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Minestrone Soup. This has to be one of my all-time favorite soups. I have been making it for at least 10 years and it is such a reminder of Fall. I make this soup many, many times every Fall (and winters, too!) Nothing beats the smell of onions & garlic cooking on the stove in some olive oil. I love it. This is a great, very healthy and hearty soup. Most ingredients you’ll have on hand. The spices are what make this soup wonderful, so definately invest in them if you don’t already have them (i.e.,. celery seed). It will make many, many future pots of soup for you. My sweet Mother gave me this recipe and it hails  from the "Skinny Soup" cookbook. The recipe below has already been doubled (the soup will keep for a few days in the fridge and it’s very good the next day). It will serve approx 8 people.
Minestrone Soup

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• I large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, miced
• 8 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
• 28 oz can of tomato sauce (or crushed tomato’s)
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 med-sized carrots,  sliced
• 2 potato’s, cut into cubes
• 2 med-sized zucchini, diced
• 1/2 C fresh parsley, chopped (or you can use 1 Tbsp dried)
• 1 C small pasta (shells, macaroni, etc.,)
• 1/2 C Parmesan Cheese
• 2 tsp. dried basil leaves
• 1 tsp. dried marjoram
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/4 tsp. ground celery seed
• Dash of cayenne pepper

Directions:
Over medium heat, in a sautee pan combine olive oil, onions & garlic and  3 Tbsp of stock. Sautee until onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the remaining stock, tomato sauce, celery, carrot, potato, zucchini and all spices (do not add pasta or parmesan). Mix and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and simmer for 15 mintues. Bring to a boil again and add pasta & parmesan. Reduce to a simmer  for an additional 20 minutes. I usually sprinkle some more parmesan on top  once it’s served. Enjoy!

One of my other favorite fall foods to make? Apple Pie. Now mind you, in general I am not a fan of pie. I just don’t like the crust. Others would argue the crust is the best part, but nah… I’ll stick to moist chocolately cake. Unless, of course, you are talking about this pie, which I absolutely adore! One of the reasons that I like this pie so much is that it only has a crust on the bottom. The top is a crumb mixture of oats, brown sugar and butter. THEN (yes, there is a then) it’s drizzled with caramel. I love this pie. My sweet friend Sarah gave me this recipe a few years ago and it’s a huge hit everytime. I am not sure where she got it, so I’ll just give all the credit to her. Thanks, Sarah!! Oh yeah, we used this, which had all the apples peeled in about 2 minutes flat! I love this thing!

Your pie will most likely not look like the one pictured. The reason for this is that I wanted to try out my new handy dandy tart pan which I picked up at Ikea not too long ago and it’s much wider than your standard pie dish. If you are using a standard sized 8" or 9"  pie dish, the apples will make a nice big mound on the top (even after baking) and won’t look as flat as the one I made. It was good none the less. Here’s the recipe:

Apple Pie

• 1 Pastry crust for a deep dish 9" pie (you can make one or purchase a ready-made one)
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp Apple Pie Spice OR Cinnamon (or allspice works great, too)
  
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 6-8 Cups Apples, sliced thinly

Crumb Topping:

• 1 C Brown Sugar
• 1/2 C rolled oats
• 1/2 C Flour
• 1/2 C Butter

Directions:
Stir together brown sugar, flour & oats. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until topping resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, flour, spice & salt. Add apples & toss to coat. Put into pie shell. Add all of the crumb mixture on top of the apples (until all the apples are covered with the mixture). You will need to press it onto the apples to make it stay. You can cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil for the first 25 minutes to prevent burning, but I usually avoid this step and the pie turns out fine. Bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes. Allow the pie to cool for 10-15 minutes & drizzle the top with your favorite caramel. Enjoy!