Winter Vegetable Soup with Garlic Twist Bread Revisited

Jan here, talking about losing things.

NOT losing my marbles...although it feels a little bit like I am some days! But losing things that I thought I had. That I knew where they MUST be.

I'm not alone in this, am I?

We've been in our new house for just over a year, and last week I finally unpacked the last couple boxes. I knew what was in those boxes - one of them had my mom's old cookbooks and a few other things like that. And it was one of those "few other things" that I was looking for.

A bread cookbook that I got several years ago when I bought my Bosch mixer...but it wasn't there! That was, literally, the last place I looked. How can something just disappear?

*sigh*

Then I remembered that I had shared this recipe from that cookbook here at the Cafe many years ago - almost eight! - so I thought I'd share it again so we could all enjoy it!

This post also includes my own Winter Vegetable Soup, adapted from Nourishing Traditions, one of my go-to cookbooks. Here's the link, in case you're interested: Nourishing Traditions

A few days ago, I couldn't imagine making this soup. We were at the end of more than a week of 95°+ temperatures...but then the weather changed. SUDDENLY it's feeling awfully fallish!

Maybe not quite that fallish - it will take a few more weeks for the aspens to don their golden cloaks. But the deer and bison are gathering into their winter herds, the birds are returning from the far north on their way south, and I'm putting on a jacket when I take Sam for his morning walks.

Here’s my updated version of this delicious soup:

Winter Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

¼ cup butter

2 medium sized turnips, chopped

3 parsnips, chopped

3 carrots, chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 ½ quarts stock – chicken or vegetable

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon pepper

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon dried thyme, or one sprig fresh thyme

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ cup heavy cream

2 cups kale

1 Tablespoon each, butter and olive oil

In a large soup pot (I use an 8-quart pot), melt the butter. Add your turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, carrots and onions.

Cook on medium-low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After the 30 minutes, add your stock, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper and cayenne. Bring it all to a boil, and then reduce it to a simmer and cook for an additional 30 minutes or so until the vegetables are soft.

When your veggies are nice and soft, it’s time for the blender. (If you used fresh thyme, remove the sprig now.)

If you have one of those handy immersion blenders, this is the time to put it through its paces. Just stick it in the pot and blend until the soup is smooth.

If you don’t have one of those, put the soup – about a quart at a time – in a big blender and blend away. As each part gets done, put the blended soup in a large bowl and do the next batch until the whole pot of soup is nice and smooth. Then return it to the soup pot and put it back on the stove on medium heat.

While the soup is coming back up to temperature, tear the kale into 1-inch pieces.

Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet until melted. Add the kale and stir to coat. Add salt to taste. Cook at medium heat, stirring, about 3 minutes. Cover the skillet, reduce the heat to low, and let the kale steam for about 5-7 minutes, or until soft.

While the kale is cooking, add the cream to your soup and let it heat slowly. You don’t want to heat it too quickly or let the soup boil or the cream will break.

Serve the soup in bowls with a nice dollop of kale for a garnish.

Now, soup for dinner begs to have bread on the side, and the fresher the better.

For this yummy Garlic Twist Bread you need:

one loaf of bread dough

2 Tablespoons butter, softened

2 teaspoons minced garlic (about 3 cloves)

¼ cup shredded parmesan cheese

¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 teaspoon dried Basil

Since I make my bread six loaves at a time*, it’s easy to use one lump of dough for this recipe…

*2020 note - I no longer make six loaves at a time. Remember, we're empty nesters now!

OR, you can buy a loaf of frozen bread dough from the grocery store…

The main thing is to have bread dough ready to go.

On a baking pan (greased or lined with baking parchment), spread your dough out into a rectangle, about 9 inches by 12 inches.

On this rectangle, spread 2 Tablespoons softened butter. 

In a bowl, mix together 2 teaspoons minced garlic, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, ¼ cup shredded mozzarella cheese and 1 teaspoon dried basil.

