My sister has a can of soup on her head

So she brought me two cans of Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato Soup and two cans of Harvest Orange Tomato Soup. She also bought some for them to try at her house.

Her boyfriend, Brandon, reported that the yellow just tasted like regular tomato soup and that the orange tastes like Chef Boyardee.
I have only tried the yellow so far and I found it to be very sweet-- like a cross between butternut squash and tomato. I tried adding pepper-- my favorite addition to canned tomato soup-- but in this soup it didn't work at all.

It has a nice consistency though-- smooth like regular tomato soup. The yellow soup label lists parsley, cilantro and thyme, but I didn't taste them. The orange soup lists garlic, rosemary and sage-- which makes sense if the soup has an italian flavor. I'll try it soon.

We're afraid these soups aren't selling very well-- she bought these on sale for $1 a can (2.5 servings). They list 100 calories and 480mg of sodium per serving-- like regular tomato, the lowest of the soups I've had so far. They're all also very high in potassium (helps regulate blood pressure) and vitamin C, so I'll give them 3 nutrition spoons, but only 1 love and comfort spoon. I think it's hard anytime they change a beloved product just a little but not much-- it just ends up tasting off.

Not my cup of... soup

Tonight was another journey into the unknown... McAlister's Deli at North Hills.

The only think that sounded interesting at all (in a good way I mean-- Cheese Bisque was also... otherwise... intriguing) was Chicken and Dumplings, but in this case it turned out to be the southern stew rather than a soup.

That qualifies under the terms of my challenge, but not so much so to my tastes.

It is thick floury noodles with chunks of chicken in chicken gravy. I liked Campbell's Chicken and Dumpling Soup much better, but it's a matter of individual tastes I'm sure. If your Grandma made you chicken and dumplings for Sunday dinner while you were growing up, I'm sure this would have been a little bowl of heaven. But not for me.

I also think it's a nutritional wasteland-- except for some protein from the chicken. I'll give it one spoon for the protein and that's it. I understand you might give it comfort points, but that's always been the case with each and every soup. This one is just not my cuppa.


Tomorrow we'll try some exotic tomato soups my sister found in Jacksonville-- probably for a snack long after turkey. I've been told I'm not allowed to make turkey soup-- my mother apparently has other plans for the leftovers, but we shall see.



When my parents lived in Texas and I made my own little Thanksgiving for just the three of us, I always made soup from the carcass. Or at least stock. And we always got tired of it before we ate it all.

Maybe I'll just steal a little something to make a few bowls while she's not looking.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Back to my go-to for to-go soup

I had to take off for a bit today and go run Emma around-- from school and to the movies. I thought we were going to have to deliver some stuff to the house too, but she came up with a great solution and suddenly I had a little time to find something to eat. (Things are nuts at work since we're losing a day.)

So we stopped by my new favorite go-to for soup-- Jason's Deli-- and got their Tomato Basil. It's completely different than regular tomato soup. It has pieces of tomato in there and there's a complex cheesiness to it.

It has melted cheese on top (mozzarella? fontina? not sure-- Oh, the website says asiago) but also parmesan in the soup itself (edit: the website claims not... then the asiago permeates this soup.) So it's a sort of a rich Italian soup. It's very satisfying, but rather salty, and doesn't hold a candle to their Vegetable Soup, in my opinion. And they were sold out of the Vegetable-- if that's any indication.

I paid $2.59 for this bowl of soup-- which came with crackers and mints. I wish they didn't charge so much ($7) for delivery-- I think I could talk my co-workers into ordering there fairly often. We've found nowhere else that delivers soup.

The one that came highly recommended

So I finally had Panera's famous Broccoli Cheddar and it's famous for a reason. It's delicious. It's a light cheese soup-- not "lite"-- just not heavy like a cheese sauce.

And it had nicer pieces of broccoli than I expected. It's a cream soup with pieces of broccoli and cheddar cheese in it, but not a cream of broccoli or a cheese soup. It really surprised me. It's very good soup. Thanks, Brenda, for the great recommendation! I should have known... coming from you... :)

So I paid $3.79 for this cup of soup. It came with a nice hunk of bread. The Panera at North Hills lists the calorie counts of their soups up on the wall. They had 180 calories listed for the cup of this soup. I find that hard to believe-- it's a cream soup plus cheese and very filling. But I don't think they're allowed to fib about stuff like that-- so there you go.

I give it 4 soups for love and comfort and 3 spoons for nutrition.

Tale of Two Chilis

My mother made chili tonight and I couldn't help but compare it to Ron's. They're both good chili, but completely different.

My mother uses a McCormick's Chili Seasoning packet. The first ingredient listed is chili pepper. I think it must be smoked chili pepper because the chili ends up with a distinctly smoky flavor. Or maybe there's smoked paprika in there.

It's also a thicker chili than Ron's-- probably because of the liquid that comes along with the jarred peppers he uses. Otherwise, the ingredients are similar-- ground beef, canned tomatoes, canned kidney beans.

Her sweet peppers (red and green) and onion are diced much finer-- but then I make him cut his the way he does :).

To me, my mother's chili tastes like my childhood and the Midwest. 8 spoons.

I need to find something completely different next week. I can't believe there's only nine days left.

Returning to a new favorite

Emma's at her final performance, which should be starting right about now, and then the cast party. I came in to the office to finish up a few things and play trivia with Ana on irc because Ron and I were driving each other crazy at home :).



But then as soon as *I* got out of the house, he started running around town doing errands, so I made him run into Jason's Deli and get me some Vegetarian Vegetable.

It is just as good the second time-- even though the picture isn't. I didn't even bother to look at the few pictures I took before I inhaled the soup or I would have taken a better one, but I was feeling kinda puny and now I feel a lot better.

So there you go. It's a peppery little soup and I think now that the celery flavor comes from celery salt. I remember when I first started cooking it seemed like every recipe had celery salt in it, but I don't see it so much anymore.

The earlier (and prettier) review of this soup is here .

We seem to have a theme here.

Tonight the whole family went to the play and so went to eat after. I did eat the soup before midnight, so I'm just posting late.

The last few years Grandma has been taking us to Applebees after concerts, etc, so that's where we went.


I had the choice of Tomato Basil or French Onion. I picked French Onion because I had tomato basil equivalent last night. I shouldn't have.


The cheese was rubbery and much too thick for the amount of soup that was under it. And under it was sort of an onion marmalade. I got maybe halfway through.

My advice so far would be... for French Onion soup go to Red Robin. But Emma loved her ribs and Ron loved his pulled pork wonton tacos (Huh?!)

The play closes tomorrow. I liked it more the second time through, but I'm glad it's almost over-- this week has been nuts.

Meanwhile, here's Ron's forehead for your viewing pleasure. Sleep tight.



Update next day-- 0 spoons. This soup killed any craving I had for cheesy soups of any sort. The soup cost $2.99.