It seems our heater decided to stop working, this morning. Naturally, we have a cold weather advisory and the repairman won’t be here until tomorrow. The good news is it’s not like the issues we had in Pennsylvania where we lost power for days at a time. Here, we have everything but a working furnace. There, we had nothing but a propane cooktop and candles. I’ll put on a sweater…

I decided that a nice, cold-weather dinner would be a lovely bean soup and freshly baked dinner rolls. Turn on the oven, warm the house, hot soup… totally win-win.

I started with the rolls… I thought about a loaf of bread, but decided rolls would work better for the next few days and I can freeze a bunch of them for later.

Soft Dinner Rolls

  • 4 to 4-1/3 cups bread flour
  • 2-1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

In mixer bowl, combine 3 cups flour, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, heat milk, butter and sugar to no more than 110°F. Add to dry ingredients; beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Add eggs; beat to combine. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).

Knead on medium speed until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a buttered bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into 24 portions; shape into balls. Place in a greased 13×9-in. baking pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 1 hour.

Bake at 375° until golden brown, 15-18 minutes.

 

 

The soup was a typical clean-out-the-‘fridge/pantry concoction…

  • 1 lb black beans
  • 1 lb Zenner’s Louisiana Red Hots
  • 2 qts beef broth
  • 1 qt water
  • 1/2 jar roasted red peppers
  • 1 can stewed tomatoes
  • 3 carrots
  • 3 celery stalks
  • 1 leek
  • half an onion
  • S&P
  • garlic

Most soups in our house do not have recipes – they just become soup. I am my mother’s son…

 

 

 

It was definitely spicy! The Zenner’s Louisiana Hot Links are actually hot! Great flavor – it didn’t need a lot of extraneous herbs and spices except a bit of salt and pepper…

The perfect way to stay warm…