Turkey Sausage, Spinach, and White Bean Soup with Cornbread Biscotti

Have you ever seen the episode of Little house on the Prairie where Laura runs away to the mountains after her baby brother dies, and there she meets Jonathon, the mystery man/angel/God person, and then Pa comes looking for her, but she doesn't want him to find her because God hasn't answered her prayer yet which was for her to go to heaven and trade places with her baby brother because she thinks Pa would rather have had a son, but then Jonathon grabs her by the shoulders and says "Child, God HAS answered your prayer and He says your pa needs you and that is why your pa came looking for you?"

Huh?  Have you seen that one?

Because I just finished watching that episode a few minutes ago and it sent me straight into a gasping-for-breath ugly cry.  I am SO glad my husband left just before my meltdown.  It was not attractive in the least.

And just as a warning to women everywhere, that episode called "The Lord is my Shepherd" is probably not the best one to watch if your body is in any kind of heightened state of hormonal activity.

Did Micheal Landon know how to bring on a sob or what?  He is the *best* crier ever in the history of television.

Alright.  Enough with this emotional roller coaster I've been on the last fifteen minutes.  Let me clear my mind and talk about soup.  Because this one is really good.

 
In the October issue of Southern Living, they ran a soup recipe along with a recipe for Cornbread Biscotti.  Their soup recipe is very similar to mine (Or is it that mine is very similar to theirs?) but my soup is a little different with some marinara and orzo stirred in.  And I think I've said it before but I'll say it again, most soup gets better the longer it sets.  This soup is better the next day, so it's the perfect make ahead meal.


What really caught my eye, though, was that cornbread biscotti recipe. What a brilliant idea!  I just had to try it and I'm so glad I did.  The crunchy biscotti soaks up the soup and it's just wonderful.  LOVED!  Such a nice change from regular cornbread.

Here are my notes about the cornbread biscotti:

-After many years of having bad luck with every food processor I've ever owned, I am without one again. Until the money comes through for a Cuisinart, I'll just remain food processor-less, because I will not fork over any more money on anything else cheap.  The original recipe is written using one, so I rewrote the directions to mix by hand.

-I also halved the original recipe with some slight tweaks, because I wasn't sure I would get good results without using a food processor, but I did.  So mine is a small batch and it gave me about 8-10 biscotti.

-I can't tell you how much I loved the fresh rosemary in them.  It really made them pop.  I grow my own, but I'm sure dried would be good too.

-I did use parchment paper like the original recipe called for.  I think that's important because it keeps the dough from spreading too much and allows an easy transfer to a cutting board.

-The batter was thick, but wet.  I was afraid it was too wet, but it wasn't. 

My soup notes:

-I prefer cannellini, but I used Great Northern because I can't get the cannellini beans here.

-One more time--the soup gets better tasting the longer it sets.  Have you got that yet?

-I cook the sausages whole, then slice. An alternative would be to squeeze the sausage out of the casings and crumble as you cook.

-Add the spinach to the hot soup as the very last step.  It will immediately wilt and you no longer need to cook it.  Kale would be great too.

-I always cook my pasta separately because it tends to swell too much in the soup.  I store them separately in the fridge too, and add my pasta to each bowl of soup individually.

-Yes, you could use canned chicken broth or stock, I just always have bouillon cubes.  I read an article about ten years ago that said canned chicken broth is 5 times costlier than making broth with bouillon cubes, and that has always stuck with me.

-I love this soup because it's quick, easy and pretty darn healthy.  Did I mention yummy too?  Because it totally is.

Turkey Sausage, Spinach, and White Bean Soup

Printable Recipe

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 (16-ounce) package turkey Italian sausage

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

6 cups water

6 chicken bouillon cubes

1 1/2 cups marinara sauce

2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans or great northern beans, drained and rinsed 
Salt and pepper to taste

1 (10-ounce) bag baby spinach leaves

1 cup orzo pasta

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add the sausage and cook until brown on all sides and cooked all the way through.  Remove to cutting board and slice into 1/4 inch slices.  Add the onion to Dutch oven and cook until soft, stirring often and scraping brown bits off bottom.  Add garlic and cook for two more minutes.  Add water, bouillon cubes, marinara sauce, sausage, and cannellini beans.  Bring to a simmer and let cook uncovered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in spinach and remove from heat.