Spread this mixture evenly over your dough.

Now, roll up your rectangle from the side, jelly-roll style.

Next, cut the roll up the middle.

If you don’t have a pair of kitchen shears, buy one. They’re way too handy not to own a pair.

Oh! When you’re cutting, stop just before you get to the end!

Now, carefully twist the two halves of the roll around each other. This isn’t as easy as it looks, but it works.

Warning: you’re going to make a mess. Just put any spilled filling back on top of your bread.

Brush the top of the loaf with an egg beaten with a tablespoon of water, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. (This step isn’t crucial to the recipe, but it sure makes the loaf look professional!)

Let it rise for about 20-30 minutes, and then bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until nicely browned on top.

Now, doesn’t that look like a great cold-weather meal?

Back to my lost cookbook - I've given up trying to find it. Maybe I loaned it to somebody, or maybe it slipped into the trash when I wasn't looking one time...

But I know where to get a new one! My friend Martha Greene wrote the cookbook, and sells it on her website: Built From Scratch Life The original cookbook that I lost has been revised and updated, but my favorite bread recipe (Best Bread) is still included! Here's that link: Make It Special

Have you ever "misplaced" a favorite cookbook? 

Jan Drexler has always been a "book girl" who still loves to spend time within the pages of her favorite books. She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her dear husband of many years and their active, crazy dogs, Jack and Sam. You can learn more about Jan and her books on her website, www.JanDrexler.com.

Veggie Masala

 Missy Tippens

I tried a new recipe this week that came from Dinnerly. I thought I'd share the main ingredients so you can try it sometime. It would be great if your family does meatless Mondays. And of course, if you're vegetarian, you'd love this!

Prep: I cut up a head of cauliflower into small florets. And I chopped a couple of large cloves of garlic.

In a large pot, cook the cauliflower in some butter and oil until it starts to brown a bit. Then remove the cauliflower and set it aside.

In the same pot, add more butter and sauté the garlic with a couple of teaspoons of curry powder (I ended up wishing I had used more--maybe a tablespoon). Then add 16 oz of tomato sauce. The cans that came in my kits were Spanish style--which I think added a lot of good flavor. And add a little water if needed. Season with a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer a bit and add the cauliflower back in. Near the end, add in some fresh green peas and cook until tender. I also added in some leftover frozen corn at the same time.

I'm sorry I didn't take photos!

Serve over rice and top with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt that's been mixed with some of the freshly chopped garlic.

I did take one photo of my plate after I started eating and realized how tasty it was. :)

If you make this, let me know what you think!

www.missytippens.com

Love Grows Here

 I couldn't write this post last week, so I fudged in an old post, but there is something about a life well-lived, about the grace of a dear friendship, the beauty of trust that we should always talk about it... even when death interferes.

My dear friend Lisa went home to God last week after a recurring and really amazing battle with cancer, a battle that took us on a 9 year roller coaster ride, most of which was good! 

God bless the science that gave her seven+ years of remission. Seven years of feeling good, living life, nay--

Living life like you were dying, because that's what Lisa and really nice, cute husband Jeff did with their four kids. They lived like she was dying, not in spirit, not lamenting, not fretting, but  actual "let's do it" living as normally as they could.

They continued working.

They took vacations.

They had fun.

They won back-to-back neighborhood rib fests with Jeff's entries, although I have teased him about the sympathy vote! :) They raised their four beautiful kids all the while, taking them places, planning vacations with Jeff's family, with cousins, with Lisa's family... and they did things together. Lisa's first treatment got her eight years with her kids.... they had those years to know her, love her, be raised by her, have their values instilled by her and Jeff and faith and love... Those years were clutch. So very important.

