Easy Minestrone

I love Minestrone Soup. I hate chopping vegetables. Actually, I don't mind chopping vegetables. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood.

Here's my easy recipe:

1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can crushed tomatoes (or 1 large tomato), pulverized in the blender
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
about 10 oz. frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup ditalini pasta
salt and pepper
olive oil
grated parmesan

Saute the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add broth, beans, tomatoes, and frozen veggies. Bring to a boil and add salt to taste. Once the soup is boiling, add the pasta and cook for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Serve with grated parmesan and pepper.

YUM!

A day's work

I made a loaf of bread and a batch of bagels this afternoon. I've gotten pretty good at wheat bread - I use the bread machine to knead/rise, then finish the loaves in the regular oven. I do that so the pieces of bread will fit in the toaster.

It's only my second attempt at bagels, and they came out MUCH prettier this week. They actually look like bagels! Last week's bagels were ugly but delicious. I used a different recipe; hopefully they aren't pretty but yucky. Too hot to taste right now.

It took the better part of the afternoon, but I'm very proud.

Ha! Bagels!

Ok, so they may be the ugliest bagels I've ever seen in my life... but I made them from scratch, so ha!

Sporadically over the last couple of years, and more consistently over the last couple of months, I have been making bread from scratch. Something about putting in five ingredients and ending up with a delicious loaf of bread - rather than the alternative that comes from the store with thirty-some ingredients I can't even pronounce - appeals to me. If only I could get a slicer. Guess that is an acquired talent.

Today I tried bagels for the first time. I don't know that I conquered them, but at least they are recognizable as... well, at least they resemble lumpy amateur bagels. Let's just see how they taste.

Cookies!

This morning I baked cookies for a book club meeting. As my brother says, I have the "cookie gift"... but it's only because I was taught by the best!

Here are some of the little secrets my grandmother taught me when I was a little girl:

• Have every ingredient at room temperature before starting.
• Sift the flour before you measure it. Don't omit this step!
• Once you add flour to the dough, just stir, don't beat! You don't want to activate the gluten because that will make hard cookies.
• Make small cookies. They taste better.

Today's cookie selection is the famous Nestle Tollhouse cookie. Except I used some butterscotch chips too.

Cookies are so much fun!

Food is love.

It really is, I think. I say that because I cooked only once the entire month Leonard was gone, and normally I cook two or three times a week. It's just no fun to cook only for myself - because who is here to enjoy it with me?

In many of the books I've read over the years, food is communication. It can be seduction, frustration, contentedness, anger, elation, or any multitude of emotions. And I think it is that way in life too. And in my case, food is love. I cook for the people I love.

On Thursday evening I cooked Indian Food for Leonard. I learned to make it last fall, and he often requests it. But the best is when I can surprise him with it. Like if I know he is not feeling well but working a long day and it is ready on the stove to greet him. Or just this week, after he'd been gone for a month it was my way of welcoming him home.

Food is love because cooking is a hands-on process and a good meal is time consuming to make. Beef curry takes about 2 hours beginning to end. My friend AJ taught me to make it. I've been watching him for a few years, and last year he gave me some traditional spices and a pan so I could get started. I seem to make it a little differently each time, but the variation is good. I don't even have a recipe to follow! Sometimes I think those are the best meals to cook. I put myself into it every time. It takes more time to cook than eat, but it is so worth the yumminess and appreciation!

Failed Tapioca Pudding

I love tapioca pudding. Just recently I was at a Middle Eastern grocery store and I found a bag of large pearl tapiocas. (so excited!)

I soaked some in milk overnight - as you're supposed to with large pearls, otherwise you'll have a crunchy batch - and pulled out the only recipe I have for tapioca pudding. (It's for small pearl, but what does it really matter?)

Curious? Here it is.

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Creamy Tapioca Pudding

1/2 cup Small Pearl Tapioca
3 cups milk
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs well beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Compine tapioca, milk, and salt in a sauce pan. Stir until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, uncovered, over lowest possible heat, add sugar gradually. Beat eggs, mix in some of the hot tapioca very slowly to equalize the temperatures of the two mixtures (to avoid curdling). Return all to pan. Bring to a boil, stir 3 minutes more over lowest possible heat (or longer to achieve pudding consistency). Stir constantly. Cool 15 minutes then add vanilla. Serve warm or chilled.

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Easy enough...

OK, so now that I've taken the time to copy the recipe verbatim, I realize that I rushed through some of the steps. Maybe that's why the gritty consistency? And I have never had this problem before, but the eggs didn't temper properly, and my pudding has tiny chunks of egg white.

Yucky!