Meanwhile, cook orzo according to package direction.  Drain and toss with a drizzle of olive oil to keep from sticking.

To serve, spoon orzo into each bowl, then ladle soup over pasta.  

Cornbread Biscotti  (Small Batch)

(Adapted from Southern Living)

Printable Recipe

1 (6-ounce) package yellow cornbread mix

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoons coarse ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces

2 large eggs, divided

2 tablespoons buttermilk

2-3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cornbread mix, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, pepper and rosemary in a medium bowl.   Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Whisk together 1 egg and buttermilk. Stir into cornbread mixture until batter mixed.  (Batter will be thick, but wet.)

Spread dough into approximately a 6 x 4-inch rectangle on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet using lightly greased hands. Lightly beat remaining egg; brush over dough. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake at for 20 minutes or until pale golden brown and firm. Let cool on baking sheet on a wire rack 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Gently slide loaf onto a cutting board, and cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices using a serrated knife. Place slices, cut sides down, back onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes on each side or until golden and crisp. Let cool on baking sheet on wire rack 15 minutes. Serve warm. Store in an airtight container up to 3 days, or freeze up to 2 weeks.

 

Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Drop Scones with Sticky Honey Glaze

So yesterday, my family and I went to the pumpkin patch at Mitchell Farms.  And I must say, I was very, very impressed.  I've never actually been to a pumpkin patch before, and this one had a lot going on for the very reasonable price of $8.00 per person.  Plus, every one of us got to pick out a free pumpkin.

And we decided we would take a picnic lunch, so naturally I wanted to make some goodies made with, duh, pumpkin.  And I had this great idea for a recipe that I just KNEW would work.  It was a bar recipe made with pumpkin, oatmeal, and butterscotch, and everyone would just love them, and I would be the hero of the day and yada, yada, yada.

So I made these *special* bars, and the batter tasted good, and I was all "I am soooo on to something here!"  That was, until I noticed there seemed to be some very weird air pockets forming while they baked in the oven.  I let them cool, then tasted them, and although the taste was not unpleasant, the texture was like, I don't know, rubber.  So I decided to add a quick powdered sugar glaze to distract from the texture. 

I packed them anyway, but my beloved family informed me at the picnic that they did indeed taste and feel like rubber, and what was the wet stuff on them anyway, mom?  (The glaze never did dry like I had planned, either.)

But we still had a great day at the pumpkin patch, and we are definitely putting it on the schedule for next year.  We were all completely zonkered out by closing time, and the joke of the day was "I'm so hungry, I could eat a rubber pumpkin bar!"

Well, hardee-har-har. 

But I would not go down in defeat, so I made another pumpkin recipe this morning.  This one is a tried and true recipe I wrote last year.  No rubbery texture here.  I'm proud to say these won the Better Recipes pumpkin contest last fall.  I hope you like them.

Here are my notes:

-Don't worry if your cream cheese mixture is a little lumpy.  It's supposed to be.

-I used an ice cream scoop to scoop mine out onto the baking sheet.  I only got ten today because my scoop was a little big.

-I used walnuts instead of pecans this time.

-I usually start cutting in the butter with a cutter, then switch to my fingers, then back to a cutter.  It should look like fine crumbs when the butter is cut in:

-These are drop scones.  No rolling out!  Yay!

 -They are awesome just out of the oven.  Yum. 

 -The glaze truly is very sticky.

Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Drop Scones with Sticky Honey Glaze

Printable Recipe

Scones:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

2 large eggs
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1 cup canned pure pumpkin

The zest of one orange
1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans

1 egg, beaten

Glaze:

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

1.      Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

2.      In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and 1/3 cup light brown sugar.

3.      Cut in butter, using fingertips or pastry cutter, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 

4.      In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 eggs, the softened cream cheese, the pumpkin and the orange zest until incorporated.  Mixture will be lumpy.    

