Tag Archives: food

Black Bean Soup with Chorizo, Ham and Bacon

I recently started following a great little blog and decided to make Terri’s recipe for Black Bean Soup to feed a crowd of friends that was coming over for a game night. It’s a spicy, roasty wonder of a soup. I didn’t take step by step pictures–I’d just returned from a long weekend in Wisconsin the night that I made it, was pregnant and tired, and getting out the camera seemed like too supreme of an effort. Thankfully, after sampling the soup and swooning over and over again, I wised up and snapped some pics of the finished product that will hopefully drive you into the kitchen.

The printable recipe link is below, and guys . . . you should really put this on the menu soon.

Besides being easy to make, it goes fabulously with beer bread and rice, cheap and quick ways to fill a lot of stomachs. The soup is meaty and hearty, chunky and satisfying, and I highly recommend it. You may notice in the picture above that there are some flecks of orange–that’s the grease that had congelead overnight when the soup was in the fridge. I skimmed most of it off the top and then snapped a picture before it had really heated up.

I also want to mention that when it was fresh off the stove the first evening, the soup had considerable bite to it, but the spiciness really mellowed after a night in the fridge. I don’t think a single person complained about the spice level being too much to handle, but if you’re concerned you could always skip the chipotle chili. Only if you’re really worried though, because the flavor that it adds is seriously awesome.

And that pretty much wraps it up. Yes, you have observed correctly: I have nothing remotely amusing to say, no stories to tell (related or unrelated to this soup), and pretty much nothing interesting going on in my brain right now.

Hmmmm.

Will ponder situation at length later, when brain power returns.

Hope Tuesday is treating you right! On to another cup o’ coffee . . .

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Tapas-Style Sautéed Mushrooms

I’d been oggling Bev’s recipe for sautéed mushrooms on Tasty Kitchen for a while, and finally got around to making them for a big group of friends back in February. And oh are they good. They do have a long cooking time–about 50 minutes–but require very little supervision, so you can let them cook away while you focus on the main dish you’re preparing. And once they’re done–oh my. Soaked in sweet wine flavor, pungent with garlic, brightened by the parsley and lemon juice and slightly crunchy with coarse salt. This dish reminds me of my deep love of food, and the pleasure of cooking what I truly enjoy to the very roots of my taste buds.

I modified it to serve a larger group, and used sliced baby bella mushrooms instead of the whole mushrooms Bev used–I also increased the cook time to make sure all the wine was absorbed by the mushrooms. Here goes!

Ingredients

(Serves 6-8)

32 oz baby bella and white mushrooms, whole or sliced
6 TBS Butter
8 cloves garlic
3/4 cup Marsala wine
2 pinches coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
2 cups minced fresh parsley
1 lemon, juiced

Mince the garlic and parsley, and juice the lemon.

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. When bubbly, add the minced garlic and bloom for about 30 seconds.

Add the Marsala wine and bring it to a boil.

Add the mushrooms, lower the heat and cook (covered) for 25 minutes, stirring and lightly salting occasionally.

Uncover and continue to simmer the mushrooms for another 25 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding salt to taste until the liquid has been almost completely absorbed. I also tossed in a little black pepper–I can’t resist that stuff.

After a while the liquid will be nicely absorbed and the mushrooms will now be ready for you to fall in love with them.

Toss in the lemon juice and parsley, sprinkle with coarse salt, and serve.

If you already love mushrooms, I guarantee you will love this way of making them.

Next time I’m alone for dinner I dream of making a huge batch and eating the whole thing myself.

Just want everyone to know where I stand.

A fun serving idea–you could bring the cast iron to the table with a bunch of skewers or forks and have everyone share the mushrooms directly from the pan. That would be very español.

And can I just say? I’m so glad to be sharing recipes again after such a long pregnancy-induced hiatus. Aaaaahhh.

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