"Straight from the Farm" news and stories

Just in time for January's National Soup Month, Jennie over at Straight from the Farm is doing a week-long series on distinctive soups. She went searching through her vast collection of cookbooks, returning to her copy of A Good Day for Soup (a cookbook I don't own, but now intrigues me after reading Jennie's positive description).

So far she's offered up a recipe for peanut soup that I find absolutely delicious-sounding, as well as recipe for chilled tomatillo soup that was a great way to use up some of the salsa verde that she made and froze after the summer harvest. Make sure to check back with Jennie all week long so that you don't miss any of her soup week offerings.

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I am constantly in awe of my friend Jennie's (she of Straight from the Farm fame) level of food creativity. She is constantly coming up with delicious new recipes, doing things like making cheese (people keep telling me that cheesemaking is easy, but I've yet to give a whirl) and making cranberries dance and sing (well, not literally). But I do believe that she has outdone herself this time with these jars of homemade dulce de leche. It actually appears to be pretty easy to make and if you're looking for a last-minute homemade holiday gift, this might be your answer.

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Looking for a seasonal treat that would appeal to kids and adults alike? If so, I recommend you check out Jennie's recipe for Pumpkin Pop-Ups with Brown Sugar Icing. One day she found herself in the paper goods aisle at a local grocery store and wondered if it would be possible to bake a dessert in a non-waxed Dixie cup. One try later and she discovered that not only is it possible, but it gave these pumpkin cookies (I can't help but think that they look more like muffins than cookies) an appealing and unique shape and presentation. They'd make a perfect dessert contribution to any party you might be attending over the weekend as they are easily transported and packed with pumpkin-y goodness.

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Now that it is officially fall, I declare open season of soup (no matter that it is still a balmy 80 degrees during the day here in Philly). I see bowls of vivid orange squash soups in my future. Vats of chicken noodle and beef barley. And buckets of potato leek soup. It's the potato leek that I'm currently obsessed with, ever since I saw Jennie's post on the Roasted Rosemary Potato Leek soup she whipped up over the weekend. Roasting the potatoes before simmering and blending is an inspired idea (and I'm sort of sad I didn't think of it first). But no matter, the idea is out there now and it's deliciousness must be captured and consumed.

Her recipe is after the jump, but please go over and check out her site, as she posted of the soup from start to finish and they are tantalizing.

One year when I was growing up my dad grew these little lemon cucumbers. They don't have a lemon flavor, they are pure cucumber in taste, but the exterior looks like a lemon tennis ball. I love the way that Jennie from the blog Straight From the Farm has hollowed out these little lemon cucumbers and turned them into appetizer-sized soup bowls. She has posted the recipe for a cucumber-almond soup that seems to go perfectly in these little cups.