Soups and Stews

Crockpot Beans and Cornbread Muffins

/ jeffreyw / 1 Comment

DSC_5265 [1600x1200]When I was browsing the Homesick Texan’s house yesterday I noticed another post she did on “Ranch Style” beans that she missed from her time growing up in Texas.  I remembered her musings when I was looking around for something to fix and spotted some red beans in my cupboard.  This isn’t her recipe because I was too lazy to look it back up.  It is close to it if you back off far enough.  I soaked the beans for a bit in water before I decided to give the crockpot a spin.  I dumped the water and put the beans in the pot with a diced onion, a can of tomato bits, a covering of beef broth, a few chunks of cured ham and a generous dose of chili powders of various sorts.  I think they worked well enough but I’ll not be entering any bean throwdowns with them.

Almost Fall and Cold Soup

/ TaMara

Photo from thundafunda.com

I reluctantly changed the colors on the blog today to move toward fall.  I started with autumn hues, but couldn’t do it yet, so we went with an end of summer yellow.  I am not ready to have summer slip away.  It will be in the 90’s this weekend, for that I am grateful.  And in Colorado we always say, ‘don’t pack your shorts’ because there will be days/weeks in the winter when you can wear them easily.

I have a request for squash soup as soon as it gets cold enough.  Commenter Violet wasn’t ready to commit to hot soups yet, just wanted to get her request in early.  So this cold soup is for her, to tide her over until we are all ready for fall meals.  It is a repeat from a party I attended last summer and the hostess was kind enough to give me the recipe.  Here is Tate’s Cantaloupe Soup, perfect for an end of summer meal:

Cantaloupe Soup

  • 1 large ripe cantaloupe, seeded & diced
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp freshly grated lemon peel
  • Pinch each of ground ginger and salt
  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • Fresh lemon juice
  • Mint sprigs

Cook cantaloupe in butter with sugar, lemon peel, ginger and salt, covered, until soft. Puree’ in blender. Add milk and bring to boil; lower heat and simmer 10 mins. Adjust seasonings with lemon juice. Garnish with mint.

And if you have a recipe request, put it in the comment section or shoot me an email.  Until then…