Cooking with Chef Jo: The BOB of the Cookbook & Italian Wedding Soup

BOB refers to the back of the book  Of course, I'm talking about the cookbook I've been compiling for the past four years. The last section has to be written out of the cookbook  I have to work on is my seasoning blends and dry mixes. I still need some goodies for the sweets section too, but otherwise I'm finished with compiling the recipes. The canning and preserving section is huge! It's been a long process with taking pictures taking the longest. There's almost 300 recipes by the time I called a halt to it. (over 160 published here on Wednesdays) This has been a true labor of love. Scratch cooking and baking at it's best from my homestead perspective.

I probably have a few hundred or more recipes and how-tos left in my brain for at least another cookbook or two. You can't have worked in food service, globe trotted, or listened for decades to older folks without collecting a recipes or two along the way after 60+ years on this planet. Yeah right, who am I kidding! Who would want another cookbook? Would you pay for an e-book or printed volume when you can just download 80% of the recipes from this area for free? Maybe my children would want a copy or my grandchildren if nothing else for posterities sake. Still there might be someone out there who might be interested in it. Who am I to deny them?

I haven't even started on the cover nor have I come up with a title as yet. I'm not sure what to do for the either. I figure our logo should be on it, but that's as far as I've gotten with it. This is totally unlike my previous writing experiences. n those cases the title and cover popped into my head while writing and in some cases before the story was story boarded. I'm tempted to do a plain background with our logo and just let it go. Whether I add colors to it...I dunno. I'm not as creative nor fru-fru as I once was. I also don't have my drawing software on this HP Stream either.

Now for the recipe I promised, Italian Wedding Soup. Most people find it daunting, but really it's quite easy especially if you've canned the meatballs previously. That's what I'm serving for dinner tonight along with some crusty garlic bread.

Italian Wedding Soup

Serves 6

What you'll need

1 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 c diced carrots, diced 1/4"*

1 1/2 c diced onions, diced 1/4"*

3/4 c diced celery including leafy green leaves, diced 1/4"*

5 pints chicken bone broth, or regular chicken broth

1 pint jar mini meatballs, if not see below for a recipe*

1 c orzo pasta

1/2 c dry white wine, such as a Chardonnay

2 tsp minced garlic

12 oz fresh spinach, escarole, or other tender green, chopped into 2" pieces

1/2 tsp dried basil

Parmesan Cheese for service

Notes=* I use the small grate on my Vidalia Onion chopper to make short work of chopping my vegetables a uniformed size.

* On average of 4-5 meatballs per serving. What can I say, I cram those little suckers in a pint jar. 😂

Putting it all together

• Drain the meatballs in a colander. Reserve the beef broth for another application.
• In a stock pot add the oil and bring up to heat, almost to smoking point.
• Add onions, garlic, carrots, and celery to the pot.
• Allow to sauté until onions are translucent.
• Pour in stock wine, and basil. 
• Allow the soup to simmer for twenty minutes.
• Add pasta, spinach, and meatballs to the soup. Cover and allow to get happy for 10 minutes at a simmer.
• Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese for service.

If you have not made meatballs previously, you'll need to make some for this soup.

You'll need

3/4 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground chicken

2/3 c bread crumbs

2 tsp garlic, minced fine

3 TBS dried Parsley

1/2 c Parmesan/Romano cheese, grated

3 TBS milk

1/2 tsp basil

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Putting it together

• In a bowl, place the bread crumbs and milk with the beaten egg. Allow 5 minutes to soak up all the milk/egg mixture.
• Place all ingredients into the bowl and mix together thoroughly.
• Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Take a TBS scoop and form the meatballs. 
• Brown the meatballs in a skillet or in a 350℉ oven.
• 
  Add to the soup.

Serving suggestion- Add a tossed salad with an herb vinaigrette and a slice of crusty garlic bread for a balanced meal. My version is so hardy that there just isn't room in our tummies for salad too. By using my home canned meatballs, this recipe is a thirty minute fix and sit down to eat meal.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo