19 Soups to warm you up & Jellied Cranberry Cutouts

Did you realize that January is National Soup Month?  No joke!

And another tidbit...in case you didn't realize...today's date is 1/11/11! Just wait til Nov. rolls around...*-*  Won't that be a fun day in our life??

I was SOOO excited when I came across this lovely & informative post from Tiffany at  Eat At Home.  I love making & eating soups in the wintertime. There is quite a list of wonderful soups here.  (Click on the link)  Thanks Tiffany!

A 'twist' on my own Cheesey Chicken Chowder recipe is among those listed - adding rice to similar ingredients as I make it.  I tried this recently, cooking, then adding some herb flavored rice.  It was awesome!

(This is a very inviting picture of Tiffany's Crockpot Chicken Soup - YUM!

I plan to try it very soon)

I will be sharing some of my own 'versions' of favorite soups too, so stay tuned for more D-LISH soup creations.

But for now -  I'm simply going to share this post with you and let you choose which ones to try.

If you're watching your weight, just try using lower fat/high fiber products and enjoy!

Stay full - and warm!

*****************************************************

This wasn't really worth a post by itself, so I am just going to tack in on here...

I finally took this picture just after Christmas, but had intended to show you during the month of December.  But you know how life happens sometimes...it didn't get done.

Unless your family likes to eat cranberry sauce all year long, you'll have to file away this idea for this Nov/Dec 2011.

Here's what you do....

Open a can of jellied cranberry sauce, run a knife around it and get it out of the can, in one piece (It can be done!) 

{Open both ends if you're able to and push it out  - some cans have a different seal at the  bottom that can't be opened with a can opener. Humph!}

Anyway - I stand the sauce on its side and slice it into several pieces - about 1/4" - 1/2" thick or so.  Using cookie cutters, cut into 'cutsie cranberry' pieces and display them on a pretty plate. 

If you look at the tree and star closely, I used a thin cookie cutter that imprints a design on top - that makes it even more special!

There's a much better chance they'll get eaten faster than if you just put the sauce in a dish.

Now try and remember that to use later this year....

For a ladies potluck party at church yesterday, I took cranberry sauerkraut meatballs...and a few gals asked for the recipe.  The sauce was made with cranberry sauce and a few other simple ingredients.  I will be sure to share that recipe one of these days too.