Monday Musings…

Worked at home today in order to try to get ahead on everything that’s on my to do list.  I made SOME headway – but I’m still in the hole.  I remember seeing a cartoon with Calvin and Hobbes saying that we’re given a certain number of tasks in life to complete before we die – right now, I’m so far behind I’ll live forever.

Or , well, that’s about how I feel.

After I finish all my blogging tasks for the night, I”m going to head upstairs and play around for a little bit.  Just have to catch up on everything that happened this weekend, do my ‘ifs’, and a few other things.  (And watch some REALLY bad reality TV…which is turning into a guilty pleasure!)

We’ve been getting some really good veggies in the Produce Box lately.  I’ve wanted to do some new stuff with it, and dug out some old recipes.   Tonight I made Three Sisters Soup – which we first tried at the Food and Wine Festival a few years ago.  We’ve made it a few times, but it fell out of our rotation.  We’ll have to make it more often – I forgot how good it was!  Now granted, I didn’t have any yet (other than a taste), because I had something else for dinner.  (More on that later).

Here’s the recipe -
Three Sisters Soup

• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1 c finely chopped red onion
• 1/2 finely chopped Poblano chili pepper
• 2 c corn kernels
• 1 1/2 c diced zucchini
• 1 t finely chopped garlic
• 1 t sea salt
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 3 c chicken stock
• 1 1/2 c cooked pinto beans
• 1/4 c Panko bread crumbs
• 2 T sherry vinegar

Heat the oil in a large soup pot and saute the onions and pepper until they are soft and translucent.  Stir in the corn, zucchini, garlic, salt, and black pepper.  Cook for 4 minutes over medium high heat, stirring continuously.  Add the stock, beans, and bread crumbs.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove the soup from the heat and allow to slightly cool.  Transfer 3/4 c of the soup into a blender.  With the center of the cap out of the lid, pulse the mixture until completely pureed.  Add the puree back to the remaining soup and re-heat over low heat.  To serve, divide the soup among 6 bowls and sprinkle 1 t vinegar over each portion.

Charles enjoyed it for dinner with a sandwich of Charlie Tuna on rye bread.  He thought the soup was a bit bland..well, missing something more than being bland.  So, he added a few dashes of Texas Pete, and he said it REALLY brightened it up!

While I was making up the soup – I also tossed together some meatballs from Trader Joe’s, with some balsamic gravy, some sauteed mushrooms and onions and topped it with a few slices of RF swiss cheese.  I put it in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes – just enough to heat it all through and melt the cheese.  That was REALLY nummy.  And since it was TJ’s turkey meatballs, it was pretty low in calories, low in carbs, and HIGH in taste.  Definitely something I’ll be keeping around to throw together for quick dinners.

I have swim class Tuesday night and Thursday night, and I want to get into a few other things in the evenings – so it will be good to have leftovers around for Charles to have for quick dinners, and they’re healthy and high in protein, so they’ll be good for me to grab as well.

Rana and I went out to Charlotte this weekend – CK had a convention, and we decided to go enjoy ourselves.   Originally, we had planned to go down on Saturday morning, check in for our two classes, and then shop and come home (potentially with a stop at Ikea).  Well, Charles and I had been talking this week, and we decided that with the 3 hour drive down, and an 1110 class, it would really be pushing it to get there on time – and the drive home would make it a REALLY long day.  So, I got a room at the Hilton Garden Inn right down the road from the Convention center, and we headed down Friday night.

Saturday morning, we got up, got dressed and had breakfast.  (The buffet wasn’t all that…but it was..okay).  When we got there, we did shopping.  I got lots of  pretty pretty papers and a bunch of other stuff.  It was a productive trip. (I’m really glad I got the Basic Grey stuff I was waiting somewhat impatiently for!)   Our first class was an embellishment class.  It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, and I was somewhat disappointed in it.   The second class we took was awesome.  It was sponsored by Boxer Scrapbooking  and we got the stuff to make an ADORABLE Mickey Mouse album.  I went back to the booth afterwards and picked up a few things to make a smaller one for after our trip with KT and Kris.    Also got the kits I wanted to get for the Moms holiday gifts as well.    I’ll have plenty to keep me busy for a while.  YAY