Big windstorm with fallen branches and leaves covering the neighborhood. I stayed in and made comfort soup. Cauliflower cheese. Turned out nicely. Here is the recipe, very simple. Half an onion, diced. Melt in a big knob of butter. Four or five smaller potatoes, cubed. A large head of cauliflower, or two small heads, broken up. Set aside some of the prettier florets, toss them in oil and salt and broil them until lightly browned. Meanwhile, add about 2 qts of stock, just enough to cover the solids. Simmer until the potato and cauliflower are soft. Stick blender until smooth, it will be a little grainy. Add about 2 cups of cheese. I used half goat cheese and half sharp cheddar. Blend again until cheese is melted in, the soup is now creamy, not grainy. Season with salt, herbs of your choice - I included plenty of sage. Add turmeric to warm up the color - otherwise the soup may look kind of gray. Add a few drops of hot sauce, some white pepper. These cream soups need a tiny bit of heat and bite, the sage also helps there. Serve soup with the broiled florets.

Here are some of our favourite thick soups: CREAM OF CHICKPEAS - Crema de Garbanzos 3/4 lb chickpeas (300 grams) 5 cloves garlic - peeled 1 medium onion - peeled and chopped 1 bay leaf fresh ground black pepper tarragon - to taste salt 1) Put chickpeas in a pot, cover with cold water and let soak about 12 hours. 2) Once that time has elapsed, drain chickpeas and cover with fresh cold water again, adding the onion, garlic cloves, bay leaf and salt. 3) Cook for about 2 hours or until the chickpeas are tender. 4) Drain chickpeas, keeping some of the cooking liquid and put into blender together with tarragon and a little pepper. 5) Blend, adding some of the cooking liquid until you have the desired consistency. 6) Pass through a sieve, gently reheat and put into a soup tureen, garnishing with chopped parsley. Serve hot. Source: Translated from Cocina Hoy S.L. --------------------------------------------------------- Here's one of my favourite Spanish dishes: - Although I have been making it for years the way a Spanish cook once showed me, I have also tried the preparation seen recently on a Spanish Cooking TV channel. Their ingredients included a small pice of or pork fat and a stewing chorizo (chorizo para guisar). If choosing a chorizo for this dish, be sure it is the right type which has the red pimiento colour. of the ingredients. The small piece of tocino can be seen just to the right of the sprig of rosemary. 350 grams (1 1/2 cups) of small dark lentils - put them to soak the night before in water to cover 100 grams (3.5 oz) red stewing chorizo sausage - lightly pricked over with tines of a fork 50 grams (1.7 oz) salted tocino pork fat - cut into large diced pieces 1 TBSP flour 2 carrots diced fine 2 medium leeks, using only white stems sliced finely in rounds 1 lg clove garlic (this was optional but I wouldn't leave it out) - pass through garlic press 2 cups beef broth (I used 2 Knorr cubes) 1 bay leaf fresh rosemary - small sprig olive oil - about 1/4 cup 2 cups extra water to add after 1st hour 1. Soak lentils the NIGHT BEFORE in water to cover. 2. Next day drain and rinse lentils, put aside. 3. Heat olive oil in heavy cooking pot. When sizzling, add carrots, garlic and leeks. Lightly brown while stirring. 4. Add 1 TBSP flour and keep stirring for about a minute. 5. Add lentils, beef broth, whole chorizo, tocino, laurel and rosemary 6. Put on lid and simmer very gently for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Check after 1st hour and add up to 2 more cups water as needed. 7. Adjust seasoning and serve. ----------------------------------------- Ingredients: lentils - 250 grams (slightly over 1 cup) garlic - one whole head onion - 1 large - quartered Kasseler smoked pork chop - 1 large (or 250 grams other smoked pork or bacon) ham or pork bone as for making stock 4 medium carrots - sliced into coins 2 stalks celery - diced 5 medium potatoes - peeled and cut into 8ths 6 flowerettes of cauliflower green beans - handful sliced tomato puré - small 4 oz tin olive oil - 4 TBS fresh garden herbs: 1 bay leaf, several sprigs thyme, Italian flatleaf parsley 2 or 3 sprigs chicken stock 1 liter (4 cups) or water and 3 Knorr chicken stock cubes salt & fesh ground pepper water to cook lentils vinegar - 1 teasp garlic croutons - optional garnish Method: 1) Turn on oven to 350F. Put lentils in large heavy bottomed stew pot with water to cover plus about 2 inches, bring to boil and simmer 45 minutes. Check water level and add more as needed. 2) Meanwhile put whole head of garlic into shallow baking pan together with quartered onion, Kasseler or smoked pork and ham or pork bone, drizzle with olive oil and roast in oven at medium heat about 45 minutes. 3) Remove baking tray from oven when all is nicely browned and cut meat into small dice and add to lentil pot along with onion. Squeeze garlic from skin into lentil pot, adding ham/pork bone along with oil and juices scraped from roasting pan. 4) Add rest of vegetables to lentils, chicken stock (or water and stock cubes), tomato puré, fresh herbs and bay leaf, parsley - reserving one sprig, fresh ground pepper. Bring to boil and simmer about 1 hour until vegetables are done, adding more water if needed. 5) When vegetables are tender, remove ham/pork bones and any bare thyme stems from pot, check for flavour and add salt as needed. Add vinegar and stir. 6) Serve with a bit of chopped parsley and more fresh ground pepper. Homemade garlic croutons are also nice as a garnish. Source: Recipe as I learned from a Mallorquin housewife years ago. ------------------------------------------ The next day I made the rest - about 4 cups - of our previous day's stewed lentils into ... I started out using my hand cranked food mill and when I realized it wasn't going to do the job I put it all into my food processor, adding the following: 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth (using Knorr cube and water) 2 lg cloves of garlic crushed and browned in 1/4 cup oil in small frypan 2 slices brown bread broken in small pieces and fried in the garlicky oil until brown Processed the above until smooth and then heated it gently. Diced some more pieces of brown bread and toasted them in the frying pan with oil and garlic salt for the croutons. Closeup Lentil Puré. It was super tasty and Wolf really enjoyed it as well ! We were both full after two bowls each. ----------------------------------- Garlic Soup (Sopa de Ajo) ************************ A garlic soup recipe from the Mediterranean Island of Mallorca. Ingredients: 9 oz (250 grams approx) *shaved dry brown bread 6 garlic cloves 6 fine stalks spring onions 1 small cabbage 2 medium size ripe tomatoes fresh Italian parsley 1/2 cup good quality olive oil 1 teaspoon red sweet pimento powder salt water * Note: this refers to a type of local bread often used in soups (sopas) as a way of using up stale bread. It's a round, flat and heavy tan-coloured dense country bread loaf which is sliced crosswise paper thin, the cut pieces having a half-moon shape and being as thin as a slice of salami. (An electric meat slicer does the job well if you can find a heavy loaf of brown country bread.) Method: Heat the oil in an open, shallow casserole dish and add the peeled garlic cloves; remove them when browned and set aside. Add the finely chopped spring onions to the oil and when lightly golden add the finely chopped cabbage. Stir fry together then add the pimiento powder and enough water to cover all. Mash the browned garlic cloves in a mortar and pestle, add a little water to dilute the paste then add to the casserole. Season with salt and cook until tender at a low heat on the stove top. Then add the bread slices, scooping up the cabbage mixture and piling it on top of the bread to sink it down. Let return to a boil and remove from the stove. This soup is usually brought to the table and served out of the same casserole. I don't have a photo of the finished product but I do have my Mallorquin clay casserole which is what is normally used. Called a I brought mine from Mallorca over 20 years ago and whatever comes out of it tastes wonderful. It works equally well in the oven or on an open gas flame. SharonCb

