Friday Favorites

Today's favorites are short and sweet - just a few things I've collected over the week that I'm looking forward to. I also have a short and sweet soup recipe that I whipped up today when I didn't feel like making anything that was too time consuming. It was very tasty and its even good cooled or at warm temperature. But first things first, here are the Friday favorites:

 [whole artichoke that will be used in a recipe found at this blog]

 [one of my new favorite ingredients; recipe coming soon]

[cozie recently bought from a good friend in honor of our 2012 graduates]

Bell Pepper and Tomato Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

 1 yellow bell pepper

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 can chili ready roasted tomatoes

1 can cannellini beans

1/2 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon dried oregano 

2 Turkish bay leaves

1/4 cup chopped parsley 

5 cups chicken stock 

s & p

In a large pot saute garlic and bell pepper in olive oil for five minutes until soft. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano. Add chili ready roasted tomatoes and cannellini or white kidney beans. Cook for about two minutes then add five cups of chicken stock - I used two cups of broth and then used chicken bullion cubes and water to come up with the remaining three cups since I ran out of broth. If you do it that way then bring the soup to a boil and then add your bullion cubes, usually one cube is good for one cup of water. Let simmer for ten minutes after adding your two bay leaves and parsley. Ready to eat!

This recipe can be used with any other vegetables too so you can use what you have on hand. Also the spices I chose can be substituted out for other ones or you can choose not to use them all together. I like the cumin because it gives a bit of heat and smokey-ness to the soup and the bay leaves bring out such a deep depth of flavor that makes it more vibrant. However, these aren't required so if you don't have them don't worry! Salt and pepper will do just fine but make sure to season liberally and TASTE it to check the flavor - you can always add more but you can't take seasoning out!