Taco Soup

In a flurry of activity informing the world of our eating, we would also like to report on the main dish we had with the corn bread (and for the next few days). Ryan made a roast in the crock pot earlier this week (it had onions and green peppers with it, but I have no idea what else he did). It was about 3 pounds, so there was a lot of meat. Some of the meat we put in burritos, some of it we used for taco soup (which is what I'm trying to post about, if I could just get around to talking about it), and some remains in a glass container in our refrigerator, waiting for us to be inspired (anyone have any suggestions?). But about the taco soup...first, I browned/stir-fried/cooked green pepper and onion (I'm searching for the appropriate verb here, in case you can't tell--what I did was heated the pan and then threw in the vegetables)--about half of a large one each--with some garlic. Then I put in some of the roast meat (I'm such an exact cook--I don't even know what kind of measurement to use for this step, much less how much of that measurement--I was using the two-quart sauce pan and there were more vegetables in it than meat at this point) and added cumin, Mexican seasoning (as another side note, we cannot find McCormick Mexican seasoning in our grocery stores anymore--it's quite sad. We're also sad about the fact that we can't get Santa Barbara green salsa directly from the company with free shipping anymore--we are out of our secret ingredient!), Santa Barbara cantina salsa, and oregano. After that all looked heated nicely (when I got bored might be a more accurate time statement), I added half a can of corn (we had no frozen corn), a can of diced tomatoes with jalapeños, half a can (the larger size) of green chilies, a cup of beef broth, and some water and let it all boil until Ryan came home with the milk and the corn bread was ready. We, of course, ate the soup with sour cream and cheese as well as tortilla chips. I had very low expectations for this soup, so I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it. I liked it even more today (two days old) when we ate it out of my new Crayola thermos (a Christmas present from my sister and brother-in-law) right before we went cross-country skiing (the thermos worked beautifully, by the way--thanks Rachel and Doug...and Daru and Kina!).