First off, I have to warn you that this soup is very spicy. So have plenty of corn tortillas and sour cream on hand, if you need to cut the spice down. That said, this is a fast and easy soup to make, perfect for people who don’t have a lot of time to cook.

You can toss in cooked chicken or pork to give it more substance. However, I found the soup to be a little too watery. There’s a simple fix for that.

In a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water. Mix it together with a wire whisk. Then pour it into the soup and stir until the liquid begins to thicken.

One word of caution: Use this thickening technique about five minutes before you are ready to serve. Because the soup will continue to thicken as it sits on the stove.

I’ve also tried the Desert Gardens Southwest Chicken Chowder, which was an instant family hit.

Find more Southwest soups at Comfort Foods

I let Matthew take over a bit more tonight. The recipe we made was an adaptation from a spaghetti sauce recipe I found in my Best-Loved Favorite Brand Name Recipes cookbook. I taught him how to use the can opener and introduced the measuring spoons to him for the first time.

First, I had him dump 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes and chicken broth into my large pan. Then he added a heaping teaspoon of garlic, two teaspoons each of basil and oregano, and a small can of tomato paste.

Once he finished stirring the sauce, I took the meatballs out of the freezer and started layering them in the pan. Right then, I realized that I’d forgotten the Merlot wine. The Merlot gives the sauce a sweet flavor.

I quickly added half a cup, and then gave the sauce a gentle stir before I turned the stove to the medium high setting. Once the sauce started to boil, I turned the heat down to Low and covered the pan.

By this time, Matthew was getting tired of the whole cooking scene and wanted to return to his video game. Before I let him go, I showed him how high to fill the pot with water for the spaghetti.

“Mom, why don’t you just fill it with hot water so it will boil faster?” he said.

That was a good question. But since the sauce needed time to simmer, I wasn’t in a hurry to cook the spaghetti. He returned to his video game, until the water started to boil. Then I called him over for two things: to show him how much spaghetti to add for four people and to stir the sauce.

I instructed him to pull the lid off towards him in order to let the steam from the bubbling sauce billow away from him. He stirred the sauce while I added the spaghetti. Ten minutes later, I showed him how to drain the spaghetti, although I did this part myself because my collander is getting old.

Once I dumped the spaghetti into the pan, he started stirring back and forth. The sauce wasn’t coating the spaghetti. So I took the spoon from him and showed him how to fold the spaghetti into the sauce using scooping motions.

That excited him. I let him finish. Then Dad took over with the salad and the garlic bread.

Ingredients

1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 14.5 oz. can of chicken broth
1/2 cup Merlot
2 tsp. Basil
2 tsp. Oregano
1 heaping tsp garlic
1/2 a bag of frozen meatballs (or make your own)

I’m very sensitive to the fumes that white and yellow onions give off when I slice into them. Sometimes I can chop a whole onion with a minimal amount of burning and tearing. Other times, I have to splash my eyes with cold water for several minutes in order to ease the burning. It depends upon the onion.

My husband advised me to run the onion under cold tap water for several minutes. This helped sometimes, but not always. Finally, I went online to find some solutions to this common problem and found some tips.

1. Wear goggles. That sounds funny, but it makes sense. People who are sensitive to chlorine wear them, so it might help.
2. Peel the onion. Then cut it in half and soak in cold water for 15 to 20 minutes. The fumes should be greatly reduced, but you run the risk of diminishing the flavor of the onion.
3. Use a very sharp knife to cut onions. Dull knives rip through the onion’s cells, causing the sulfuric compound to leak out or spray into the air. I’ve been caught in the eye with onion juice more times than I can count.
4. Turn on your stove’s ventilator fan.
5. Open a window. Better yet, get some cross-ventilation by opening two opposing windows, if you can.

I’ll look for some more tips. In the meantime, if you have a suggestion, I’d love to hear from you.