Money Making Minestrone!

Today Grace made five gallons of what we call Minestrone Soup. We didn't use a recipe but here's how we made it:

• In huge soup pot brown Italian sausage links (about 6 or 8) then remove and cut into little pieces.
• Then in the same pot saute' onions (2), celery( 1 bunch), carrots(8), cabbage(1), zucchini(5) and peppers(1) until soft.
• Now add one large can of tomato juice and some canned beans. (2- 16 oz cans your choice). We also threw in about 3 cups of frozen green beans. If I had had any spinach that would have gone in too.
• Fill the rest of the way with water. Add beef gelatin and spices like garlic, oregano, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
• Bring this to a boil and then simmer until done.
• About 5 to 10 minutes before lunch we added Orzo pasta (about 2 cups) which cooks up really fast.

We all love this soup! It is really good with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Today we had it with Cornmeal Scones, that Sarah made, and honey-butter but, it's good with any other bread or crackers too.

Cornmeal Scones:

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup cornmeal

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

3 T. sugar

2 1/2 t. salt

3 1/2 T cold butter cut into small pieces

1/2 cup of milk

1 large egg

Heat oven to 375.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until like coarse meal. Add milk and egg and stir slightly just until moist. Knead on lightly floured board 4 times. Cover a baking sheet with buttered parchment and pat dough into 7 inch circle on sheet. Cut into 8 wedges, cutting into bu not through dough.

Bake at 375 for 22 minutes or until golden brown. Yummy!

Now 5 gallons of soup is alot...even for my family. But, I love having soup ready to heat and serve especially during busy home school days. We may take a gallon to a neighbor who recently lost his wife. And it freezes well.

Have you seen the "home-made" soup for sale at Costco? Looks to be about half gallon for about 10 dollars! So, I always feel like we've something that's really worth alot when I think of that. We guest-imated the cost of our "Minestrone" at around 20 dollars for 5 gallons. Most of our ingredients were organic, by the way. That beats Costco's "home-made" (which I have never tried). And it for sure beats good canned soup which runs around $2.90 for a 12 oz can (which I have tried and it doesn't even come close)! So for $20 we made what could have cost 116 dollars!! Add to that the blessing of the wonderful aroma of soup simmering, the bread baking, making together at home and it's worth even more!

"Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred." Prov. 15:17