What could happen is Fart Soup.
Quick Minestrone Soup
Friday night, continued: After a furious search of Food.com and Epicurious.com, I found a recipe that used all the veggies that were about to go bad. And no meat that wasn’t defrosted! Just beans. It was called “Quick Minestrone Soup.” Hubby makes a minestrone that I just love. How would mine compare?
A side note: I learned something new: if you plug a bunch of ingredients into either of those Web sites with “and” between them (as in zucchini and broccoli and pepper), it will return recipes that contain them.
So, I set out to tackle “Quick Minestrone Soup.” As I re-read the recipe and began preparing the ingredients, I realized it was a mistake. But it was too late to go back. Hubby was on his way home. He had promised to call me as he was leaving work, but instead he called me from down the street. Eeek!
Problem No. 1: The recipe called for frozen mixed vegetables. I planned to use fresh.
Good thing, later to become a bad thing: The recipe also let me use up some of the kale sitting in my refrigerator.
Problem No. 2: I had 32 ounces of chicken broth in a box. The recipe called for 42 ounces. I panicked first – there was no time to hit the store. But then I remembered – in the freezer, neatly labeled (What – you don’t use a label maker to label all of your leftovers?), was an indeterminate amount of leftover chicken broth from something I cannot remember. I dove into the freezer, distressingly filled with unlabeled leftovers (must talk to Hubby about that). I popped it into the microwave. However much it was, that’s how much I was going to use.
Who buys 19-oz. cans of beans?
Problem No. 3: This recipe called for a 19-oz. can of white beans. I have never seen a 19-oz. can of beans. Why do so many recipes call for a 19-oz. can of beans? Because I am telling you this: the only cans of beans I have ever bought were 15 ouncers. Well, I had only one can of white beans, and it was 15 ounces, and I used it.
Emboldened by the substitutions I had already made, I bravely brushed aside the recipe’s call for “petite” diced tomatoes and went with the regular ones which I had.
Next step was to cut the vegetables. Wow – there were a lot of them. I looked at the Cuisinart. I considered using it. It would be faster than doing it by hand, right? I thought about it, but I was too scared of it. I have never used it without Hubby’s supervision. It has very large blades and can get pretty wild. (I promise to write more about our kitchen tools in another post soon.) I picked up my large French Chef’s knife and went to work.
I never knew broccoli could be so wily. Little bits of it flew everywhere as I chopped. Repeatedly, random pieces jumped to the floor. I just through them away, wondering, “Does this mean I need to mop my floor now?” Whatever, by this time I was just a furious chopping maniac, blind to the fact that my recipe was way off track.
