Minestrone Soup & October Things

An outstanding bowl of Minestrone, plus other little October joys.

One of my favorite parts of this newsletter is getting to share other people’s recipes with you — the ones I’ve been making and thinking about. Recipes I love and will make again, and think that you might like too.

It’s been chilly, gray and drizzling rain all week, and I’m wearing a sweater — we’ve turned the heater on for the first time in months, and I’ve pulled out the flannel sheets too.

In other words, perfect conditions for a big pot of homemade minestrone soup.

I was lucky to have a few stalks of fresh, fragrant celery leftover from my summer vegetable garden to add in — a small but genuine thrill.

You’ll find the recipe at the end of this post, plus a few notes and tips.

Speaking of vegetable gardens, mine is well and truly over.

I spent some time last week cleaning up all the flower beds, because everything looked tired and sun-bleached, dried out— a little sad, but peaceful too, like the garden knew its work here was done.

Even this lonely eggplant looks like it’s ready for a long nap.

Before all the garden digging and cleaning started, I made one last loop around the yard, clipping the last of the summer blooms to press and dry.

Maybe I’m in a bit of denial that we’re soon headed into long, cold winter nights, and this is a way of holding on to sunshine a little longer.

This is what the little flowers looked like arranged on the blotting paper before I pressed them. It was fun!

I have a special tool that came with a flower press kit I ordered online that flattens the back of the flower so they dry more evenly in the press. We’ll see!

So pretty, huh?

I’m going to make laminated bookmarks with these, which will serve as my official crafty project for this fall and winter.

I tried clipping and drying some fresh sage leaves too, and I really hope they keep their sage-y color.

I also bid a sad farewell to another summer favorite — a nice big bowl of sliced fresh strawberries, with a healthy-sized glob of whipped topping on the side and a few ginger thins from Trader Joe’s.

It’s a heavenly dessert that’s un-fussy, light and satisfying, and somehow always feels a little bit special.

Thanks for reading, friends! I’m so grateful you’re here.

Wishing you a peaceful and positive week ahead.

Minestrone Soup:

• Minestrone Soup: This recipe is from Love and Lemons, and is one of my favorites. I’ve made it many times, and it’s always very good. The recipe is here.

Tips, and what I added or changed:

• Add a rounded tablespoon of mellow white miso paste for an extra deep, cooked-all-day flavor in addition to the ingredients in the recipe. You don’t need to add it, but it does give the soup some extra deliciousness.

• Add 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar at the end of cooking time. The acidity really perks up the flavor of almost any soup, definitely worth a try.

• I like to cook the pasta separately, and then add it when I heat up a portion in a saucepan. Leaving the pasta in the soup is fine too, but note that it’ll be extra thick and may need a little water to thin it out with reheating, since pasta releases starch into the broth.

• Serve the soup with a generous heap of Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil to make your bowl of Minestrone over the top tasty.

• I used McCormick’s Italian Seasoning instead of the called for thyme and oregano, and the results were great.

Flower Press Kit:

This is similar to the flower press kit I purchased recently, and it was easy to use. (Not an affiliate link.)

And this is the laminated bookmark situation I bought to go along with it. Have fun!