Tomato Bisque -- pg. 135

Mrs. B.B. Mallory of Irving, Texas won a blue ribbon in the fair for this soup...Wow...I thought there'd be more competition in the Dallas metro area.  I mean, aren't Southerners known for their fiercely competitive cooking?  Well, that being said, it was a good soup.  My husband said it's the best tomato soup he's ever had.  I disagree.  I thought it was good, and for the effort put into it, possibly great.  Yeah, I'd say for the easiness of the soup, it was probably the best tomato soup yet.  Most of the recipes I really love for tomato soup are a lot more involved.  But, I digress... I can't put my finger on what didn't make this recipe perfect, but something was off.  I like basil, onion and pepper, so that leaves either the bay leaf (unlikely) or that one of the cans of diced tomatoes I used was stamped "Good through August 2003".  Hmmm, does eight years after the expiration make it not as good?  They smelled fine.  The other can was Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes.  But, the seasoning was basil, onion and something else...Let me go dig it out of the trash...BRB...ahhh no onion, but garlic and oregano.  I like both these spices, but maybe that threw it off just a little.  While I was upstairs checking the can in the trash, I tasted the soup again.  I think it's better than I thought.  But, since I will make this again, I will buy new cans of diced tomatoes, with no added seasonings, and let you know if that was it.  The recipe called for four cups of milk, and I used 1%, which made it plenty creamy.  Four spoons...I'm on a roll!

Herbed Beef Stew and Dumplings -- pg. 252

Everyone loved this one!  Yessssssss.   I even used the parsnips (which I have never tried because they look like anemic carrots).  The dumplings had to cook way longer than the recipe stated.  I think that could be because I doubled the recipe.  I would omit the cinnamon next time I make this.  It wasn't horrible to have in there, but I definitely think it'd be better without it.  I'm not a fan of adding cinnamon to savory things.  I sometimes can handle the nutmeg in soups, but not always.  Anyway, the family said five spoons.  I am giving it four, because of the cinnamon.  So now, maybe I can make a few soups again...Oh yeah -- and it's pretty to look at, too!

Tortellini Soup - p. 71

Really easy to make.  I think it was a little bland.  My husband said bland in a good way?!  Everyone liked it.  I think that if you sub Italian sausage for the ground beef and use Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes instead of plain ones it could make all the difference.  That is all.  Oh-- I guess three spoons.   Oh yeah -- my family has asked me not make any soup for a while :-(  So I don't know when the next post will be.

Cheesy Meatball Soup -- p. 57

Now, let's see...I didn't love it, but my family did.  So do I average the spoons?  I thought it was a three-spooner.  They thought it was like a four.  I had to make my own meatballs, but that wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.  Other than that, the usual suspects and a party-crasher, Cheez-Whiz.  I did not want to put two whole jars of Cheez-Whiz into a soup (I doubled this recipe.) so I used one jar, two cups of milk and  1/3 cup of potato flakes.  Everyone raved about it (go figure).  I thought it was good, but not great.  I also thought the meatballs made it a little heavy for me, but it was good.  Three and a half spoons...

Fast Fiesta Soup -- pg. 161

Fast, yes.  Fiesta, no.  There are only 4 cans in this soup:  2 Rotel, 1 corn, 1 black beans.  "Wow," I thought, "I hope this is as good as the person who submitted the recipe says it is!"  Let me tell you what the heading said:  This spicy soup was served at a very elegant lunch, and the hostess was deluged with requests for the recipe.  The colorful combination  is a snap to throw together...just open the cans and heat.   

Yeah.  Well the snap to throw together part was right.  I cannot imagine what lunch she went to, but the food must've been horrible.  No, the soup isn't that bad.  It's just not good.  It looks and tastes similar to salsa, but without the flavor.  In fact, I'd rather open a jar of salsa and heat it up.  It would be better.  So I give this soup one and a half spoons.  The one is because it's easy, and the half is because it's edible.  

White Chili with Chicken -- pg. 215

Again, I had family in town and it was snowing.  I didn't want to go to the store, so I got some chicken out of the freezer, and voila!  If you have extra cans of Great Northern Beans, this will work for you.  I am thinking I need about a dozen cans of Great Northern, black, pinto, navy, garbanzo, kidney and chili beans until I'm done with my soup endeavor.  Then, just whip out the beans and let the fun begin!  The diners said that it had just the right amount of kick to it (with the jalapenos).  I would only add that I think the recipe calls for too much chicken broth.  I did swap out the corn starch for flour, too.  I'd say three and a half spoons.

Baked Potato Soup -- pg. 92

So I had the baked potatoes that I snaked from my sister-in-law's Christmas Eve dinner, and the bacon.  So what did I do when I didn't have enough leftovers?  (Hint-- It's hidden in the title of this post.)  It went together really quick, and it was very good.  My husband said to give it four spoons, but I say 3 1/2 because the Best Ever Potato Soup was better.  My mom and dad-in-law liked it, too.  I used light sour cream instead of full-fat, so bonus!