Chicken Tortilla Soup

From: Bumbazine

Disclaimer: This uses a lot of canned goods. If you have fresh stuffs, by all means use them.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts or equivalent. (If you have left-over chicken, you'll also want a couple of cans worth of broth.)
~1/2 - 1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can creamed corn, not drained
1 7oz can fire roasted diced green chilies (or a large anaheim or poblano or other mild green chili, diced)
1 bell pepper, any color, diced (I didn't have any last night and didn't miss it, so I'm gonna say this is optional)
1 can diced tomatoes, not drained
1 can kidney beans, or black beans, or whatever you like, drained
~ 2 tsp taco seasoning
~1 - 2 tsp cumin
~1 - 2 tsp chili powder
salt & pepper
cilantro chopped, if you have it. Again, I didn't have any and didn't miss it.
Crushed tortilla chips. The stuff in the bottom of the bag will work fine.

Directions:
Do ahead: If you're not using leftovers, put your chicken in a sauce pan with poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, and a bay leaf.
Cover with water and cook on stove top until cooked, then turn off the heat and leave it.

When you're ready to assemble your soup, put ~1 Tbsp cooking oil in the bottom of your soup pot. Put in the diced onion, bell pepper, diced green chilies, and the whole kernel corn. Cook until the onion is translucent. Put in the garlic and cook it til it smells good, not very long. Put in your creamed corn, tomatoes, and beans.
Pour the chicken and broth through a colander into the soup pot. You should have enough liquid, but you can add water or broth as you like. If you are using leftover chicken put in a couple cans of canned broth instead.
Add the taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, (to taste) and salt & pepper at this point.
Transfer your cooked chicken to the cutting board that you left out after dicing the onion, et.al. and shred it with a couple of forks, and put it in the pot.
When it's all heated up, taste and adjust your seasonings. If you like your soup hot, as in spicy, put in your hot stuff of choice. I like chipolte powder. You probably like something else.

Serve with crushed tortilla chips (that's the 'tortilla' part) and whatever garnishes float your boat.

FCM's Potato Soup

By: FairyChatMom
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Start with a couple of cups of chicken broth.  Peel and cube 6-8 potatoes, depending on size.  Also chop up one onion and one carrot (optional - the carrot is one of my tweaks.) The recipe also calls for dill, but I don't use it - your call. Cook it all till the potatoes are done.

Next, empty the soup pot into a big bowl and go at it with a potato masher.  I like to leave a bunch of unmashed chunks, and some folks like to process it all in a food processor - as you prefer.  Meanwhile, I shake up 2 cups of milk with 2-3 Tablespoons of flour, plus salt and pepper.  Melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter in the soup pot, then add milk/flour mixture and cook till it thickens.  Add the mashed potato mixture, mix well, heat thru, and serve.

I like to mix swiss cheese into my serving, spousal unit like a glop of sour cream.  Whatever works.

Cherry Delight

From: swampbear
Via: food.com

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-cherry-delight-dessert-no-bake-82002
Makes 12 servings

Swampy says to use Cool Whip instead of Dream Whip.

1 3/4 c. Crushed graham crackers
1/3 c. Sugar
1/4 c. melted butter

2 c. Whipped topping
1/2 t. vanilla
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 28 oz can cherry pie filling