Time out

I'm taking a time out from work right now, to post! I took another time-out on Monday - I took the day off! It was great! I still got up early to get JD out the door, but got a head start on laundry, cleaning up the kitchen from the night before, and then I grabbed my books for my online class and headed out the door...to Starbucks! I throughouly enjoyed a VENTI perppermint mocha (my fav) and a multi-grain bagel. It totally did me in as far as my calories for the day, but I didn't care. It was nice to just sit and read and people-watch.

Around 2pm I headed into HT, determined to try some new recipes for dinner. I'm a huge FoodNetwork (www.foodnetwork.com) fan and caught some cool episodes last weekend that I just decided to try myself....here's what was on the menu:

Marinated Flank Steak (from Betty Crocker cookbook)
ChickPea Soup (courtesy of Anne Burrell's show, Secret of a Restaurant Chef)
Strawberry/walnut salad with homemade vinaigrette

I just purchased the flank steak from HT. It was sort-of expensive for the cut, I thought, and it didn't come out good at all. It tasted like what I would imagine shoe leather to taste like - very tough. I chose the flank steak because I didn't think it would be as tough as London Broil, but it wasn't good. I was only able to marinade for 4 hours, so maybe that had something to do with it. It also wasn't a very lean cut and was marbled with fat...yuck. I won't try this again.

As for the soup...how much time do you have? I have a funny story about this soup...kinda gross, but funny. The only gross part is what it looked like and if you know what color chick peas are, then you get the idea of what it looked like. I know you are just sitting on the edge of your seat now, so I'll go on....(skip ahead if you have a weak stomach)....

Here's how to fix it: First, I started with four slices of thick bacon in a pan on the stove, cooked to a crisp. Then I added celery, carrots, onion, and garlic and some oil to blend these wonderful flavors together. In another large pot, I poured the chicken stock and added two cans of chickpeas/garbanzo beans and some oregano & basil. I brought this to a boil to soften the chickpeas. Once the veggies and bacon were tender, I added them to the pot as well.....the kitchen is smelling really good at this point. Now, on the show, the chef used her blender to puree the soup, so I pulled out my blender and poured in about half of the HOT liquid from the pot. I put the lid on the blender and hit the button....the lid popped off and liquid spewed everywhere. I'm talking all over the counter. Not to be defeated, I poured some more in and tried again....ok, what the hell was I thinking?? Despite my strength (yeah right) to hold down the lid, the steam must have been enough to again lift up the lid and spew soup (now puree'd) everywhere - I'm talking all over the wall, my cookbooks, the cooking utensil jar and every utensil in it, the sink, the window....everywhere. Purre'd chickpeas and veggies all over everything. You can figure out what this looked like.

Needless to say, the soup is really good if you like chickpeas. Just make sure to let the stock cool before putting it in the blender (by the way, I did finally put any remaining soup mixture in the food processer to get the right consistantcy. This was the way to go).

The saving grace to the meal was the salad - it's always a hit. I tossed a spring mix with walnuts and sliced strawberries, and made a vinaigrette - wonderful!!

To check out the ChickPea soup recipe from Anne's show, click here.

Stay tuned for more recipes!