Some folks would call a pot of Lima Beans, a main dish soup of ham and beans, while other's may call it a side dish. Here at the cottage it is both a main dish and a side dish. We love this recipe served with a great skillet of cornbread as a main dish or a leftover side dish for a meal the next day. The recipe that I have is a family recipe that has been passed down to me through the generations of amazing cooks in our family. This recipe is budget friendly with just a few ingredients and seasons. As my Grandmother would say, this is a good tasting pot of Lima's!

  We have had an abundant harvest in our garden this year. We have been able to can and preserve a lot of that harvest and one of those food products is our Potato & Tomato Garden Soup. This is a great soup recipe that can be used as a stand alone soup or as a soup base. The soup base is perfect to add other garden vegetables and or a meat protein there are so many delicious possibilities. At one time  I canned this soup in quarts because all the kids were still home, but today I can it in the pints for just the two of us. If I need more I just use two jars instead of one. This recipe is for a big batch, but you can sure cut it in half if you need to. We love this soup and is delicious any time of the year!

Our Veggie Burger Soup is one of those comfort soups that will make you feel oh so good after a long days work. It is a light but hearty soup, it is easy to put together and the flavor really delivers. We are serving it with a scoop of rice in the center of the bowl as the rice slowly soaks up some of the soup broth, it is really delicious! 

Pinto Beans are a staple here at the cottage and I love this recipe for the Instant Pot. I don't always remember to soak the beans overnight and this recipe allows me to cook the dry beans and have them on the table in a very short time. The blend of flavors for these beans are a combination of the region that we came from and are a part of our family. My Grandmother had a pot of pinto beans on the back burner of her wood burning stove most of the time and we have come a long way since that time, but the flavor has not changed.  Our Pinto Bean Soup is very versitle as a soup, side dish and addition to several other recipes. 

When my family wants a great pot of chili and my day is to busy to let it simmer all day, I head for the Instant Pot. I converted this recipe for the Instant Pot and it is every bit as good as the one that simmers all day. This is a Tex-Mex Chili that has all the wonderful Tex-Mex seasons made the Texas way. No we don't put beans in authentic Texas chili, however this is Tex-Mex so yes we did use the beans. We will be serving this for a family dinner, game day gatherings, and it is great for a friendly chili cook off!

Pozole is Spanish for hominy, which is a product that is made from corn. The Corn is soaked in an alkali solution then the corn is washed removing the alkali solution and most of the outside husk, then it is dried and we have hominy. We love hominy and once had it right from the farm where the corn had been raised. The traditional Pozole Soup has meat and vegetables, but the meat is usually pork. Today we are changing it up just a bit and adding beef, to give it a whole new flavor and one that our family loves. This recipe has southwest seasons that makes it a real hit here at the cottage!

There is really nothing better on a rainy day than a hot bowl of soup, and our Ham and Wild Rice Soup will sure make the day better. No matter if it is a cold winters rainy day or a lovely spring rain, this soup will sure give you a warm cozy feeling and fill the tummy with a healthy soup. This soup has layers of flavor that will produce a delicious soup filled with wild rice, vegetables and country ham, it is a complete meal! Slow Cooker Ham and Rice Soup just simmering all day to develop fantastic flavor and ready for the family at the end of the day!

I always save some of the  Baked Country Ham for this soup. The flavor of this soup when cooked in the pressure cooker is fantastic. Making the Split Pea Soup in the pressure cooker makes a very smooth soup. The peas dissolve into a puree, without putting it into a blender and no soaking the peas the night before. This is a Southern Split Pea and Ham Soup that has been passed down in our family and adapted to the pressure cooker.

It is so much fun to sit here by the fire with a nice cup of tea and plan a nice cozy meal plan for next week. The snow has started to fall and it is very beautiful, although I don't think it will be with us very long.  It's just a good time to stay indoors and cozy up. The Flu is so bad here that 3 of our local schools will be closed for the next several days. I am so glad that I have enough food here in my pantry, home canned food, freezer and garden cold bins we don't have to go anywhere for awhile.

