Tag: chipotle

Snow Hill, Greenville, & Little Washington

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Well, Friday started off with a visit to the cardiologist’s office to have an echocardiogram. I had forgotten that I had this scheduled at 9:30 am on Friday. I originally was planning to get up a little earlier and make it to Greenville, NC by 9:00 am to be one of the first in the Library Book Sale at the Greenville Convention Center. But, no, I knew the doctor’s appointment was more important, and I hadn’t remembered that visit until the 24 hours advanced notice time was past. But, the echocardiogram went quickly and I was on the road to Greenville before 10 am.

I had decided to take Hwy. 13 all the way to Greenville instead of going up I95 and then taking I264 from Wilson to Greenville. The Wilson to Greenville route was a few minutes quicker, but I have driven that route many times through the years, and wanted a more “scenic” trip.

You turn onto Hwy. 13 at Berkley Blvd. to head to Greenville. The Berkley Mall is within sight of this traffic light. I had driven this route at least once before, because I remembered Snow Hill and had taken a picture of a string of old buildings in downtown Snow Hill on a previous “pass through.” Hwy. 258 intersects Hwy. 13 at Snow Hill. I know Hwy. 258 from my old stomping grounds in Jacksonville & Onslow County years ago. I also recall my NC Driver’s License number because part of it has the number 258 in it. I was 24 in ’88 and there is a Hwy. 258.

Even though I had gotten a late start on my trip because of the echocardiogram, I knew I needed to stop and take a “walk around” break from driving. When I was younger it was nothing for me to drive for four hours straight, and stop only to refuel my vehicle. I might not even have to take a “pee” break back then. Now it is the opposite, I usually have to plan for a pee break, whether I need to or not, because I at least feel like I need to. *But, this was the first time that I came up with the idea to go into a grocery story and walk around there. I saw a Piggly Wiggly and drove into the parking lot, got out and went into the store.

I walked through the store, first looking at a spice section, and eventually around to their meat section. The meat section had good looking cuts of meat, and I noted that some of the pork chops appeared to have a good price, per pound. Didn’t really plan to come back to this store on my way back to Fayetteville, but that is what I did do, and I bought a package of pork chops for $1.59 / pound. **I may have even bought the same package of pork chops that I had taken a picture of on my first visit of the day that morning.

The book sale was a little disappointing. I did end up buying two Michael Connelly novels that I didn’t already have, “City of Bones” and “The Lincoln Lawyer.” “City of Bones” is an earlier Bosch novel. Although I like the “Lincoln Lawyer” TV series, I wasn’t enamored with the Haller story I started to read, so I put it down. A note on the book cover for “City of Bones,” is that I have seen that cover before. Probably at one of the book sale visits somewhere. Part of the cover has a raised letter grid that was memorable. Don’t know why I didn’t buy this novel when I saw it at the earlier sale. Also don’t know what happened to “The Overlook” novel that I recorded as having bought in Little Washington, but couldn’t find when I got home, still… to this day.

I bought the two Connelly novels and about 4 other, German Language, books. One of those language books was a novel with a title, in German, meaning something like “The Snowmaiden’s Secret.” Another larger book has a title meaning something like, “First Men” or “People.” And, the check-out woman said my total was $6, so I gave her a $20 and told her to “keep the change as a donation.” She asked me if I was sure, and I said, “Yes.” After all, a donation to most libraries is “a good cause,” and where else can you buy a book for a dollar, or three, or even @$10 for a book that probably originally cost $35?

So, I’ve read eleven of the Bosch novels so far and am currently reading the first, “The Black Echo.” Definitely hadn’t planned on reading any of them, but have enjoyed most of them, and really like the characters and story line differences from the TV series. ****e.g. Irvin S. Irving is white in the novels and black ( played by Lance Reddick ) on TV. It is necessary for him to be white and prejudiced in the book, “The Closers,” for the comment, “Irving is a Jewish name, isn’t it,” to make any sense. I never really noticed the animosity between Irving & Bosch in the TV series, although I do recall an office scene between the two where Bosch has realized that Irving “planted evidence,” shows him the archived photo that proves it, and Irving shreds the evidence in front of him. It is a shame that Lance Reddick died. I liked him in whatever I saw him in, especially “Fringe.”

