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Soup & Cookies . . . Why Not?

One of my food memories from childhood was my mother making navy bean soup. My mother was not a fabulous cook. We had dinner each evening, usually consisting of a meat, a potato, and a vegetable, but few meals had us asking for more. At some point along the line, however, she stretched her skills and learned how to make soup. It seems a little strange to say that, but soup until then was from Campbell’s. I recall her getting the soup bones from the grocer. The house smelled wonderful. And this little boy enjoyed it.

About a month ago I made Summer Corn and White Bean Soup. Gert and I liked this very much. I shared the recipe with my mother who also enjoyed it. She suggested that I make a navy bean soup and forwarded a recipe. Our menu planning is a lesson in flexibilty as our schedules, particularly during the summer, change so much. As such, the navy bean soup kept getting bumped.

But my mother is arriving for a visit soon and if I do not make this prior to her visit, I will hear about it. So, I decided to knock this one out. At the store, I found no navy beans. I was going to substitute great northern beans when I saw a pound of soup beans. “Why not?” I thought and brought them home. I soaked the beans overnight and prepared the soup this afternoon. I had a couple meaty hocks that I added. As the soup simmered, I cut up some onions and celery to add. I wish I had carrots on hand as they would have gone well in the soup. I also had purchased some ham to add separately to the soup. It wasn’t needed and paled in taste to the meat from the hocks.

Once things were blending well, I took out the hocks and chopped the meat. Yummy. Eventually, all was right and Beetle signed that she was ready. She has learned the sign for more that she uses to indicate she is hungry. The soup was very tasty.

We had seconds but agreed this would be much better on a bitter cold winter day. Next time, I think I will add a lot more vegetables. I think that will round out this soup well.

Dessert
Each version of Mastercook ships with lots of cookbooks. Generally speaking, they do not interest me as I prefer my own recipes or those which come recommended from others. Nevertheless, some time back I went through all those digital cookbooks to see if there were things I wanted to make. There was a handful of dishes that I added to my To Try cookbook; Frosted Banana Oaties was one of them. The photograph from the Betty Crocker cookbook looked good.

As the soup was simmering, I got to work and immediately realized we had a problem—not enough sugar. I needed a cup and had about 3/4 cup. This is just the kind of thing which frustrates. The nearby market was already closed as it is Sunday. That means a several mile drive to the supermarket . . . all for one ingredient. Sigh . . . Pondering the trip, Gert suggested we go cup in hand to a neighbor. That is the old stereotype, yes? Instead, we called a neighbor who said she was heading over anyhow. She showed up with a baggie full of sugar and we were back in business.

The dough is easy to prepare and I like drop cookies. Soon enough they were in the oven baking away. After rotating the baking sheets halfway through, I kept them in a couple minutes longer as it looked as though they were still a little on the underdone side. As they baked, I wanted to make the frosting. Sigh, I realized as I pulled the powdered sugar from the pantry that I had used my back-up box (I learned long ago I need to keep plenty of powdered sugar on hand). Shoot! I pulled the cookies and was not pleased initially. They looked a bit underdone on top, but I didn’t want the bottoms to burn. They seemed crumbly and didn’t want to transfer well to the cooling racks. I was beginning to think I would bag the frosting as these were not looking too good.

After tending a little to the soup, I measured out the powdered sugar I had and decided to make as much frosting as I could. The cookies were tasty and I figured the frosting might round them out pretty well. The recipe said I would have 48 cookies. I ended up with 38; not unusual as I tend to make drop cookies a little bigger (although I had tried hard to not make them too big today). So, I thought I had a sporting chance with my reduced frosting in covering the cookies on hand. In the end, I was a little short, but covered most. We will make these again.

Two new recipes and we liked both. I think we will re-make both, but neither was out-of-this-world fabulous. “Variety,” as I tell my bride, “is what makes cooking so much fun.”

Navy Bean Soup
Mastercook File
Recipe By iana Rattray
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Soup

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 pound navy beans
2 quarts boiling water
2 ham hocks or a meaty ham bone
1/4 cup onion — chopped
1/2 cup celery — chopped
chopped ham or ham from the meaty bone
salt and pepper — to taste

Wash beans; place in a large bowl and add boiling water. Let beans soak for a few hours.

Simmer ham bone or hocks with the beans until beans are tender. Remove bones and chop ham.

Add chopped onions and celery. Add water to make about 1 gallon. Add ham meat, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook about 30 minutes longer.

Description:
“A simple navy bean soup made with ham bone or hocks and navy beans, along with chopped vegetables.”
S(Internet Address):
“http://southernfood.about.com/od/beansoups/r/bl30623t.htm”
Start to Finish Time:
“5:30″

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 173 Calories; 4g Fat (18.7% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 23g Carbohydrate; 9g Dietary Fiber; 18mg Cholesterol; 25mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fat.

NOTES : RDO

First Made: 21 August 2005

The store was out of navy beans, so I substituted dry soup beans. I used two ham hocks, but also added a ham steak chopped. I probably could have skipped that. We liked this, but decided this would be better on a cold winter day.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 3654 0 0 0 0

Frosted Banana Oaties
Mastercook File

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 42 Preparation Time :0:10
Categories : Cookies Dessert

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 cup sugar
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium)
3/4 cup butter or margarine — softened
1 egg
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Vanilla Frosting — (recipe follows)

VANILLA FROSTING
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine — softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk (2 to 3 tablespoons)

Heat oven to 350�. Grease cookie sheet. Beat sugar, bananas, butter and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in remaining ingredients except Vanilla Frosting.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown and almost no indentation remains when touched in center. Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Frosting.

VANILLA FROSTING:

Mix all ingredients until smooth and spreadable.

++++++++++++++++++++

Please note, if you should change this recipe it will no longer be an approved Betty Crocker� Recipe.

You may notice that the nutritional information calculated by MasterCook is different from the nutritional information listed in the Betty Crocker� cookbooks. Because MasterCook and Betty Crocker� use different nutritional analysis programs and different nutrient databases, variations in results are expected.

S(Internet Address):
“For more great ideas visit my Web site at: www.bettycrocker.com”
Copyright:
“© General Mills, Inc. 1998.”
Yield:
“42 Bars”
Start to Finish Time:
“0:25″

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 131 Calories; 5g Fat (35.1% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 5mg Cholesterol; 98mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 Fat; 1 Other Carbohydrates.

NOTES : Cookie Tips
Fully ripened bananas-yep, the ones on your counter that are turning brown with some black spots�are the ones you want to use for this recipe. They are much more flavorful and add more moistness to baked goods than bananas that are tinged green or have just turned bright yellow.

“I Don’t Have That”
Contrary to popular belief, allspice is not a combination of spices, but is a single spice. If you don’t have allspice, use ground cloves or nutmeg.

RDO
First Made: 21 August 2005

These were good. The cookies were a bit difficult to remove from the pan as they were “crumbly”. With the frosting, yummy!

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 4111 4098 0 20223 0 0 0 0 0 2130706543 0 0 0 4098 0 4038