So when the cancer was re-diagnosed in November of 2018, we all understood the outcome. We hated it, but we understood it, and still she fought. Science did what it could... and bought her time. Some of it was good time. Some was not. But let me just say this, because this is crucial:

To walk this walk with a dear friend, to be by her side, to help her, love her, laugh with her and cry with her, to research for her, to have coffee with her (until it didn't taste good to her anymore, and that was a clear indicator, right???? NO COFFEE?????) wasn't a task. It was an honor. An absolute honor and I will never forget it, nor will I ever be the same person I was before this all began. We spent the first year of treatments watching the four kids. The youngest was 14 months old. The oldest was ten... there was so much at stake! And the treatment was rugged, invasive and painful... a double mastectomy, two rounds of radiation, two rounds of chemo. She shaved her head so that cancer wouldn't have the victory of making her lose her hair. She fought and waged war and got seven years of health before the ball dropped on her pinball machine of life again.

That was a tough face-off.

But our faith, a combined faith, family, friends and Lisa and Jeff and the kids, got us through. Faith that we'd be together again, faith that we were meant to be together from the beginning, faith that our lives and loves and time were intertwined for a reason from the beginning... and it all started with a snake and a baby.

Jeff and Lisa (looking quite upscale!) came to interview with me for babysitting for their beautiful baby, their firstborn, Taylor. She was three months old, I was holding her, we were having a nice conversation in my very old kitchen when my daughter raced up the basement stairs yelling SNAKE!!!!!

(You know what I thought at that moment, every one of you knows it: Interview Fail!!!!)

Her younger brothers raced to her aid.

With golf clubs.

They dispatched the snake in the basement with great vigor. Loud vigor. Possibly overdone vigor.

And then paraded it (over the golf club) upstairs and outside.

I was pretty sure we were done. Why wouldn't we be? Who wants their baby in Snake House????

But Jeff and Lisa looked beyond the snake and decided that if two brothers can race to their sister's defense like that, I must have done something right and our relationship began... A relationship that bound our families together through days, months, seasons and years, good times and bad, sickness and health, bound by faith, joy, laughter, and cookies.

Always cookies.

We had a beautiful send-off for Lisa last week, but that wasn't really for her because we know that when Lisa's soul went off to heaven she was greeted by legions of angels. Crowds of saints. A stream of martyrs came to greet her and welcome her to the new and eternal Jerusalem.

Part of her beautiful service at St. Leo's Church in Hilton was the hymn "Love Grows Here", a hymn we both love, and both sang in our respective choirs... a hymn brought from St. Leo's to my old parish by a fellow friend and choir member... a link I didn't know until last week.

God's plan.

Is it always easy? No.

Is it often questioned?

Oh, yeah.

But we are born into frail vessels, the human form, and our time is limited here on Earth but what our dear Lisa showed us was to live that life each and every day. To grab hold and move forward with courage and grace.

In the end, cancer was stronger than the science surrounding it.

I want that to change. I pray for that to change. We need that to change, to wipe the feet out from under this insidious disease in all its forms so that's my prayer. Let's figure this out and wage our own war against it.

But this isn't about cancer.

This is absolutely about love, our love for this family, their love for us, their love of God, faith and family. 

Love conquers all and it doesn't end at death's door. Jesus showed us that. That door is just another beginning.

Lisa's life made ours better. Her passing into God's arms can do the same, but that's up to us and I promise you: We are up to the challenge.

God is good, all the time.

And all the time... God is good.

Rest in peace my beautiful friend. And don't forget to save a rocking chair for me, just south of the North Star, a great vantage point, where we can watch over those we love and rock heaven's babies until their own sweet mamas are there to take over. I'll be there, by and by...

But in the meantime, pretty girl-- no worries. We've got this.

I love you.

Ruthy

Honey Mustard Salmon with Dill

 Jan's post on Monday included Pam's recipe for tuna with apples and cheese (among other things). The unusual combination of flavors made me a bit more daring the other night.

I had zero feelings of inspiration about what to cook for dinner. You know that blah feeling when just nothing is shouting out to you? In pre-pandemic times, I would probably have picked up a pizza, but oh,well.

I had salmon - the little packets, but what to do with it?