All through my adult “working” life, I never read much for entertainment. I read a great deal for work, and enjoyed much of that, but I wasn’t interested in “wasting my time” reading fiction, sci-fi or detective novels. I wasn’t interested in historical fiction. If it’s history, I want it to be historically accurate. But, from my historical research on the Cape Fear River steamboats, I do realize that sometimes the researcher/writer has to draw items together, when there is no written evidence as proof. You have to do this just to make the story “come together.”

When I got home, I took one of the pork chops out of the package. They looked good, and they were cut a little thicker, but not actually a thick cut chop. I decided to dice up some onion, jalapeno, poblano, red bell pepper & a couple of small tomatoes and fry the pork chop up on the stove-top. I also added some cayenne pepper and a chipotle pepper and some of the adobo sauce, with sweetener & a little agave nectar. I didn’t fix anything else with the pork chop. No rice, or sweet potato, or even tortilla chips. No slaw or cucumber & onion salad. Any of these extras would have been good with this spicy hot pork chop. It did turn out very well. ***Part of no sides with this meal was because I had eaten a bunch at lunch time. I had a Shrimp Po’Boy sandwich with coleslaw and a side of fried okra. The sandwich and the okra were “good again,” and this time I noted that they had put extra fried shrimp on my plate around the sandwich, and there was a very generous portion of okra. There were so many okra, that I asked for a “to go” box, and a “to go” cup of water with ice. In retrospect, I may have gotten a few extra shrimp and a bunch more fried okra because it was “late” lunch-time and maybe the chef was trying to get rid of these items so as not to have any left (or perhaps not enough for one more plate).

Looking out the back door of
Down on Main Street.

I was seated at a slightly different angle my last visit to Down on Main Street, and I think the black throw rug was in a slightly different position, but here was the kitchen door where the waitress came out of and did her dance with the woman customer coming out of the nearby Women’s Bathroom, and spilling some items. But note the man sweeping. Several of the men were in what I would call “a cleaning mode” which is definitely something I don’t have. I’m nasty, but it doesn’t mean I don’t recognize “clean” people, and even appreciate them.

As I am getting ready to pay my bill, and I had already taken my VISA card out (as I normally do), I looked at the ticket and noted that there was an extra charge (less than a dollar) if you didn’t pay by cash. I realized what this meant, but I did verify the meaning with my waitress a short time later. Yes, an extra charge if you paid with a credit card. So I fished around for enough cash and only included a $2 tip. The meal and unsweet tea were about $16. $1.60 would have been a 10% tip, so is that a 12.5 % tip? I think so. This waitress got the job done, but I didn’t really feel that she had “invested” enough in our brief relationship for me to be generous and give her a $3 tip. $2 felt cheap, but cheap I am, and I wasn’t going to pay a credit surcharge if I had enough cash.

Garlic Cauliflower

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Beef Liver, Sweet Potato, Steamed Broccoli & White Mountain Bread
Roasted Chicken, Cabbage Slaw, Tomato Chutney & Sesame Crackers
Pork Chops, Steamed Cabbage, Tomato Chutney & Onion/Peppers
Liver Pudding, Polenta,
Scrambled Egg & Grape Tomatoes
Round Bone Lamb Chop, Garlic Cauliflower & Bread
Tarragon Peas & Grape Tomatoes

Garlic Cauliflower I steamed my cauliflower first and in a separate small skillet I made the Garlic Sauce with Avocado Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, chopped garlic, smoked paprika & some Equal sweetener. I normally will “turn” anything with vinegar with a little sweetener, and this worked well.

[NOTE 01/29/24]: I am making a note regarding the term “London Broil”. Somewhere online, not very long ago, I read an article that said that “London Broil” wasn’t a type of meat (steak) but a way of cooking on high heat and close to the burner. I explained this idea to Jeff Mitchell yesterday when I was visiting to watch the NFL Playoffs. But this morning, early, I am not finding that article and it seems that London Broil is steak that has little fat content and needs to be cooked on high heat, near the burner, to keep the meat tender. But, I may continue to use the term “London Broil” when describing how I cook the Round Bone Lamb Chops and the Pork Chops in the oven, on high and near the top burner. Cooking it this way provides an amount of “char” on the meat, which means “flavor.” [end NOTE]

