Week 17 – Family Traditions

We have another guest blogger this week, Lisa’s sister, Mariah Jane.

My sister Lisa, has asked me to write a post for this week’s theme: Family Traditions.  In the most recent years, my mom has made soup for Christmas dinner.  We used to go to San Diego, California the day after Christmas to visit my grandparents. My Mom always wanted a quick meal for Christmas evening that didn’t dirty too many dishes and was easy to put in the freezer.  The past few years we haven’t gone to California, so I usually volunteer to make one of the soups. Recently I’ve made either Broccoli Cheese or Chicken Wild Rice. This year, I decided to make Broccoli Cheese.

I started by looking at various websites to find a recipe I liked.

I tried to look for a recipe that would mimic Panera Bread’s Broccoli Cheese soup. This year I used the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  Once I found one that I liked, I made sure that I had all the ingredients.  I did not have sharp cheddar cheese, but substituted this for Colby Jack.  I thought it still turned out okay, but maybe was lacking that sharp taste 🙂

Other than using a different type of cheese, I made a couple of notes about the recipe. First, the recipe says to set aside the chopped onion that you sauté at the beginning. I didn’t do this. Instead, I just kept them in the same pot, because who wants to create unnecessary dishes?!?

Second, the recipe calls for bite size pieces of broccoli. I spent some time cutting these, but if I make this again I wouldn’t pay so much attention to the size of the pieces. I ended up blending the soup at the end anyway just to break up some veggies. In the end picture, you’ll see I didn’t blend them up too much because there are still a few pieces of broccoli.

My mom always taught us to curve your knuckles so you don’t cut them!

Third, I made this a few hours ahead of time, so I ended waiting to put the cheese in until the last minute.  This worked out well, but I did end up having to add a little more 1/2 and 1/2 because it was really thick.

Overall I think it turned out pretty well.  I would definitely make it again!

Thanks Janine and Lisa for letting me step in this week!