I wanted pasta, but I didn't really have anything in the panty for sauce (yes, time to go shopping again).

So I innovated. I like dill with salmon and I like honey mustard with salmon, but I was a bit wary of the combination.

Turns out there was no need to be. The flavors blended quite well.

It tasted even better cold the next day.

Air Fryer Steak Fries

So Saturday night's meal was supposed to be easy. I had some wings to throw on the grill, a can of Bush's baked beans and I was going to round things out with some sweet potato fries. But when to went to get the fries from the freezer, I discovered I was out. Bummer. I was really looking forward to those sweet potato fries. Well, then I had to figure out what to have in their stead. I spotted some russet potatoes in the pantry. I wasn't in the mood for mashed or baked, I wanted fries. But not plain old fries.

Suddenly my brain went back to our recent trip to Oklahoma and some fries my daughter had ordered when we went out one night. They were wedged potatoes, nice and thick, with an amazing seasoning. Hmm... I could do that. And cooked in the air fryer, they'd come out nice and crisp on the outside.

Game on!

I cut five small potatoes into wedges.

Then I added some olive oil, some salt, pepper and garlic powder, and then, for a little more texture on the outside, I grated up some Parmesan, threw that in and tossed everything together.

I put them in the air fryer basket and set them to cook at 400 degrees for roughly 20 minutes, shaking them every 5 minutes. That time will vary depending on how thick the potatoes are.

Tah-dah!

Mission accomplished. They were crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and packed with flavor. They were the perfect accompaniment to the wings. Though, honestly, I probably could have made a meal on the fries alone.

Could these be done in the oven? Yes. Simply line a baking sheet with foil for easy cleanup and prepare them the same. Be sure to give them a toss/stir midway through the cooking process. 

Next time, I think I'll try to replicate the bacon-cheddar fries our son introduced us to at a restaurant in Dallas. I can hardly wait.

What's something you've made when you were in a pinch that turned out better than you expected?

Award-winning author Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com

Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating

 by Jan Drexler

Like many of you, we here at the Cafe are busy people! I think you can see that from our posts - caring for grandchildren, cooking for our families, working day jobs, working at two or more businesses from our homes...and writing. 

Somewhere in there, we need to take care of ourselves, too. Right?

One of the things I've done, especially in the summer, is to collect some easy, quick, healthy recipes for meals and snacks that take almost no time to prepare. That leaves more time for writing!

Breakfast

One of my favorite quick and simple breakfasts can also be an anytime-snack or a dessert!

So easy:

1 cup (or so) plain Greek yogurt

1/3 cup (or so) frozen berries (I like raspberries)

Sweetener to taste. I use 1 1/2 teaspoons THM Super Sweet (nearly the same as two packets of Truvia)

Mix it all together, then let it sit for a few minutes to let the berries thaw a bit, then mix it again.

This is so cool, creamy and delicious! It's especially good when you eat it outside on the deck when the morning air is still fresh.

Icey Drink

This can be made with tea or coffee - whichever is your caffeine of choice. :-)

Brew the tea in a quart sized canning jar (or other quart sized container) and let it cool until it's warmish. Then add the fixings you usually put in your tea (or coffee.) I use THM super sweet (like Truvia,) collagen (to add protein,) sunflower lecithin (brain food,) and cream. Blend all the ingredients together with a hand-held stick blender or regular blender. 

Add ice until the jar is full, and you have a sipping drink that will last all day.

Lunch

I love this salad! It originated with fellow Seekerville blogger and author, Pam Hillman. She shared it on Facebook, then I added an ingredient or two to make it my own.

Quick and easy:

Mix together one can of tuna and one wedge Light Laughing Cow Cheese (or a Tablespoon of mayonnaise.) Then add a small squirt of mustard, a splash of Bragg's liquid aminos (or soy sauce,) salt and pepper to taste, a few shakes of paprika and a couple shakes of tumeric. Mix it all up well.

