I'm back!

After a very long week of illness, I am glad to report that I am back up and running. I can't believe how long it has been since I have felt like sitting at the computer or cooking in the kitchen. Yea to feeling up to both!

So, what is new? Not much. I was able to get ALOT of knitting and reading done. I am working on finishing those socks of mine (one down, one to go) and have several top-secret Christmas gifts in the works. As for the reading, I am halfway through, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", by Barbara Kingsolver and just started, "My life in France", by Julia Child and Paul Prud'homme. Both so far, are good reads. I was feeling better this last weekend and was able to get out to the farmers' market for some wonderful fall produce, and on Sunday we went to Burnham Orchards to pick apples. We came home with a huge 1/2 bushel bag of beautiful Jonagold apples. We had applesauce that night for dinner. I plan on freezing many of them in the next day or so for baking or sauce in the months ahead. Any suggestion are welcome.

Here is a recipe for a yummy White Bean Chard Soup that I made just before I was out for the count. You could use a variety of beans; cannellini, chickpeas, lentils just to name a few. Thanks again El, for the beautiful rainbow chard!

White Bean Rainbow Chard Soup

2 tbl olive oil
1 cup diced red onion (1 medium)
1 cup diced carrot
1 bunch of rainbow chard (about 8-9 stalks), leaves and stems separated, stalks chopped in about 1/4" pieces and leaves roughly chopped
1/2 tsp kosher flake salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
8 cups of vegetable stock
15.5 oz can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes or 1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large pot. Saute the onion and carrot until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chard stalks, salt, pepper, and crushed pepper and saute another 4-5 minutes.

When the veggies have cooked down a bit, add the stock, beans, tomatoes and rosemary. Bring up to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer about 20 minutes. When the bean have softened a bit, add the chard leaves and cook about 5-8 minutes. Serve nice and hot with a few shavings of good parmesano reggiano on top.


Coming this week: WWW- Pork & Pear Saute with Vodka Lemon Sauce and BB- Ina's Butternut Squash Risotto. Don't forget to visit the Pier 1 Site to vote for my room: gardengalkim@yahoo.com The voting ends October 9th!