I cooked the lamb in the oven as London Broil. The round bone lamb chops normally are sold in pairs (not always) and usually I eat one and put the remaining one in the fridge for another meal. This time, I cut the larger chop so that I should now have two meals remaining. I’m trying to eat a little less, because I know that less weight makes it easier to control my Blood Glucose Level. The Garlic Cauliflower was just mildly sweet but I could see this and German Potato Salad (both have vinegar & sweetener) as being interchangeable as sides. I added some dried tarragon to my garden peas, and a little sweetener. I think I also drained the original liquid from the canned peas, and added Chicken Stock back and maybe a dollop of margarine. *I also went to the extra trouble of making a slice of garlic bread (white mountain bread slathered with margarine, and sifted generously with garlic powder). This toasts in the oven quickly.

I don’t do this always, but sometimes I add lime juice & sweetener to my steamed broccoli. I first learned of how good the steamed broccoli could be with lemon juice & sweetener at Red Lobster. I would order the steamed broccoli with the blackened fish lunch special. At some point I wanted a different flavor for the broccoli than just salt & butter and found the citric & sweet combo worked well. 

[NOTE 01/29/24]: I just noted in the paragraph above, that I was writing the word “cauliflower” but actually talking about “broccoli.” And oddly enough, I had written “steamed cauliflower” three times, but the last sentence (without even noticing) said “broccoli.” [end NOTE]

I probably first had a baked sweet potato, with sour cream, cinnamon and sweetener at one of the steak restaurant chains. Maybe Longhorn. I think I first ordered it with a cheap steak and liked it. But, I also like a “loaded” baked potato (Russet) with sour cream and butter. *It was probably America’s Test Kitchen where I first learned of the trick to a tasty baked potato. You pierce the potato skin all around the potato and then roll the potato in a saline solution (salt & water). The salt in the water sticks to the skin of the potato and forms a salty skin.

I like steamed cabbage, but also like cabbage slaw (with mayo & half-n-half, sweetener, vinegar). *I don’t usually add carrots to my slaw, but I have added sweet onion before and like that. I’ve also played with slicing the cabbage into thin, long slivers but sometimes have put the chopped cabbage in a blender with plenty of water and blending the cabbage until it is all just little fine bits. The water keeps the blended cabbage from becoming total mush, and each little sliver of cabbage is a consistent size. **I do like using Duke’s Mayo and some Half-n-Half and sometimes either a little vinegar or lime juice to thin it out.

The Liver Pudding shown above is a breakfast dish for me. I heat the liver pudding up in a small fry pan, on the stove top, in a little bacon fat. I peel the skin off the liver pudding and mash it down. It softens quickly. I also slice a couple of half inch wide polenta slices and put them in my waffle iron & press them down. Sometimes the polenta waffles brown just a little, but usually they just get warmed through. Still, I like these polenta waffles with the liver pudding and with the chipotle/avocado/chicken soup I make often. The chipotle/chicken soup has Southwestern flavors, so polenta, which is corn, works well, as do adding chopped cilantro leaves, or some chili or cumin powder.

The round scrambled egg is made in the microwave in my onion cooker. Currently, I have a bag of shredded 4 Mexican cheeses and I like adding that to my egg as it cooks. The cheese melts inside the egg. *I bought the 4 Mexican Cheeses blend with the intention of making a Southwestern Salad, but haven’t gotten around to it yet, mainly because the simple salad has a lot of calories. It includes: black beans, romaine lettuce, onion, ranch dressing & the Mexican Cheese blend.

I made a Cilantro-Lime Dressing when I fixed a salmon steak about a month ago. The dressing was good, different, but pleasant, but the next day my weight & resting Bgl jumped way up. I attributed the jump in the wrong direction to the dressing, but also wasn’t sure if I had eaten a larger portion of salmon than needed. Oh, salmon is pleasant, but it’s not something that I would repeat often. I will stick to my meat rotation of ground beef, steak, pork chops, lamb and roasted chicken (which I get from Publix). I do make a delicious tasting Seafood Chowder, which I do like to repeat. But, I prefer a little heat to the chowder and the end of the summer is when I can get some delicious peppers up at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh.

