Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

    With fall fast approaching there is nothing better than a hot bowl of soup to warm you from the inside out. One of our family favorites is the following recipe for creamy chicken wild rice soup. Add  a loaf of warm crusty bread for a hearty 'stick to your ribs' meal that tastes like you have spent all day in the kitchen cooking. We like to make a double batch, so we do all the work once, but can throw a couple meals in the freezer for later.

Double Batch (7+ meals for us!)

My mom had to have a bowl right away! :)

Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup

2 c. chicken breast ( approximately 2 large)

4-6 chopped/diced carrots

1 medium chopped onion

4-6 stalks celery (can use the leafy tops as well)

1/2 c. butter

1 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tbsp. parsley

3c. cooked wild rice

1 c. water

8 c. chicken broth

1 pint of heavy cream

1/2 c. toasted slivered almonds (optional)

COOK: Saute the chicken in your stock pot using 2 tbsp. of the butter, when juices run clear remove from the stock pot and set aside. In the same pot saute the vegetables with the remaining butter (carrots, onions and celery), when tender add the flour and seasonings (salt, pepper and parsley) to the vegetable mixture and incorporate until well mixed. This will create a rue that will thicken the soup. Add the water and the chicken broth and whisk well until the rue is completely blended into the added liquids. Simmer until the broth is starting to thicken. Add the chicken (diced/cubed into bite size pieces) and the rice and bring to a gentle boil reduce heat and add the heavy cream and almonds (optional) and simmer until hot. 

Serve with a crusty bread or even in a toasted mini bread bowl.

HINTS:

*I use Zatarain's Wild Rice blend (or any other brand will do) that totals 3 cups cooked rice. I add it uncooked along with the water needed to cook it at the same time that you add the water and chicken broth, adjust your cooking time to allow for the rice to get tender before adding the chicken and heavy cream. These rice blends come with a season packet that makes the soup taste wonderful. When using the seasoning packet I omit the salt called for in the recipe.

** Use garden produce to help make this meal cheaper!

***I like to use my food processor to quick chop the carrots and onions and slice the celery.

****Use a rotisserie chicken if they are on sale or if you previously froze cooked chicken for future dinners. 

*****I have also made this where I cook up a bunch of chicken breasts in the crock pot a day or so ahead of time, when I get them on sale. Then I shred them with a fork and toss into the soup at the end. 

Sweet Corn Cob Jelly

    I was recently gifted some lovely early bi-color sweet corn from some very good friends. Since it was more than we could eat at once I decided to prep it for the freezer following the directions on our site Cooking the Deals. As I was getting ready to take the clean cut corn cobs to the compost bin, I recalled seeing a recipe for Sweet Corn Cob Jelly on this site: Canning Homemade! I decided to give it a try, I followed the direction exactly as written and I have to admit that it was probably the easiest jelly recipe I have ever made. The jelly set perfectly and has a very light, sweet almost lemony floral flavor.

    Corn Cob Jelly

12 large corncobs

4 cups sugar

4 cups water

1 package powdered pectin

yellow food color ( optional)

    Prepare 7 half pint jars, lids and rings. Sterilize the jars and keep them in hot water until ready to use. Cut corn kernels from cobs and save for canning or freezing. It is not necessary to cut right to the core. 

    In a large stainless steel pot add corncobs and water. Heat to a full boil for 10 minutes. Remove the corncobs and using cheesecloth strain the liquid. You will need to measure 3 cups. (Add water if necessary or add additional water to corncobs and boil again to get the full 3 cups.) Put the strained liquid back into the pot and add stir in the pectin. Bring to a full boil. Add in the sugar and bring back to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat. If necessary skim off any foam with a metal spoon. If you want add a few drops of the yellow food coloring at this point. 

    On a dishtowel place your hot jars and fill leaving 1/4" head space. Using a clean damp cloth wipe the jar rims removing any liquid jelly that would interfere with a good seal. Place lids on the jars and seal with the rings to 'finger tight'. 

