Quick & Easy Creamy Chicken Ranch Soup Recipe
We lead busy lives, whether we’re rushing to get kids to soccer practice on time, juggling volunteer commitments, or, like me, rushing to meet deadlines at work. I write four to six romance and women’s fiction novels per year. Four to six full-length books, plus research, editing, promotion… the list never ends. I don’t often have time to spend hours cooking. Most days, I need to get in, get out, and get the family fed, all in less than an hour.
Supermarket rotisserie chickens are perhaps the best innovation of the past twenty years. Yes, even better than the iPhone. What did we do before we had this fabulous, ready-made poultry at our disposal? When you’re really in a hurry, you can grab a chicken and a bag of salad, and you’re done. If you have a few minutes more, you might want to try this delicious Creamy Chicken Ranch Soup, a recipe I came up with in a fit of creativity. From start to finish, this soup takes about half an hour.
Ingredients
1 Rotisserie chicken, fully cooked
6 Cups chicken broth
1 Small onion, chopped
1 Head of cauliflower, chopped
1 Head of broccoli, chopped
2 Cups of whipping cream
1 Packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix
Procedure
Discard the skin of the chicken and tear the meat from the bone. Put the chicken, broth, and all the vegetables in a pot. If you don’t like cauliflower or broccoli, feel free to substitute about six cups of your favorite vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, corn, celery, peas, red peppers… this is a very versatile soup. Heat to boiling over high heat, then lower the heat, cover the pot, and allow to simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Mix the ranch mix with the cream and add to the soup, stirring gently to blend. Allow to sit a couple of minutes to blend the flavors and to allow the cream to heat through.
Pair with a nice Chardonnay. If you want, you can even substitute a cup of wine for one cup of the broth in step 1 above, then serve the same wine with dinner. Add a hunk of fresh, crusty bread from the bakery at the grocery store, and you’ve got a hearty meal that’s sure to satisfy even the finicky eaters in your family.
Nilgai Hunting – Exotic Game
A recent hunt to the prestigious Kenedy Ranch in South Texas, approximately 400,000 acres in size, yielded a sweet chunk of meat for my freezer. I spent the weekend down there and hunted two mornings and two evenings sitting in a blind. The temperature and winds were fierce, and the conditions were rather blistering, but the excitement of watching the game and other wildlife move through the area was hot and kept me feverishly on my toes.
In the hunt, I was one of four other hunters in the area the final morning of my stay. We had a successful final day, where the group, collectively, shot a Nilgai, small hog, and two 140 class bucks. All of the killings were during the two minute warning, within minutes of ending our final morning hunt. Although, there was so much game seen by all of us hunting over the weekend, we were all holding out for a certain kill. I killed the Nilgai, which is an antelope from India and is very good to eat (comparable to elk or axis deer).
The Nilgai was imported from India by the King Ranch, a neighboring ranch to the Kenedy. The King Ranch hoped to provide consumers with an alternative to beef, but the market didn’t accept the substitute and then the plan was scrapped by the King Ranch. The plan however, wasn’t a total failure because there are wild Nilgai loping around all over the area which provide a challenging hunt and a tasty meal. They are a very difficult kill to make because they are highly evasive and hardly ever stand still. After visiting with the ranch manager and hunting the area a while, I have learned that the Nilgai do occasionally stand still and repetitively return to their place of defecation. With a little scouting I was able to find huge piles of Nilgai droppings and figured that this would be an excellent place to position a blind.
From past experience, I’ve learned that moving blinds is a huge inconvenience and frankly, a real pain and something that I hope to never do again. I was fortunate enough to be able to use a product called, The Quick Tower, a portable hunting blind that I pulled behind my truck and set up in a few minutes near the droppings. This way, I can easily move the blind around without the huge headache and chore of taking down my stationary blinds and setting them up again.
Just in case you’re wondering, portable, quick setup ground blinds are not an option when hunting this south Texas area also known as “The Brush Country”. Since hunting Nilgai is not restricted by hunting seasons, they can be hunted year round. I’m looking forward to my new hunting strategy and stocking my freezer and feeding my guests much more delicious Nilgai meat.
Constructing a Low Cost Rabbit Cage in Simple Steps
Free running bunnies have lots of enemies when existing in the wild. For this reason they intuitively seek out shelter where they can feel safe, sound, and secure, and the bunny rabbit cage serves this objective with home raised rabbits. There are lots of facts about rabbits that you ought to be knowledgeable about if you expect to put together the least expensive and practical bunny rabbit cages. As an example, lots of individuals feel sad for their bunnies because they are raised in small pens, but these critters are quite happy residing in these small accommodations because they feel safe from predators inside. Nevertheless, it’s good to bear in mind that bigger bunny rabbit breeds should be given a larger pen.
Bunny rabbits need a place of their own where they will feel comfy and secure and a hutch performs this purpose. Outside pens also offer a way for them to obtain lots of fresh air and sunshine. This type of housing is ideally suited for bunnies no matter if you raise them indoors or out, as family pets or for meat.
A sturdy hutch can be made in a solitary day using tools normally found around the house. In addition, you will need wood, wire, and some additional items, but they won’t cost too much because there are very few supplies needed. Initially, you must decide whether the pen will be set indoors or out. A large amount of bunny rabbit fanciers are not aware that pet rabbits do not need to be housed in the home, but can very easily be raised outdoors. Additionally, raising rabbits for meat does not require them to be raised outdoors as they can be grown indoors in a tiny apartment, home, or garage. These critters do not have many requirements and are quite delighted living almost anywhere.
Their cages are built using wood, metal, or a blend of the two. Metal is favored because it will stay good for greater periods of time, stay cleaner, and won’t soak up urine. Pens kept in the house are typically built with sliding metal trays beneath the wire mesh flooring to capture the rabbit droppings, while the rest of the cage is a wire mesh.
Outside cage framing is made with wood or metal, but the actual pen itself is almost always made with wire. It’s generally wise to make the top (roof) and one or two walls using plywood or metal as a defense against adverse weather conditions. These hutches ought to be well-built because they also perform the function of keeping their residents protected from predators.
Hutches that stay outdoors are classically built on four wooden legs to keep them off the ground. This makes feeding them, watering, and additional actions much easier for the owner. Rabbit hutches can be bought or built, but since constructing them is a rather simple task you might want to construct it yourself to save money. In spite of this, if manufacturing a pen is not your idea of a good time you can often find used hutches at satisfactorily low prices. This way you will be able to save money and reduce the work too.
The traditional approach for putting together outdoor bunny rabbit cages is to use a frame made from lumber and all-wire mesh sides. In warmer areas this is most ideal, but as mentioned earlier, a roof and at least one side ought to be constructed as solid structures to protect the critters from snow, heavy rain, and wind. The roof and sides need to be built from sturdy plywood and not from particle board. Particle board is typically cheaper, but won’t last as long. Successfully raising rabbits is a great deal simpler with a properly constructed hutch.