Zip!



And just like that another week goes by. Every week I wonder what I'll get accomplished and then I look up and I’m cruising into Saturday. Today was running errands and getting some paperwork in order - you’d be surprised how much time needs to be spent in the whole paper tornado.

I was going to start taking pictures around here - at least I’d have some proof of just how bad the mess is and something to compare to when everything gets done. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away!?! How did that happen? Somehow I have the feeling I’ll look up and it’ll be January before I know it.

Tonight I did the big cook off thing. Every once in awhile, I try to keep the expenses down by making a slew of food and then freezing things to come back to later in the week. Two things result from this. First, I usually eat a lot better than I normally do. Second, I wind up saving a lot of money because I’m not existing on take out.

So, tonight’s cook off menu was Chicken Sorrentino and a big pot of soup.

The Chicken Sorrentino is a bit of a chore but, I’ve found a couple of ways to keep the mess down. These involve ziploc bags which I find one of the greatest and most convenient things to use in the kitchen, saves me a lot of dish washing after the fact. I went online and searched far and wide for a recipe which I found some time back. Surprisingly, enough it’s not a hard recipe, there’s just a lot of prep. I was procrastinating about it all week but, I got some important things out of the way today and thought it would be a nice way to top the day off (the cooking).

The soup is an experiment. I made a big batch a few weeks ago and I’m still trying to fine tune the recipe there. Ever since the Soup Nazi closed up shop and started franchising (I hear he’s got a place down on forty deuce), I’ve been jonesing for some good soup when the weather begins to turn.

I took the recipe off the Goya 16 bean soup pack and made some modifications to it. The last batch came out good but, since I was experimenting, I didn’t have the foresight to write down the recipe amounts. Tonight after soaking the beans for the last two days (the last batch were a little tough), it was time to make the soup. I wound up with about 10 small chinese soup containers full of the stuff! Most of it goes into the freezer but, I did promise Ed some. It has a bit of a bite to it (underlying spiciness) and I’ll probably pull back a little on one of the ingredients in the next batch but I guarantee it’s something that would hit the spot on a chilly day!