The savory rice thins crackers are delicious. They go good with salad and soups, and as a snack they take the Nueske’s Smoked Liver Pate and the two goat cheeses I really like, Bucherondin and Capricio de Cabra (sp). I had forgotten about the Bucheron Goat Cheese until about 3 months ago when I saw some in Wegman’s. I took a hockey puck of the Bucheron cheese home and when I tried it I recalled that this was one of the special cheeses I had tried years ago and liked. It might have been more than 30 years ago when I first tried this cheese, while I was living down in Jacksonville, NC. I probably couldn’t find it after I moved to Fayetteville, almost 30 years ago, and so I forgot about it. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but these crackers do not get soggy quickly when moisture hits their surface, so they provide a nice crunch with either soup or salad veggies.

I’ve found that Sprouts sells a cheap bottle of Pomegranate Juice. It does have a lot of sugar, but this juice also is supposed to be good at controlling blood sugar levels. *It is difficult to find low-sugar dried cranberries, but I like these with chocolate drops & either cashews or walnut pieces. When you do find low or no-sugar dried cranberries, they are much more expensive than the sweetened dried cranberries.

I was just watching TV, as I normally am, even if I am reading or doing something else on the laptop, and I saw a phone commercial. I don’t recall which company (AT&T I think.), but they have the young woman that was rather chesty, but has toned that down. What I found exceptionally funny was that the two women were looking at wedding dresses, and there were three white dresses displayed on mannequins with a sign that said, “Buy Two, Get the Third Dress Free.” One woman asks the other woman, “Is that a good deal,” to which the reply is, “No.” I started replaying this in my mind and suddenly thought that whomever wrote this commercial was very humorous. Ludicrous to think about buying two wedding gowns, and then to offer a third gown, even more idiotic, but how funny!

Andouille, Shrimp & Lentil Chowder

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I bought a long link of Spicy Andouille Sausage at Sprouts today. For some reason, I started thinking of making a seafood chowder using lentils and not potatoes. I didn’t use tomatoes or half-n-half.

  • Andouille Sausage
  • Onion
  • Olive Oil
  • Bacon Fat
  • Carrots
  • Poblano Pepper
  • Jalapeno Pepper
  • Chipotle Pepper
  • Lentils (red, black, brown)
  • Shrimp
  • Thyme (Mediterranean)
  • Celery
  • Celery Seed
  • Garlic Powder
  • Onion Flake
  • S&P
  • Chicken Stock
  • Margarine
  • Cumin Seed

I’ve made Andouille & Lentil soup before. Kielbasa doesn’t work as well because it isn’t spicy. And adding hot peppers accents the Andouille. I thawed the shrimp in the microwave and added the juice and the shrimp once they were thawed. I would imagine that you could leave out the shrimp and this would still be a good soup… and yes, I have made this type of soup before.

White Bean & Chicken Chili

bgibson135
$1.34
$1.64 4oz.
$1.52

The basic ingredients came to about $7.50. I added a clove of garlic ( large chop ), dried basil, S&P, a little Splenda, some Agave Nectar and a little lime juice. *Just a little Splenda and Agave give this chili a slightly sweet taste, and the chipotle peppers, chipotle powder, red pepper flakes, and cayenne give it a good heat. I would add some chopped jalapenos (red or green) for extra flavor and I did add some chopped yellow bell pepper.

I’ve tried something like this before, but it did not turn out well. This did satisfy! It was a little sweet, with some heat (about 3 chipotle peppers) and large chunks of Vidalia onion.

One Clove (large chop)
Agave Nectar
Two Roma Tomatoes (chopped)

I tried this a second time, but instead of using canned white chunk chicken, I bought a whole baked chicken (original flavor) and shredded some of the white meat and added it to the chili mixture. This worked great!

Chunk Chicken
Shredded Chicken

I had some Mission Corn Chips left, and they went well with this chili. I see that avocado, cilantro, sour cream and Mexican cheese are suggested toppings for this. *The second time, I added a bunch of cilantro to the chili during cooking. I ate an avocado with the chili, and this was good.

