Bean Soup and other Comestibles

We're been paring cheese like crazy.  Earlier in the week it was Chicken Tortellini Soup with spinach and mushrooms, and today I made bean soup from scratch.  So good, so cheap. 


I had planned to cook the beans with some turkey kielbasa which  I always get as a two-fer, but when the "kielbasa" thawed, it was a Chorico.  Thanks heavens it wasn't a banana.  I do freeze overripe bananas, and when I get three, I make banana bread.  Amazing the difference that extra banana makes.  It takes the bread to a whole new level.



The chorico made the soup even more delicious than usual.  Recipe was 3/4 lb. of navy beans, one large onion, chopped, 3 cloves garlic, 4 slices chopped thick-cut bacon, the chorico (about 12 oz) and 1 can low-fat low-salt  (14 oz) chicken broth and 1 14 oz. can garden vegetable broth.  I usually add carrot, chopped, but I forgot.  I added 1 t. dried thyme for more flavor. 


  I serve this with homemade southern-style cornbread.  This is a recipe, at least 200 years old, that calls for only corn meal (stone ground is best), buttermilk, egg, salt, shortening (your choice), baking soda and baking powder.  NO SUGAR.  It tastes so good and so wholesome and a little whipped butter on it just hits the spot.  Sugar in cornbread is a yucky New England tradition like flour tortillas that must be cast out.



We had a salad with the rest of the spinach bought for the soup, grape tomatoes and a good Caesar store-bought on sale dressing.  I've been saving between 20-30 percent every week at the grocery store and am psyched! 


It really helps to plan menus around the specials, especially the meat and the produce.  


Slowly, but surely, I'm getting caught up after the holiday.  How about you?  We ate the last of the frozen cheese twists on Monday.  So nice to have hors d'oeuvres in the freezer, and cookies, too.  I froze some of each recipe of the cookies I baked, and we had them well into January.  


The oven thermostat crapped out early in January, and we cooked on the stovetop for a few weeks.  The stove was 22+ years, so it did need to be replaced.  I got a fancy Kenmore with a nice warming oven (where bread can be proofed) and a convection oven and a fancy burner in the middle that takes a griddle.  We'll be cooking up a storm to figure out how everything works.  


I did pork tenderloin two ways right off the bat.  We get them as two-fers, and I made cutlets out of one and served them with a red currant/wine sauce (mega-yum) and stuffed the other with a bread stuffing mix left over from Thanksgiving.   Made a rosehip jelly sauce for that.  These cheap Ocean State Job Lot jams make good sauces, too.    A bit of broth, a little wine, some seasonings, and maybe a tablespoon of jelly make a great sauce.    Don't be afraid to experiment. 


Yours in frugality, 


The Cheeseparer