Pepper Soup

So today here I am again blogging for lunch. Actually I have a bowl of chicken and stars soup of the campbell variety which I'm eating because you can never have enough soup, but it's a bit warm at the moment. I'm not altogether wild about chicken and stars especially because I didn't have any crackers to toss in but oh well it cost all of $0.50 and it warms me up. I feel like that snowman already melted away - oh wait that's a commercial not real life. Anyhow back to this blog before it was hijacked by my ramblilng...
Two weeks ago jono made us Pepper Soup which I have been meaning to blog so we can toss the printout of the recipe into the recycling bin because once it's blogged we don't have to worry where we put it. -I'm sure you all are thinking do they eat anything other than soup at the Jones Compound - and in truth while almost all good things can be eaten in a bowl we really do cook other things like last night we had hot dog sandwiches and last week we had turkey burgers and aspargus and the worlds spicest red beans and rice - not the same night though. We aren't big fans of cooking things in the oven for unknown reasons, it's been rainy so no grilling and with the crockpot you have to plan in advance - although we have a fast cook crockpot that we have been known to make soup in. So that leaves us with things cooked on the stovetop and soup for the most part can be left along once you toss everything in so we love it! Anyhow I digress again here is our the recipe which was modified from one on Allrecipes because we didn't even know what Marjoram was and I detest celery, and I'm sure there were other things changed too.
Pepper Soup
1 lb stew meat
5 slices of bacon
1 onion chopped
1/2 cup parsley chopped
2 green peppers chopped
2 boxes of beef broth - we always think we need extra broth so we buy the big boxes of broth
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp ground cloves (you need these this makes the soup)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 lg potato peeled and chopped
2 large carrots diced
4 tblsp butter
4 tblsp flour

1. Cook meat in a large skillet by covering it with water and bringing it to boil. Allow to cool then drain water. Put aside.
2. In soup pot or dutch oven saute bacon until clear.
3. Add onion, parsley and green peppers to the bacon and saute until onion is clear.
4. Add beef stock, meat, and spices to the soup pot. Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer. Cook for about two hours on low I'm guessing we really cooked ours about an hour because that's how we roll.
5. Add the potato and carrots and cook for 20 more minutes.
6. Create a roux with flour, butter and 1/2 cup of the soup broth mixed in a bowl. Stir in roux to the soup pot when potatoes and carrots are soft. Roux will thicken the soup.
7. Add any additional spice needed and eat.

It was especially yummy however if you are not a fan of spice then perhaps this is not the soup for you - it was the best soup tasted all week. I did not photograph this soup although I will make a special point in the future to photograph soups.