Pickled Corn

 Pickled Corn

    I saw this recipe recently as I was looking through a new to me cookbook. I had to try this dish that I'd never seen before and,  I'm so glad I did. I halved the recipe and that worked well.  I did have to make a minor adjustment, since I didn't have celery salt. Using celery salt, I did also use only about 1/4 tsp salt. The recipe is in my Grandma's Country Cooking cookbook published by ideals in 1984. The original recipe (below) makes 8 - 10 servings (that said it all depends on serving size), so mine probably would serve about 5. I really liked this dish. Admittedly, the pickled corn is still cooling in my refrigerator, but I couldn't help myself and tried one of the smallest pieces. Yum!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cups honey

1 1/2 cups water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp celery seed 

1/2 tsp mustard seed

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

4 ears fresh sweet corn, husked and cut into 1-inch pieces

Directions:

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, honey, vinegar, water, salt, celery seed, mustard seed and onion. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes. Add the corn pieces; cover and simmer for five minutes or until corn is tender. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until well chilled.   

Pickled Corn (still hot)

Pickled Corn Ready For The Fridge

Soup #5 - Chicken Corn Soup

 The Year of Soup

Soup #5 - Chicken Corn Soup

    This recipe comes from the Beta Sigma Phi International Cookbook - Meats - Including Seafood and Poultry - 2000 Favorite Recipes of Beta Sigma Phi Members. The recipe was submitted to the cookbook by Jody Cash, Past President, Omicron Rho, Groves, Texas. This recipe made a large batch of soup.  I've modified it just a bit. See italics. I used chicken thighs instead of a stewing chicken, and I ended up cutting up the onion to keep in the soup, after cooking. I also didn't want to add the hard boiled eggs. I am making them optional to you. I think the little rivels (mini dumplings) were maybe supposed to be a little more tender, but I liked them. I really didn't do many pea sized bits, because my dough wasn't crumbly, so I was pinching off bits to make the rivels. The soup is delicious and I would definitely make this again. Try this soup!

Soup Ingredients:

4 lbs stewing chicken cut up or bone-in chicken breast or thighs with skin on

1 whole onion

4 quarts water

1 tbsp salt

2 cups fresh, frozen or canned corn

1/2 cup chopped celery

parsley flakes

Rivels Ingredients:

1 cup flour

pinch of salt

milk

1 tbsp chopped parsley

2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Place chicken pieces into a large soup kettle with onion, water and 1 tbsp salt. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer covered, for 45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the broth; remove skin and bones, and cut into small pieces. Discard the skin and bones. Return the meat to the broth. Add corn and celery and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Make the rivels: Combine flour, salt, egg and enough milk to make a crumbly mixture with lumps the size of small peas (Don't worry, you can always pinch off tiny bits if your dough mixture doesn't look like small peas). Drop the rivels and hard-cooked eggs if using, into the soup. Cook for 15 minutes.  To serve, ladel into bowls. Add parsley, salt and pepper to taste. 

Chicken Corn Soup

Soup #4 - Split Pea

 The Year of Soup

Soup #4 - Split Pea

    This soup comes to us from the Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook - Fine Old Recipes - Made Famous By The Early Dutch Settlers In Pennsylvania. I've found multiple years which this cookbook was published in, but I have not yet been able to discern which year mine was published. I can tell you though that the original price sticker is on it. It was purchased for $1.39 at The Amish Farm And House at 2395 Lincoln Hwy East, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17602. My substitution for this soup was using about 1/4 pound of bacon, diced, in lieu of the ham bone.  I wanted to use a home bone, but that didn't happen.  I liked it with the bacon. It was a good substitute for that meat flavor.  

Ingreidents:

2 cups split peas

3 quarts water

1/4 pound of uncooked bacon, diced (or like the original recipe calls for, a ham bone, cracked)

3 tbsps butter

3 tbsps flour

2 tsps salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 cups milk

fresh or dried parsley for decoration (optional)

Directions:

Wash and soak peas overnight in hot water to cover. Drain, soaked peas in into a large sauce pot and cover with water. Add bacon/ham bone and onion, then cook until peas are soft. Remove the ham bone if using, or if using bacon, remove to a bowl. Use an immersion blender to smooth to blend the peas, Melt butter in saucepan. Blend in flour, salt and pepper. Heat until mixture bubbles and add milk gradually. Stirring constantly. Bring to boiling and cook for 1 to 2 more minutes. Blend into the pea mixture and add the bacon back to the pot. Heat thoroughly and serve hot. Serves 12 to 14. 

Split Pea Soup

Soup #3 - Zesty Vegetable Soup

 The Year of Soup

Soup #3 - Zesty Vegetable Soup

    This recipe is based on the Quick and Zesty Vegetable Soup recipe in America's Favorite Brand Name Holiday Recipes from 1997. To start I liked this recipe.  The cook time given in the recipe says "15 minutes". However, it took closer to 30, but still pretty quick. The original recipe calls for ground beef. It also originally calls for 2 13 3/4 oz cans broth. I used ground lamb, because I had some I had gotten on sale and needed to use it. Even though I liked the soup, I would rather use ground beef or turkey next time, as lamb has a distinct flavor that I don't care for. I'll show my modification(s) in italics.

