Creamy Wild Rice and Turkey Soup

This cannot make any claim to being health food, but it turned out really delicious. Mostly from the Reese wild rice package, as adapted by me (they didn't think of adding turkey!)

Wild Rice Soup

1/2 a stick of butter
3/4 cup onions
1 cup celery
1/4 cup flour
1 quart whole milk (I fortified it with some half and half I had in the fridge)
a cup, more or less, or cooked wild rice
cooked turkey in bite-size pieces (2 cups? I don't know, I didn't measure)
chicken base
1/8 tsp. white pepper (or black)

Melt butter but do not brown. Saute onion and celery till soft but not brown. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir well. Slowly add milk, stirring continually till thickened. Add cooked wild rice and turkey and barely simmer for a few minutes. taste and add bits of chicken base, dissolved in a spoon in the hot soup, to taste. Add white pepper. Do not allow to boil. Makes about 6 cups.

Chirinabe for a chilly night

This turned out so good! Ingredients cost about $27.

Broth:
1 quart of water
1 packet of dashi no moto
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sake

Mix broth in a large bowl and pour into two nabes and heat.

Add, in this order, cut into large chunks:

enoki mushrooms
chicken tenders
salmon
black cod (could skip next time)
king crab legs (3/4 pound, 2 pieces, cut into sections)
large sea scallops
(next time include clams!)
a few leafs of nappa
large pieces of green onion

Simmer till fish is just cooked through.

Simply Spaghetti

Papa developed a craving for spaghetti this evening, and I pulled together a simple sauce that turned out fantastic:

1/2 pound ground beef (80% lean)
1 fresh sweet Italian sausage, cut open and chopped into pieces
1/2 ~1 onion, chopped
1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained, reserve juice
1 fresh green pepper, chopped
1 24 oz. jar of Classico Tomato and basil sauce
1 lb. Trader Joe's spaghettti

Yes, right, I had the half-tube of ground beef and a leftover Italian sausage in the freezer, and I quickly defrosted them in warm water. Not the recommended method, but that's what I did. When the meat was defrosted, I sauted it in the frying pan, chopping and breaking it up with a wooden spoon. When it was just about done, I added the onion (half an onion because that's what was in the refrigerator. a whole onion would be fine too) and green pepper and mushrooms and sauted a bit more. I didn't add (or subtract) any oil, what came out of the meat was just right. Stir with a wooden spoon till the onion and pepper start to soften. Pour in the jar of sauce and thin with some mushroom juice. Simmer for a half hour or so, adding more mnushroom juice as needed. Cook spaghetti, serve with sauce! It was yummy! I only cooked 3/4 of a pound of the spaghetti, but there's excess sauce, so it's enough for a whole pound.