Black Bean Soup

3 cans black beans, mostly drained
32 ounces vegetable broth
1 small red onion, chopped fine
1 carrot, diced fine
3 strips turkey bacon, cut into small pieces
2-3 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
Salt
Sour cream to top

Sweat the onion, bacon, and carrot in the olive oil until the veggies are fairly soft. Add the spices and garlic. Dump in the black beans, and add about half of the vegetable broth.
Let all of this simmer/low boil for about two hours, stirring occasionally and adding the broth as needed. Less broth makes the beans a delicious side dish or filler for a warm tortilla, more makes it a wonderful soup- top with sour cream or a little bit of shredded cheddar.
This recipe is a mostly original, and I impressed even myself. Black beans have a wonderful flavor all their own, but this soup was wonderfully savory and rich and flavorful. I’ll definitely file it away for another cold evening!

Stuffed cremini

1 package mushrooms
1/3 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsps butter
1/3 block of cream cheese
1/2 tbsp Worchestershire
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp tarragon
1/2 tsp thyme
1 piece white bread
Parmasan cheese
Olive oil
salt

Wash the mushroom gently, and twise stems to remove.

Chop the mushrooms tems finely, add onion, and sweat in butter over medium heat. Add the garlic. When the stem pieces and onion are nice and soft, remove from heat and add the cream cheese Worchestershire sauce, and some parmasan cheese. Blend it well.

In the meantime, place the caps on some tinfoil, drizzle them with olive oil, and sprink with tarragon and thyme. Place them under a low broiler and keep a close eye on them. You want to pull moisture out of them so that the filling doesn't float off when you stuff them. Wait until the caps are holding little puddles and they've darkened, then remove them and dump out the water inside. Place them upsidedown, and put them back under the broiler for a bit. Don't let them get too dessicated (close eye!)

When the caps are done, remove them and stuff to capacity with the filling. Sprinkle a little more parmasan cheese overtop to create a little crust, and pop them back under the broiler until they look a bit melty and the cheese on top is bubbling.


I eat merely to put food out of my mind. ~N.F. Simpson