Mmm..mmm.. good

I love winter.

One of the main reasons is it always puts me in the mood to cook and bake. And you know me, I won’t do anything, unless I’m in the mood.

I’ve made up some delicious soups in the last week and yesterday I made spice cookie cut outs and today I made yeast donuts. Even though there are only four people in my family, and half of them are 30 pounds or under, I seem to forget that and cook for a legion.

I have a huge tray piled with donuts if anyone wants to come over for some. I can’t offer you a cookie though, as those are earmarked for our cookie exchange at MOPS. Sorry!

Cheesy Potato Soup:

3 Yams, peeled and chopped
6 potatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cans of chicken broth
1 can water
Cooked bacon, crumbled
cheddar cheese

Combine first five ingredients, boil until vegetables are tender. Coarsely mash with potato masher. Place in bowls, top with bacon and cheese. This was SOOOO Good, I surprised myself.

Kielbasa Soup (I’d like to call this a borscht, but since I don’t really know what that word means, I guess I’d better not.)

1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 can chicken broth
3 cans water
6 potatoes, chopped
1/2 pound fully cooked kielbasa, chopped
one package coleslaw mix (3 c. shredded cabbage & carrots)

Combine first six ingredients, boil until potatoes are tender. Add cabbage and carrots. Simmer about 10 minutes more. Fantastic!

(Warning: especially if you are pregnant, this recipe may cause super stinky toots)

Spice Cookie Cutouts:

3 sticks (1 1/2 c.) butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 lg egg, room temp
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t salt
4 c flour

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in remaining ingredients. Beat in flour on LOW speed.
Shape dough into 3 balls, flatten each to 1″ thick discs. Wrap & chill 1 hour or until firm.
Heat oven to 375º. Roll out dough one piece at a time to 1/4″ thick, cut out. Bake until bottoms and edges are just brown, 10-12 minutes for 3″ cookies.

Frost with decorators icing ( I haven’t gotten to this part, but they are really good plain!)

For the donuts I made today, I just used my great-grandmother’s cookbook for the sweet dough recipe and then I actually made what are known as Nantucket Donuts/Frogs/Fried Men–which basically means you just tear off pieces of dough to fry instead of making formed donuts.

As an aside, I love this cookbook! My mom has the actual original, which is the one I learned to cook with, and I have the reprint. I love looking back at a time when being a homemaker was considered by all to be an important profession and no one was ever “just” a stay-at-home-mom.