I made leek and potato soup this morning. It's really tasty and very nice in the fall.

Can I just say, Laurie, how grateful I am that you post recipes? I am recently divorced, and am struggling with the transition of cooking for one- fast food is just too easy!! Thanks for the great ideas- I can't wait to try them!

Meredith -- I have been struggling with that particular transition for years! So I do understand. What I've finally figured out is that I am worth the same amount of effort I used to put into his meals (our married meals) so I just find things I like and that are easy to freeze the leftovers. Or I make one big awesome meal that can double as lunches for the rest of the week.

It's working pretty great! Especially if you add hot sauce to all recipes LOL.

May I just say Bob is looking very handsome!!

Making soup is cooking. Pretty soon you'll be moving onto things like roasts and what not. What? Stop giving me that look. You will.

Weekend mornings in my bedroom is my favorite part of the week too! Unfortunately, (and excuse me because this is going to be kind of gross) my precious kitty has apparently had issues with not everything coming off in the litter box this week. Friday night I arrived home at midnight to find a brown streak all the way across my bed where she wiped her bottom to get it all off. So I was washing my comforter at midnight on Friday. This morning as I was about to walk out the door for work there was a repeat performance. This is making my bedroom my least favorite room in my house this week. I'm hoping for a non-streaky bed this weekend so I can relax and stop washing my comforter constantly.

Bob looks like he is waiting for you to jump back in bed with him!
I may just need to try the black bean recipe.
And I thought it never got cold enough to need a duvet! I hardly ever get cold enough for mine in MI!

A peaceful bedroom is a little bit of heaven in a crazy life. Add some smoochy cats and a good book and it's nirvana!

Pictures of Bob are just what we need - especially with everything going in the US right now. May I inquire as to what Bob is reading?

Another super easy culinary feat is salsa chicken -- I just put some chicken breasts in a baking dish (spray with pam or something similar first) and cover them with a jar of salsa (this is the ONLY time I ever use jar salsa) and bake at 325 for about an hour. You can use any kind of salsa, and it keeps the chicken really moist.
I really like this because theres essentially no prep to it at all.

Thank you--I hadn't caught the recipe mention the first time around. May I recommend the turkey meatloaf recipe from Ina Garten on the Food Network site. It is truly simple, very delicious and makes excellent leftovers (I know not everyone likes leftover meatloaf).

Jennifer - I think leftover meatloaf is one of the great luxuries in life. With ketchup. MMMMMM.

If it gets the least bit chilly where you are, check out FLEECE SHEETS. Not flannel--fleece. The kitties and I could snuggle in bed all day...and sometimes do! They do tend to hold stray fur more than cotton/percale, so match the color to your cats if at all possible.

Laurie, I've tried cooking the meal you can eat all week. It's lovely until Wednesday or so, when the SO and I look at each other and decide we can't face another lunch of whatever-it-is. Not even with extra hot sauce. Does this happen to you? And what do you do then?

I was inspired and made a really yummy pasta fagiole on Monday. I had leftovers for lunch yesterday and today and it was fantastic!

I'll need to find something for the rest of the week.

I've had that chicken and white bean chili saved in my recipe box at Epicurious for months. This might just be the weekend to make it. Also saved the black bean jollop.

Another option? Earlier this year, just before the last chick graduated HS and left the nest, I bought several "cooking for one" cookbooks. The Williams Sonoma one is particularly good.

Soup is cooking.

I also like to take a fish fillet, dab on a tablespoon or two of lemon/dill sauce from Central Market, wrap it in parchment, and nuke for two or three minutes [your mileage may vary]. Voila! moist, flavorful fish with very little effort.

I'm with you on the cornbread, except I like mine sweet, and washed down with a big glass of milk or buttermilk. *Heaven*!

Cooking something that lasts & can be reheated for a few days is brilliant. I love leaving work and knowing I don't have to cook.
(My cat has also striped the carpet from time to time Bevvy.) My problem now is a kitty that insists on sleeping on my pillow/head. Night sweats + cat on head do not aid in getting a good night's rest.

There is MEAT in red beans & rice? I had enough of (meatless) rb&r in 4th grade in Mississippi (then we moved), and crumbly squares of corn bread with an ice cold pat of margarine, that I resolved never to eat either one again. If I ever grew up. lol
I learned to cook for a family of five, and married or single, that is what I cook for. Most things freeze, or can be fed to friends if you don't want it again and again and again.
Love the Bob face.

Sue-Ellen you don't have to put meat in red beans in rice, but the cajun way usually has some spicy sausage in it.

Kinnexa, I don't get tired of my lunches because they're just kind of autopilot I guess. I'm at work at don't have a lot of time for languishing over lunch. It's just sustenance at that point!

Why so disparaging about your own cooking? If it tastes good and stays down, I don't see what the problem is. Plus, making a meal last for days shows good economic thinking. You should get on the Once A Month Cooking bandwagon. A couple of day's hard graft and the freezer is full of goodies to last till next payday, and saves me a small fortune.

By the way, you have such a lovely tidy bedroom. Mine looks like I've been burgled.

Black bean soup! I make something very similar to the Epicurious recipe all the time (like every few weeks in the winter), but tear up a little rotisserie chicken to add to it. Yum.

Good for you and the sneaky kale. But I find that bean recipes make me painfully gassy. Any way to avoid that? Because I love em and they're nutritious, filling and cheap.

I have been meaning to tell you. My cat Mr. Bailey could be Bob's twin.

I think crockpot/slow cooker cooking is the modern version of cooking on the hearth or over an open fire. Throwing stuff in a pot of some kind and letting it simmer over heat for awhile is probably the oldest method of cooking there is. And actually, it's good that we still retain a version of it in the modern day. We're just doing what our ancestors did.

Sunday mornings are the best. When I don't have an early soccer game I enjoy watching/listening to 'Private Sessions' on A&E then swtich over to 'Sunday Morning' on CBS before a bacon, egg and pancake breakfast (that's what I cook or is that fry?).

It's finally time to pull my head out and rejoin you, your lovely group and the cats that I missed so much. Life can make you do crazy stuff.

I love your white and simple but peaceful look. I wanted warm sunshine in my bedroom and went for a pale, what I call 'butter yellow' on my walls to keep the warm light feel (the old white walls were just too stark in the light). Now only white trim and ceiling. Very cozy and a little cottage-y.

To me, soup is the ultimate in therapeutic cooking--that and stew and spaghetti sauce, there's just something cozy about all the chopping and stirring and seasoning and then the lovely smell as it cooks. Of course by the time it's done I'm already sick of it because I tasted so much...For leftovers that are versatile I like to cook a whole chicken, much cheaper than buying one that the grocery store has already cooked for you, and theirs are always much smaller.

I endorse the salsa chicken recipe, only in my case I used "indian salsa"--comes in a jar and has east indian ingredients. Fabulous and absolutely minimal assembly involved.

I also use a 10-min. brown rice in a bag that tastes just like the 45-min. stuff. Success brand, here in NH.

We're big on bednests here, shutting out the blizzards and snow, snuggling with cats and books and wine/hot tea is the only way to survive our winters.

Hey - you're really cooking there.

Cooking is cooking! You're doing just fine.

Don't discount your efforts... YOU'RE COOKING!! You go girl!

Thank you for the link to the recipe for Red Beans and Rice! I am always trying to recreate the version that the Good Earth restaurant served. I'll give this one a try!

Faith - I'm with you - meatloaf is one of life's great gifts.....I LOVE meatloaf!! If you don't have time to do your own Safeway has an awesome meatloaf in their fresh made section - It's not too expensive either - Especially when you figure its one good dinner and weeks worth of meatloaf sandwiches :-)

Red beans and rice with sausage sounds GOOD! With the Texas heat waning a bit, I might just dust off the stove and do some cooking this weekend.

all this talk of food is making me hungry.

it's definitely soup season!

I noticed you said "package" of kidney beans, not "cans". I also know you're as fond of your crock pot as I am. BE CAREFUL!! Crock pots don't always cook kidney beans to a high enough temperature, and that can make you sick! See this link:

http://www.professorshouse.com/food-beverage/food/kidney-beans.aspx

I recommend using only canned beans for your beloved crock pot and save the dried ones for stovetop cooking only. Unless you cook the dried beans first, which is so NOT the point of a crock pot! I don't even brown meat first when I use mine. :)

Bob is very handsome, btw.

Love the way your bedroom looks! And yes, making a big batch of something on the weekend so you can eat healthy all week IS being a healthy domestic goddess! Am happy for you and the cats.

Yay for snuggling with the cats! I am right there with you except in addition to my cats, I also have a pug. Lucky for me, he often likes to sleep in--not one of those dogs who is eager to get out of bed and go outside.

Soup, beautiful soooooooooooooup!

It looks serene, peaceful and clean.

Have you tried Escarole soup with little meatballs? It is really good and easy to make also. My mom used to make it for Easter.

Welcome back Psychomom!! You know how much I missed you here!! ;o)

If you're using more than silverware and a glass, it's cooking. Doing something simple rather than complex does not make it less worthy! Kinnexa, when (if) I cook, I make two meals, and stick the leftovers in single serving containers in the freezer. The first week I supplement leftovers with sandwiches from home for lunch, but then if I make 2 more options the next weekend, there are plenty of different things for lunch. If you keep it up, and remember to keep moving the really old stuff to the front of the freezer, in no time you have a huge variety, and can choose to cook a bit less.

