Meatball Soup

It's Tuesday (or it will be by the time I get this post up) so, this post will be a combination of books and food.

We had a great long weekend at our family cabin in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon. It was just nice to get away.


On Sunday, we woke up to rain clouds and cool temperatures. I happen to LOVE it when it's like that in the mountains.
I made soup. I had planned on making the soup anyway, but since it was cooler and cloudy, it was just a great day to make a fire in the fireplace, read our books and smell the soup as it simmered all afternoon. This was of course, AFTER our 5 mile hike. (I was with the Handyman.... he can't sit still for very long). It was a great hike really.....except when he took me off the beaten path and we went on a trail that was STEEP and followed a cliff.


I made Albondiga or Meatball Soup. The recipe comes from an old friend of mine, Letty Rodriguez. I assume that she learned from her mom, who learned from her mom in Mexico.
It's really good. The only think that I will do different next time is to brown the meatballs first, before adding them to the soup. (My cousin Linda has a recipe for Albondiga where she browns her meatballs, so the idea is hers). I think the carmelization of the meatballs would be a great addition to this recipe, but the seasonings are wonderful.

Albondiga

(meatball soup)

2 pounds ground beef

1-2 cloves garlic--minced

1/2 cup rice

1/2 to 3/4 cup of tomato sauce

1/2 chopped fine white onion

1 tsp ground cumin

2 eggs

1 tbls or so of chopped cilantro

salt and pepper

Mix together and make meatballs....1 1/2 inch balls. (my addition to the recipe is to brown them in oil, but the recipe says....)

Simmer in a pot of water on low heat fro 15 to 20 minutes (my addition was to simmer them in beef broth)

Remove meatballs. Skim off fat.

Add

diced carrots

cubed potatoes

a handful of rice

simmer till vegetables are tender and rice is done.

Sauté in a bit of olive oil
1/2 chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped tomato

1 clove of garlic

Add to soup pot with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Add 1 Tbls instant beef bouillon (or not if you've used beef broth to simmer the meatballs and veggies)

Add meatballs and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Good Soup!

Good Books! I read 3 this weekend. A cabin weekend just seemed like it needed some old familiar characters (to me anyway)

Blind Bloodhound Justice by Virginia Lanier

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

Blind Bloodhound Justice is the 4th in a series featuring Jo Beth Sidden and her criminal tracking Bloodhounds in the Oakefenokee Swamp in Georgia. I love this series. There are only 6 in the series, and there will never be anymore, because the author has passed away. She loved her Bloodhounds....and on the inside back cover where the authors pictures usually is, is a picture of one of her beloved Bloodhounds.
I have the last 2 books, but I am hesitant to read them any time soon, because then they will be done.


Club Dead. Ya gotta love Sookie Stackhouse. Well, I do anyway. This is only the 3rd book in the series. I'm behind...what can I say? They are such fast, fun reads, that I'm sure I'll catch up fast.


Misty of Chincoteague is a 1947 Newberry Honor book which I bought for my children's library which is in an upstairs closet. It's for my grandchildren to go look thru, and then ask me questions about which is a good book. I have to know what I have, right?


And I am half-way thru "All Mortal Flesh" by Julia Spencer Fleming. I read in the car on the way home today. Some more of my favorite characters, but I'll tell you more about them next week.

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Our hike.   The Handyman wanted to go to Ice Lake.

Lucky for me the bridge had been removed.

Or....maybe not...he's been known to jump across a river or two.

Seriously...I would have loved to gone to Ice Lake...but there is no way we could have jumped this river---it went straight down---

I am not that brave.

We did get a nice view of the lake on our hike.

I "hiked" with my new camera and took a picture of everything I saw.

And when we were going down the steep, steep, small trail on the side of a cliff, the Handyman held out his hand to me and I said,  "save my camera before you save me."  He just shook his head.

I am going to enter this in to Souper Sundays hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

It's a great round-up of soups (and sammi's and salads).

I've been away, and I've missed it.