Minestrone Soup

My cousin's wife sent me a Minestrone Soup recipe - and then I found another recipe online. So....I combined what I really liked from each of the recipes - some things were the same - and came up with my own version. It's pictured with the garlic rolls that are made cinnamon roll style.

Minestrone Soup
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small zucchini, cubed (if not available - leave out)
1 handful kale or spinach, chopped (I use kale)
1 (14.5 oz) can white beans (the above picture has red beans since I was out of white. Both work well.)
1 TBSP dried parsley
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
6 cups broth - either chicken or vegetable
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 lb Italian sausage, cooked and drained
1/2 cup dry pasta of your choice (I used dry ravioli found in the WinCo bulk section.)

Simmer all ingredients for a couple hours. Garnish with Parmesan cheese if desired.

This recipe also freezes really well.

Easy Lemon Cream Dessert

The 2 pictures are very different. The top is the original recipe and Russell said it would probably taste really good frozen as well. So we froze some - hence the bottom picture! This recipe was amazing frozen! Very refreshing. This was part of my recipe swap for the July 2010 Aussie/NZ recipe swap and my team mate was Jen T from New Zealand.

Easy Lemon Cream Dessert

2 2/3 cups heavy whipping cream

2 (14 oz) cans sweetened condensed milk

6 lemons, juice and zest of **if you don't have lemons don't despair! 2 1/2 TBSP = juice of 1 lemon

Whip the heavy cream. Empty sweetened condensed milk into a bowl. Mix in lemon juice of 6 lemons and the zest of 4.

Fold in whipped cream.

Serve in serving glasses and top with remaining zest of 2 lemons divided amongst your serving glasses. Chill until serving time.

**For the freezer version - place dessert in an appropriate freezer container and freeze! Scoop out like you would ice cream. So refreshing on a hot day.

Ice Cream Pie

Mommy Diva was on my team for the November Aussie/NZ recipe swap this time. We chose this recipe and the one below from her posted recipes.

Ice Cream Pie
2 graham cracker pie crusts
1 3/4 quarts favorite ice cream (Or use half a carton from 2 different kinds)
16 oz cool whip

Soften ice cream until soft enough to mix with cool whip. If you are using two different ice cream flavors - use 8 oz of cool whip per flavor.
Scoop ice cream mixture into graham cracker shells. Smooth evenly. Cover with lid and freeze overnight.
Garnish with favorite garnishes and enjoy!
Pictured is Mint Chocolate Chip with hot fudge sauce. I also made Moose Tracks with hot fudge sauce and caramel sauce. I didn't get a picture to share yet because the boys had inhaled their dessert before I got around to taking a picture.

Blackberry Pies for the freezer.

Blackberry season isn't a very long one. I thought I might be out of luck this year. The area we usually go to was mowed down and sprayed. As luck would have it....we found some bushes farther back and picked enough so far for 3 freezer pies.

First: pick your berries.

Next you need to rinse them off. Make sure they are well drained.

For Blackberry pie filling you need:

4-5 cups of blackberries (I went closer to 5 - personal preference)

1/4 cup flour

3/4 - 1 cup sugar

A dash of cinnamon if desired

Mix gently until combined.

Now for the tricky part...this was the first time I did it myself - saw the idea and went for it.

Line a pie plate with saran wrap. It would be a good idea to spray it with vegetable spray.

Pour your blackberry mixture into the pie plate. Put in your freezer overnight.

The next day take out the pie plate. With saran wrap - you will probably have to wait for a few minutes before it will loosen enough from the pie plate to lift out the entire "pie." This was my experience.

So - I am trying alternative number two. I did foil today with vegetable spray. I will let you know how it turns out tomorrow. I think it will be better. Well with this method I still had to let it sit for a little bit for the foil to loosen from the pie plate. Maybe because it's glass? Not really sure. So....keep that in mind.

Okay. Third time is a charm. I did it this way...

first line your pie plate with foil. Then with saran wrap. Spray the saran wrap. When the berries are frozen - the "pie" will slip right out of the pie plate! Bingo - I knew it would work out sooner or later!

I put foil over the tops of the frozen saran wrapped "pies" and put one pie each in a gallon ziploc bag. Back into the freezer they went. Now when I want a blackberry pie all I need to do is make the crust, add the berries and bake!