Snow Bunny

Not that we have anything more than a dusting of snow. I just think I bundled up like a (business casual, kinda dressy) snow bunny.



Cream heathered turtleneck sweater, Old Navy
Black ponte skirt, Macys
Cognac open-weave belt, Walmart
Black Assets tights, Target
mushroom Franco Sarto fitted boots, Zappos
mess of double-strand pearls, brown string necklace and tiger's-eye necklace from Shopping Friend

I don't know what is going on with my red face. I have had a terrible rash for days. I am switching face washes, from Aveeno Calming to Cetaphil, too see if that helps. Aveeno has done me well for years, but maybe it's not enough anymore. Dunno,

Another hibernating bear look. I swear, it is much cuter in person!



Cinnamon chunky knit sweater, Old Navy
White layering tee, Old Navy
Brown studded belt, Walmart
Lucite statement necklace, LOFT
Brown NYDJ ponte skinnies, Nordstrom
Brown suede BOC clogs, DSW

Then it was the weekend, and I cooked. Two soups were on the agenda, and both I made from scratch.

The first was a smoky black bean soup that I have been making for years from an old WW Core recipe. It's Hubby's favorite and was a personal request. But it's so easy I decided to challenge myself and made the beans from scratch too, instead of from a can. !! Really, it's very easy to do.

Start with a bag of beans.



Pour them onto a jelly-roll pan and pick through any discolored or wrinkled ones, and check for any pebbles. (I was going to not even mention the pebbles because it's so rare when I find one, then I DID find one in this bag. So there you go -- check for pebbles!)

Rinse the beans and put them in a pot with a lot of water. Like, a couple of inches above the beans at least. Bring to a boil, then skim off any foam from the top. Turn down to a simmer and add a tsp of kosher salt for every cup of beans. (I added that and some smoky flavoring to it. Dunno if it did any good.) Let actively simmer for 60-90 minutes, checking at the 30-minute mark and every 15 minutes after that. Add more water if necessary.

You will end up with almost twice as much cooked beans than raw, and they freeze easily. So make the whole bag, and then freeze it in 2-cup portions -- which is a can from the store. Easy as pie, and much less sodium! :) I think I did 4 cups raw and ended up with 8 cups cooked.



Once they had cooled (and it was late enough in the day that it was time for supper), I made them into soup, starting with sauteed onions, garlic and 2 chopped red peppers in a pot. Add the beans, some chopped bacon or Canadian bacon, add 1 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp of chipotle and stir 30 seconds until fragrant, add 4 cups chicken stock and bring to boil. Season with salt and more smoky seasoning if desired, then let actively simmer for about 30 minutes. Use the immersion blender to chop it up.

For me, I loved that butternut squash soup so much last week I made it again. But this time I did some hardcore roasting; I cut up into chunks 2 small butternut squash, 2 small onions, 2-3 carrots, a Yukon Gold potato, and tossed it all with olive oil, kosher salt and Northwoods seasoning. Then I cut off the top of a garlic clove and nestled it in the middle of the pan.





I baked it at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, just until everything was super-soft and just starting to brown. It took a lot of willpower not to inhale it all right then! But I squeezed the garlic out of the papery skin, and let it all cool for the afternoon.



For the soup, I followed the same recipe as last week; I even though there was onion and carrot in the roasted veggies, I still diced up a small onion, couple of celery stalks and some carrots as the base of the soup, and sauteed them in a pot with olive oil. I also pulled out as much of the onion as I could from the veggies and chopped those into smaller pieces. Once everything was softened, I added all the veggies and about 4-6 cups of chicken stock (low-sodium, I like to control the salt I use with just pinches of kosher salt). Bring to a boil, simmer for 20 minutes, then use the immersion blender to mix it all up.

The finished products.





I have to tell you, roasting all the vegetables together with seasoning was a brilliant addition to the squash recipe. I can't describe it well, but the soup tastes like "roasted", especially the sweet garlic depth. I am so glad I made practically a double-batch; I will be eating it like crazy this week. Hubby also loved the black bean soup, whew! He likes things with more heat than I do, and this had a lot of heat and smokiness.

I also have plans for a quiche with sun-dried tomatoes, leeks, and goat cheese, but I wasn't in the mood to make it yesterday so I will save it for later in the week. Hubby is off today, so he is making the long-awaited BBQ portabello mushroom quesadillas we have been dying to try for dinner tonight for us.

Hunh, we sure do eat well on the Foodstyle! Probably better than when we are wimping out and ordering pizza. :)