A frugal fall supper

 

I was looking for a warm and comforting meal the other evening and also happened to have a couple of zucchini languishing in a crisper drawer.  After searching through a few cookbooks and not finding anything that inspired me, I decided to do a search for zucchini recipes on my own blog.

I realized in doing so that I hadn't made this Zucchini Garden Chowder  in years.  I had everything on hand that I needed, and best of all it would neatly use up those two zucchini.  What a good choice!  This is such a delicious, comforting soup.

In my 2010 post I noted that my dad, instead of simply telling me supper was good, as he so often did, surprised me by exclaiming that this soup was delicious.  In tasting it again, I think I know why.  The flavor bears a good bit of resemblance to a "Welsh Rabbit" that my mother used to make occasionally -- a combination of cheddar cheese and tomatoes that she served over toast.  Not a classic Welsh rarebit by any means, but it was a warm and tasty quick meal on occasion.  

When we had the soup this week, my hubby also proclaimed that this was a very good soup.  I hope you'll enjoy this too, if you try it.

Fall meet-up with friends #1 -- Soup and chili supper

 

(Above, Carrie's fall kitchen decor from a previous year.  This space is so much fun!)

October looks to be a friend-filled month.  It seems that several of our friends from other states have traveled to New England at this time.  Our first fall meet-up was Sunday night at our daughter Carrie's home where we were able to enjoy a soup and chili meal with Carrie's long-time friend Lori and her husband CJ.  We had not seen Lori in many years and had never met her husband, so this was a nice time to catch up with all that's going on with them.

 As Carrie and I brainstormed what to serve, we considered chili.  Then we learned that Lori is not a fan of chili -- but her husband is.  Carrie decided to make Cheeseburger Soup, a recipe we have enjoyed for years.   She would make rolls to accompany the soup.

I volunteered to make chili.  This has become my favorite chili recipe: Easy Crockpot Chili -- but I tweak it in a major way as far as how it's put together.  I think it makes a huge difference.  So what I do differently is, while browning the hamburger, I also brown the chopped onion and all of the spices along with it.  I really think that doing this adds a very measurable depth of flavor to the chili.  Sometimes I use ground turkey instead of beef, but with the spices cooked with the meat like this, one would never know it was turkey.  Even though this is a super simple recipe, I usually get many comments about how good it is.  I also cut WAY back on the meat in this recipe, using a pound or less rather than the 3 pounds called for.  I often add an extra can of beans too -- usually kidney beans.  To go with the chili, I brought tortilla chips.

Carrie's rolls were amazing.  I guess they are a pretty standard recipe for pan rolls, but to make them slightly healthier she substituted maple syrup for sugar.  It only called for 1/4 cup, but wow-  that tweak really made a difference.  One could taste a hint of maple in the rolls.  They were wonderful.

For dessert, Carrie made a delicious apple cake.

This turned out to be the perfect menu for a Sunday night supper in fall.  The food and fellowship were both delightful!

One new thing ...

 

 My One New Thing for this week was cooking with parsnips and also trying a new chowder recipe.  Now I have tasted parsnips (my dad used to love them, and someone recently included them in a crockpot dish at church), but I have never bought them or cooked with them that I can remember.  

But I was tempted by this recipe in Yankee magazine for Roasted Winter Vegetable and White Bean Chowder.

You can see all five featured chowder recipes here in this article: In the Thick of It.   I changed the recipe a whole lot, and also adapted it to make in a slow cooker,  so I will write it down as I prepared it.  If you prefer to try the recipe and method as written, by all means do that.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

• 3½ cups diced butternut squash

• 2½ cups sliced carrots

• 2 cups diced russet potatoes

• 1 cup sliced parsnips

• 2 tablespoons plus 3 tablespoons olive oil 

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided

• 3 cups diced onion

• 1 cup diced celery

• Dried thyme to taste
  

• Dried rosemary to taste 

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 2 tablespoons flour (all-purpose or gluten-free)

• 6 cups chicken stock

• 2 (14-ounce) cans great northern beans, drained

• Half-and-half to taste
  

• Fresh thyme springs and ground paprika or smoked paprika, for garnish, optional
  

Instructions

Heat your oven to 425°. In a large bowl, toss the butternut squash, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Divide these vegetables between two large rimmed baking sheets and roast until tender and browned, about 40 minutes, turning them a few times while roasting. 

