Saturday, January 23, 2010

Saturday Soup


I'm still here! Really. Life just gets busy around the holidays, but I'll bet you didn't know that. HAH!
Plus I've had some computer issues. My wonderful nephew EJ has been helping me a lot. More than a lot. I owe that young man. Now if only I could find all my music, but that's another story.

This morning, this sunny, wonderful Saturday morning, I decided to make soup. I was sitting on the living room sofa, laptop in lap, enjoying my solitude while everyone else was still abed, and decided to make soup.

There was a small container of leftover chicken broth in the freezer and two chicken sausage links leftover from last night's dinner. I had the starters. I chopped up a small onion and minced a couple of cloves of garlic, which I sauteed in the chicken broth. I chopped up the sausage links, too, then tossed those into the pot. I found some ancient parsley in the produce drawer. Some of the leaves weren't at all slimy, so I chopped up some that, too. Then I raided my food cupboard and found a can of black beans and a large can of crushed tomatoes with basil.

It smells wonderful.

I really want to get back into cooking again, a beloved pastime I abandoned while my children were younger. Fussy eaters added to working all day followed by after-school events just wore me out. But now only X-Chromo is home on a regular basis, and she isn't at all afraid to try most 'new' foods. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I made a recipe I found on the back of a can of chicken broth which contained sweet potatoes. X tried them and loved them, then ate the meal and asked me to make it again. I like that kind of attitude.

One of my friends mentioned Sweets & Beets the other day. I'm familiar with the Terra Chips by that name, but that isn't what she meant. She'd cut sweet potatoes and beets into small pieces, along with an onion, drizzled them with olive oil and roasted them in the oven. I decided I want to try it (although other than Terra Chips, I've never eaten a beet in my life). Just thinking about the juxtaposition of the colors boggles the mind.