Welcome to the Month of Soup-uary

I've had soup everyday of this month, everyday for lunches and several evenings for dinners. This began the week that my sinus infection was brewing. The day I went to urgent care, my daughter made a large batch of chicken, garlic, onion, and herb soup for our dinner. I was at the point of not wanting to move my mouth to chew or talk due to pain. So, she strained the liquid for me to slurp and set aside about a quart of this very flavorful broth for me to enjoy over the coming days.

To add variety and nutrients, I began adding some cooked veggies to a cup of the broth then pureed all in the smoothie blender, giving me an easy-to-make cream of veggie soup (minus the dairy, of course). This worked so well that when I'd finished my daughter's broth, I made another batch of chicken, garlic, onion, and herb thin soup for making additional pureed veggie soups this week.

I vary the soup each day by choosing a different cooked veggie. I try to use up leftover cooked vegetables from the previous night's dinner. For example, one evening I had leftover roasted onions, potatoes, and pumpkin cubes. I used these veggies the next day along with some frozen spinach, pureeing all with about a cup of the chicken broth. 

Another day, I had leftover buttered, steam carrots to use up. So I pureed those in more of the chicken liquid, thickening with some instant mashed potatoes.

The smoothie blender was from a free pile at my husband's office 2 years ago. We'd only used it for smoothies and pureeing fruit sauces. It never dawned on us that we could use it for pureeing savory foods. It works best with cold or room temp ingredients. Hot liquids cause expansion and for the seal to fail while processing. So I puree the veggies with cold broth, then pour the mixture into a microwaveable dish to heat. 

When I don't have leftover cooked veggies to use, I microwave-steam a custard cup of frozen veggies for about a minute and a half before processing with broth. I've used frozen broccoli and frozen spinach for cream o' green soups. I have some frozen mushrooms that I thought would make a great near instant cream of mushroom soup. And I'm thinking this will work with canned tomatoes, too. So far, I've been surprised by how delicious these quick soups have been. I especially loved the carrot soup. Yum! That was delicious! Broccoli has been amazing too. I stir in a bit of cheese to the broccoli soup after heating. The spinach soup was pretty good. But I think it would have been improved if I'd added seasonings like nutmeg.

So what's the point of all of this if I still have to make a large pot of chicken, herb, garlic, and onion soup? I get variety while making "soup for one". The rest of my family prefers their own style of lunch and doesn't always want soup. But I really enjoy soup in winter and want more variety than I'd get if I made a large pot of one recipe to use for the week.

Have you ever been forced by circumstance into trying something outside of your box and then discovered how beneficial this new process was? This is how I feel about my new way to make soup for one. The smoothie maker gets more use, I eat a larger variety of vegetables in my daily lunches, and I can have a hot, delicious, homemade lunch in about 5 minutes.

The Quest For My Mom's Perfect Valentine Cookie

Spoiler alert -- I haven't found it yet.

I do have my mother's heart-shaped cookie cutter, though. This one was part of a 4-piece "bridge" cookie cutter set, circa late 1950s. There was originally a diamond, a clover/club, and a spade to go with the heart. Somewhere along the line, the other 3 shapes were lost or given away. My mom played bridge with some neighbor ladies once a month or so when I was small. I recall her using the "bridge" cookie cutters to make finger sandwiches. And of course, she always used the heart cutter to make cookies for Valentine's Day. I have several heart-shaped cutters, but I particularly like this one for its scalloped edge.

My mother never iced sugar cookies, instead preferring to sprinkle before baking with colored sugar, nonpareils, or those little rod-shaped jimmies. (I've got that covered. I used pink sugar crystals.) Her cookies were buttery, crispy, and held the scalloped edge of the cutter. Here's my problem, I have no idea what recipe she used. 

I tried 2 recipes from her cookbooks so far and neither are it. The first recipe used a lot of flour. These are soft and cake-like sugar cookies that I make when planning on frosting afterward. The second recipe I tried was from her c. 1957 Better Homes & Gardens cookbook for Cooky-Jar Sugar Cookies. The recipe indicated that these were crispy. In comparing this second recipe to others that I found in cookbooks and online, the Cooky-Jar ones had a higher butter and sugar ratio to flour. I thought that would be a good start. 

Sugar tends to add crispness to cookies and also encourages spread. A recipe higher in flour tends to produce a cookie that is tender and cake-like. Butter tenderizes the dough and aids in spreads if in high enough amounts. I wanted the crispness from the sugar, the flavor and tenderness from the butter, yet still holding the cut-out shape when baking (so, reducing spread).

I did a little reading on cut-out cookies. In addition to the right ratio of ingredients, it seems that the best doughs rest in the fridge overnight before rolling and cutting. To help maintain the cut-out shape, pre-baked cut-outs should be placed on a baking sheet and chilled for about 15 minutes before popping into the oven. So, I made sure to take both of these steps.  I made the dough on Monday and chilled overnight. Then right after cutting out the shapes I chilled the baking tray and cookie cut-outs before baking. I do think those steps helped.

The cookies that held their shape the best were the re-rolls -- those rolled out from all of the leftover dough scraps, incorporating a little more flour than the initial dough. I think the BH & G recipe was close to what I remember from my childhood. The cookies were definitely crispy. They only partially retained the scalloped edge. But the flavor seemed to be lacking. I remember my mother's cookies tasting more buttery.

One thing I believe I did differently than my mother is I used all butter. My mother likely used half butter, half margarine. I don't know how that would have affected either the flavor or the spread.

Valentine's Day is just a few days away, so I don't think I'll be baking another batch of heart-shaped cookies. But I will be thinking how I can improve the flavor for the next time I make cut-out cookies.

My question to you, have you come across a recipe for a crispy sugar cookie that held its cut-out shape? Any ideas for improving the buttery flavor?