Ingredients:

1lb lean ground beef, ground turkey or ground lamb

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

28oz Italian stewed tomatoes

8 cups vegetable broth

1 17oz can mixed vegetables

1/2 cup medium egg noodles or elbow macaroni

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 tsp oregano or Italian seasoning

parsley flakes 

Directions:

In a large pot, add onion and ground meat. Cook until the meat is browned and the onion and green pepper are tender. Add salt, pepper and oregano/Italian seasoning. Stir in tomatoes, mixed vegetables, noodles/macaroni and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until noodles are tender. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley flakes. Serves at least 8. 

Zesty Vegetable Soup

Zesty Vegetable Soup

Soup #2 - Stracciatella

 The Year of Soup

Soup #2 - Stracciatella

    Straciatella can be three different food items - a creamy cheese, Roman egg drop soup and, chocolate studded gelato. In this case, it's a soup! I stirred the egg mixture too swiftly, so mine didn't turn out as shredded looking as it supposed to be.  I also can't find the picture I took, so I'm using a photo from the Hip Hip Gourmet recipe for the soup. My recipe was in my The Family Circle Encyclopedia of Cooking, published in 1990.  It was super easy to make.  Try it and see if you like it!

Ingredients:

1lb spinach (trimmed and washed) or a 10oz box of frozen spinach 

3 eggs

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

1/4 cup grated parmesan

8 cups chicken broth (I used low sodium broth)

1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Cook fresh spinach in a large covered saucepan until wilted, or cook frozen spinach following the directions on the box. Either way, you are going to squeeze out as much of the moisture as you can after cooking. Chop spinach. In a bowl, beat eggs with salt and nutmeg. Stir in one cup of the chicken broth. Pour the rest of the broth into a large saucepan. Heat to boiling and slowly pour in the egg mixture, stirring gently. Stir in spinach and lower heat. Add lemon juice and cook for three more minutes, whisking constantly. Serves about 8. 

Stracciatella

Soup #1 - Easy Potato-Corn Chowder

 The Year of Soup

Soup #1 - Easy Potato Corn Chowder

    So, this was a fun recipe. The recipe "Speedy Potato Chowder" is in the Favorite Recipes, Campbell's Creative Cooking With Soup (Over 8,000 Delicious Mix and Match Recipes. The recipe gives you four ingredients and then you select a liquid, canned vegetable and a meat from a chart. For the liquid, I chose milk. For the vegetable, I chose corn. And, for the meat, I chose to use diced potato in lieu of meat. I did also add salt, pepper and paprika to mine. 

   By the way, liquid options were beer & water, milk, milk & light cream and evaporated milk & water. Vegetable options were mixed vegetables, corn, Lima beans and diced carrots. The meat options were hotdogs, chicken, ham and tuna. 

      I'll write out the recipe how I made it. I really enjoyed this chowder. I hope you try it!

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon, diced (feel free to use more)

1/2 cup chopped onion (I used about 1/2 of a medium onion)

2 1/2 cups milk (I used more liquid than the recipe suggests)

1 10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of potato soup

1 15oz can whole kernel corn (The original recipe suggests using an 8oz can; I used low salt)

1 medium russet potato, diced

2 tbsps chopped fresh parsley, plus more for decoration if you wish

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp black pepper

Directions:

In a 3qt saucepan over medium heat, heat a tiny bit of oil and add bacon. Cook until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. You can drain the bacon drippings, reserving 1 tbsp. I did not, because I only had a little more than a tbsp. Add the chopped onion and diced potato to the drippings and cook until the potato is somewhat tender; you don't want it super tender, because you're going to keep cooking and that will make it tender. Add milk, corn with it's liquid, the bacon, parsley, salt, pepper and paprika. Cook on low-medium heat until heated through, stirring occasionally. Makes 4 to 6 servings. 

Easy Potato-Corn Chowder

Easy Potato-Corn Chowder

The Year of Casseroles "Review" and 2026 Announcement

 The Year of Casseroles

    Well, 2025 seriously sucked. I want to say "for lack of a better word", but it sucked. I took an early retirement (I left with just over 34 years, and I had wanted 40 years) from the federal government, because of the current administration. And that although I have strong feelings about the current administration, will be all I say about that. 

    Because of my early retirement, I was "out of sorts" for much of the year. Job hunting after 34+ years is tough, and I could not find an office job. I landed with a senior caregiving company, which I am enjoying, although I am not making near enough money right now. There is potential to progress and I like to help people, so I'd like to stick with this. 

So, lets now get to my favorite casserole recipe of the year.  Nothing really stands out, but my top three favorites would be: Casserole #17 - Broccoli Rice Casserole, Casserole #13 - Lemonchick's Scalloped Potato Casserole and Casserole #12 - Ham and Noodle Casserole. 

I do plan to finish the Year of Casseroles this year (Six more to go!), but the big announcement is that 2026 will be the Year of Soup. Stay tuned for yummy (hopefully, lol) soups. 

Kathy