Saturday Shopping and Cooking

Went to Dollar Tree and WalMart. I should never go to WalMart alone I should have a watch-person. I always spend way too much and never know why. 

I am so glad we have the Dollar Tree. You know everything is a dollar. I hear people ask the store clerk, "is everything really only a dollar?" I like the larger stores, they have a bigger variety. Found some large bottles of liquid potpourri for my potpourri simmer pot. Black Cherry and Plum, Ocean Breeze and the one I am using right now Apples and Cinnamon. Good find.

I made a pot of minestroni soup. Ingredients are so simple, a little chopping is needed but mostly canned items. 

2 chopped onions
3 or 4 stalks of chopped celery
4 or 5 carrots chopped
2 zucchini cut into nice size pieces
sautee in olive oil
2 cans of chicken broth
2 cans of diced italian style tomatoes
I added a little water for the vegetables
add some pepper, garlic powder, italian seasoning, parsley, I never added salt but will taste today and see if it needs any, you get a lot of salt from the canned items.
bring to boil and simmer for a while
add 2 cans of cannellini beans, juice and all
small size pasta, I used the little bow ties
simmer all this til pasta is tender but do not overcook

Serve with cornbread or your favorite crusty bread and butter. Yum.

This is a nice soup to freeze which I will do in smaller portions for myself and friends.  I love my vacuum seal Food Saver. It is great. I found this one at Big Lots (another favorite store). The trick is to use their bags, off brands will not work.  I also need to freeze the soup in the bags before I vac and seal. Liquids do not vac well until frozen. Just a tip.

My walking buddy went to the Applefest in Elijay last weekend and brought me the best apples.  I think they are Mutsu (Crispin).

I have eaten several but thought they would make a good pie. I am a terrible pie crust maker so I always buy the frozen ones. I made this pie with Splenda. Cut the apples, added 1 cup of Splenda, 3 T of cornstarch, 1/8th of a teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Put in the crust, laid the other on top, cut a few slits in the top and bake. Yummy pie and no sugar (except for the apples naturally). Easy.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Have a wonderful Sunday.
 
P.S. What happened to the spellcheck in the new updated version of "new posts". Am I overlooking it or did it just disappear?