While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the soup base. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat, then add the onion, celery, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, black pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 6 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Place the roasted vegetables in a slow cooker. Stir in the soup base you have prepared. Cook on Low for several hours.  Stir in half-and-half to taste.  Serve hot, garnished with fresh thyme sprigs and a sprinkle of paprika if desired.  I didn't bother.

 This made a lot of chowder! We ate it for at least three meals and I finished it off for lunch yesterday.  It was really delicious.  I did have to add more broth when we reheated it, but that was fine.  

 But what about the parsnips, you ask?  I chose to use them because I thought perhaps roasting would make a difference as it does with many other vegetables.  It really didn't mellow their flavor much.  I suppose if I had used the fennel bulb it called for, that might have disguised the parsnip flavor.  We aren't huge fans of fennel (other than fennel seed in pizza, etc.) so I chose not to spend the money on that.

I will definitely make this chowder again, but my opinion of parsnips really hasn't changed.  I can take them or leave them, and next time I will leave them out.  Being in the current mode of not wasting any food if I can help it, I'll find a creative use for them.  And that may be another new thing!

Tweaking my traditional Christmas Eve Soup

 

 For decades, I have made the same soup for Christmas Eve; just a simple creamy potato soup with some carrots and celery included, and with crumbled bacon and shredded Cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top.  We used to always serve it with biscuit, rolls, corn muffins or some other type of bread.  In more recent years we have often served it with pizza.  You can find the recipe here: Christmas Eve Soup.

This year I am going to tweak it just a bit.  A month or so ago, I tried a recipe from a Gooseberry Patch cookbook, Sunday Dinner at Grandma's.  This happens to be a cookbook which I received for free in exchange for having a recipe published in it.   You can also find it here at  Gooseberry Patch.  (Interestingly, it was a soup recipe that I had published in this book -- Cream of Broccoli Soup!)

The recipe I tried recently, though, is Grandma Jo's Potato Soup.  Interestingly, the ingredients are almost exactly the same as our Christmas Eve Soup.  But this soup was much tastier!  What is the difference?  I've scanned the page from the cookbook to show you.

 My usual recipe calls for light cream; this one calls for evaporated milk.  The only other difference is that this calls for "onion and garlic seasoned salt".  I didn't have any of that, but I did have a container of garlic pepper seasoned salt, so I liberally added that to taste.    This added zesty seasoning, plus the creaminess from the evaporated milk, has to make the difference.

So this Christmas Eve, I'll be serving Grandma Jo's Potato Soup instead of my usual!

* The illustration at top is a scan of one of my very favorite Christmas cards, which features the Fred Swan painting Walking to Town.  To me it just says "Christmas Eve".  I actually have a cross-stitch kit of this design.  Maybe this year I will actually get to it! *

Homemade Italian sausage for recipes

Here's something I recently tried and really liked.  I've mentioned before that my hubby and I could pretty much eat soup all fall and winter long.  I have a huge collection of soup recipes and we could cheerfully eat soup for supper every night.  It's nice too that when we have our young friends over for Bible study and a meal, they also love soup and are always thrilled to see a pot of soup on the stove.

Some of our favorite soups call for bulk Italian sausage -- usually fairly easy to find, but in recent years I prefer chicken sausage or turkey sausage to pork or beef.  Poultry sausages can often be found in links -- delicious though expensive -- but it can be a challenge to find them in the bulk variety.

For awhile now I've been wanting to look for a seasoning recipe to make my own Italian bulk sausage using ground chicken or turkey.  If I had had any idea it was so easy, I would have done it years ago!

