I’d prefer mists and mellow fruitfulness, but poor HMB seems to have caught her very first cold so we’ve got a lot of sneezing & snarfing and not much snoozing around here the past few days.
Luckily I went a little crazy in the kitchen and made two big pots of soup at the same time the other night, so there was plenty to eat that can be quickly heated up in between sessions of calming down and distracting a sick baby.

I’ve made one of these before, and the other is new to me, and they both (hurrah) came out delicious. The one on your left is Zucchini Parmesan Soup, and on the right is Beef and Sweet Potato Stew. The stew is inspired by the one in the FABULOUS book Apples for Jam. Mine is different enough that I don’t feel bad about sharing the recipe here, but I highly recommend buying the book. It is so inspiring and beautiful.
Without further ado, the recipes!
Zucchini Parmesan Soup
3T butter
1tsp olive oil
1 lb Zucchini, diced
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1/4 t ground nutmeg
2 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 c parmesan, grated
1/2 c carrots, diced quite small.
Put butter and oil in a large pot over medium heat until hot. Throw in zucchini, onions and garlic and cook, stirring frequently for 10 minutes. Add the nutmeg and broth and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes (check to be sure the zucchini is nice and soft, if not, keep simmering until it is). Puree half the soup in a blender or food processor (I just ladled out half of it and pureed the stuff in the pot with my immersion blender). Return all of soup to pot, add carrots, cream and parmesan and simmer, stirring frequently (so the cheese doesn’t stick to the bottom) until the carrots are tender. Serve alongside some salt and pepper. Yum!
Beef & Sweet Potato Stew
4T olive oil
1.5 lbs stew beef, cut into 1.5″ chunks
1 onion, diced
2 T butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup marsala wine (or regular red if you have some on hand)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
3 cups beef broth (or hot water if you haven’t any broth)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into similar size chunks as your meat.
Heat oil in a big, heavy pot until nice and hot. Brown the beef over high heat until it has a nice color on all sides. Put in the onion and cook, stirring until it is golden and soft. Add the butter and garlic and cook for a minute or two. Throw in the wine and let it cook down all the way. Add the tomato sauce, broth and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Cover then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1.5-2 hours (go closer to 2, it will be yummier), stirring every so often. Uncover, add potato chunks and cook for another 30 minutes, until tender but not total mush. If you like, add a handful or so of egg noodles in the last 8 minutes of cooking time, otherwise serve with noodles, potatoes or bread! YUM! It is sort of a sweet/savoury thing, but so simple and comforting on a cold evening!
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