Im glad to read that you are resting when the urge takes you. That's a nice thing about soup. Nothing is urgent.

I recently bought two new cookbooks. Sip and Feast by James Delmage and Tara Boerum, and Dinner Tonight by American Test Kitchen. They are both beautiful books, and Im anxious to try quite a few recipes. I'm still in the planning stage now though.

Nice that you can rest some. It can seem like such a luxury at times. I did make soup recently…split pea with ham per request. Our mid to high 70’s temps still mean cool mornings and evenings. Last night was stroganoff since I had top sirloin in the freezer. Gotta figure out something for tonight. Maybe meatloaf so we have leftovers for sandwiches. I use to make it often on Monday nights for some reason.

Perchance? Was Football a Monday meatloaf thing? Or some other external calendar item? I keep forgetting to make meatloaf. Maybe after the soup...

Not sure about football and meatloaf, other than I’m a fan of both. I really like meatloaf for dinner while DH prefers it more left over for sandwiches. I’ve often made it just for sandwiches. Ina’s ”regular” meatloaf recipe’s my go-to, and her 1770 House Meatloaf is also good. It calls for beef, pork and veal, but I’ve only made it with beef and pork or just all beef.

And it got bigger and bigger.... I know all that cabbage will cook down, but it filled my 9 qt. bean pot! It smells really good, at least. It's simmering...

My meatloaf reicipe is pretty much the same as my meatball recipe but with different proportions. That's with a lot of minced (FP) carrots, onions and parsley. I bet it would go well with the cabbage soup. I'll see if I have time to make it tomorrow....

OMG, I made purple soup! The first quarter of the cabbage didn't turn stuff purple! The solids are srtill their own colors (though the turnips have taken a tinge), but there were a couple dark purple to the core carrots in there, and I don't know if they contributed to the mayhem. One of the beloved helpers declared it "yummy". It really is, and it hasn't been seasoned except for what was in the packaged broth and roast chicken drippings (and the aliums, peppers, parsley, etc.), which are sufficient. Much will be frozen, and seasoned as desired during reheating. Nice to start off "yummy", however, and at least it isn't pink!

Purple soup sounds fun.

I'm waiting for a ham press to arrive. I eat a lot of ham/cold meats and thought it would be fun tomake my own. I've never seen a ham press in my life so was curious to see what you could do with one. I got an interesting recipe book with lots of variations and am champing at the bit to get started. Do any of you make your own luncheon meat/ham/deli meat?

I hope you're feeling better and the soup worked its magic.

It is fun! In a Seussian way. ;) And, yes, thank-you, I am feeling better. I think it was a little cold boosted by Spring allergies. On the containers' labels, I just wrote "purple cabbage". For sure, it's memorable. ;)

Now, I have to look up ham press...

Oh, I like the purple!👍🏻

I once put on a dinner party of all blue foods, this was for a bunch of SWMBO’s ”Blue Wave” ladies. It was fun! Purple counts as blue; it is too hard to get a pure blue.

Y'know... The bright blue Ulysses butterfly uses its color to advertise to insectivores that it's poisonous. (So I learned in a butterfly sanctuary in the antipodes). I never did like blue M&Ms--though the blue honey in France was as delightfully funny as it was appalling...

I guess I was expecting brown soup (from the greens, beiges and bit of red) with dark purple and white cabbage, not wacky purple all over soup. It tastes really good, though.

That's enough soup to last you a few days! Good cooks always make extra! Glad your feeling better.

I took a package of the boneless-skinless chicken breasts, diced them up, made a HUGE pot of chicken-heavy green chili, stew like. We eat it twice a day and still have MORE! Went to Sprouts yesterday, they had dark chocolate peanut clusters on sale $3.50/8oz....had a pig out on those for a treat! ❤️ It's nice to eat something ready made, every once in awhile.

The great thing about clean the fridge cooking is that you just make what you have. The 3/4 cabbage really was that big! Chopped, a gallon bag barely closed. It ended up at 18 portions, a dozen in the freezer after chilling, and half a dozen for use straight away.

Thanks for the laugh about the ready made "food"!

This would be good for Halloween. It just gets darker and murkier. Let me know if you want an actual recipe. Or just get a shiny dark purple cabbage and make it into soup with lots of greens and tasty things.

Have you ever made ”Green Gumbo”? I want to try, but will need to freeze, since only I will eat.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/green_gumbo/

Sherry, I can see why you asked. ;) I've only made gumbo of any kind once, and I think it was your recipe! (It was lovely, but the flour didn't agree with me. I haven tried a sustitute yet.) I freeze a lot though. Soups freeze well, though can get a bit mushy. Usually freezing breaks down the cell walls, but so do boiling and long cooking. If you're trying to maintain body and color, and/or some crunch texture, don't freeze. Greens with oomph, like collards, don't wilt as easily. Even carrots will soften some when frozen. The flavor remains, however, and having nice soup in the freezer is a lovely thing.