Our guest author today is Dean James. Many of you know Dean well. He's been kind enough to guest post for us a few times already. To see Dean's past guest posts and recipes, for Country Fried Steak and Lemon Ice Box Pie, click here and here.
When the weather turns cold and rainy, I get this craving for soup. Usually vegetable soup.
When I was in graduate school eons ago, one of my aunts canned vegetable soup mix for me. It was wonderful, with veggies fresh out of the garden: string beans, butter beans, Crowder peas, corn, tomatoes, and sometimes potatoes. (Never okra because I don’t like okra, no how, no way.) I’d take one of these quart jars, get some ground beef and make meatballs of it, then add them and some of the juice from the meatballs to my crockpot along with the soup mix, and I’d have lunch and dinner for a couple of days.
For a graduate student in the humanities on a limited budget, this was some really fine eatin’, let me tell you.
My aunt no longer has a garden and doesn’t can vegetables, so when I get a craving for vegetable soup now, I do it the lazy man’s way....
My aunt no longer has a garden and doesn’t can vegetables, so when I get a craving for vegetable soup now, I do it the lazy man’s way....
Lazy Man’s Vegetable Meatball Soup
Buy a bag of seasoned meatballs out of the freezer section at the grocery store, 15-ounce cans of vegetables from the veggie aisle, and some chicken broth. Dump it all in the two-gallon crockpot, add black pepper, and let it cook on high for about 3 hours. Lots of good eating from that.
In case you’re wondering what veggies I buy, here’s the list:
2 cans of diced tomatoes (usually with spices added, like basil and garlic)
1 can of corn
1 can of Purple Hull peas
1 can of string beans
1 can of diced potatoes
My series character, Charlie Harris, is lucky enough to have a housekeeper who cooks most of his meals. If he wants vegetable soup, then Azalea Berry will make it from fresh veggies, unlike me. Charlie and his sidekick Diesel, the Maine Coon cat, have a new adventure, The Silence of the Library, which came out January 28th.
In case you’re wondering what veggies I buy, here’s the list:
2 cans of diced tomatoes (usually with spices added, like basil and garlic)
1 can of corn
1 can of Purple Hull peas
1 can of string beans
1 can of diced potatoes
My series character, Charlie Harris, is lucky enough to have a housekeeper who cooks most of his meals. If he wants vegetable soup, then Azalea Berry will make it from fresh veggies, unlike me. Charlie and his sidekick Diesel, the Maine Coon cat, have a new adventure, The Silence of the Library, which came out January 28th.
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To learn more about
Dean/Miranda James and
his NY Times best-selling
Cat in the Stacks mysteries,
drop by his web site.
Cat in the Stacks mysteries,
drop by his web site.