We are a Chili loving family, and we are always looking for a different chili or one that might have a special flavor. This White Bean & Chicken Chili has a very special flavor that we really enjoy. We have served this chili for many a game day gathering and it has also been a star at our Christmas Eve Mexican supper. It really is one of those recipes that will be great for any occasion.

We used to go to a restaurant called the Iron Tender and my favorite thing on the menu was their Steak Soup. After we moved away from that city we really missed their awesome Steak Soup, so I developed my own recipe for Steak Soup which is very close to the one we loved so much. This soup just simmer's all day in the slow cooker giving all the flavors a chance to come together to make this amazing soup. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!

When we bake a Country Ham we always have some left over. Through the years we have developed several recipes for the left over ham and Creamy Ham and Pea Soup is one of our favorites. This is a very creamy soup with a very fresh flavor topped with a hint of cheese. It only takes a few minutes to put this soup together and can be on the table in no time. We just love this soup anytime, but is really good on a cold rainy day.

When this soup starts to cook you can smell it all through the kitchen, and it smells fantastic! It is so nice to be able to come home after a busy day, open the door and know that this delicious Tex Mex soup is waiting for you. This is a great blend of Tex Mex flavors and one that our family really enjoys. I made this soup for a group of friends the other day and they all loved it, I sure hope you enjoy it as well!

I enjoyed my very first bowl of Cincinnati Chili at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati many years ago. I had only known a couple of different kinds of Chili at that point, a Texas Orginal Chili and New Mexico Chili, so the introduction of this Chili that could be enjoyed 1 to 5 different ways was very interesting to me. I really fell in love with Cincinnati Chili and have continued to make it through the years, I even have a recipe for it in my cookbook, Miz Helen's Kitchen Table. This recipe today is one that has evolved through the years and one that is a favorite. We call this Cincinnati Chili Nana's Way.

There is nothing better than a comforting pot of chili just about any time of the year, and we do love our chili here at the cottage. This recipe is a hearty chili with a bold flavor and is a little different because I used sausage for the meat in the chili and it is fantastic! I knew it was going to be a great recipe when I could smell it cooking and folks coming in the door would say, what in the world smells so good? We really enjoyed this recipe and sure hope you do!

Wonderful garden vegetables in the pot with some great spices and we have a garden to table treat for anytime of the year. This recipe started one rainy summer morning after I gathered the vegetables from the garden. As I began to clean the vegetables I had the thought that a nice garden chili would be delicious with all these fresh vegetables. As the chili began to simmer later in the morning, I knew that this would be a great pot of chili and so it is, we loved it and will be making this recipe the year round.

Corn and Green Chilies are one of the flavor combinations that our family just loves and with that just add a little chicken then we have a delicious chowder. I would like to say it is a great chowder for cold weather, but this one is great the year around. I am using the wonderful fresh corn that I put up for the freezer this summer, along with the roasted green chilies. Those fresh vegetables from the summer are priceless in the winter months. This is a thick stick to your ribs chowder or can be thinned down to make it more like a soup. Which ever way you prefer this is a fabulous blend of flavor. You will definitely want to try this recipe.

Texas Chili is a hearty dish that is very thick and full of spicy flavor.My husband says he knows the Chili Pot is on when he comes in the door, the smell is wonderful. True classic Texas Chili doesn't include beans or tomatoes, only beef and chili spices. We call it a "Bowl O' Red". We love our "Bowl O' Red" no matter the weather, but when its cold outside nothing beats a great Chili!

My Granddaughter called the other day and asked if I would send her the family Macaroni Soup recipe, which I did of course. I hadn't made that soup in a very long time and it sounded so good, and brought back some great memories. I used to make it often for the kids it was really one of their favorites and it was real easy to sneak some vegetables in their meal plan for the day. We really enjoy the soup and so glad she reminded me of one of our favorites.

The asparagus in the garden has just been beautiful this year because we have had so much rain. I just can't resist gathering that fresh asparagus and bringing it into the kitchen to create a delicious dish for my family. It is a chilly misty day and I decided to make a warm comforting chowder with the fresh asparagus. This recipe is so easy to put together and is wonderful we will be having this Roasted Asparagus Chowder is a great Garden to Table Recipe!