Bread and Soup

It was a little cooler today and I decided to cook - something I haven't done much of lately. 

I saw a recipe for soup the other day that looked really good. You can see the original at Cinnamon Girl. 

I could not easily buy sweet potatoes, Cannellini beans, fresh parsley, or fresh thyme. But I figured the soup would still be fine. I did not make the Parmesan dumplings because I didn't think they would freeze well. We will be trying them sometime soon though.

I also made cornbread. The recipe is from Our Best Bites. I have made this before but this time I'll will be freezing some. 


Vegetable Soup (with my changes in red - I'm sure the original way is good too! I'll plan ahead next time and get to a bigger grocery store.)

olive oil

2 yellow onions, diced

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 large carrots, sliced into rounds

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

sea or kosher salt and fresh black pepper

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, crushed between fingers

1/3 cup tomato paste

a couple pinches of red pepper flakes

4 large white potatoes, no sweet potatoes

       2 large sweet potatoes, cubed             

       2 large white potatoes, cubed

2 medium zucchini, cubed

1 can butter beans, 1 can great northern beans    

       2 cans (14 ounce) Cannellini beans, rinsed, drained

1½ Tablespoon parsley flakes

       1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped          

1 teaspoon dried thyme

       4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed   

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth

2 cups water

*dumplings: I didn’t make these – we used pasta.

1 cup flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt and fresh black pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, fresh grated

1/2 cup milk + 1 tablespoon

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. In a large soup or stock pot heat enough olive oil to generously cover bottom of pan over medium-low heat; add onion, celery, carrot, garlic and bay leaves. Season well with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is soft, stirring often. Add Italian seasoning, tomato paste and red pepper flakes. Cook additional 3-4 minutes, stirring often.

2. Add potatoes and zucchini, toss with onion mixture and cook 3-4 more minutes, stirring often. Add beans, broth, water, parsley, thyme, 1teaspoon salt, lots of fresh cracked black pepper. Bring to a simmer, cook about 25 minutes, tasting the broth often and seasoning as needed. Remove bay leafs.

3. In a medium bowl whisk sifted flour with baking powder, salt and a couple of cracks of black pepper. Whisk in Parmesan cheese. In a separate small bowl combine milk and oil. Pour over flour mixture and stir until combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls into simmering soup. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes.

*Instead of dumplings, cook half pound of small macaroni like tubettini. Don't mix the macaroni into the soup (will suck up all the broth). Instead spoon cooked macaroni into bowl and pour soup over top for serving.

Cornbread - This is sweet and cake like.

1 yellow cake mix

2 Jiffy cornbread mixes

Oil, milk, and eggs according to package directions

Preheat oven according to directions on cake mix box. Combine cake mix and cornbread mixes in a large bowl. Add eggs, oil, and milk according to package directions (replace all water with milk). Mix together.

This makes a lot of cornbread - 24 muffins and a pie plate or 12 muffins and a 9X13" pan. Or whatever you want.

Just bake according to cake mix directions (15 - 20 minutes for muffins or 30 minutes for a 9x13 pan") until a toothpick comes out clean.