April 19, 2007
A Salty Tale
I love homemade soup. My favorite? I'm really partial to cheesy potato soup, with ham.
But that's usually a weekend meal. Not somethin' I can throw together when I don't get home from work until 6:30.
Well, not always. While shopping this weekend I picked up a package of Bear Creek Cheddar Potato Soup. Tonite....was the night.
So, in my discussion with Richmond (who is a wonderful cook, btw) on the drive home, she suggested I use chicken stock instead of water. What a great idea!!! So I did.
And I added an entire package of chopped ham. I like a lot of meat in my soup...what can I say.
It said from package to table in 25 minutes. PERFECT. Put the stock on the boil, poured in the mix and added the ham. I do not use salt, so I just pumped up the volume with some spiced pepper.
Well, woman cannot live on soup alone. I had to have bread. And I wanted hot from the oven crusty rolls. Unfortunately I didn't think ahead and all I had were the Pillsbury dinner rolls. Damn. Soft. I wanted crusty. Duh....brush the tops with a beat egg.
8 mins for the rolls.
Finally - everything is ready. A good, feels like homemade meal, even after a full day of commuting and work.
The rolls? Were great. Most excellently crusty. And, I'm a dunker so I'll say the first few bites of the soup were fabulous especially since I dunked the very yummy rolls in it.
But after the first few bites of soup I realized it was very VERY salty. My bet is the ham. I should have thought of that, but I just love ham and potato soup...and since I never salt anything when I cook I didn't even think about the fact that the mix must have been "pre-salted".
Yeah, really salty. Really REALLY salty.
Oh, I finished my bowl. I learned that lesson long ago. But I'm a little disappointed in myself.
Still good. I'd still recommend it. But I'd skip the ham. Oh and for heaven's sake - DON'T SALT THE SOUP!!!!!
Posted by Tammi at April 19, 2007 04:35 AM | TrackBackThat is the second time this week that someone has mentioned Bear Creek soups. Where did you get yours? Our mechanic here at work, Convict Jim, said he thought Farm & Fleet has it.
Posted by: Raging Mom at April 19, 2007 06:01 AMYou can still use the ham, but while waiting on the stock to boil up and before adding your ham, give it a good shower in cold water, that'll help take some of the surface salt off. (And maybe add some of the ham, for a tease instead of the whole thing.)
Betty Crocker
Posted by: Lee Ann at April 19, 2007 07:20 AMHmmm.... Maybe the ham - but it *could* have been the stock too. Still sounds yummy. And really, how was the bread?
Posted by: Richmond at April 19, 2007 07:38 AMI like Bear Creek soup, my regular grocery store carries them. I do not add any salt, pepper or seasonings, it seems plenty tasty already, and I make it with water. I bet the chicken stock made it more salty. I get the potato soup and I added a couple of cans of baby clams with juice, and a package of frozen veggies. With the minnestrone I add browned italian sausage, that has a little kick.
Posted by: Laurie at April 20, 2007 02:23 PM