It's colder, the wind's a howlin' and the sky is gray. What better that a bowl of hot soup and a slice of homemade bread dripping with butter?:-)

What your favortie soup recipe, or stew or chili?

Sometimes Soup: Boil chicken backs or tails in tomato water. (frozen or canned-left from making tomato sauce)...add fresh chopped onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes, whole canned tomatoes...sometimes I add frozen okra, or peas, or celery, turnips or cabbage and usually corn...sometimes I add canned green beans, or other beans...sometimes diced canned pumpkin, yellow squash...always hot peppers-cannned or dried...salt and pepper...sometimes parsley, thyme, sage, or bay leaf....sometimes I add brown rice or barley...sometimes noodles or pasta...MMM MMM GOOD!

My Broccoli Soup: Quick and easy to prepare. In crockpot put left over chicken and noodles...three cans of cream of mushroom soup or homemade equivalent...a little milk or chicken brother, lots of broccoli, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. You can add cheese to this if you want. Put on before you leave, come home to a nice hot bowl of soup...Enjoy

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), November 16, 2000

Answers

Sounds like a great meal will try it soon. Country Friend Jack Bunyard

-- Jack Bunyard (bunyard@cnz.com), November 16, 2000.

Split Pea and Ham Soup, adapted from The New Basics Cookbook (Rosso and Lukins):

Rinse 1 lb. dried split peas in strainer; combine with 6 C. chicken broth and 4 C. water. Bring to a boil. Add 1 meaty ham bone, or 2 ham hocks; 2 diced ribs of celery; 1/2 tsp. dried tarragon leaves. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.

Melt 4 T. butter; saute 1 C. diced, peeled carrots; 1 C. diced onion. Cook until wilted (10 min.) then add to the pot. Also add 1 C. slivered fresh spinach leaves.

Simmer, partially covered for 30 min. Then remove soup from heat; take out ham bone or hocks; remove meat from bone; return meat to soup and heat through.

You can season with sherry, pepper, Italian flat leaf parsley, plus add a leak to the above recipe (all called for in recipe and ignored by frugal me....)

Excellent after being out in the cold! Enjoy!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), November 16, 2000.

Nothing like hot soup and fresh bread, I couldn't agree more. I make Italian Lentil soup, might be my favorite, it's hard to decide.

Carefully pick over and rinse 2 cups of lentils. Dice and saute in 1/3 cup olive oil the following- a large onion, 3 stalks of celery, and 3 large carrots. Cook vegetables on medium fire until starting to lightly brown. Combine vegetables, lentils, and 6 cups of water. Add 2 bay leaves, 1 teas. dried thyme, 1 teas. dried oregano, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to boil, lower heat to simmer and cook about 40 minutes. Now add either 3 tablespoons tomato paste, or a can of chopped tomatoes. cook a few minutes, and then add the "majic" ingredient-a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Add salt to taste, and enjoy. I usually quadruple this recipe, as it freezes very well.

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), November 16, 2000.

It may be different this year with the death of her husband of 60- some years, but my neighbor kept what she called 'Winter Soup' slightly simmering on the back of the stove all winter. Leftovers and new ingredients when into it. Lunch was often this soup with homemade bread. Also fed many a relative after they came in out of the woods. Mrs. Bruce is one of the souls who just don't feed right if she doesn't offer to feed you during a visit.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 16, 2000.

Wow, really like the "winter soup" idea. With all the hunters & visitors, not to mention food, over the next several weeks I'm going to start a batch tomorrow. I'll let you know in the spring how long I was able to keep it going.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), November 16, 2000.

All these soups sound great. We have soup at least once a week in the winter. I belong to a homemakers club and I just gave a lesson on "soups on" .So it's kind of neat to see this on here. One of our favorite soups is to save all left over veggies, meat, noodles , rice ( basically anything) keep in an ice cream bucket in the freezer till full. then add a quart of tomato juice, and 1/2 quart water ( swirl water in jar to get out all bits of tomato ) put this on the wood stove and cook all day. My oldest daughter age 6 will NOT eat veggies! But she LOVES this soup! So it's a must around here.

-- sherry (Calfarm@msn.com), November 16, 2000.

