I Want Some Soup

Cooking post alert.
(It's been awhile.)

It's cold out.
It's been cold out.
It's gonna stay cold out.
As a result, I've really been jonesin' for some soup lately.
It feels so good to come home on a cold day to a hot bowl of hearty soup.
So I came home from work tonight full of anticipation.
Soup!

What's this??!!
No bowl of hot, hearty soup waiting for me?
It's waiting all right.
Waiting for me to make it.

I'm reminded of a line in a song from The Music Man -
"You can eat your fill of all the food you bring yourself."

I'm really sleepy though, so I'm gonna fly through this.

In the pot goes the ground sirloin,
broken up with my favorite skeleton fork.


I scooped that out of the pot and added these:
onion, carrot, sweet potato, and red potato.
I didn't peel the potato, so it looks kind of like a chopped apple sitting there,
but that would have tasted weird.


Cooked that awhile to let the vegetables get soft.

Added the beef back to the pot . . .


. . . with 3 cloves chopped garlic & sprinkled on the seasonings.
I ended up using a hodgepodge of stuff from the little jars in my cupboard.
On the plate is cumin, paprika, ground chipotle powder, thyme, rosemary & cinnamon.
I'm a big fan of cinnamon, even for savory food.


Not on the plate is kosher salt & black pepper.

Also is the error that I should have sprinkled in some flour to cook with everything.
That would have thickened the soup later.
But, oops, I forgot.
Plan B coming up.

But, I let all the spices cook a bit, then deglazed the pot with wine.


My wine afficionado friends are no doubt horrified at what they just saw.
I used a wee little bottle of red wine that comes in the handy 4-pack.
Mea culpa.
But, I don't drink the stuff, so the rest of a whole bottle would have been wasted.
Don't give me no grief about it.

Cooked that until the wine reduced,
then added beef broth and a ginormous can of crushed, fire-roasted tomatoes.


Let that bubble happily while I went to take a shower.
When I was done, I had to think of something to thicken the soup,
so I thought about making a roux.


Oooh, the smell of roux cooking is like smelling shortbread cookies.
Buttery goodness.
Anyway, the roux went in the pot and simmered for another 10 minutes or so to thicken.
Then I remembered some frozen peas & corn.
Yay!
I'm a big fan of peas & corn too, so they went in at the end.
The scalding hot soup thawed them pretty darn quick,
but didn't cook them to mush.
I like my peas & corn a little snappy.


So, a dab of sour cream & a piece of buttery toast
(100% whole wheat - sorry to be annoying),
and this makes me feel loved.


BS ate dinner elsewhere, so he doesn't get any.
Pfffft.
And I'm too tired to fix any of the mistakes that I suspect are in this post.