1 lb. Kielbasa or other cooked, smoked sausage, cut into ½” coins
4 cups chicken stock
2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small head of cabbage, cored and shredded
1 large onion, chopped
2t caraway seeds
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker or large pot. Cook tightly covered on high heat or simmer over a very low flame for 5 to 6 hours. Serves 4 to 6.

Notes:
I never thought that my kids would eat this, but it passes because the potatoes and sausage. They don’t even seem to notice the cabbage… somehow. {shrug} Ya just don’t ask questions when your kids eat cabbage without complaining. Though personally, that amount of cabbage is a little much. I tend to use a little less than one half of a large head of cabbage. Oh, and I think I double the stock proportion. But you give it a try and see what ya think.

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One bowl of this soup at an East Side Mario’s and I went online to find a recipe. Now it’s a favorite. Try it yourself… you won’t be disappointed.

For the meatballs:
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoon minced onion

In medium bowl, combine beef to onion and shape into small meatballs. Bake 350 for 20-25 minutes.

12 cup chicken broth
2 cup spinach, chopped fine
1 cup dry small pasta
¾ cup diced carrots
prepared meatballs
dash of onion and garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

In large stockpot, heat broth to boiling and stir in everything else, except pasta. Cook pasta separately and add in at the end. Simmer soup for 30 minutes. Add pasta and cook for 5 more minutes. Serve warm.

Notes:
When soups call for gigantic amounts of broth, I have one of two strategies. If I have some homemade stock, I prefer to do half stock and half chicken soup base. But if not, it’s all chicken soup base. Though I buy a brand from a health food store with no added salt or MSG. Otherwise, be careful on the salt!

One plus of this soup is that it stirs up very quickly. But don’t let that deter you from letting it simmer and giving that wonderful smell to the house. However long you bloop it, just be sure to put the pasta end at the end or it will get way too bloated.

Oh, and on the spinach… when I was growing kale in the garden, I substituted it for the spinach. No one noticed. And don’t be afraid to toss another chopped onion or some celery in either. If there’s one way that I cook like my mother, it’s in soups. She, when cooking anything, would open up the cupboard and you would never know what might be lurking in tonight’s jambalaya or “homemade” spaghetti sauce. Thankfully, I didn’t inherit that trait except in this one area of soups which to me are by definition completely fair game for “What’s in the fridge and needs to get eaten? ”

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The holidays always involve lots of cooking. Thankfully, there’s lots of time for eating too.

This Thanksgiving in reading up for the big day – and in the execution – I found some real handy-dandy ideas and thought I’d share.

Freeze stock a whole new way

Does everyone make stock from the bones after the turkey is all eaten? If you don’t, you should. Besides the leftover turkey sandwiches, I always look forward to making homemade soup of the turkey stock. It’s healthy, delicious and cheap. My problem with stock though was always in how to store it. Our chest freezer is huge so that’s the natural choice, but what sort of container do you think is best. Peanut butter jars were usually the way to go, but when making a soup on yon frosty morning, I had the sticky problem of the neck being smaller than the jar stopping my frozen goodness from getting into the pot. Nevermore. Last week in a really old Rodale cookbook, I found the revolutionary idea of freezing stock in bread pans! Pop them out once frozen and store multiple bricks in large plastic bags of any sort. No need to defrost and no more jabbing bits out of jars with a big knife, narrowly missing my vulnerable fingers. They will be forever thankful.

Make fluffy – not flat – cookies

My girlfriend’s chocolate chip cookies just blew me out of the water last weekend. She had used the tiniest chocolate chips so that was different, but what made them really unique was that they were exceptionally NOT flat. Flat chocolate chip cookies or Nojos have been a problem of mine lately, so I immediately wanted to know her secret. Easy, she says, add flour. For one batch of her cookies – probably somewhere around 4 dozen – she increased the flour by 1/4 cup. She had made a double batch, so that was about 1/2 cup. I always thought that cookies recipes were something not to be messed with, but now I see differently and isn’t it a wonderful world?! Thanks love.

And pie with golden brown crust

Last but not least, the quintessential pumpkin pie. I make them from scratch every year because they are Mecandes’ favorite, using the Flaky Pastry crust and Pumpkin Pie recipes from The Joy of Cooking. They never go wrong, but in previous years I have been disappointed with how dark the crust turned out after baking. Being honest, they were very nearly burnt. But this year, as a fluke in the cooking schedule, my shells sat in the pans, fluted and ready to filled overnight. When they came out of the fridge the next day, I noticed a substantial difference in them. The fat – in this case, lard – had congealed again and the fluting was stiffer and so held itself better. The effect looked pretty, but I didn’t think it would make any other difference. Wrong. Those pies baked superbly. Golden brown crust to perfection. “Yum!” can’t even describe it. From now on, I’ll always make time to refrigerate my crusts for at least a few hours, if not overnight, to achieve this result.

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1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon mint extract
2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup oats
2 cup chocolate chips

Mix in order and bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.

Notes:
I always take special care to mix the two sugars together very well then smooth in the softened butter.

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Recipe from Ptelea

1 ½ lbs. lean ground beef
2 tbsp vegetable/beef/chicken stock powder
4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 – 28oz. can stewed tomatoes (I used 5 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped)
1 pouch vegetable soup mix (I used Knorr)
6 cups waters
salt and pepper to taste

In large stock pot, cook beef until browned. Add the remaining ingredients.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 2 hours over low heat stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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