Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Food for Fall


The last couple of days, I've had a hankering for some good ol' cornbread.
So, today I was thinking, 'what to fix for supper?', and thought, 'I should make some cornbread'.

And what goes better with cornbread than a nice pot of soup?

Now, I'm not a big fan of fall. Ok, I'm not a fan of fall at all.


But soup is a nice fall food, and we like soup...so soup it was. (Too bad it wasn't a nice fall day! It's not quite as nice when it's 80 degrees outside, but I digress.)

I've never made soup with sausage before (except for gumbo, but that's a little different), but I had a package of polish sausage in the freezer that I had bought a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale for $1.89. So I got to thinking.

And this is what I came up with:



We're not really overly fond of polish sausage, but I thought this turned out really good. Not sure about the hubby, but he ate two bowls, so it must not have been too bad - you'll have to ask him what he thought! By simmering for a while, the potatoes cooked down some and made a nice thick soup.

Ingredients:
12-14 oz polish-style sausage, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
2 T. butter or oil
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2-3 T. beef soup base (or powdered boullion)
1 can tomato soup
8 oz. frozen green beans
6 oz. frozen mixed veggies
salt, pepper, garlic, dried parsley,basil and oregano to taste

Heat butter or oil in 4 qt. pot, add onions, saute until translucent and starting to brown on the edges. Add sliced sausage and brown, stirring frequently. Add 2-3 quarts of water and stir to deglaze pan. Add remaining ingredients, and simmer for an hour or so.
(I used approx. 1 t. garlic powder, 1/2 t. dried basil, and 1/4 t. or so oregano. I'm not big on oregano, so you could add more, or less, if you like.)
Could also be put in the crockpot after browning onions and sausage, just be sure to add water to deglaze the pan before you put it in the crockpot, or you'll lose a lot of flavor.

(note: I wouldn't normally use tomato soup, but happened to have a can and wanted to use it up. You can do the same, or a can of tomato sauce would probably be just fine. The soup will give a slightly sweeter flavor to the broth. The goal is not to be a tomato-y soup, just to give the base a little pizazz.)

Serve this with some nice, hot buttered cornbread (NOT the sweet kind. YUCK.), and you have a yummy fall-ish dinner!

Enjoy!


Monday, October 10, 2011

Love...Without Limit

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

(Written by George Matheson)