The Dog House

Puppy Soup

Soup
4 large tomatoes
2 cups broth (beef, chicken, or vegetable)
4 cups tomato juice (or canned tomato soup)
3/4 pound hot dogs, sliced
1 cup interesting pasta
½ cup onion, chopped
½ cup celery, chopped (including leaves)
½ cup carrots, chopped
½ cup corn
1 tsp. basil
1 clove garlic
Salt & pepper to taste

Puppies
¼ pound hot dogs (2 or 3 hot dogs)
2 cups flour
3 tbs. sugar
1 tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. basil
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup milk

Wash tomatoes. Boil in a few inches of water or steam until the peel begins to curl and come off. Remove from water and peel tomatoes. In a large bowl or pot, mash with a potato masher until tomatoes are cut into nice chunks.

Crush garlic. Gently saute garlic, onion, celery, and hot dog slices until onion turns transparent, but do not brown.

Combine tomatoes, broth, juice or soup, garlic, onion, celery, hot dog slices, carrots, corn, and basil and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Season to taste.

Hint: Make sure you use a pot big enough to allow at least four inches of clearance between the soup and the top of the pot.

While soup is heating, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, basil, and salt in a large bowl. Add milk and oil and form into biscuit dough. Divide into 8 equal balls.

Cut hot dogs in quarters. Flatten each dough ball and wrap around the hot dog, thoroughly enclosing it.

When soup reaches boiling point, add pasta. Return to boil, turn heat down to low and float hot dog rolls on top. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove cover and very carefully stir soup, using a spatula or big plastic spoon. (Be very careful not to disturb hot dog rolls, or they may not cook properly.) Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes. You may need to remove the cover and stir the soup a time or two to prevent the pasta from sticking. Reduce heat if necessary.

Prick rolls with a fork to make sure they cooked thoroughly, then remove from heat. If you're serving this to kids, make sure you let it cool for 5 or 10 minutes before serving it to them.