Soup's On

Cold winter days seem to go on forever.
Even when the sun shines brightly, the wind is still bone-chillingly bitter..
It's the perfect time to warm up with a hearty bowl of homemade soup.
Today's choice is White Bean and Ham soup.
Enjoy 💗

Navy or Northern Beans
Cabbage
Onions
Carrots
Celery
Ham Hock
Smoked sausage or Kielbasa sliced
Chicken Stock
Bay Leaf
Garlic powder 
Salt and Pepper

Soak beans overnight, discard water, add chicken stock, ham hock, smoked sausage, herbs, and seasoning, bring to the boil and then simmer for one hour. 

Add chopped cabbage, onions, carrots, celery, continue to simmer for an additional hour and a half.
Add water if needed.

Serve with buttermilk cornbread, or your favorite loaf of crusty bread.
Yum !

Wolf Moon

 The first full moon of 2022 — the "Wolf Moon" — shines bright in the sky tonight.

 

 

Brightly the moon like a jewel is beaming,

White in the east, o'er a lone landscape gleaming,

Over the meadows and over the snow,

Glimmering, shimmering, silvery glow.

Low in the east, when the gloaming is ending,

Slowly this white winter moon is ascending,

Looming so large and appearing so nigh,

Satellite framed by a star-spangled sky.

High in the sky, with soft radiance teeming,

Nigh to the time when men, women, are dreaming,

Weird is her splendor on valley and hill,

Cold is her gleam upon river and rill.

Brightly the moon like a jewel is shining,

White in the west she is slowly declining,

Beautiful Moon ! Which beams gorgeous and grand

Over the homes of our own Native Land.
 

~Charles Nevers Holmes. 1926

Silent And Soft

We awoke to another snowfall this morning.

Beautiful to look at, but I have the suspicion folks are really looking for a few constant days of sunshine right about now. 

 

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,

Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,

And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet

Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

The Snow Storm ~ Ralph Waldo Eme

 

                                                       

                                                   ⛄⛄