Easy Tuscan Soup

As always, I started with an existing recipe and then made it my own. Thanks to Giada for the start on this Bean and Garlic Soup.

Add a turn of olive oil and a couple pats of butter to a heavy bottomed pot.
Dice two shallots and add to pot. Saute until soft.
Add 2 sage leaves and 2 large cans of Cannelloni beans - drained and rinsed - stir.
Add 6 cups chicken stock and 4 cloves of garlic.

This is where it starts to vary - Giada uses only four cups but simmers for only ten more minutes. I like to let it simmer for an hour or so.

I also saute about 10 sage leaves in butter until crisp. Remove to paper towels and crumble for topping on soup.

When you are about 10 minutes from serving, turn heat down to low, break out the immersion blender and blend the soup.

Add about a cup of half and half, some ground black pepper, stir, and let sit for a couple minutes.

Ladle soup into shallow bowls and top with crumbled sage leaves.

I give it a C+

The 'no knead' bread experiment was successful enough to be edible. I wasn't thrilled but could see potential. Two problems:


1. It called for instant yeast and I used regular.
2. The second rise-time of 2 hours was too long for me. I started baking at 1 and 1/2 hours.


Next time I will use instant yeast and wait the full 2-hour second rise before baking.

Chopped

I love grabbing an ingredient or two and creating a meal around them - a la "Chopped."

Last night I was inspired by chicken and a jar of peanut satay sauce. In addition to the chicken and peanut sauce, I used the following "on hand" ingredients:

Greek yogurt
Dried minced onions
Dill

Chicken breasts
Celery salt
Garlic powder
Chili powder
Pepper
"Pride of Szeged" Chicken Rub
EVOO
Chicken broth
"A Taste of Thai" Peanut Satay Sauce

Sliced green onions
Precooked, bagged brown rice


Add some dill, minced onion, and garlic powder to Greek yogurt. Let sit in refrigerator.

Heat a pan with EVOO. Add 2 chicken breasts that have been liberally coated with pepper, celery salt, garlic powder, chili powder, and some "Pride of Szeged" Chicken Rub.

Sear both sides of the chicken then add a chicken broth and several spoonfuls of the peanut satay sauce. Cover and let simmer until chicken is almost done.

Heat precooked bagged brown rice in microwave.

Add sliced green onion to the chicken for the last minute or two of cooking.

Serve chicken with sauce over rice and put some of the yogurt mixture on the side.

Enjoyed some really good food while the window replacement salesman measured all our windows. Even he couldn't resist and ended up eating a plateful.

This is a keeper.