In the colder weather my favorite lunch is soup. Most weeks, I’ll make a pot. Most of the soups I make have a thick smooth base from pureed beans or vegetables. I enjoy brothy soups but don’t have as many in my normal repertoire. Enter this week’s recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Everyday Dorie for Cook the Book Fridays. Gingered-Turkey Meatball Soup is a brothy soup. It’s also hearty and delicious. Pretty simple too!

The hardest step (which isn’t hard) is making the meatballs. Ginger, fresh herbs, and lemon zest give the meatballs unexpected bursts of flavor.

Then you need to cut up some vegetables, whatever you are in the mood for or have on hand. I chose sliced carrots, sliced green cabbage, mushrooms, and spinach. At this point, you’re nearly done!

Bring the broth up to a boil. Homemade chicken or turkey broth would gild the lily here, but I used broth made from bouillon. Poach the meatballs by simmering them in the broth. I did this in two batches.

At the same time, bring a pot of water to a boil to cook the rice noodles which only take a few minutes to cook. The rice noodles rest in a bowl of cold water.

Once the meatballs are cooked, add the vegetables and meatballs to the pot and simmer until the vegetables cooked to your liking. About 5 minutes should do it.

If you’re going to finish the whole pot of soup in one meal, drain the noodles and add them to the pot to reheat. However, if you’re going to eat several meals from one pot, I suggest adding noodles to each bowl and ladling the soup over them. I warmed the noodles first by letting them sit in hot water for a few minutes.

Garnish the soup with fresh herb leaves. I used parsley and cilantro. And supply condiments to let everyone further flavor the broth with soy sauce, sesame oil, sriracha, and rice vinegar. I made scallion pancakes earlier in the week, so I went a simpler route and used the leftover dipping sauce which contained all these ingredients.

I LOVED this soup! The flavors were interesting and satisfying. The combination of meatballs, noodles, and vegetables made each bowl a complete meal. Winter has only just begun, so I know I’ll make this again over the rest of the season.

On the other hand, I made the Apple Custard Crisp a few weeks back when it was on our schedule. It was right before I went away for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t get around to posting on time.

Apple crisp is one of my signature desserts. My own is quite different than this version however I’m always open to trying something new. I’ll be honest. I didn’t like the texture of custard combined with apples plus the flavor was too lemony for me. I also consider crisp to be a vehicle for streusel topping. Dorie suggested starting with half of the streusel in the recipe, I used all of it and still didn’t think it was enough. A fail for my house.

I said I’m open to new things. This week I made an Apple-Persimmon Crisp from the latest issue of Bake from Scratch magazine. It was a winner, with or without caramel drizzled on top. I’ve only eaten persimmons a few times, but the more I eat them, the more I like them. The flavor reminds me of melons. Try it, you’ll like it.

Happy Cooking all month, my friends! I hope you eat many delicious meals, both at home and shared with friends.

Speaking of friends, check out what the other home cooks from Cook the Book Fridays thought about the soup and the crisp. If you want to make them yourself, the recipes are in Dorie Greenspan’s Everyday Dorie. The soup is on page 75, and the crisp is on page 276.