I adapted this recipe from one that I found at Tastes of Lizzy T.  Here's what I used to turn 1 pound of ground turkey into 1 pound of bulk Italian sausage:

ITALIAN SAUSAGE SEASONING MIX
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon instant minced onion
1/2 teaspoon instant minced garlic OR garlic powder to taste
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Place the salt, fennel seed and red pepper flakes in a custard cup.  Use a wooden spoon or similar implement to partially crush the fennel seed and the red pepper flakes into the salt.  They don't have to be completely crushed, just partially so, and you will get a nice aroma of fennel as you do.  Now add all of the remaining seasonings to the custard cup and stir to mix very well. 

Sprinkle all of the mixture over 1 pound of ground turkey or chicken in a bowl of appropriate size.  Mix the seasonings into the meat very well, using your hands.  Then crumble and brown the sausage as directed in your recipe.  (You will want to wash your hands very well following the mixing and crumbling steps.)

 Here are links to a couple of the soup recipes I mentioned.  Both are from Taste of Home,  and both have been recent hits with supper guests.

Pasta Sausage Soup is the soup pictured at the top of the post.

Hearty Butternut Squash Soup is pictured below.

 Of course, you could also multiply the seasoning ingredients to make a large batch of sausage seasoning to store in a jar for future use.  (If I figured right, you would then need 5 1/2 teaspoons of mix for every pound of sausage.)  A jar of this mix would also make a nice kitchen gift or a nifty addition to a gift basket for someone who enjoys cooking.

Hope this idea is helpful to someone in this busy season!

This 'n' that in the kitchen

I had a few kitchen experiments that turned out well in the past week or so, and just wanted to share them.  I love it when an idea to use up a leftover (or solve some other similar problem) works out well!

I'd mentioned that last Sunday was our corn roast at church.  We ended up bringing some of the leftover corn home, and I reheated it to serve alongside a couple of different meals -- wrap sandwiches and turkey burgers, if I remember right.  I had a couple ears left over after that,  and decided to cut the corn off the cob and put it in this Hearty Butternut Squash Soup. 

In that same soup, I also used up a few more leftovers: a quart of chicken broth, frozen from the last time I cooked chicken breasts in the crockpot; and instead of using fresh sliced peppers and chopped onions, I used dibs and dabs of frozen ones I had on hand.  I changed the recipe up a lot; used frozen pureed squash, left out the beans, and cut the quantities down a good bit.  The soup turned out fantastic and fed us for several meals. 

And then there was the leftover blueberry sauce.  I mentioned in my Friday five that our dear friends Sam and Jenn and their boys had joined us for supper last Sunday. Mr. T had made waffles, and I made this

BERRY SAUCE FOR PANCAKES OR WAFFLES

1/2 cup sugar
1 Tblsp. cornstarch
1/3 cup water
2 cups blueberries, raspberries, OR cut-up strawberries

Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in the water. Add the fruit and bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Serve warm. Makes about 2 cups.

I had made a batch of blueberry sauce and one of strawberry.  Nearly a pint of the blueberry one was left.   Not wanting it to mold,  I cast about for a way to use it.  We also had in the fridge a cup or two of fresh blueberries that a landowner on a logging job had given to my hubby.  I mixed them with the sauce, put it in the bottom of a pie pan, and made this

DOWN EAST BLUEBERRY COBBLER
3 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest (optional but yummy)
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tblsp. butter
-----------------
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tblsp. sugar
2 Tblsp. cold butter
1/3 cup cream or evaporated milk

Heat oven to 425º. In a bowl, toss the berries with the next four ingredients (sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla). Place the mixture into a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie plate. Cut the butter into pieces and scatter over the berries.

Sift the 1 cup flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together into a mixing bowl. Cut in the 2 Tblsp. butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the cream and stir with a fork until the dough comes together. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead 30 seconds or so. Roll the dough into a round slightly smaller than your pie plate and about 1/4 inch thick. Place the dough over the berries in the pie plate and cut several deep slashes in the top.

Bake the cobbler at 425º for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with powdered sugar sifted over the top.

Serves 4.

This experiment turned out to be absolutely delicious.  I had made this cobbler in the past but I would have had no idea it could turn out so well using the blueberry sauce.

