Love Soup

I am pretty sure that I already mentioned this, but I love soup. Love it. And, my husband and kids love it. It is a total win-win situation for us so when I heard about this new soup book called Love Soup I knew I had to check it out. It is full of vegetarian soups, many of which can be made vegan for those who swing that way. I just got it from the library the other day and have tabbed countless soups I want to try and we even tried one. It was delicious. A friend gave us some zucchini from her garden (I love that I live in Portland and there are still fruits and vegetables coming on!) so we made the Zucchini Potato Soup (I didn't have time or ingredients to make a vegetable broth so I just used chicken broth I had on hand). It was yummy. I think it would make for a better late summer soup when the evenings are cool but comfortable than a warm-me-up fall soup. No bother. We still ate it and loved it. It was a brothy soup with zucchini, potatoes, basil, and parsley. Light, not over powering. Yum. I love this book so much that I have already added it to our Christmas list. I heard about it from Angry Chicken's blog, a great blog for all people who love food and crafting, especially if you live in Portland (she goes to great local shops). So, go now, find the book and check it out! (FYI I was not paid to rave about this book, it is just pure love).

Applesauce

Yummy, fresh apples made into delicious applesauce. I decided not to add any sugar because I figure that way people could make them as sweet as they want. Our boys don't care that there is no sugar and they devour the applesauce. Bowls are returned licked clean. I love how the peels turned it pink.

Here is what we did: rinse the apples, cut out the seeds and stem (it is not necessary to cut out the whole core), cut the apples into 2-inch chunks, place in a pot with about 1/2-inch or so of water (watch the water, you don't want them to be too runny but you also don't want burning or sticking because that would ruin the whole batch), cook until mushy (about 10 minutes), run them through a strainer or food mill. We used a Foley Food Mill, which I highly recommend. I think it was the two quart size but I am not sure. It was very easy to use and clean up. After all of the jars were filled, we processed them for 25 minutes in the water bath canner. Don't forget to warm up the glass so it doesn't shatter in the canner (I just ran them under hot water for a minute or so).