Potato soup will put a smile on your mug

The idea for this soup originated at my dentist's office -- not because I had a toothache (I was there for a checkup), but because the receptionist had a ton of leftover mashed potatoes and wanted an idea for using them.

I suggested that she thin the mashed potatoes with chicken broth or milk to make a soup, then top each serving with bacon, chives, cheddar cheese and sour cream.

It sounded good, but I didn't have any leftover mashed potatoes. I did, however, have baking potatoes in the pantry. I cooked them in the microwave and soon enough, I had soup.

If you have leftover ham, you can use it instead of the bacon in this recipe. Sauté the onion in a little butter or olive oil, and stir in the chopped ham just before you take the soup off the heat. Smoked sausage, such as kielbasa, also would be delicious. Cut it into small pieces and sauté until browned, then stir into the hot soup. Or leave out the meat and stir in blanched broccoli and shredded cheese to make broccoli-cheese-potato soup.

BAKED POTATO SOUP
Yield: 6 servings

2 large baking potatoes
2 thick or 3 thin slices bacon, diced
1 medium onion, minced
1 quart chicken stock 
1/2 cup milk
Salt
Ground black pepper
Chopped parsley, for optional garnish
Snipped chives, for optional garnish
Finely sliced green onions, for optional garnish
Shredded cheddar cheese, for optional garnish
Sour cream, for optional garnish

Bake potatoes in the oven or microwave. When cool enough to handle, cut in half lengthwise. Remove and discard potato skins. Cut potatoes into 2-inch chunks.

Cook bacon over medium-high heat in a large nonstick saucepan or medium stockpot until crispy. Remove from heat. Remove bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels, then set aside. Remove all but 1 tablespoon bacon fat from the pan.

Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté until it is tender and starts to brown. Stir in stock; bring to a simmer. Stir in cooked potatoes. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

Using an immersion blender or working in batches with a counter top blender, pureé the soup. Place over medium-high heat and return to a simmer. Stir in milk and salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, ladle into bowls or mugs. Top each serving with bacon and your choice of garnishes: ground black pepper, parsley, chives, green onions, cheese, sour cream.

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Apple crumble: easy, adaptable, delicious

My favorite parts of Dutch apple pie are the spiced filling and the sweet streusel topping. Why, then, bother with the bottom crust? This recipe ditches the pastry, saving prep time and calories.

Like most fruit desserts, you can vary this crumble according to the season and what you have in your kitchen -- or in your garden, if you're lucky enough to have a fruit tree or berry bushes.

You can use a combination of fruits, too. For example, add a handful of fresh cranberries to the apples, or replace a few of the apples with pears.

For a nutty topping, add chopped pecans or walnuts to the flour mixture. To make an oat topping, use half a cup of flour along with half a cup of rolled oats.

So many types of apples are in supermarkets that I sometimes have trouble remembering which are good baking apples, which are good eating apples and which are good for both. Fortunately, the New York Apple Association offers a free iPhone and iPad app called Them Apples. There's a web-based chart, too, at www.nyapplecountry.com.

APPLE CRUMBLE
Yield: 8 servings

8 to 10 apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup white whole-wheat or all-purpose flour
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 dash salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
Vanilla ice cream or heavy cream, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 11-cup baking dish or coat with nonstick spray. Place apples and lemon juice in baking dish; toss to combine. Stir together granulated sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle evenly over apples, then stir to combine.

Stir together flour, brown sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Cut butter into chunks and add to the bowl. Using a large fork, a pastry blender or your fingers, cut butter into flour mixture until medium crumbs form. Sprinkle evenly over the apples.

Bake on the middle oven rack until the mixture is bubbly and the apples are tender, about 40 minutes. If the top begins to brown before the apples are tender, cover loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil.

Let cool slightly, then spoon into bowls and serve plain or with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of heavy cream.

Leftovers find new life in turkey soup

You've probably seen the credit card commercials that ask, "What's in your wallet?"

I have a question that's far less intrusive and has an answer that could be far more interesting: "What's in your refrigerator/freezer?"