(I left out the sugar in the blueberry part, and also omitted the lemon component because I had put lime juice in the sauce.  I also didn't put the vanilla in with the blueberries, but put it in the topping instead.  I did dot the filling with the butter, though.)

So last week I bought some strawberries at the supermarket.  I had no real idea how I was going to use them, but the price was great,  so I bought 2 boxes.  Of course you know that I didn't get to use them right away.  So I ended up tossing maybe a cup of them, and then decided I would try that cobbler recipe again using diced strawberries instead of blueberries.

This time I did use the sugar, and I think a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch would have been a good idea as well.  I also mixed in about a half cup of strawberry sauce that was left from the waffle buffet.  Again, I left out the lemon zest and juice, since I had put lemon juice in the sauce -- and again, I put the vanilla in the topping rather than the filling.

This also came out very good, though not as good as the blueberry one.  It tastes like warm strawberry shortcake in a pie plate, which is not a bad thing.

And then lastly for my kitchen escapades, a recipe I've blogged about before:   I made one of these S’mores Pizzas to take to a get-together on Saturday.  As you read the post (if you click over), you will see that the recipe actually makes two, but I decided to make just one because I didn't want any leftovers.  What was I thinking?

Photo from  Five Heart Home

These are so good and always a hit, but the reception of this dessert on this occasion had to set some kind of a record.  (To simplify serving at the picnic, I had cut the pizza at home, using a sharp knife dipped frequently in hot water to preserve the look of the marshmallows.  It worked really well.)

The serving table was pretty crowded with food, so I waited until everyone had been through the food line at least once before bringing out this pizza.  Well.  I am not in any way exaggerating when I say that within 3 minutes of placing this on the table, there was nothing left but crumbs.

Lesson learned.  Next time I'll bring two.

Those are my recent kitchen adventures.  What have you been cooking and/or baking lately?

Monday musings

 The lovely graphic above is by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings.

 I didn't find time to do a Friday five post this past week.  I really missed it.  So  today I'm doing "Monday musings" instead, just jumping into what my friend Arlene calls The Stream (as in stream of consciousness).  The only streams actually running up here in New Hampshire right now are on the roadsides, as yesterday's snow melts in today's warm sun.  And I actually dipped a toe -- really, my entire foot -- into more than one of those on my walk this morning.  My socks and sneakers were soaked.

So, in no particular order, here are a few things from today and the past week.  No idea if I'll end up with five, six, or three.  This is the stream, after all.

1.Slow Cooker Clam Chowder! 

Photo from The Spruce

This is a delicious recipe that I have simmering in the slow cooker right now.  I had a dental procedure today, something that I hadn't been planning on.  A situation was discovered during a routine cleaning last Thursday and was repaired today.  I thought I'd play it safe and make a nice slow cooker soup for tonight's supper.  This chowder recipe is one that my daughter and I made one time in Nevada and it is SO good.  It tastes just about like the chowder at our local seafood place.

2.  Courage -- yep, my word for 2019 -- for the above-mentioned dental procedure. 

from Little Birdie Blessings

I'm a real wimp when it comes to the dentist.  Very bad childhood experiences with dentists have left their indelible impression upon me.  It takes music, headphones, prayer, and plenty of courage for me to face a procedure.  So thankful for my wonderful dentist and for God-given courage!

3.  Essaic Tea.   Link and photo are both from Amazon.

Mr. T and I have been taking this for a couple of months.  Essiac tea is a mixture of four different roots, bark and leaves used as a health tonic. It is used as an anticancer treatment, but is also used to treat other serious health problems. We started taking it just for general wellness -- one takes a capful a day.  One thing it is supposed to help a lot with is inflammation throughout the body.  And today I had proof that it's doing just that, when my dentist commended me for taking such good care of my mouth and noted that there was no inflammation or bleeding.  This has not always been the case.  I do try to take good care of my teeth and gums but some days I fail miserably.  I truly feel that the difference must be the Essiac Tea.


