Recipe #20 - Black Bean Stoup and Southwestern Monte Cristos

It was really convenient to have shopped for several meals and have the ingredients on hand. I don’t normally plan ahead more than a few days.

I loved monte cristos when I was a kid. We used to go to some sort of hof brau restaurant that served them, and they came dusted with powdered sugar and served with jelly.

This one was a little different. Don always doctors up his grilled sandwiches (puts pickles and lettuce in them). I had spinach in the refrigerator so we put some of that in for green. The flavor of the stoup was a lot stronger than the sandwich. At first I thought it was a weird combination but the sandwich was good dipped in the stoup. Even though I mushed some of the beans, it was more of a salsa. I only made 1/3 of the recipe (it calls for 3 cans of beans and I only put in one) but it was plenty.

My favorite black bean soup is from Marion Cunningham’s "The Supper Book." It has pretty much the same ingredients except it doesn’t have the tomatoes or cumin. And it’s cooked for two hours. I pulled out the cookbook and was comparing the two recipes, and Don made the comment "The black bean soup was pretty good." I think Rachael’s stoup will be better tomorrow after the flavors have blended a little more.

I didn’t exactly time myself and we went to the neighbors’ house in the midst of chopping ingredients, but I think I finished within the 30 minutes. I’m still not used to having more than one thing going on at a time. I forgot to stir the stoup and by the time I remembered a lot of the liquid had boiled out. I think part of that problem is my stove, it doesn’t go low enough to simmer very well.