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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Free: Soup, Apples,Garlic, Bag

Three bags of soup mix. See the windows in the bags?
On Thursday night, I go to a church that serves a dinner for anyone in church or town. As the nutritional quality of the dinner has declined, the number of people has declined. The people who come now are a lower SES (socioeconomic status). Most have not finished hs and are elderly. Only a few of us have attended and/or graduated from college or have been in professional careers.

Since exbf was going to come here on Thursday, I asked if we could have our big meal at lunch and go to the dinner that evening. He agreed. My author friend was there, and my friend Lena. we all sit together. About halfway through the meal, we were given bags with bean soup mix. Exbf is not going to cook. Fred did not want his. Soooo, I got three bags.

The Vacation Bible School children made these bags of soup mix and wanted to share with us.  Ummm, I know where little kids have had their hands and can imagine how many beans were rescued from the floor. (Linda, take a deep breath.) Since the soup beans will be rinsed and boiled, I expect a good outcome. 

The bean soup mix was in a paper bag with a plastic window and little metal tabs to close the bag--impressive. The children had written a Bible verse. Some of the children had to be five- or six-years-old, while others were ten-years-old, judging from the handwriting.  On the back of the bag was a recipe:



The directions looks easy enough.



There are navy beans, kidney beans, green split peas, and barley to equal two cups. I measured it.
All these were in a quart storage bag. Maybe someone can clue me in on the beans if I got them wrong.

Seasonings
This is a very small bowl. Notice there a six bouillon cubes. I have never put more than one in a gallon of soup, so I will not put six in a half gallon! Even if they are low sodium, this is excessive. I have lots of pimiento jars where the other five will reside for another time.

I am going to put a half pound of free, cooked, very lean ground round in this. When I mentioned maybe I would, exbf was very emphatic with his approval. The man likes his meat.


When we went to get produce for the girls, the guy said he saw me coming as he was bagging these up. Exbf picked out three or four for himself. So the rest will either go in the dehydrator or be cooked as pie filling, which I will eat in a bowl with no pie crust.




Blogger won't allow me to put a caption. This is an elephant garlic a vendor gave me while I was discussing garlic growing with him at his booth at the farmer's market at the Fest Hall. He told me I could plant ""this one" as he handed it to me. Now, when do I plant?" Can I plant in a container?



At the festival on Friday night, our local Ford dealership was handing out bags.

Your turn
Do you know what kind of beans those are? I know there is barley, too. What did you get free lately?


10 comments:

  1. I see green split peas, barley, a few small red kidney beans, small white pea beans, but mostly you have pintos(the beige with speckles on them-BTW, the speckles will disappear after cooking!). If you think that you may tire of mixed bean soup, separate out the different beans, peas, lentils and store separately. That way, you can make a split pea soup on day, a beef-barley (or use barley as a casserole, a stew stretcher, etc), bake the white beans into baked beans or ham and beans or tuna and white bean salad over rice or pasta if desired, the pintos make a great topping over rice (sometimes called "soup beans" in the South.) you can also use the cooked pintos in tacos, enchilladas,etc.

    HTH

    ReplyDelete
  2. A nice lot of beans - such a good idea. Borlotti beans come to mind but I'm not sure!
    Lovely garlic and, yes, definitely it can be grown in a container.
    I sometimes use pie apple filling drizzled over rhubarb and baked in the oven with a few raisins or sultanas then there's hardly any sugar needed :D)

    ReplyDelete
  3. CTMom,
    Thanks for the id. And, separating them is a good idea. I will refer to ideas for cooking you mention.

    Sisan,
    I will do that with two of them. I never thought of apples over rhubarb. It sounds delicious.And, I have not had breakfast...lol.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's the makings of some fine bean soup. I'd separate two bags, but just for for the gold with one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joanne,
      Separating two is a good idea. I was going to cook one as is just to see what exbf thinks of it. But, I will separate two bags so I won't be cooking tiny bits of soup. Thanks for the idea.

      Delete
  5. Hi Linda, you asked what we had been given free. My dear friend and neighbour had made a beef cassarole for visitors on Saturday and brought me a big bowl full. It was vary tasty, I returned the bowl next day full of blackcurrents grown in my garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eileen,
      That was a good freebie. That's what people in the South do--return the dish with something in it. It's a nice custom. Thanks for sharing that.

      Delete
  6. My partner won a big hamper from a FREE comp. In it was stuff for him, me and out daughter. Plus extras for gift giving.

    For me was a gardening book, a huge clay pot and seeds. A win that will keep on giving as produce grows for the table.

    He got more fishing gear which will help him catch fish for the table. He has won so much fishing gear this year in FREE comps so he hardly spends any money on his fishing gear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stephanie,
      All that garden stuff was great! "the gift that keeps on giving" I read on his blog once about his winning gear. But, I did not know he won so much all the time. He seems to be quite the fisherman.

      What did Anais get? Did you do a blog on that? It all sounds so interesting. Maybe he won it, but it came in your life.

      Delete
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.