4.  A few (a very few) minutes for creativity this past weekend.  I enjoy using free printables to add a seasonal touch to a picture frame in our front hallway.  I wanted one with a maple sugaring theme and ended up putting together one of my own using Canva.  Not 100% sure if I will stick with this one or make another, but for now, this one, using an image from a vintage Christmas card, is framed and on the wall and I'm enjoying it.

5.  The opportunity to celebrate a birthday with two teenage grandchildren this past week.  They share a birthday -- March 5 -- but are three years apart in age.  We celebrated one after school on the actual day, when granddaughter Sarah and her sister came over for ice cream with hot fudge and a present with card.  The other was celebrated on Saturday night with grandson Sam and his family over cheeseburgers, chips, pasta salad and a truly decadent chocolate cake put together by Sam and his mom. (The image below is not Sam's cake,)

6.  The comfort God has given as we lost a dear friend early Friday morning.  We are rejoicing for him, but it's hard for those left behind, and his widow particularly needs our prayers.  However, we will see our dear brother in the Lord again some day!

Another from Abby

7.  Another free photo book code from Shutterfly that enabled me to make a second one of these:

My blogging time is about up and it's time to shift to working on my Sunday School lesson, so I'll get going.  Hope you are all having a good Monday!

Creamy Sausage Stew, take 3

Photo from Taste of Home

Sunday we had guests for lunch  after church, and I made this sausage stew in the slow cooker to serve with corn muffins.  It's a perfect meal for fall!  I've had this recipe for a long time and have posted about it at least once previously.  I found it in a Country Woman magazine in 1995.  It was a great recipe to begin with, but I have tweaked it over the years.

As I noted in my other post, I usually use half the amount of sausage, cut in smaller pieces than specified, and I usually use light or turkey sausage.  I also use half-and-half instead of the heavy cream.  It even works with fat-free half-and-half!   The dish still tastes very rich but it is a lot lower in fat. 

You can find my other post about the sausage stew here and the original recipe from the Taste of Home site here: Creamy Sausage Stew.   The original recipe called for roasting the vegetables and sausage, and it is very good that way, but I have been tweaking it to try and make it work easily in the slow cooker.

Here is my most recent take on this recipe:

CREAMY SAUSAGE STEW
8 medium potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled, cut in 1-inch cubes
1 to 2 yellow onions, cut in 8 wedges each
1 large green pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 large red pepper, cut in 1-inch pieces
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, halved
14 ounces turkey kielbasa or smoked sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced about 1/2 thick
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Half-and-half to taste
Cornstarch and water to thicken if desired

In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients except for the half-and-half and optional cornstarch/water.

Cook on High for about 2 hours, then turn to Low and cook for 3 to 4 more hours.  (Or you could just cook it on High for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.)

When ready to serve, add half-and-half to your taste.  If it seems too liquid or not as creamy as you'd like, just mix equal parts of cornstarch and water and add to the stew, stirring well and allowing to cook for a few more minutes until it is as thick as you'd like.

This got great reviews from our guests on Sunday, with everyone having a second bowl of stew!  I hope that you and your family enjoy it also!

Best Squash Soup

Photo from the Cabot Cheese site

We love squash soup and I have tried a number of recipes for it.  You can see the ones we've enjoyed the most here: Curried Squash Soup and
Hearty Butternut Squash Soup.  Both of these are absolutely wonderful, and the Curried Squash Soup is exceptionally quick and easy.

Now, I think, we've found the very best squash soup!  Shortly after Thanksgiving I was chatting with a lady stocking the dairy case in our local Hannaford supermarket.  In discussing how our holidays had been, I mentioned we had eaten turkey subs and leftover squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner, and she asked if I had tried the recipe for squash soup in the November/December Hannaford Fresh magazine.  I hadn't, so I looked it up when I got home.  The soup in question was in an advertisement for Cabot Cheese at the back of the magazine.

You can find the recipe here: Cheddar Butternut Squash Soup.  The only thing I do differently is to use 4 boxes (12-ounce) of the frozen pureed squash rather than using the fresh squash as the recipe specifies.  It makes this soup much quicker and easier. 

