Homemade Minestrone Soup and The First Snow

 

We had quite an interesting September.  It was mostly in the 90's all month and unfortunately, very smoky due to the devastating fires.  They did however, make some incredibly photo worthy sights.

One weekend it was 99 degrees with overnight snowstorm in the forecast.  Let me repeat that...99 degrees with snow that night!  You can't make this stuff up.  Only in Colorado!

This time we did listen to the weather channel as we saw the storm hurry in with a vengeance.  We spent the entire Sunday hauling in all the cushions, covering the roses, pulling the remaining vegetables and herbs, turning off sprinklers, empty out the hoses, insulate the gas and water pipes, and hunker down for the night...to wake up to this.

Our dear friend Carole has started purging some of her recipes and sending me an email every Friday, titled "Weekend Recipe".  I look forward to these every week now and cannot wait to make each and every one of these family honored recipes that are so, so good! 

Carole couldn't have picked a better weekend to send me her Minestrone soup recipe for our quick blip of a blizzard.

Homemade Minestrone Soup

Courtesy of Carole

1 cup olive oil

1-1/2 cups diced carrots

1-1/2 cups diced celery

1-1/2 cups diced onion

1 handful sun dried tomatoes

1/4 tsp salt

10-12 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch fresh spinach

2 (16 oz.) cans diced tomatoes

2 large boxes, chicken stock

2 cans chickpeas

2 cans kidney beans

2 bay leaves

2 c. (pre-cooked) chicken breasts, diced

3 cups pre-cooked macaroni

1 bunch chopped escarole

1 cup fresh basil

Heat olive oil in a large soup pt.  Add carrots, celery, and onions.  Cook 10 minutes.  Add sun dried tomatoes, salt, garlic, and canned tomatoes and mix well.  Add chicken stock, chickpeas, kidney beans.  Add bay leaves and bring to a boil.  Add the diced chicken and macaroni.  Add spinach, chopped escarole, and basil at the end.

Serve with crisp green salad and garlic bread.  

I also added a spoonful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top of soup.

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Eat your soup, stay well, healthy and sparkly this week!