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Winter is wearing away here in the South. There won’t be a lot more opportunities to light the fireplace this season. Spring is almost here! However, there are always one or two rather chilly days or nights before Spring comes in full force – like we had last week. When cold weather rolls in, I’m always inspired to cook something warm and filling – something substantial – but I always try to make it something nutritious, too, and not just starchy and filling.
No time to read? Go here to get the soup recipe right away!
One of my favorites for cold weather is vegetable soup, which I make pretty much from scratch. I like to round up as many fresh veggies as possible, and I make mine with beef shank that I boil to get a good stock, then pick the meat off the bones to include in the broth for the soup. Here’s the pot I made last week:
My recipe (which is my own, sort of a combination of what I remember my grandmother making, and the one I saw my mother-in-law cook a few times) is easy to do, as long as you don’t mind doing a bit of chopping. OF course, if you have one, a food chopper or a food processor is a big work saver. I love my Kitchenaid Food Processor and I still use it often – anytime I’m chopping more than one or two small items. Here’s good news, though, if you’re pressed for time – some of the veggies, like onions, or peas, or even carrots, can be bought bagged and ready to use (or nearly so), which will save a lot of prep work. I do use some bagged items, especially pre-chopped onions, if I’m in a hurry to get the soup cooking on the stove so we can have it for dinner! I recommend frozen vegetables over canned, because the technology for preparing frozen vegetable is excellent – the vegetables are flash frozen and almost as good nutritionally as fresh. So don’t hesitate to use the fresh-frozen items (or even canned, if you have to), to assemble your personal pot of delicious soup!
I put the link above so you can get the recipe right away, because, of course, there’s more…
What goes with a nice, hot bowl of soup? What could be better than a nice, thick slice of (almost) homemade bread? I don’t eat bread often- usually I try to eat paleo or modified keto, but this one is super yummy, so I had to make an exception. I sampled it at our local Trader Joe’s, and it was so delicious I had to take home a box of their Beer Bread Mix.
This quick bread baked up in just an hour, plus mixing time (10-15 minutes max). This bread has a recognizable beer-y taste, not strong, but if you’re not fond of beer, I’d recommend using either normal apple cider or you could use a hard cider (as the alcohol will cook off) instead of beer. That would probably result in a slightly sweeter bread, which might blend nicely with soups anyway.
Here’s how it came out, and here’s the first slice (with butter).
Loaf of Trader Joe’s Beer Bread 
Slice of Trader Joe’s Beer Bread with Butter
The texture of this bread is almost cake-y, or maybe like a coffee cake texture? The bread has a slight sweetness (very slight) and it smells fantastic. I’m not sure if this Beer Bread is a seasonal or temporary item, so if you shop at Trader Joe’s, you might want to pick up a box soon.
Sharing food, family, and good spirits is one real path to a full life – it is for us! Please share your customs or ideas about sharing food and home cooking in the comments!
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