    Process the jars in a water bath canner following proper water bath canning procedures and process for 10 minutes starting to time after the water has come to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow the jars to sit a few minutes before removing, set the jars on a dishtowel in a place where they can sit overnight without being disturbed.   

  Sometime within the next hour you will hear the pinging or popping noise as the jars cool and seal. If you have any jars that have not sealed reprocess them the following day or put in the fridge for immediate consumption.   Be sure to properly label and store the jars.  

This recipe is an excellent way to get even more from your produce. So this lovely gift of a dozen ears of corn netted a total of one dinner,

seven containers for the freezer for future dinners and one pint and 3 half pints of sweet corn cob jelly. This will definitely be one for must make file!

How to Freeze Sweet Corn

I love sweet corn on the cob in the summer! It's hard to get year round though, but if you buy some now, and freeze it for later, it's just about as good. My mom and I did just that today. She stopped by a local farm stand, that she's been going to for years to get corn, and picked up 4 dozen ears of corn for $20 (about 42 cents an ear). So, today I helped her freeze it. Here's how we did it, so that you can enjoy sweet corn off the cob all year round too!

1. Husk the corn. This is best done outside, as it get pretty messy! We threw the husk in the garden compost to make great soil for her garden next year.

Cute helpers always help get the job done!

2. Cut the corn off the cob. I saw a pin on Pinterest about using a bunt cake pan and an electric knife. We tried it out, and it worked great! Having tried it, I have two suggestions though. If you have your choice of bunt cake pans, choose the one that all once piece (I used the one that was two pieces, and the corn juice leaked out the bottom). Also, if you have the choice, I think the one with the smaller hole in the middle would work better than the bigger hole (I had an ear of corn slip right through it at one point!). Either way the electric knife makes it go WAY faster, and the bunt pan is great for catching all the kernels.

3. Clean the cob off. Some might say this is an optional step, as you have all the kernels, but you don't always get it all when you slice it off, so my mom took the cobs and held her knife perpendicular to the cob and ran it down all the sides. I guess we like to get every little last bit of the yummy stuff!

(Want to know what to do with the empty cobs? Check out this jelly recipe!)

4. Cook the corn. You're not cooking it entirely, but kind of like blanching it before you freeze it. This is the recipe we've been using for years. For the amount that we did, we had to use my mom's stock pot. If you're doing it on a smaller scale, you can use a smaller pot. Or, if you're doing a large amount, and don't have a stock pot, you can use several pots or do it in smaller batches.

8 cups raw sweet corn 
3/4 cup water
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 to 3/4 stick butter or margarine (we probably used less than this, because when we're ready to eat it, we add more butter)

Bring to a boil, cook 3 minutes. Cool.

5. Package, label, & freeze. If you follow my blog, you know I always use empty sour cream, yogurt, butter, or other containers for freezer meals. Corn is no different! If you're not going to fill it all the way full, I would suggest putting a layer of cellophane right on top of the corn so there's less air around it to cause freezer burn.

(The ones in the box mom sent home with me!)

So from our 4 dozen ears of corn, we got 17 - 16 ounce containers, 3 - 12 ounce containers, and 14 - 8 ounce containers, or about 26 - 16 ounce bags that you would buy in the store. That's about 76 cents per bag, which is more than what I typically pay for frozen veggies, but I think the taste is totally worth it!

EDIT: We did this again this year (2015), but did 6 dozen ears of corn. Here was our results this year! We had 80 cups of corn!

How to Avoid Freezer Burn

Having freezer meals on hand can save you time and money. But if you pull out your meal, and find it has freezer burn, well then, it tastes funny and is a waste of your time and money. Keep reading to find out how you can best avoid freezer burn...

Okay, so I'm Nesting...

I finally admitted to myself yesterday that, with 4 weeks to go until our baby's due date, I'm nesting. Besides getting the nursery together and such, I've been making several freezer meals so that the hubbs' life is much easier once our daughter arrives.