I really didn't know how I would feel about the combined flavors of butternut squash and cheddar cheese, but I gave the recipe a try and found that we loved it.  It's really a small amount of cheddar (4 ounces) in relation to all of the squash, so the flavor is not overwhelming at all. 

My husband would love it if I served this soup once a week, and sometimes I do.  Every other week is probably more like it, though.  We have wraps with it, or sometimes pizza or focaccia bread.  It is absolutely delicious.  If your family enjoys squash soup, I highly recommend you give this one a try.

From the November archives, part 3

Okay, here is the last and relatively brief post of links from the November archives.

In the mood for some comfort food that's hearty and yet a bit unusual?  Try this delicious autumn supper  which would be good all winter long.  It's a flavorful chicken stew which I served with pumpkin biscuits.  Both recipes are included.

And then finally, this post: Preparing to prepare for Christmas describes some steps I took to get ready for Christmas preparations like crafting and baking in 2015.  Although your own details and preparations will likely be different, I think you'll find some inspiration in this post.

And so ends my browse through the November archives.  Tomorrow will be December, and I'm hoping to post daily in my Christmas blog -- and possibly do "December Daily" posts here as well.  We will see!

From the November archives, part 2

Taken in Nevada, October 2010

As promised, I'm back with a second post from the November archives.  Two recipes and a more thoughtful post concerning time. 

Fiesta Sweet Potato Soup is a big favorite at our house.  Black beans, spicy sausage, tomatoes with chilies -- it's a great combination of flavors.  It's a very warming soup just perfect for winter evenings.

Best Gluten Free Pizza Crust  may not be everyone's idea of the very best, but we like it a lot.  A good gluten free pizza crust isn't easy to find.  We often make a veggie pizza with pesto sauce and it's great with this crust.  It's an adaptation of a gluten free focaccia bread recipe.

Lastly,  this post is a good reminder for me in this busy season.  I hope it encourages you, too.  A moment to catch my breath is an account of how God gave me just that, in a very unlikely place.  For tomorrow's Hodgepodge, one of the questions Joyce has posed concerns "me time."  This post sort of fits with my answer to that.

One more post from the November archives on Thursday.  Then, can you believe it, we're headed into December!  Yikes.

From the November archives, part 1

 (The gorgeous photo at top is from my 2001 Autumn in the Air booklet, a freebie from Cracker Barrel.)

November has been a busy month and I hadn't found time until today to look around in the archives for posts to share with you all.  This is the first of three posts concerning links from the archives that you might enjoy.  The posts I chose seem to be mostly recipes, so enjoy!

Green and white dishes, a post from 2008, shows some of my favorite dishes to use for Thanksgiving table settings, but they would look nice during the Christmas season, too.  If you enjoy seeing old dishes, you will like this post.

This Soup and bread post, from 2010, is billed as fall comfort food, but it would be an enjoyable menu during December or any of the winter months.  The soup is an unusual creamy lentil soup and the bread is an herbed oatmeal pan bread.  Mouth-watering!

 Lastly, Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are an interesting and different variation on traditional snickerdoodles, and are very tasty.

More from the archives tomorrow, so stay tuned!

From the October archives, part 2

This delightful free image is from Little Birdie Blessings

Here we go with a few more links to posts in the October archives!  I had so much fun browsing the archives to decide what to share.  I hope you'll take a look through the archives for yourselves.  After 12 years, there is a lot here!

Ham and Bean Chowder is a recipe I've had for some time and finally tried it one fall.  It's deliciously hearty and very warming.  Next time you have a ham bone to use, give it a try.

Photo from Taste of Home

From 2013, this grocery shopping perk is a great reminder of the little blessings that come our way when we're simply going about our everyday tasks.

Two nice fall recipes, from 2014, shares a main dish and a side dish filled with wonderful fall flavors.  You'll want to try one or both of these!

Speaking of which, if you enjoy the fall flavors of pumpkin and apples, you really must bake a Pumpkin Dutch Apple Pie!  It's a favorite Thanksgiving pie for us and perfect for any fall event.

And lastly, Autumn in the Air is a nostalgic read about a 2001 visit to Cracker Barrel and how God used it to encourage us on a stormy night.