Those are "envelope" pillowcases???/
Serta?

Those are "envelope" pillowcases???/
Serta?
My fave brand.

steven and meredith like to curl up in bed with me before sleepytime and snuggle close as I read a book. as sson as the lights go out, they scatter to wherever they want to sleep.

and even if you use a slow cooker and cook only on sundays, you are STILL COOKING! YAYZ!

Oh, I just love reading about everybody's cooking endeavors. It's behaving like fall here in south Georgia, so I'm looking forward to cooking some soups. About once a year my DH smokes a couple of pork butts and a few chickens, then he shreds the meat and stores it in freezer bags and we have ingredients for all kinds of things: smoked chicken quesadillas, pork and black bean soup, chicken salad, chicken enchiladas. I'm sure there are things we haven't even thought of yet. Laurie, I love reading your blog. I get so many good ideas from you and from the comments. Thanks!

Here in Minnesota it's definitely getting time for a down comforter and a big bowl of soup. The black bean cilantro lime sour cream soup sounds absolutely wonderful and something that Ole can eat. It's tough to find good soups that Ole can eat because he's diabetic. So many of them are so carbohydrate based that I tend to stay away from making them. I'm going to give it a try this week.

"Don't answer that. I'm happy with things the way they are."

That's what's important! As long as you're pleased with the system, it's good.

Of course, if you agree with me, then you have to not pay attention to my opinion, right?

My dad made meatloaf last night...well, actually he made the meatloaf about 3 weeks ago. He mixed up all the stuff and molded it into the loaf shape, and then he froze it without cooking.

He got home last night, sooooo tired from a bad day at work. He didnt want to go out, and he didnt want to slave over the stove, so he pulled out the frozen meatloaf, tossed it in the oven and I made veggies on the stove for him. My mom (who always wants to go out to eat) only complained a little. We ate all but a slice of the meatloaf (that will be someone's dinner tonight)

I really enjoy it when my dad brings something he's pre-made out of the freezer to have for dinner. I think we'll have to haul out the crockpot and make my dad's wonderful minestrone soup sometime soon...mass quantities so that we can freeze it for a day where no one really wants to cook so much as just heat something up. What I like about that, is that the soup/sauce/whatever usually tastes even better.

Now I'm hungry for my dad's minestrone. We may be getting the crockpot out early.

I've made that black bean soup before. It makes A LOT. i used canned black beans though instead of dry ones. Tasted great. I actually made it for a dinner party that I hold every year. That year was the southwest thanksgiving and this was the first course. everyone loved it.

so i recommend that one. :)

Pictures of Bob always make me smile! He reminds me so much of my old cat.

Thanks for sharing your kitties with us.

:-)
Sue

My bed is my sanctuary, too and I love the way you wrote about yours. My favorite time of day is when I get in to bed and my sweet Ms.Graysea awaits me. She always sleeps in my spot warming my place for me. I give her some Temptations (her addiction) and then I settle in to read with her warmth beside me and she places her head under my hand so I will pat her. In the cooler weather these days she wants to get under the covers.
On the weekends when my guy is home she loves to be between us and get double the love and we love it, too. Weekend mornings are sacred for us....I, too, have worked hard to keep my bedroom very simple like you have done. It seems soothing.
Bob is beyond words....love your cooking "segments". They are very inspiring.

I have 3 cats too, and at night when I go to bed, they all snuggle up. They are Ted, Whiskers & Gus. Love those cats!

I always love snuggling with my kitty. I know it's going to be a good day if I wake up with my Maahes beside me.

I made soup yesterday too! 1 big onion, lots of sliced baby carrots (they got a little tired looking after this weekend), a little celery and garlic in olive oil. After about 10 min I added 2 of those Aidell chicken sausages, then 5 min later a bag of yellow split peas(very important, the yellow ones are so nice), and 3 cans of chicken broth. I think it simmered for an hour. Perfect for our chilly sf summers. Or is it autumn now? The cat has his nose buried in the radiator and I'm about to find the Baileys! Brrr!

Sure sign of the season: talk turns to soups, comforters, and cats in beds. I can tell it's fall because my Evangeline comes in and sleeps on me. Me? I like having the sheet,the Hudsons Bay, a quilt, then the feathertick. And I have a fleece sort of sleepsack with arms that my friend made...inside of which I wear long socks too. When I get ready for bed in the winter I look like a Polish immigrant (yep, right down to the shawls and babushka, you wanna make some'n of it?) But I agree, if you're really GOOD, when you die you find yourself in a huge comfy bed draped in cats, with a pile of books next by that magically changes every two weeks. Thank you, now I'm going to bed.

