Day 1

Well I’ve officially started! Dinner tonight is Brazilian Black Bean Soup and Mexican Corn Bread. I guess I should’ve put more thought into what I picked for my inaugural dinner, but really I just chose recipes for which I already had most of the ingredients. Also, the weather is starting to turn chilly, and so soup seemed like the perfect idea.

Artsy, slightly blurry, picture of the ingredients

            Both recipes were simple, even though I’ve never made soup from scratch before and only made bread once. They were easy to follow, but I’m learning a lot as well. Based on this recipe and how it’s turned out—as well as other recipes I’ve looked more in depth at now—I’m realizing that I probably should invest in an immersion blender/food processor. I have a normal upright blender, but I don’t think it would work effectively for these kinds of things. The soup is supposed to be a bit thicker than mine turned out, despite my attempts to mash everything together. I also need to buy a ladle, but that’s just for convenience purposes.

The recipe also calls for half a cup of orange juice, which you can’t really taste, but the smell is quite strong and not really that appetizing. There were also optional tomatoes, which I did not include, but I think it would be better with them.

The cornbread is amazing though! Moosewood has a couple variations on the cornbread recipe and I made the one with cheese and frozen corn. My whole apartment smells amazing. This is definitely on the make again (and again and again!) list.

So I’ve got some lovely soup and incredible bread to munch on for the rest of the week! 2 down, 239 to go!