I was in the Compare Grocery the other day and saw some red jalapenos (marked that way on the price card). I only got about 4 of these and took them to the checkout along with the other items I was purchasing. The girl rang up these as “Thai Red Chilis”. I think the price was about a dollar more per pound than the sign had said for the red jalapenos, so I said to her that these weren’t Thai Red Chilis but Red Jalapenos. She stopped and showed the clerk at the next register, and whatever was said, she still rang them up as Thai Red Chilis. It could be that both clerks were referencing the wrong code number, or maybe the grocer had labelled this item incorrectly in the system. But, I told her I didn’t want to purchase them and she set them aside.

Red Jalapenos
Thai Red Chilis
Red Cayenne Peppers

Seems that the Red Cayenne Peppers are slightly different in curvature and a little bend at the end of the pepper, but Thai Red and Red Jalapenos are distinctly different.

NOTE [05/30/22]: The oven-roasted chicken was a great idea for this, but at about $7.35 for the whole baked chicken, this is a great deal. I had a couple of drum sticks, and a bunch of white breast meat that could be shredded for the chili, and/or for a sandwich, etc. I was sort of surprised at how cheap the whole baked chicken was this time. I think the price had gone up (several months ago) and was over $8.

NOTE [ 12/16/23 ]: The can of Bush’s White Chili Beans now costs about $1.98 at Walmart, previously $1.76. I did go to Compare Foods again and bought some green Jalapenos, Poblanos and some red peppers (not sure if they were red Jalapenos or some other variety. I had a small can of diced Green Chilis. I don’t see if I added some chopped onion before, but, I did this time. I used sweet onion but that is just because I have an overstocked abundance of the sweet onions. Added some cayenne pepper, some whole Cumin seeds, some dry Cilantro & dry Parsley. Did add the bit of Splenda & Agave Nectar.

Funny, was just reading above and the same thing happened again at Compare Foods. The girl at the register rang up a red pepper, but it was a couple of dollars more than what the sign had said. I had already taken a picture of the red peppers & listed price and I ended up getting these cheaper, maybe even a dollar cheaper than had been advertised on the signage.

I was fixing some Chipotle, Chicken & Avocado Soup for lunch and had thawed about three raw chicken strips. I fried the chicken in some bacon fat, and then shredded it all using about a third of it in the lunch soup. The rest I put in the small pot that I had used for the soup, with the white chili beans and other ingredients (dicing the various raw chili peppers). I’ve got the chili in the pot, on the stove-top, and cooking on low heat.

Even though I didn’t use a roasted chicken from Publix, the whole roasted chicken for about $8 from Publix is a great deal. The two drumsticks are each a good meal, and the breast meat from each side is another couple of meals, and what is left over is enough for 3 more portions… maybe for a chicken salad (with sweet bell peppers, onion, mayo and some diced celery), or a chicken salad with Romaine lettuce, Kalamata olives, Pepperoncini peppers & a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, sweetener and dried Italian herbs. This is reminiscent of a Greek Salad, with which I currently have become enamored.

Chipotle Mango Salsa

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Basically, chunk up everything, mix, and give it enough time for the avocado to break down some to form a creamy sauce.  Use one or two Chipotle peppers, chopped up.  If you like more heat, add more peppers.  The peppers are the unexpected element to this salsa.  You get sweet, and hot.  Vidalia onions are probably best.

$T & Walmart
$T

NOTE [05/11/22]: I fixed this again recently and put some left overs in the refrigerator. It took me a couple of days to finish it, and I had put the remainder in a small Tupperware container which had cooled in the refrigerator for a couple of days. By the time I ate the last of it, the avocado had plenty of time to break down and form a delicious, mild sauce. The food was really cold, and by the time I had finished it, I said to myself, “That was almost like ice cream.” Not the texture of the salsa, but how good ice cream is… a really good desert, and that is what this salsa can become!

I used some other brand of Mangos in a jar, the last time, and I had a couple of raw Champaign Mangos, which I sliced up and added to the salsa.

I wrote about making this Chipotle/Mango Salsa while travelling in my posting called, “Road Gourmet.” I would have to re-read the posting to see if I mentioned about not being able to find some of the ingredients, or not find them all at one grocery. I haven’t made this is a while because I think it affected my blood sugar negatively.

