by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds is packed with easy to follow recipes and great pictures.  It's published by Robert Rose Publishing and as usual they've done a great job making this cookbook easy to cook from.  

I made two soups and my mom made one.  The first soup I made was a corn chowder with ham.  I used some leftover ham cooked in my crockpot a few weeks ago.  My family gobbled up the soup and we had only enough leftovers for one bowl.  

The second soup I made was the Wild Mushroom and Orzo Soup with Italian Meatballs.  The soup was rich and flavorful.  I would recommend diluting it a little bit though.  We found it almost too strong.  The meatballs in the soup were spiced wonderfully and yummy.  My pickiest eater wouldn't eat it, but mushrooms aren't a vegetable she's willing to eat.  

My mom made the Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup.  She found it to be too thick and very mild.  Many of the soups do call for heavy cream.  She was surprised that she didn't like it more.

This is one of those cookbooks that gives you great recipes to start with.  Adjust the thickness and flavors to your family's tastes.  With the corn chowder, I used frozen corn.  With the wild mushroom soup, I substituted regular white mushrooms.  These are more affordable substitutions for me that don't sacrifice a lot of flavor.  I also often substitute milk plus some butter for half and half.  1 cup milk plus 3 Tbsp. butter can be substituted for 1 cup half and half.  1 cup half and half can be substituted for 1 cup of heavy cream to help make a recipe lighter and healthier.  

If you're looking for a soup cookbook with yummy recipes, I'd definitely check this one out!

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this cookbook for review from Robert Rose Publishing.