Then dice an apple and mix into the tuna mixture.

This makes a great light lunch to take on a picnic, which I did on Saturday! 

It was our church's annual picnic at the lake day, and we had a lot of fun.

One of my Sunday School students caught a fish!

Isn't that a great smile?

Another thing that happened last week is that we celebrated our first anniversary in our new home! I can't believe it's been a whole year - especially since we're still exploring our surroundings.

We found a new (to us) trail in the National Forest, only five miles away. It's close enough to take the puppies for a run in the morning, after breakfast and before my work day starts.

The dogs loved it!

And the trail was just long enough for a gentle morning hike - about a mile to the end and back.

That's how it's been this week here in the Black Hills! How has it been at your house?

Jan Drexler has always been a "book girl" who still loves to spend time within the pages of her favorite books. She lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her dear husband of many years and their active, crazy dogs, Jack and Sam. You can learn more about Jan and her books on her website, www.JanDrexler.com.

Pork Bolognese Revisited

 Missy Tippens

Because of illness in our family, I'm having a hard time focusing this week. So like Ruthy, I'm reposting an older blog recipe from 2011, one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it...

*******

Missy, here. And I have a fantastic recipe to share. Homey and rich and perfect for a cold day. (Of course, we won't talk about the fact it's going to be 70 degrees today!)

The way this meal started is that I got a deal at the grocery store. :) Ground pork for $1.69 a pound. I grabbed up several packages and then realized I'd never used ground pork before. I had to find a recipe!

The original recipe that I settled on is from the Martha Stewart website. (Click here to see the original.) You'll see as I go that I changed a few things, mainly because I didn't have exactly what I needed. So let's cook!

Pork Bolognese

Ingredients (from MarthaStewart.com)

• 3 slices bacon, finely chopped 
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 2 pounds ground pork
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• Cooked penne pasta

In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, cook bacon over medium heat. [I used pre-cooked bacon that I had on hand, so I just heated through and added a bit of olive oil]

Add onion, carrot, and celery [my family would go on strike if I used celery, so I left out] and cook until soft. Raise heat to medium-high and add pork. Cook until browned.

Stir in the tomato paste (it gets easier to mix as it warms).

Add wine (I didn't have white so used red, which turned out delicious). Cook until it's reduced. 

Add 1 cup milk (I didn't have whole milk so mixed skim with half & half) and let it simmer until reduced by half. Add tomato sauce, broth, bay leaf, thyme (I used dried), 2 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Then stir in 1/4 cup milk.

[I didn't have an hour. So I cut back to 1-1/2 cups chicken broth and cooked a half hour. It was a little thin but was very tasty anyway.]

Serve sauce over pasta (I used linguine), topped with Parmesan cheese.

For fun, I have a set of pasta dishes that I bought at the grocery store years ago.

I hope you enjoy!!

Do y'all eat as much pasta as we do around here?

Missy

Blackberry Crisp Rehash... and a Flying Squirrel. Life Goes On.

 

This is a post from two or three years ago... I'm re-posting it now because it's blackberry season here in the north, and ours were/are amazing this year! But I'm in the throes of other things right now, family things, beloved things, and couldn't put together a proper post... so you're getting a second week of re-postings.

And next week I will explain why... and I'll cry... and that's okay.

But we'll all have blackberry pies and crisps and life marches on.... But without one dear, and wonderful person.

And yet, with God, joy springs eternal!

So here you go.... and God be with you, every one!

Well, my phone is not happy these days and my son borrowed my camera, so I'm not sure if you'll get pictures, but this was too marvelous not to share!

We have a wild blackberry patch on the rock pile.

The rock pile isn't a metaphor.

It is a rock pile.`

It seems that a gazillion and three years ago, the earth heaved up a glacier or two (Imagine that!! Melting glaciers!!!) and they kind of steamrolled their way across New York State leaving us amazingly delightful Finger Lakes and smaller lakes, and the detritus of their long journey in rocks... So while most of our farm is thick (like 10 to 12 inches of topsoil) sandy loam (and may have been the bed of Lake Ontario a long time ago but not quite as long as the dinosaurs and/or those glaciers) we have an upper patch that is rock-studded.... and the rocks find their way up to the surface and get put on the rock pile.

