Everything But the "kitchen sink" Soup

Last week, when I mentioned I just didn't feel up to photographing my food...well, actually, in reality...just didn't feel like photographing my step-by-step directions, while making this amazing hearty, and so good for you, all fresh vegetable, and organic beef meatball soup! See, there it is... on the bottom, a little meatball, and on the right, next to the parsley, but it's sort of camouflaged by all the yummy grated Parmesan cheese! Even the Great Northern beans were from a bag of dry beans, and not canned!

The only thing that was canned, was the 28 ounce can of organic diced tomatoes, from Whole Foods. As a matter of fact, every piece of fresh vegetable was from whole Foods. 

I started out sauteing my chopped onions, chopped garlic, sliced celery, sliced carrots, in Canola oil, about 3 Tbsp. added some chopped fresh parsley, salt, and pepper, a couple bay leaves, ... added the canned diced tomatoes, and a 32 ounce container of organic beef broth, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and bring it to a boil. Depending on how much vegetables you are using, if you use a lot, then you have to add more broth!

Now, where were we?...let's continue!

After the soup comes to a boil, turned the heat down to medium, and added, 1 large diced golden sweet potato, 2 peeled and diced golden beets, 1/2 lb. fresh, cut green beans. I made about 1 dozen small meatballs the day before, which was precooked, added that, and I cooked up a pot of dry Great Northern beans as well. Added that, as well. Pasta which was the tiny shell pasta was cooked up separately to add to the soup.

You don't need any thickening agents, such as flour, or cornstarch, the soup thickens on its own, just from the well cooked dry beans, and especially when you add the pasta to it, will thicken.

At the end, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese right into the soup, and ladle a nice portion out, drizzling extra virgin olive oil on it, for color, texture and flavor, and some more extra cheese.

I promise you, it will chase away any holiday "blues"...makes you feel full and satisfied, all you need is some crunchy bread to go with it, a glass or two of full bodied red wine....and have a nice dessert ...always room for dessert, just with a bowl of soup. If you would like to make this vegetarian, or vegan, just omit the cheese, and the meatballs, and use vegetable broth, instead of beef broth. You can add your choice of vegetables fresh or frozen, and you can actually use any kind of canned beans; they are just as good, and add that at the end of cooking time!

So this is my offering to you, for a chilly weekend, so stay warm, or come down to sunny Florida and enjoy our mild weather here!

Baked Barbecue Country Pork Ribs... and a giveaway!

This may not be a "baking blog" but I assure you, for sure it's a "food blog", which actually, in the beginning, less than a year ago, started out to be a blog about mostly thrifting, and some food. We all have to eat, but where, and how we eat, and mostly what we eat...who we eat with, seemed more of a challenge than finding a bargain at our favorite thrift shops. I like to make my rounds every week, to cook at my friends' once a week, or at my daughter's or my son's, so basically, I only cook for myself about twice a week, realistically. It still is a late winter for some of you, but for us right now, is our spring. A barbecue "indoors" is so much easier, when it's for 2 people, than barbecuing outside and dealing with all the cleanup mess. I found these lovely country ribs at my local market, and I knew what I would want to make as a side dish with it to share with my friend. A side of "doctored up" baked beans, mashed potato, and sauteed sauer kraut. Yumm! As a matter of fact, everything was doctored up...even homemade barbecue sauce for the ribs...and let me tell you. You can have "finger licking good" barbecue sauce that you made, instead of the ones in a bottle, which is ready made. Slather it on for the last 25 minutes, and you have the best barbecue ribs, "this side of south Florida"...not Texas!