The soup was delicious. It is easy to make too: Sunset's Potato Bisque Soup 1 large onion, diced 1 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup butter 4 medium, potatoes (recommended thin skinned new potatoes, but I had baking potatoes and they are fine) peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes 4 cups chicken broth 1/4 c chopped parsley 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 4 cups whole milk 3 Tablespoons corn starch 1/4 cup water Melt butter in large soup pot. Add onion and celery and saute till the onions are soft, stirring occasionally (15 minutes). Then add the cubed potatoes, chicken broth, parsley, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a slow simmer. Cover and cook till the potatoes are tender when pierced with a sharp knife (20-30 minutes). Then add the milk and warm it through on low heat. Do not boil. Make a slurry with the cornstarch and cold water and stir it into the soup. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings to suit your taste. Serve. You can garnish soup bowls with a small dab of butter and more chopped parsley.

I'm sorry to say that there is little to know tested and approved processing times for using cans. Not only is the process more complicated than using jars as special pre-sealing processing is required for a vacuum to form (contents must be heated to 170 degrees prior to sealing) but the processing times required for cans is generally longer than for jars. For example, canning most meats in pint jars requires 75 min. in the pressure canner but using the same size (1#) cans requires 99 min. Further all can processing is done in a pressure canner not a BWB canner. These are two of the reasons why using cans rather than jars has fallen so far out of favor. That said, some folks still choose to take the risk and do it by using the smaller cans but processing them for the full pint/1 lb. time. So if you choose to do it and assuming you do the pre-processing before sealing required to insure a vacuum forms, you would process your 10 ounce cans in the PC for the time called for that food if it was in a 16 oz pint jar. Follow me? You can find the jar processing charts for all the foods at NCHFP and then you use those pint times for your 10 oz. cans. But please note that this is done at your own risk. Dave http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_home.html