Winter Musings

Hello once again!

About a week ago, we celebrated my husband's and son's name day, St. Anthony, which occurs on January 17. The Greeks typically celebrate name days for the saints that they are named after. So many Greeks are named after saints, like John, George, Nicholas, Mary, Anthony, Peter, Paul, and so on. Since my name is Hypatia, which is not a saints name (but from an ancient female mathematician in Alexandria), the closest I come to celebrating my name day is March 31st, which is St. Hypatios day.

We are in the heart of old man winter, cold and blustering and white with snow! Received several inches of snow today. Everything was blanketed in majestic white. Since I'm a stay at home mom, had already done the shopping yesterday in preparation for the snow. Stayed home and enjoyed it. So of course our son had to go out sledding, and we joined him. First we made a hill and with his sled, went on top of it and flew down the hill.

Made a wonderful bean soup today from stockpiled cans of beans. I like to always have extra cans of something (beans, beans, and more beans - ha!) around, just in case, for an emergency. I periodically run through them and see if the expiration date is near. Today I found a few cans of kidney beans, and garbanza beans expiring this month, so I made the following soup, which was scrumptious! It's great when the weather is cold outside. I have the recipe below. Good for 9 servings. Enjoy!

Patty's Bean Soup

3 cans Kidney Beans
1 can Garbanzo Beans
2 large carrots, sliced
1 celery, sliced
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/5 cabbage, sliced
2 zuccini, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 large can crushed tomato (sauce)
1 cup uncooked macaroni (or tiny shells)
virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
oregano

Add all the ingredients (except zuccini and pasta) to a large pot filled with 2/3 water. Let cook over medium heat for half hour to forty minutes (until carrots are somewhat tender). Add zucchini and pasta. Cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat. Spoon into bowls and top with shredded cheese. Ummm...good!

If you try the recipe, let me know.

Take care and stay warm!