Hope you've enjoyed this browse through the Kitchen Table archives as much as I have!

A dilly of a recipe

Photo from Taste of Home

Last week in my post about February Favorites from the Archives,  I shared a link to our recipe for Cheeseburger Soup.  This is such a warming winter soup, though it's good anytime of year.

Photo from Taste of Home

It's become a real favorite in our family. Some years when our daughter and family have flown in from far away, we have served this as a "welcome home" supper.

Ever since I first began making the Cheeseburger Soup, I have made these Dilly Rolls to serve alongside.  I think when we began serving these together, we thought that since dill pickles go so well with cheeseburgers, Dilly Rolls would go well with Cheeseburger Soup.  And they do!  Actually, probably almost any rolls, or biscuits, or corn muffins, would go well alongside, but we do love our dilly rolls.  The dill flavor is not too strong, really just about right.  But if you don't enjoy the flavor of dill, you'd probably do better to use a different roll or biscuit for accompaniment.

My dictionary says:

dilly 1 |ˈdilē|
noun (pl. dillies) [ usu. in sing. ] informal
an excellent example of a particular type of person or thing: that's a dilly of a breakfast recipe.
 
ORIGIN late 19th cent. (as an adjective in the sense ‘delightful’): alteration of the first syllable of delightful or delicious.

And that is why I say this is a dilly of a recipe.  The soup is, too.  Hope you enjoy these rolls (and the soup!) if you try them.

February Favorites from the archives

Photo from Baptist Bible Hour

Since my mind is a blank right now (too much gazing at the white and snowy landscape, no doubt), I am going to link to a few posts from the archives that might be of interest to someone today.  Quick and simple, but hopefully one or more of them will be just what some reader is looking for!

First, from 2006 (my first February as a blogger!), Entries from my Journal.   This was just thoughts and ideas from my journal, just as it said.  I was surprised by how it encouraged people!

A Winter Afternoon’s Excursion tells about a sleigh ride in 2007 when my daughter and son-in-law and little one visited here following several months of ministry in Antigua.  If you've been wanting to go on a sleigh ride, you can read about this one.  I was certain I had more photos, but can't find them even after a rigorous search of my older computer.

If you want a soup that will really warm you up in this frigid weather we've been having, take a look at this Cheeseburger Soup which I posted in February 2008.  This is a huge favorite in our family.

Photo from Taste of Home

In February 2009 I posted about The Completed Puzzle. This is a gorgeous White Mountain Puzzle given me by my dear friend J.  The image is the Fred Swan painting Walking to Town, one of my very favorite scenes.

If you are looking for a simple but very gratifying sewing project for winter, take a look at my Pillowcase Grocery Totes which I shared in 2010.

Speaking of gratification, if you need something warm and chocolate and you need it right away, this recipe for Chocolate Pudding for One, which I posted about in 2011, will change your life.

Photo from Taste of Home

Have a stash of vintage hankies you don't know what to do with?  Here's some inspiration from 2012: Teatime Table Runners.  I had loads of fun making these.
 
Lastly, a random post from 2013 -- Random Thoughts, Links, and Recipes.  I love reading other bloggers' random posts, and it seems that many others do as well.  So if you like random, this one's for you.

So there you have it ... a few February favorites which may make for interesting (if not riveting😊) reading on a snowy day.

A simple fall supper

Every week I make a menu plan when I prepare my grocery shopping list.  Like many people who menu plan, I don't stick rigidly to my plan.  If I don't feel like preparing a particular meal on the menu on a given night, I'll switch to one I have planned for later in the week.  Monday night was just such a night.  It had been a beautiful day but cool and windy.  I just didn't feel like making the meal on my plan for the night.  So I looked further down my list and found this one:

Clam Chowder
Iron Skillet Biscuits

Perfect!  Just the ticket for a cool windy evening.  And my husband loves those biscuits.  The chowder recipe (not written down; it's in my head) is simple and basic, but I thought I might share it anyway in case anyone is interested.

