Comfort soups for autumn that are one-pot wonders

These are the kind of soups that I just adore. Simple, honest ingredients simply presented in a classic healthy manner. This is the hallmark of New York Times food writer and cookbook author, Mark Bittman, one of my favorites if you look at my cookbook collection.

On top of the elegant simplicity of these soups, they’re healthy. Meat - or in this case, bacon - plays a supporting role to add flavor and depth. The technique is one that you should absolutely have in your quiver - braising. This is where you extract every ounce of flavor from the veggies to intensify the flavor and then add the liquid. Pan roasting the butternut squash with apples is another one of my all-time favorite techniques - add the white wine after roasting.

Finally, notice that Bittman varies the textures even within a single ingredient. Beans - some mashed and some whole. Squash, done with the same idea. This is so much more interesting both visually and from the standpoint of texture.

Super crunchy: wonton strips for salads and soups

This is just far too easy. Perking up a salad from boring to interesting isonly as far away as a bag of these very crunchy wonton strips. There is a flavor to suit any salad, and the nutritional data is spot on ( always a big deal with me)… low fat, zero trans fats, and low sodium.

They’re also very nice sprinkled on top of a bowl of soup, vegetables or eaten right straight from the bag as a snack - even once in awhile I need something REALLY crunchy tosatisfy.

At first, I thought I could only find these at Sav-Mart, but they’ve also shown up at Win-Co here in Reno. Go to their webpage and punch in your zip for stores nearest to you. They’re not bad on the price, and a bag goes quite a ways, so they’re economical, too.

http://www.freshgourmet.com/pages/where-to-buy/index.php