This time of year, the answer is apt to be leftover turkey. I also had leftover turkey stock, turkey gravy that I'd frozen into a thin sheet in a zip-top bag, and celery. I had half a red onion and some mushrooms that remained after I topped a pizza, plus carrots and parsnips. My pantry held barley and chicken stock. I pulled out all those ingredients, chopped a little and stirred even less, and an hour later, I had a steaming pot of hearty soup. The leftovers were so well seasoned that I didn't even need to add salt and pepper.

I can't remember what credit card company paid for all those commercials, and you might not recall either. In contrast, I think this soup will be hard to forget.

TURKEY, MUSHROOM AND BARLEY SOUP
Yield: 4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
1 rib celery, chopped
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
6 cups turkey or chicken stock (or a combination)
1 medium parsnip, peeled and sliced thinly
1 medium carrot, peeled and sliced thinly
1/3 cup barley
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked turkey
1/4 cup turkey gravy, optional (see note)
Salt, optional
Ground black pepper, optional

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan or small stockpot. Add onion; sauté for a minute or two, then add celery and sauté for a few minutes more. Add mushrooms; sauté until they release their liquid. Pour in stock and bring to a boil over high heat.

Add parsnip, carrot and barley. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook until barley is tender, about 45 minutes.

Add turkey and gravy; cook until hot. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Note: The gravy adds richness and thickens the soup slightly. If you freeze leftover gravy in a thin sheet in a zip-top plastic bag, you can break off as much as you need and return the rest to the freezer.

Tortilla soup brightens a gray day

The weather here in St. Louis has caught up to the calendar. The day is gray, wet and chilly -- and I know I'm not the only one thinking longingly of soup.
Both the temperature and the spiciness in tortilla soup will warm you up. Once you add the crunch of tortilla chips, the creaminess of avocado and the satisfying shreds of chicken, this bowl of soup contains just about everything you could want in a winter meal.
This recipe isn't strictly authentic, but I think you'll like it anyway. I've made it for years and have never seen a bowl that wasn't scraped clean. Most tortilla soups are thickened with pieces of corn tortillas that dissolve as the soup simmers. I stray from conventional recipes by using grits. It's a technique born of necessity, when I was out of tortillas but craving tortilla soup. Trial and error taught me to grind the grits in a clean coffee grinder; otherwise, the tiny grains don't dissolve. You can substitute corn flour (which won't need to be ground) or cornmeal. Just stay away from self-rising cornmeal, which has salt and leavening that don't belong in a pot of soup.
This recipe also is a great way to use leftover baked or roasted chicken. Supermarket rotisserie chickens practically were made for tortilla soup, especially if you buy one of the giant club-store varieties that are too, too big for most families to eat in one meal.
Canned chipotles used to be sold whole in adobo sauce and needed to be pureed by the cook. Now, however, you can buy small cans of pureed chipotles (which are smoked jalapeno chiles, by the way). You'll have most of the can leftover. Pour the excess into a quart-size zip-top freezer bag, spread into a thin layer, and freeze flat. Next time you need some puree, take it out of the freezer and break off the amount you need.

TORTILLA SOUP
Yield: About 6 servings

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
32 ounces low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon dry corn grits or cornmeal, ground to a powder, or 2 teaspoons corn flour 
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons Southwestern-style salt-free seasoning blend or to taste
1 teaspoon chipotle puree or to taste
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, plus cilantro sprigs for garnish
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken 
About 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese or Mexican-style cheese blend
Tortilla chips, for garnish
1/2 avocado, cut into chunks
1 lime, cut into wedges

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until onion begins to brown. Add both cans of tomatoes and broth. Bring to a simmer, then stir in ground grits. Stir in Southwestern seasoning and chipotle puree. Let simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in corn; when corn is cooked, remove soup from heat. Stir in chopped cilantro.

Place 1/4 cup chicken in each soup bowl. Ladle soup over chicken. Top each serving with a heaping tablespoon of cheese, tortilla chips to taste, a few avocado chunks, a lime wedge and a sprig of cilantro. Before eating, squeeze lime into the soup.