SIMPLE CLAM CHOWDER
2 Tblsp. butter
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 8-ounce bottle clam juice
4 potatoes, peeled and diced (I used Yukon Gold)
2 cans chopped or minced clams, not drained
1 large can evaporated milk
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste*

In a large soup pot, melt the butter. Add celery and onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are almost tender.  Add the clam juice; refill the bottle with water a couple of times and add the water to the pot as well.  Add the potatoes; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer about 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.  Stir in the clams and evaporated milk; heat through.  Add seasonings to taste.

* Now I have no idea at all why it took me so long to think of this seasoning trick, but I will share it here with anyone else who may not have thought of it.  I was adding salt and pepper and wondering what else to add to zing up the flavor a bit.  I glanced up at my spice rack and noticed the can of Old Bay seasoning.  (I had recently bought this item for the first time, on the recommendation of a friend who told me it was wonderful in tuna salad.)  What could be better with clams than Old Bay seasoning?  I measured out a half teaspoon and added it to the chowder.

Wow!  This is how I will make my clam chowder from here on out.  Added just the right touch of flavor.

For the biscuits, I used the recipe for Iron Skillet Biscuits from Marilyn at Mountain Top Spice. What a perfect meal for a blustery evening!

Lakeside retreat, part 2

On to part 2 of our lakeside getaway!  The above picture is not fancy (it was taken through the screen) but was so interesting, I thought.  A lone fisherman heads out into the misty, early morning on Umbagog Lake.  We took this early on Saturday morning.

I don't think we took any pictures on Friday.  During the night on Thursday, it started to rain and didn't really stop until Friday afternoon.  However, this was fine with us!  We really need rain here.  We had arranged to meet a friend for breakfast on Friday, but she called and changed the plan, saying she would prepare breakfast at her cabin.  Again, fine with us!  We enjoyed fruit, cinnamon rolls and delicious veggie and cheese omelets.  Then we spent the rest of the morning visiting on her enclosed porch and watching rain fall on her pond.  A wonderful time of fellowship!

On the way back to our cottage we stopped at a Family Dollar to pick up a few necessities.  After lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches back at the cottage, we relaxed thoroughly for the rest of the afternoon.  Mr. T actually took a nap!  Not just dozing in a chair as he frequently does, but actually lying down and sleeping soundly for a couple of hours.  I know he needed the rest.

While he napped, I worked on a variety of projects, mostly my scrapbook journal, which I had thought to bring along.

This is from a previous journal, but you get the idea.

I also did a bit of work on my Sunday School lesson and dipped into a couple of books I'd brought along, and worked on some felt food (future gifts for grandkids).  I also enjoyed a nice cup of tea, thanks to this handy tea wallet that my daughter made me several years ago.

 I use it when we travel to bring along a small selection of tea bags.

When Mr. T woke up, I prepared Zesty Chicken Cheese Soup, a favorite meal of ours for a getaway because all you do is open cans, heat the combination in a saucepan, and add cubed cheese.  So easy and it usually lasts us for two meals!  You can find the recipe here: simple meals for a getaway.  We enjoyed this simply with tortilla chips on the side and/or crumbled into the soup.

After supper we watched the Red Sox win and made an early night of it.

Since I have so little to tell about Friday, I'll add in Saturday morning here too.  We decided to go out for breakfast in Errol, one of the closest New Hampshire towns of any size.  After a nice breakfast of corned beef hash omelets, home fries, and raisin toast, we headed to L.L. Cote, an interesting store that caters to hunters, fishermen, snowmobilers -- really to outdoor interests of all kinds!  Think Cabela's on a somewhat smaller scale.  They also have a very nice selection of gifts.  One thing I wanted to find here was a birthday card for our 10-year-old grandson in Nevada.  Sure enough, we found the perfect card and were able to mail it right next door!

Some of the animals in L.L. Cote, the "Home of the White Moose"

Notice the turkey in the background, and the canoe on the wall

Another animal display

And there you have Friday, plus Saturday morning.

This pretty, misty lake photo was also taken on Saturday morning.

 I'll share Saturday's afternoon and evening activities in tomorrow's post.