White Bean and Sausage Pesto Soup

So last night was really stressful, that is why I feel a cold coming on. I came home from grocery shopping at 7:oo pm, ready to make my bbq baked beans. When I got to the space in my alley there was a white Escalade sitting between my house and the house next door that I have never seen before. It pulled up when I parked but backed up afterwards, trapping me in my spot. I got scared and went straight to my back door without my groceries, figuring that I would get them later, and I find my back door ajar. Now I have to point out there is another family that lives underneath us (and can be irresponsible) but it scared the heck out of me so I went straight to the front of my building and walked a few houses down and called the police. I guess if you dont sound like someone is actively killing you they dont go very quick so I waited outside and heard people coming out of the building but they didnt get in my downstairs neighbors car or in the white Escalade (which sped away when they got in). I waited out in the freezing cold for another 10 minutes without the cops coming by. It was around 8 degrees outside. Finally I couldn't handle it anymore so I went to the back door. It was closed but unlocked, which still freaked me out so I got in my car and pulled out quickly waiting for the cops. They showed about 2 minutes later and I drove right behind them but they didn't stop at my house and I didn't feel comfortable honking at police. I got out of my car behind them and waved my arms, but they just kept on going. I then drove away and sat in my car until my husband came home from the football game. He felt it might be the people downstairs and checked the house. We were ok, but I am so upset with the irresponsible people downstairs. It is not like we live in the country, the suburbs... we are in the city. My aides' son was shot and killed by someone in the hallway of his apartment. I cant wait until I get out of here.

So last week was really cold and my car was in the shop for a while so I couldn't go out to grocery shop. I wanted something warm and something I could make with the stuff in my cabinets and freezer. I didn't have much left but I managed to make a great meal (not vegetarian though- sorry!)

White Bean and Sausage Pesto Soup

Ingredients

1 pound of Italian sausage, removed from casing and crumbled

1 chopped onion

4 chopped cloves of garlic

6 cups of chicken stock

1 15 oz can of cannellini beans (drained)

2 Tbs of pesto (I used oregano pesto)

1 cup of spinach, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups cooked gluten free small shells

1 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs olive oil

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the sausage on medium heat in a pot until crumbled and cooked all the way through. Pour sausage onto paper towels to drain some of the fat. Add the olive oil in the same pan and add onion and garlic. Saute until tender. Add the sausage, beans, pesto, and red pepper flakes to onions in pot. Saute for 2 minutes then add chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered. Add the spinach and simmer until it wilts. Take off of heat and mix noodles and in lemon juice.

French Onion and Egg Drop Soups

So I am on my three week holiday break from work. I know it is only teachers who can complain about having three weeks off, everyone else would relish it, I am just having a hard time with our new school year schedule. I need this week off during the summer where it is warm out and I can actually do something rather than now where I am sitting next to my space heater, even with the heat in the house on, because it is 10 degrees outside. The next three weeks are to organize..my house, my National Board stuff, my computer, etc. While I'm blogging I am waiting for movies to load into imovie so I can put together our dvd for this year. We just got a video camera in June to tape our wedding, but already I have enough for 4 different DVDs and have to start putting them together... what else is 3 weeks for? Relaxing? I dont know how!

One of the things that I am organizing, is my recipes. Today I am going through two of my soup recipes from the three weeks where I could only drink liquids and eat soft foods. Both turned out really good for being soup (not one of my favorite things, even though I have 3 huge books of soup recipes). These may not be the most exciting pictures, but keeping track of the recipes on my website allows me to print out them out later (important for this organizing binge Im on!)

French Onion Soup

From The Kitchn

Ingredients

2.5 lbs of onions (sliced into 1/2 moons then sliced in half again)

1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)

4 cups of beef broth

Salt

Black Pepper

Parmesan or Asiago Cheese

Put the pot (or saucepan) on medium heat. Cut the butter into small chunks and place in the pot. After the butter has melted and begins to foam, put in the onions. Stir the onions so they are covered in butter and add a teaspoon of salt. Turn heat to medium low and let the onions cook, stirring every once and awhile. Caramelizing the onions typically takes 45 minutes or more at this heat. Let them turn a mahogany color, but dont let them burn. Pour in your broth and turn the heat to high so that it boils. Then turn the heat down and let simmer for 1/2 an hour or more--you want the soup to reduce and look shiny. Season with salt and pepper, pour into bowls and add cheese and any other toppings you like.

Egg Drop Soup

Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients

5 cups of chicken stock

1 tsp of soy sauce

2 Tbs cooking sherry

1 tsp of ginger powder or 1 two inch piece of fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves smashed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tsp sesame seed oil

Ground black pepper

Bring stock, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, garlic to boil in a pot. Simmer for 4 minutes, then remove garlic and fresh ginger (if added) with a slotted spoon. Stirring soup in a circle, add in eggs slowly. Simmer for around 1 minute until eggs are cooked. Take off of heat and add cut scallions and sesame seed oil along with salt and ground pepper to taste.

Avgolemono Soup

Day #6 on protein shake, mashed potatoes and broth diet. Its so discouraging. I feel just fine when I don't eat any solid foods and to be honest, it almost feels even better than usual. However, I miss cooking. I miss trying new foods and recipes and being adventurous. I don't know when I should try something more solid, but I keep remembering last week when a bowl of rice had me in such pain for 3 hours. I don't want to feel like that, but at some point I am going to have to try.

Today was a good day because I saw that my sweet potato risotto recipe was on my favorite food site SeriousEat yesterday. I didn't even see it till today, and was so excited. I had to post another recipe, although the pictures aren't as nice. The funny thing is that picture was rejected by tastespotting.com and foodgawker.com but made it on a much bigger site!

The last thing that I made before I got really sick was avgolemono soup. I have seen different recipes for this soup online and in my soup books but never got around to making it. Then my husband got sick and I wanted to do something different than the traditional chicken noodle (which, unless I found gluten free soup noodles, I couldn't eat). I only got to eat a bowl full because of the lemon and my stomach, but it tasted really good.

Avgolemono Soup

7 cups of chicken broth

1 lb of chicken (I always use boneless, skinless breasts but legs or thighs would do also)

5 eggs

Juice for 4 lemons

1/2 cup of rice

Black pepper to taste

Put the chicken and broth into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then turn to low and let simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or more until the chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken and skim off the surface scum. Ladle a 1 cup of the broth into a bowl on the side.

While cooking the chicken, cook the rice and put to the side.

Use a fork to pull the chicken and put back in the broth. Bring the broth back to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Then take the pot off of the burner.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, lemon juice, and pepper. While whisking drizzle in the broth that you had put to the side while beating constantly. Then whisk the egg mixture into the pot of soup, beating constantly. Turn the heat back on to low and stir constantly for around 2 minutes until the soup thickens but do not let the mixture bubble. Add the rice, take off of heat, and it is done.