SCRAP SOUP During the week, or month, after each meal, any small portions of leftovers, such as meat, green beans, corn, beans, pasta, rice. chicken, etc. I put in a freezer ziplock bag and keep till I have enough or we all get to wanting soup, I take the freezer bag out, put it in a big soup pan, then dump 1 can of Rotel tomatoes', 3 lg cans of tomato sauce, 1 big onion, several cloves of garlic, or garlic powder, salt, pepper, basil, just all kinds of spices I may have handy, 4-5 peeled potatos quartered, and if I'm lacking any paticlular veggies I open a can or two and dump it in, simmer1-2 hours and serve with cracker, bread, or cornbread. It's a little spicy for the little one with the Rotel. This gets better with age.

-- Carol in Tx (cwaldrop@peoplescom.net), November 16, 2000.

Here's a quick and easy one: Saute onions garlic and green peppers. In pot put sauted veggies, a can of V-8 or similar, a can or two of kidney or chili beans, a lot of chili powder?, 1/2t cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook for 20 minutes. You can add whatever maybe some macaroni.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), November 17, 2000.

We've had a lot of soup lately; everything from borscht to carrot soup ( recipe in the Moosewood cookbook). Tonight it will be either minestrone or mushroom barley.

Minestrone: Bare minimum; onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil, cooked beans(kidneys or chickpeas are nice), tomatoes, or tomato paste, sauce,etc, as many veggies as possible, pasta or rice( add pasta towards the end of the cooking so it doesn't fall apart or get mushy), and seasonings-a Tablespoon or so of dried basil, a little oregano,salt, pepper,fresh parsley if you have it. Add water to cover,bring to a boil, simmer for half an hour or longer. That is the bare bones. It is better with smoked sausage, zuchinni,peppers, green beans,spinach(can use dried spinach),carrots,celery,broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes. If you really want to be decadent, or if artichokes are plentiful in your region, you can add artichokes hearts (quartered), or saute fresh, quartered, de-thorned artichokes, remove all the tough outer leaves. This is best with the little tiny artichokes that are sometimes on sale.

Mushroom barley: Saute mushrooms, at least half a pound, more is better, in butter and olive oil with onions and garlic. Meanwhile, cook 1/2 cup or more of barley until tender. When the mushrooms are done, add the barley with it's water, more water to cover, salt,pepper,a dash of tamari, and simmer for at least half an hour. The longer it cooks, and the more barley you add, the thicker it will be. This is excellent with dried mushrooms and morels.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 17, 2000.

My all time fave, both for taste and ease, is potato soup with corn. As I can up some potatoes every year for fast meals, I just put a quart of potatoes, a can or pint of corn (juice and all), some sauteed onions and garlic to taste, a few tbsp of butter, and a can of evaporated milk into a pot then cook it til hot through. Salt and pepper snaz it up and It's topped with freshly grated pecorino romano (or plain old parmasan). While it's heating, I warm some bread and voila...hot dinner in a flash. This can be adjusted in many ways, so add what you like - meat bits, or mushrooms, so on.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), November 18, 2000.

Cindy, I can't cook, but my favorite soup is ham & bean. Simply the best on a blustery, cold, snowy winter day! Add a touch of vinegar, bring out the crackers, and Mmmmmm Mmmmmm!

Michael in North-West Pennsylvania.

-- Michael W. Smith (kirklbb@penn.com), November 18, 2000.

PASTA E FAGIOLI!!!

Cook up about a pound of borlotti beans (add some whole garlic, an onion, thyme, a leaf or two of sage,a carrot, and a piece of celery into the beans). When soft add salt and cook another 5-10 minutes.

In frying pan, heat up about 2 TBs. olive oil - add 3 big sliced up cloves of garlic and a 5 inch branch of rosemary. When the garlic is browned , add this mixture to the beans.

Now pass the soup through your food mill -

back in the pot boil add short pasta cook until soft that is it !!

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), November 20, 2000.

Kelly, I've never heard of borlotti beans, what do they look like, I have 16 kinds of beans, they look so good in jars on my shelves.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), November 20, 2000.

I think they are the same as cranberry beans.

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), November 23, 2000.