Warm Comfort for Cold Weather

Tonight and the next couple days promise to give us a little advance taste of the coming cold of winter.  The weather man keeps telling us that a wide spread killing freeze is coming to our area tonight…..I believe him!

We are in that awkward phase in the Midwest between hot muggy summer days and cold freezing winter days. Some of our days are absolutely beautiful and warm; they are dry, sunny and golden . Tomorrow, according to the weather man, does not promise to be one of those days.

This afternoon we spent some time digging out the sweet potatoes as I have heard they cannot be left in the ground when there is a killing freeze. I have never grown sweet potatoes but thought I would give them a try this year. I only planted a couple of plants and was curious to know how they did.  There were not a lot of them but it will be fun to try to make sweet potato fries……when I find a recipe.

There are also many hills of regular white potatoes that are needing to be dug out.  Fortunately those are not quite as fussy as sweet potatoes and can stay in the ground a little while longer. The pie pumpkins need to be picked and put somewhere to be stored until I have some time to cook them out, puree, and freeze to be used for pies, muffins, bars and breads later in the year. The harvest season is always busy with a variety of things to do.

I am grateful for the time between soybean harvest and combining field corn.  That is when my husband has time to do the digging up of produce. It always seems to be a race with the weather at that point. Usually the weather pattern is unsettled and it can range from beautiful to rainy and sometimes even flurries of snow.

With the cold weather coming I was in the mood to make soup. This morning I decided to make Cream of Cauliflower Soup. (I also add Broccoli if I have it.)  I got this recipe many years ago from a friend named Ethel.  We always joke that pretty much any recipe that has Ethel’s name on it is going to be good…..and they always are!  (She might be the local  version of Betty Crocker!)

Anyway, here is the recipe for the soup:

Creamy Cauliflower Soup
1 large potato (peeled and diced)
1/2 cup celery (chopped)
1/2 cup carrots
1 head cauliflower
Cut all vegetables and cook 15 minutes till slightly tender.
Put in crock pot.
Add:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
2 soup cans milk
1/2 pound cheese
Cook about 4-6 hours in crock pot.
NOTE: I do like to use a bag of California Mix frozen vegetable in place of the head of cauliflower.
you can also use broccoli instead of cauliflower.
For the cheese I use Velveeta as I like the smooth texture it gives.

This makes a large batch and is wonderfully smooth and creamy.  I have a feeling it is not a diet soup but I like to console myself that during the busy seasons a person needs a hearty soup.

May you also enjoy the warm comfort of a bowl of soup on a cool fall day.

I think that women just have a primeval instinct to make soup,
which they will try to foist on anybody who looks like a likely candidate.
Dylan Moran
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/soup.html