I was recently looking in an old cookbook [Southern Living Homestyle Cookbook published in 2008 by Oxmoor House p.153] that I had bought a short time ago and found a version of this:

Mango and Avocado Salsa

  • 2 ripe large mangoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large avocado, peeled and chopped
  • 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • ½ medium-size red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • ½ teaspoon hot sauce
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon pepper

This recipe includes fresh chopped cilantro, but uses hot sauce instead of chopped Chipotle peppers.

[06/23/25]:

Spicy Mango Habanero Guacamole at Trader Joe’s

I rarely look to Trader Joe’s for any grocery items, so it was unusual for me to be on the Trader Joe’s web site today. But, during my brief visit, I happened to see an add for “Spicy Mango Habanero Guacamole.” As I looked at the image and read the following list of ingredients, I began to realize that with an addition of pineapple chunks & cilantro, and a substitution of chipotle peppers for habanero/jalapenos, I would have a satisfying guacamole that mimicked all the salsa flavors.

Chunks of golden Mango provide the sweet. The spicy comes from a combination of jalapeño peppers and Habanero pepper purée. These sweet & spicy components are complemented by just a handful of other fresh (never frozen) ingredients, including onion, red bell pepper, and cilantro. Of course, we can’t forget the avocados! Our Mexican supplier acquires Hass variety avocados from nearby farms and scoops them by hand to create the creamy and delicious Guacamole base.  (Description from Trader Joe’s web site.)

I normally do not fixt this salsa because the mango and pineapple affect my blood sugar negatively, but I do love the flavors, and as I recall, if you leave the dish a couple of days in the fridge and allow the avocado to break down to a smooth, cool sauce, this becomes “a dessert.”

The last several times I’ve been in Food Lion, I’ve walked past where they sell the DelMonte Brand of canned fruit, but I haven’t seen any sliced mangos, which a few years ago they always had one or two glass jars of mangos. The mangos in a jar are not as good looking as the fresh mangos. *Oh, and I have seen and bought several cans of mangos at Dollar Tree ($T). I’m not sure if I still have them, or if $T still sells them, but I know that $T does sell the canned pineapple for $1.25, because the price is prominently displayed on the can, as part of it’s advertising by the company.

[end]

Chicken – Chipotle Soup

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This is a very simple soup, but I knew the first time that I had it that it would be something I would fix again and again.

— A couple of cans of chicken stock.

— Some diced chicken (boneless)

— Two or three chipotle peppers (wash off the adobo sauce)

— Several slices of avocado (per person).

Perhaps a little oil in the pot to start browning the chicken.  Throw in the chipotle peppers and mix with the chicken, but try not to break the peppers (some will even want to remove the peppers before serving, but I like them).  Once browned, pour in the chicken stock and heat to a boil.

Once you’re sure the chicken is cooked through and the stock is piping hot, you can remove from the heat and remove the chipotle peppers (if desired).

Slice the avocado into bite sized pieces and put in separate serving bowls.  Pour in the soup and serve quickly.  The avocadoes will start to break down quickly.  The heat of the stock and the chipotle peppers is offset by the cool butteriness of the avocado.

[NOTE 01/30/24]:  Fifteen years, and I am still making this soup.  Although I still like the basic four ingredient version of this soup, I just fixed a delicious version where I added white rice, orange bell pepper, jalapeno, poblano, a couple of smashed garlic cloves and onion to the chipotle & chicken.  I also seasoned with cumin, cayenne, red pepper flakes, dried cilantro leaves and a little lime juice.  *In the past, I have added fresh cilantro leaves, and maybe even corn kernels.  I recall at least once the extra items did not make this soup better, or even as good, so I went back to the basic ingredients.

My combination of extra ingredients & spices this time “was a winner.”  I like a spicy soup, although as I have said at other times, I don’t want a really hot pepper that has no flavor.

I think the rice was a good addition.  It helps cool the chipotle spiciness, as does the avocado.

*Oh, to mention it here also… I used the canned chicken breast (size of a tuna can) today.  I pour in the water that comes in the can of chicken.  But, I have found if I have some white meat left over from a whole roasted chicken (that I get from Publix), I can shred that and use it instead of the canned.

[end NOTE]

[NOTE 05/04/24]:  I just tried this soup with some sliced polenta in it.  It works really well. [end NOTE]

2 Ingredient Ranch Pickles