Monday, Monday

The recipe sounds delicious and I will have to give it a try. I plan to put some stew on when I get back from church duty to have tonight and tomorrow.

Bridget has had two attacks in as many days. Poor little girl, I wish there was a cure for her condition as she is a real sweet heart. She follows me everywhere and is sleeping at my feet as I type. I look forward to you meeting her.

Today with a dirty house and laundry to the ceiling and church duty, I do not think I will be doing much else but handling that. Everyday the plants are bigger and more things come into bloom. Such fun to see it all. I have plans to make out my shopping list for our "to-dos" while you are here today and start gathering. Bet I forget something, as I always do. I am so looking forward to seeing your smiling face and giving you a hug.

Healthier Eating!

Was prowling around on foodnetwork.com and found the Ina section. It's nice because if you choose each episode it has the recipes from that episode. I'm capturing one here because I don't know how far back they'll keep them. Handy! I can build my own Barefoot Contessa cookbook!

Here's the link to her "top 100" recipes and they're labeled by difficulty. I don't find that as handy as the indexing by episode but maybe because I tend to remember the episodes. It IS neat that it also shows what cookbooks they come from.

Barefoot Contessa Top 100

This is the one from the other day with Ribolita. I thought that sounded like a fantastic healthy soup main dish. Her's made enough for 12 but this recipe calls for half of what she used in the recipe so it's resized. Probably still makes way too much for one or two but I bet you could freeze this one. Another great thing about the food network stuff is each recipe has a comments section where other folks who have tried it can comment and I find that pretty handy. A lot of people said they substituted canned beans and juice and used canadian bacon for the panacetta. Looks pretty darn easy to make!

Ribolita

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 1/2 pound dried white beans, such as Great Northern or cannellini
• Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup good olive oil, plus extra for serving
• 1/4 pound large diced pancetta or smoked bacon
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 1 cup chopped carrots (3 carrots)
• 1 cup chopped celery (3 stalks)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
• 4 cups coarsely chopped or shredded savoy cabbage, optional
• 4 cups coarsely chopped kale
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 4 cups sourdough bread cubes, crusts removed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions

In a large bowl, cover the beans with cold water by 1-inch and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to soak overnight in the refrigerator.

Drain the beans and place them in a large pot with 8 cups of water, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and continue to simmer for about 15 minutes, until the beans are tender. Set the beans aside to cool in their liquid.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large stockpot. Add the pancetta and onions and cook over medium-low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add the carrots, celery, garlic, 1 tablespoon of salt, the pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium-low heat for 7 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the tomatoes with their puree, the cabbage, if using, the kale, and basil and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for another 7 to 10 minutes.

Drain the beans, reserving their cooking liquid. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, puree half of the beans with a little of their liquid. Add to the stockpot, along with the remaining whole beans. Pour the bean cooking liquid into a large measuring cup and add enough chicken stock to make 8 cups. Add to the soup and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Add the bread to the soup and simmer for 10 more minutes. Taste for seasoning and serve hot in large bowls sprinkled with Parmesan and drizzled with olive oil.

Tuesday Tidings

It's certainly been a busy week! I bought some new lamps this weekend (it was one of those three lamp sets) and I spent the entire evening last night putting them together. I have something to say to those folks about their "Patent Pending" easy packaging. Once I was able to un-entomb the lamps from the styrofoam, it was pretty easy. Of course that led to a massive dusting as I shifted lamps around the house---if you move something, you have to dust underneath it. I keep telling Kevin that's the Rule of the Universe.

Did you get the picture of Paula, Lisa and me at the church dinner? Kev sent one from the phone. We saw a really great concert by the Franz Family . You've probably heard them before as they travel a lot doing bluegrass gospel. Very talented. If you get the chance to see them, highly recommended!

Just had a few spare minutes so thought I'd drop a line. More later!