Budget blues force creativity.
Ok so since the great state of Georgia has not given most of the Guardsmen (Don included) the promised bonuses and the current gas prices are so high, we are strapped for cash lately much like 97% of the population right now. Paying the bills lately make me ill, I stress out and worry constantly. I do what I can to stretch and cut every little bit I can out of our daily living expenses to include the food we eat and the energy we spend. Amazingly, it has forced me to become more of a peasant gourmet cook than I thought possible. I had bought an excessive amount of lettuce one day because we were all in the mood for salads and it was selling at .79 a head which was a great price. Well, we didn't eat all the lettuce and several days later was beginning to wilt a bit in the fridge. So I set my mind at work on what I could do with all that lettuce because right now, a family of 6 can't afford to be wasteful.
I come from the Midwest, a granddaughter, and niece to a multitude of farmers and a long long line of talented soup makers. Remember, it's cold in the Midwest and soup was a great way to cut time in the kitchen so the women could help with other duties of the farm while the men-folk were out late in the fields, there by getting them in earlier to warm up. It was also a great way to use left-overs and stretch out a meal. So I guess my thoughts turning to making soup when we hit hard times sorta comes in my genetic makeup.
Anyway back to my wilting lettuce.....Now I had, used cabbage in soups many times and I kept looking at that lettuce wishing it was cabbage for some reason. Then it dawned on me, now why couldn't I use lettuce in a soup in the same fashion? To this point I had never had nor contemplated lettuce in soup, even though I had, had spinach, cabbage, leeks, celery tops in all sorts of soups that I had prepared in the past. So why not......?
So I decided to try it.........., after all, I had a chicken frame (the picked over carcass of a roasted chicken) from the night before that I was saving for soup. I went to work dicing the two onions I had and chopping the few carrots I had and put them in a skillet with some butter, salt, garlic, coriander and fresh ground pepper along with a tablespoon of white wine while I boiled the roasted chicken frame hoping to make a decent stock from the bones and the remaining fat and meat still left.
I chopped the lettuce heads including the harder parts of the leaf (these parts are called the "ribs") and stuck them in a bowl to wait while I finished the broth. Once my stock was ready, I strained the bones and ended up with a beautiful golden stock. I added my sauteed mixture to the stock and then some additional water, allowing it time to cook down. I then, finally added the lettuce and waited, the smell, and color was amazing and then I let it simmer on a low heat for 30 mins. I can't tell you how wonderful this soup turned out, I was totally amazed at the texture and it was so delicate yet filling but not in a "oh my god I ate too much" kind of way.
In better times, I would have seen myself enjoying this soup in more of a fine dining establishment, and certainly not something I'd think my family would eat but here we all were enjoying a great bowl of lettuce soup.
I come from the Midwest, a granddaughter, and niece to a multitude of farmers and a long long line of talented soup makers. Remember, it's cold in the Midwest and soup was a great way to cut time in the kitchen so the women could help with other duties of the farm while the men-folk were out late in the fields, there by getting them in earlier to warm up. It was also a great way to use left-overs and stretch out a meal. So I guess my thoughts turning to making soup when we hit hard times sorta comes in my genetic makeup.
Anyway back to my wilting lettuce.....Now I had, used cabbage in soups many times and I kept looking at that lettuce wishing it was cabbage for some reason. Then it dawned on me, now why couldn't I use lettuce in a soup in the same fashion? To this point I had never had nor contemplated lettuce in soup, even though I had, had spinach, cabbage, leeks, celery tops in all sorts of soups that I had prepared in the past. So why not......?
So I decided to try it.........., after all, I had a chicken frame (the picked over carcass of a roasted chicken) from the night before that I was saving for soup. I went to work dicing the two onions I had and chopping the few carrots I had and put them in a skillet with some butter, salt, garlic, coriander and fresh ground pepper along with a tablespoon of white wine while I boiled the roasted chicken frame hoping to make a decent stock from the bones and the remaining fat and meat still left.
I chopped the lettuce heads including the harder parts of the leaf (these parts are called the "ribs") and stuck them in a bowl to wait while I finished the broth. Once my stock was ready, I strained the bones and ended up with a beautiful golden stock. I added my sauteed mixture to the stock and then some additional water, allowing it time to cook down. I then, finally added the lettuce and waited, the smell, and color was amazing and then I let it simmer on a low heat for 30 mins. I can't tell you how wonderful this soup turned out, I was totally amazed at the texture and it was so delicate yet filling but not in a "oh my god I ate too much" kind of way.
In better times, I would have seen myself enjoying this soup in more of a fine dining establishment, and certainly not something I'd think my family would eat but here we all were enjoying a great bowl of lettuce soup.