Tomato Soup and Indian Tacos

How many times have you run in the house after shoveling all the snow and ice off your front walk, freezing and hungry? A good way to shake off this cold and ease the hunger is to get yourself a strong, hot cup of coffe, tea or chocolate, a biscuit or two then get into your kitchen and cook up a storm! The following two recipes are a fantastic and tasty dinner for a cold winter's day.

First, round up some fully ripe tomatos and pull out your big soup pot then go for it. Your family will really appreciate this treat and you when they sit down and start grabbing all the goodies to make a taco with. Make sure you have some really big soup cups for this tasty hot soup.

Homemade Tomato Soup

Four pounds ripe tomatos
Two onions
Dill or Basil or Mint to taste
Two Bay leaves
Salt and Pepper
One Apple
Two quarts water
Two cubes Beef or Chicken boullion

Wash and cut tomatos in half. Peel and slice apple. Peel and chop onions. Put all ingredients in pot, using the amount of herbs to your taste. Simmer for at least three hours, stirring occasionally. Thirty minutes before serving, season with salt and pepper, then continue simmering. Remove bay leaves before serving.


Fry Bread

While soup is simmering, make up a batch of fry bread dough:

Three cups flour
One teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt
Water

Mix all the dry ingredients in large bowl. Adding a little water at a time, mix till you have a stiff dough. Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes, using only enough flour to prevent sticking. Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy fry pan (cast iron pans are great for this). Take a small amount of the dough, enough to make about a four inch round, shape and pat flat. Fry each pattie till golden brown on bottom, turn (the pattie, not yourself, unless you are still cold and dancing to keep warm :) and brown other side. Place each hot slice on a plate and cover with a paper towel. Cover entire batch of bread with a cotton towel to help keep warm. You can set the bread in a low heated oven if you wish.

For Tacos

Have plenty of the following ingredients ready to set on the table:

Browned, crumbled, seasoned hamburger
Chopped onions
Chopped Tomatoes
Shredded Cheddar
Shredded Lettuce

Let each person pile onto a slice of warm fry bread any or all of the above. You can offer sour cream also if they like it. If you have any left over fry bread, store it in a round tin with wax paper between slices. This will be a tasty treat with jam for later or for breakfast the next day.

If you haven't warmed up by the time you sit down to eat, put plenty of hot taco sauce on your taco. :) If you want a good dessert to go with this dinner or any other dinner, watch for my next recipe article for Indian Berry Soup.