I watched “Friends” when I was younger.  I missed a few episodes along the way – and while I wouldn’t run a stop light to make sure I watched it, it was one of my favorites.

My oldest daughter Kate also likes “Friends”.  She’s been to the “Friends” exhibit in Philadelphia and she had a Central Perk mug and she even got a “Friends” Lounge Fly bag for Disney.

While I mostly related to Chandler – I did like Joey. 

In 1 way – I kind of was like Joey.

As handsome as Joey – Nope 

As cool as Joey – Not at all

As successful with the ladies – Not a chance

As good an actor as Joey – well, maybe

But Joey’s favorite food was …… sandwiches.

I liked that.  

Not any specific sandwich, just “sandwiches”.

*Side Note 1 – Mine would be a tie between a correctly made Ham & Cheese and an also properly made BLT.

While Joey’s favorite food was sandwiches, mine would be soup.

I love a nice bowl of soup.  Olive Garden and Chili’s both have great soups and you can get them as your meal at both places.  And I have.

I don’t need crackers, they’re ok – and some people like to crumble them in the soup – but not me – just a bowl of soup and a spoon.

I make 3 different soups that I have perfected over the years. 

I’ll number them, mainly to separate them, but not necessarily in order of favor.

1 Maryland Crab Soup. 

 I can’t list all my ingredients, it’s not a huge secret, but it’s what makes mine legendary. But it’s not just the ingredients that make the soup.

I always start with a minimum of 2 lbs crab meat.  I get 1 lb of claw and 1 pound of special or jumbo lump (depends on price).  If making crab cakes, I’d never use claw meat, but in soups I like the flavor and texture that claw meat gives. 

Spices are important.  But they have to be layered.  I add my Old Bay  3 separate times: beginning, middle and end.  I also add paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper and 1 other secret spice.

I also add not only celery, but also the celery stalk leaves.  Combined with parsley, it gives the soup a nice touch.

I will cheat on this soup and get frozen vegetables: Corn, string beans, carrots, and peas.  I’ll also add extra lima beans. 

And I can’t forget the tomatoes.  I use canned diced tomatoes and sometimes will also chop my own fresh tomatoes, but I try to not get too much tomato peel.

I won’t list all the ingredients, you know what’s in Maryland Crab Soup, but I do add several unique items:  turnips, celery leaves and here’s a truly unique item – lovage. 

Lovage is an herb in the celery family.  I’ll chop/dice it up to put in the soup and I’ll also add a sprig on top of the soup when serving.

So, if you were counting, my Maryland Crab soup uses three herbs: parsley, celery leaves and also lovage.

After adding diced potatoes and yellow onions – I’ll bring it to a boil then lower and simmer it for hours to let the flavors mingle together.

This soup is always better the 2nd and even 3rd day when heated.

2 Turkey Noodle Soup  

After Thanksgiving there is always a turkey carcass left over.  Lots of turkey meat too.  Sometimes the carcass isn’t enough to make the ‘soup’, so I do use chicken broth to enhance.  

After completely cooking and removing the carcass, I chop up my turkey meat into soup size pieces.  I like to have them in different size cuts, using both dark and white meat.

I cook corkscrew vegetable pasta noodles separately and I kind of overcook them so they are very loose.  I drain them completely and then rinse them in warm water as I don’t want any starchy liquid remnants to go into the soup.  I like my noodles extra done and very soft and loose, and I like the color that the vegetable pasta adds.

I add celery and carrots (freshly cut – not frozen) and onions.  Then it’s herb time, 3: parsley, the celery leaves and lovage

*Side Note 2 – You remember lovage, right?  We spoke about lovage above.

Hopefully the ‘soup’ is tasty enough with broth added, but if not I might add a couple of bouillon cubes.

I saw a video of someone using a few Ramon noodle flavor packets – never tried that, but I could see using that that if your ‘soup’ needs a kick of flavor, but I’d be leery of the extra salt.

I keep fresh parsley on hand to sprinkle on top of the soup when serving.

This cooks for a while on a med low heat.  I cook it until the celery and carrots are soft.

3 Ham and Bean.

This one is a bit tricky to make.  Some things can’t be rushed. 

It’s more of a hearty soup. But if done right – quite good.

Getting a packet of the dried beans that have to be soaked in water overnight sometimes doesn’t do the trick.  I like to let me soak a bit longer. 

If I know I’m going to be making this soup on a Wed, then I’ll put my packet of dried beans in water on a Monday evening. That gives them 1 and 1/2 days to soften. 24 hours isn’t enough.

            *Side Note 3 – I’ve made this soup with beans that weren’t ready and it didn’t turn out too well.

After Easter, I’ll often have a ham left over and after I get done with the left over ham for ham and cheese sandwiches (one of my favorites) I usually will use the ham carcass for this soup.  The ham has to fully cook in the water to make the stock, but if it needs more flavor, I’ll add vegetable broth just so it’s not too bland.

The ham I’ll cut up into pieces and along with the beans, I’ll add celery, carrots and onions.   Sometimes I’ll add a combination of potatoes and turnips, but not all the time.

I also add extra lima beans. 

I don’t use too many herbs in this one.  No lovage or celery stalk leaves and no parsley.  Salt and pepper to taste.

The beans come with a flavor packet that has good spices in it.  I add a touch or paprika and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

This hearty soup has to cook long and slow.  But like one of my favorite cooking show hosts says, “Your patience will be rewarded”.

4 Clam Chowder – I haven’t gotten this one right yet.  It’s a bit tricky and I can’t get the consistency right yet.  YET !!! 

So it’s not one of the Big-3

There you have it.  My 3 main soups.  I realize I mentioned some of this in my post “Mad Skills”, which I’m certain you already read?

            *Side Note 4 – Right?

BecauseJimSays tip – if you take soup to a function, remember to take bowls and spoons (Plastic is acceptable).  The hosting person might not have bowls enough to adequately handle the people attending.

Jeez, it wasn’t my intention to make this a blog about food.  Seems I’m posting a lot about food.

Maybe next I should do drinks.

• Seriously