Here in Sydney we are just coming out of soup season and into grilled-something-and-salad season. But the crockpot gets used year-round. Today I made 6 litres of meatsauce for a lasagne for next week. The mince I buy has to be used within 24 hours or it goes off (no preservatvies). I'm going to try your chicken and white beans recipe - that is sure to go down well here.

Love your bedroom. The idea of a room just FULL of bed and next to nothing else is just heavenly. Love the clean, pure white too.

I took a cooking class a couple of years ago. Guess what was the first thing we learned how to prepare? SOUP!

You really should check out this website: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ Detailed cooking instructions, funny commentary, and really good food. The Smash Hot Potatoes are my personal favorite and so easy to make. Check out the rest of the site while you are there and look in the archives for past recipes. And you have to check out the story she is writing, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - her own personal love story. I have no connection to this site -it is just one of my favorites

I tried the white bean chili and it was wonderful.For those of you that want to try a few more recipes here are a few very amazing websites with ALOT of great recipes. bigoven.com foodnetwork.com bbc.co.uk/food/recipes.my favorite room is my bedroom also. my alone time with my kitties.

We call our king-size bed "Pack Central" because it's where hubby and I and the two Springer Spaniels find the most peace and contentment. If one is missing, the other three are restless and have difficulty sleeping. I never knew two dogs could confiscate so much "real estate!"

You're light years ahead of most people your age. Keep up the good thinking and doing and living well.

In CT we are heading towards what me & the hubby call "Two Cats on the Bed Nights". Both our cats love to come and snuggle & we use jersey sheets which are a nice in between the season sheet. Nelson & Casey (our kity kids)agree!
Looking forward to trying the soup recipes!

Laurie . . . thanks so much for your wonderful, ongoing 'blog'? Well, it's so much more than that. The readers' comments are so much a part of the whole enterprise. I look forward each day to the next installation and the readers' comments on food, life, love, cats and all of the large and small issues that make up our days. Hopefully, this happy situation will continue for a very lengthy time.

If you ever get a chance, try this recipe: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000125kale_and_roasted_vegetable_soup.php
It is one of the best soups I have ever had because of the Kale. I am not a big Kale fan, but this recipe has made me think twice about it.

Sounds like real cooking to me. Who dictated that we have to eat something different every day?

The Diet From Hell has basically sucked all the cooking mojo right out of me. One of these days, though, I will sit down with the list of what I can eat that actually makes me feel like eating, as opposed to just refueling.

Your bedroom is such a cozy space. I need one of those.

Laurie, I agree that nighttime is the best part of the day....my Bucca can't wait for me to climb into bed so he can lay on my legs and settle in for the night. If I am reading a book however, he tries to eat the pages..go figure! Oh, Bob is freakin' handsome!!

Awesome post!!! :) What an adorable kitty Bob is!

I love soup especially anything with beans toss into the pot, Although I never try rice with beans before...I will be looking forward at something from your kitchen that you will slap together using rice...it will give me something to do with my beans too.

Handsome cat and he looks great on white too.

I envy you your pretty while comforter. Having three black pets makes that a disaster for me, but it is heartening to see in someone else's life!
Just want you to know that I tune in to your blog every day, hoping for a new entry. You make me smile. : )

Sounds heavenly.

Ooh, my mother makes escarole with white beans and it is to DIE for! Definitely try that one. Lots of garlic!

I have a good recipe for your first "roast" - super easy, and very impressive for any guests (or just for yourself!).

7 bone-in pot roast (it is not expensive at all)
heavy duty tin foil (large)
potato's
carrots
2 cans of cream of mushroom soap
1 package of dry lipton onion soup mix

Put the meat, potato's and carrots (both peeled and cut in half - potatos in quarters if they are really big) in a pan that is lined with the heavy duty tinfoil (leaving the tin foil hanging way over the edges of the pan). Mix up the mushroom soup & the lipton soup. Spoon over the meat. Seal up the tin foil around all of it. Cook at 350 degrees for 2 hours. It is fantastic and makes it's own gravy!!!

That Epicurious RB&R recipe leaves out some VERY important ingredients. In addition to the onion you must add green bell pepper and celery. No authentic pot of beans is without that "trinity." Oh, and some thyme, and a bay leaf.

Mmmmm - love this time of year, when it's cool enough to use the oven, but still warm enough we don't have to turn on the furnace yet.

Last night I made a boneless pork roast with potatoes, onion, and cabbage. No carrots, unfortunately - the DH keeps taking them to work to feed the wild rabbits (LOVE that guy!).
And another full meal later in the week, with NO COOKING required - ahhh, Pot Roast Season!