5.      Add cream cheese mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until combined.  Add pecans and stir just enough to evenly distribute pecans.

6.      Drop dough into 12 equal mounds on a baking sheet that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray, about 1 inch apart.  Brush tops with the beaten egg.   Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

7.      About 5 minutes before scones come out of the oven, make the glaze.  Place the 1/2 cup light brown sugar, the honey and 4 tablespoons butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to a boil stirring often.  Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.

8.      When scones come out of oven, place them on a wire rack over a baking sheet.  Drizzle with the glaze.  Sprinkle the tops with 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans.  12 scones.

Cabbage Roll Soup

So I recently signed up for a Pinterest account.

What a brilliant idea for a website.  Why didn't I join sooner?

I'm still finding my way around on there, though, and I don't really understand the whole following part yet.  Are everyone's boards open to everyone?  If they are, then why would you need to follow someone?  Am I missing a setting that makes my boards private or only open to my followers?  And what if I have a board called "Swimsuits made of Spanx with tummy control panels that I would feel somewhat comfortable in next summer?"  Can everyone in the whole wide world see that?  'Cause that might be a little embarrassing.  Maybe I'll just delete that board.  I don't have a pin on it yet anyway.  I guess I'll have to spend some more time on there and figure it all out.

So the next thing is Twitter.  Then I think I will be completely media socialized.

About this soup.  Let me just go ahead and say that this soup is, well, ugly.  Not photogenic AT ALL, although I could have helped matters by baking a pan of cornbread or adding some crusty bread to go alongside it.  A sprig of fresh dill would have jazzed it up too.  But it is what it is.  And I stand by it.  Just like Tammy Wynette stands by her man, I stand by this soup.  Not every dish can be a chocolate espresso cupcake with salted caramel buttercream and sprinkles, now, can it?  Nope.  Eventually, one has to be nourished.  And this soup will do it.

So my inspiration was obviously cabbage rolls.  And what I love about this soup is the dill weed.  In fact, next time I think I'll increase it a little more.  Nothing complicated in this recipe, folks.

Here are my notes:

-Like I said, I might have upped the dill weed a bit to 3 teaspoons but I was afraid my family wouldn't like it.  The seasonings are always adjustable to taste.  Fresh dill would be better, but I don't have access to the fresh.

-I think ground turkey would be great in this, or maybe a combo ground beef /ground pork.  Or maybe some bulk sausage.



-I thinly sliced my own cabbage, but I have used a bag of coleslaw mix in the past and it works perfectly.  My daughter's only complaint about this soup when I made it today was that my cabbage needed to be shredded more finely.  Try the coleslaw mix in the bags.

-I always like to cook my rice or pasta separately from my soup base.  I just add a scoop of rice to the bowl first, then ladle the hot soup over it.  That way, the rice doesn't continue to swell and swell as it absorbs the water.

-I used brown rice, but white would be fine.

-As with all soups, the flavor gets better and better as it sets.  It's much better the next day.

-This is pretty darn cheap to make.  And healthy too.  Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable, you know.


-Make sure you dig those bay leaves out of the soup before serving.  People can get choked on them.  So don't play "Whoever gets the bay leaf in their bowl wins!"  If you want to play games at the table, try balancing a spoon on the end of your nose.  No one should get hurt that way.

Cabbage Roll Soup

Printable Recipe

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

6 cups of water

6 chicken bouillon cubes

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons dried dill weed

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 head shredded cabbage or 1 bag coleslaw mix

3-4 cups cooked rice

Cook ground beef in a Dutch oven medium-high heat until crumbled and done.  Drain grease.  Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper and cook until vegetables are soft.  Add 6 cups of water and 6 bouillon cubes.  (Or substitute 6 cups of chicken stock or broth.)  Stir in the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.  Add bay leaves, paprika, dill weed, and brown sugar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in the cabbage and cook just until tender, but not too soft.

To serve, place a spoonful of rice in a bowl, then ladle hot soup over the top.  Store rice and soup separately in fridge.