The good news is that the rock pile cannot be seen from space, so it's relatively small compared to Staten Island's garbage dump....

But it's rocky and it sits there, growing weeds... but now it's growing blackberries, so this year we've already canned five pints of Blackberry jam and made one amazingly delicious fruit crisp/crumble.

I picked the berries.

Me.

I took the truck out back, climbed out and waded into the brushes and briars and brambles and picked about six quarts of berries.

Okay, maybe five....

And by the time I picked through them (staining my hands purple!!!) three days later, it was more like four usable quarts, but then I took those delicious berries.... laid them out in a lightly greased 15" x 11" Pyrex pan....

Sprinkled them with sugar....

And then this topping based on my favorite apple crisp recipe from Betty Crocker.

2 cups oats (rolled or quick, either is fine)
2 cups flour
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks or 16 oz.)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until mixture looks like meal... Spread crumbly mix over top of berries from side to side and sea to shining sea!

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Berries should be bubbling, topping should be golden brown, light golden brown. Not dark golden brown.... Don't ruin this, darlings, check your oven... 

Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream... or just eat it on its own, it's amazingly delicious!

And we celebrated Cousin Palooza not long ago.... (Not this year, remember... we canceled it for this year with the pandemic. But there will be other years, God willing! )

A day to celebrate our grandchildren, (and a few others, too!) where we all gather, eat great food, let the kids play games, ride in Grandpa's truck and bounce in the bounce house we rent for the day... and we just have fun. But Grandpa decided that day would be a good day to take down three big branches from an old tree... Yes. On Cousinpalooza day. Do not ask. We have never been able to figure this out. It's not like the branches haven't been up there, needing trimming for A Very Long Time. You gals know what I mean! So this is Beth, clearing debris!

Fourteen grandkids... (we stole one and we are not ashamed to admit it!!!) and a passel full of parents and beloved people....

It all makes for a special, inexpensive, let's celebrate family kind of day!

And it helps to keep down the crazy throughout the school year, when fitting in individual parties for all the kids would be tough in already tight schedules... So we went with a Carnival theme this year and it was so much fun to have a whole day of kids!!!

We've found that changing schedules was clutch as our family grew. How did you have to readjust things as your family grew?

 Even the big kids took time to have some fun! Zach and Luke shootin' hoops.

 Anna filling in driveway holes with fresh stone... this was not exactly a planned activity!!! :) But she kept at it!

And Circus/Carnival themed cupcakes by Lacey!  

We're bringing pumpkins up so I'll post some of the pics next week... the hills are alive and so is the yard of Blodgett Family Farm!!!!

Until next week and more blackberries!!!!

Multi-published author Ruth Logan Herne loves baking, painting (not like art... like rooms... that kind of thing) and sharing sweet stories with all kinds of people. The author of nearly 50 novels and novellas, Ruthy lives a very busy rodent-filled life in the Eastern woodlands of Western New York ... Original rodent visitor a few weeks ago: Baby gray squirrel. In my cupboard. Must be put in a book, right?

Newest  rodent visitor:  Flying squirrel. Raise your hand if you didn't know that flying squirrels lived in Western New York!!!! Well, neither did Lacey and I until one scampered across the kitchen! OOPS! The video of us chasing along after this very active and agile rodent is hysterical and purely embarrassing!
Let's just say that we got him trapped with a bucket... and a couch cushion.

Yep.

That's how we roll. :)

Do not ask how.

I'm not sure how he got in.

I do not even want to think that there's a hole that big.

So I'm opting that the cat brought him in.

We named him Harvey.

And we released him into the great unknown past the donkey shed.

#mylife
#mylifewithrodents