Fall is a Time for Soup

Fall is one of my favorite seasons.  It signals that cooler temperatures are on the horizon, fall colors will soon be adorning the trees in our area, and for me the return of enjoying warm soups.  One recipe that I love to make is a black bean soup that I found a couple of years ago in a Cooking Light magazine.  The magazine front said "5 Ingredients & 15 Minutes".  Wow! As a busy college student at the time it called out to me.  I could feed my family on a school night without using all my studying time.  Needless to say I bought it.  This recipe is wonderful in many ways.  It is made with beans, which are high in fiber and protein, it is a vegetarian recipe and it takes very little time and effort to prepare.  Oh, did I mention it is the best black bean soup I have ever tried (not that I have tried a lot of them).  It only makes four servings so a single person could make it and not have a lot of leftovers to deal with.  I always make a double batch as I love having it for lunches.  So if you are a soup lover, I highly recommend trying this recipe.

Black Bean Soup

Serves 4

2 (15 oz) cans lower-sodium black beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/2 C. vegetable broth

1/2 C chunky salsa

1 T fresh lime juice

1 t chopped chipotle-chile, canned in adobo sauce

1/2 t ground cumin

2 T chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 C queso fresco, crumbled

Place beans in a medium saucepan.  Mash beans slightly with a potato masher. 

Stir in broth and next 4 ingredients (through cumin).

Bring to boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Remove from heat, stir in cilantro.  Ladle soup into bowls, sprinkle evenly with cheese.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Prep & Thanksgiving Past

Well I have been doing some deep cleaning but now will hit surfaces which have suffered due to the deep cleaning. I can't tell you how many bags of "stuff" I threw away. I'm trying to get the laundry done today and tomorrow so that nothing will get in the way of cleaning next week. So if anyone is interested in having coffee.....call me after Thanksgiving weekend :o) The last time I hosted Thanksgiving was in 2006. Then we had 2007 at my sister-in-law Kim's house. Last year was at my sister Denise's house. So this year I nabbed it early. I have been struggling with how I am going to decorate the table and place settings. I'm hoping to resolve that this weekend so I can put it to rest. Posting the photos of the 2006 I realized that the living room was still yellow then and we still had wallpaper up in the kitchen. The pictures will look totally different this year.

October favorites

This weekends goal is to get the fall decorations out and assembled. It is a balmy (ya right) 39 degrees outside but this is my kind of weather. In the coming weeks I will be making what has become our October or Halloween tradition. I make a big batch of popcorn balls and carmeled apples. I usually color the syrup and Terry has requested orange and green for this year. What are some of your October/Halloween traditions?

Fall & Family

This morning I was out walking our dog Max. The air was crisp and cool and the sky was blue. I have been noticing the trees beginning to change color also. All of this gave me that wonderful feeling that fall was here and that the holidays were just around the corner. Family and friends are a must in this combination. I have great memories of the holidays as a child. One is Thanksgiving at my Grandma & Grandpa Bale's house. There was food, a football game in the pasture, card tables set up for cards and dominoes, a football game on the TV, the women sitting around the dining room table discussing who knows what( I was never old enough to get in on that conversation) & us younger ones were either on the front porch swing, running around the yard or up in the barn loft full of hay bales (which was against the rules and we never wanted to get caught by Grandpa).