Rain! Real rain!

I want the tortilla soup recipe, please! I made a crockpot chicken yesterday and soup would be a perfect use of the leftovers. I'm off to look for a recipe so I can get the basics at the store, but please post your tips.

Oh, well I bet all your houses smell very good right now with all that soup cooking! (especially w/homemade bread)

Yes...and I've decided to make Pineapple Upside Down Cake, too. It's DH's fave and he's been pretty good lately.
Tortilla Soup:
4 corn tortillas, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 onion, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic,minced
2 T dried cilantro (I use fresh instead)
3 T oil
2 C chopped,cooked chicken (I use most of a whole chicken instead)

2 quarts chicken broth (I cheat and use canned)
1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes
1 10 oz can Rotel brand diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 T cumin
1 bay leaf
1/2 t pepper
4-8 corn tortillas,cut into 1/2 inch strips
1/2 c oil
2 c shredded Monterey Jack (I use more)
Avocado slices

Saute first 4 ingredients in 3 T hot oil 5 min., then add chicken and next 6 ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Fry tortilla strips in 1/2 c hot oil, drain on paper towels and sprinkle over hot soup in bowls. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and top with avocado slices.
It is soooo yummy!
edited to ad...
Hope you feel better, Donna. If we were there, we'd make the soup for you .......

This message was edited Jan 4, 2008 11:56 PM

Dang ! can you hear my stomach growling? That sounds delicious!

My soup is cooking at this moment. Since I had a whole chicken, I'm just cooking it like chicken soup so I have the broth.

My sister makes this all the time and 2 ingredients she adds to hers is juice from 1 lime and roasted corn (from Trader Joes). The corn gives it so much flavor, but just use about 1/2 the bag.
My recipe is about the same as Sherry's, but I only use 1 can of tomoatoes and I chop it up fine.

I bought dried cilantro once and it is useless!! It doesn't have any flavor at all.

Thanks for the kind thoughts Sherry for wanting to help me with my soup. I think getting off the couch today and having to make my soup, has helped me feel better. :-)

Kathleen, you will love this soup!!

Donna

Donna feel better soon.
I didn't end up making the soup, went to On the Border Restaurant and ordered some instead. Now I have bean cooking for a bean soup. My dh makes a great tortilla soup, will get that recipe and post when I can.

Ooh,Donna, I like the idea of the roasted corn and lime. I'll have to try adding that. I made enough to feed two of us, plus two of my neighbors, plus enough left for three for lunch tomorrow. It's pretty impossible to make a small pot of soup. I think I could eat soup every night.

oh, I'm with you gypsy, I love soup, so nourishing and tasty! (particularly with some bread for dipping)

Didn't have all the right stuff for your recipe, Sherry, so I improvised. DH made compliments without prompting, so I guess that's good.

mmmmmmmmmmm! going to get the kids to bed, but will definitely make soup tomorrow - you've all put me in the mood!

After a day and a half wait, it is finally RAINING!!! I hope the forecasters were correct when they said that Perris might get five inches rainfall from this storm!!

HAVE A GOOD EVENING!!!

Thanks,

Chuck

Be Careful What You Wish For..........

My thought exactly! I think we must have had close to 5 in of rain here all in one day, and believe me it was not pleasant! And when you get that much all at once half of it just runs off to places you don't want water rather than soaking into the ground where it's needed.

My soup really hit the spot tonight. :-) I made a large pot (as always) and when DH got home this evening he didn't want any. He ate at Rubios for lunch and didn't want any more Mexican flavored food. So, I ate it by myself. lol
There is plenty for the whole weekend and I will enjoy it too.

I seem to be drying up this evening and feeling much better too. Maybe it was the soup!!

BTW, DH rented a movie tonight and what a BIG surprise it was. It is called "Stardust" and we had no idea what it was about. It was great!! It's a good rental for sure.

It finally started to rain about 7pm here and the wind kicked up with it. You can here the rain pounding on the sides of the house. You can imagine what it sounds like on our 3 large skylights.

Thanks for the well wishes on my cold.
Donna

Actually the original forecast was five inches over four days. I guess that is a bit much. It is just that it has been many years since we have received that much rain. If it starts running off at two and a half inches, then maybe we will only get half the five inches...LOL.

It has paused (I think) anyway this morning. It rained all night.

Thanks for reminding me (everything in moderation)!!!!

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!

Thanks again,

Chuck

Well, the greenhouse is still standing, so it passed the wind test! It was really blowing last night and the gh sits at the top of our lot.
Glad the soup helped, Donna.
Hope the romneya coulteri I transplanted appreciate the rain.

Chuck, I put a little sand on top of my wildflower seeds the last time it rained and I think it helped keep them in place and hidden from the birds, too.

I just talked to a friend nearby who said she thinks we got 2 1/2 inches so far. I didn't hear the rain last night, not until 5 this a.m.....I didn't notice that much wind at our place either......hmmm.
All I know is that I'm bored so I think we'll go hit some antique stores.

Dear Kaperc,

Thanks for the advice. I have heard of sowing the seeds with sand but I need more information. How much sand do you use with your annual native plants? How do you know that you don't have too much and the seeds will be too sparse?

I have been thinking about how to plant them the best way.

Thanks again,

Chuck

Chuck, I haven't done that much in the past to be wise in my answer! I used to get a wildflower newsletter and I just remember reading to mix the sand in with the seeds to broadcast. I wanted to do something a little different, so I sowed some seeds and covered them with a sprinkling of sand - they have remained undisturbed and I've even seen a few sprouts. Here's an article I found, though, and it says 4:1.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_1996_Fall-Winter/ai_18691382

larnerseeds.com has a booklet on sowing

Then I remembered Theodore Payne had some seed I wanted to try - they have a couple of tips on their site, too. http://www.theodorepayne.org/

One thing I did read was to sow perennials in flats, not broadcast. I think I will try that.

BTW, I found this site interesting for IDs.

Photos (indexed)
http://www.callutheran.edu/Academic_Programs/Departments/Biology/Wildflowers/index.htm

Sorry if I sounded like I knew what I was talking about!

Kathleen

Dear Kathleen,

I am so sorry. I overlooked this message. The links are fantastic. Thanks a lot!!!

I am planning on planting more annual wildflowers from Theodore Payne this winter. The others have a decent showing using 18 parts sand and 1 part seed except for the Phacelia grandiflora. I read somewhere on the Internet that Phacelia grandiflora needs dark to germinate so I covered the seeds with about a quarter of an inch of sand after I had planted it. I am hoping that some rain will help the seeds along.

Sherry,

The forecast for Perris tonight is rain and tomorrow night is rain. That is good. Some friends say that this is the 'catch up' year from all the years of drought for the annual rainfall amount.

Have a Good Evening!!!

Thanks again,

Chuck

I've been hoping for another wet winter such as we had a couple of years ago, but......we've had rain forecast for starting tomorrow night but they're now backing off a bit on that. I'm hoping they're right about the snow level dropping down to 2,000 ft on Wed or Thurs...I haven't heard that again,so maybe not. When it did that last winter it was really beautiful going out through Warner Springs and up the back way to Julian. The amount of rain that we've gotten, spaced as it has been, has at least allowed some savings on the water bill!
Good luck on those seeds, Chuck!

Hi Chuck! Here is the one I couldn't remember before: http://www.clyderobin.com/