Great Meal

Last night I made a surprisingly great meal. First off... I have wanted to make homemade bread for some time now, but have always been nervous, since I have never done it. But then I found this recipe and let me tell you. it is awesome and awesomely easy.

All you need is water, flour, salt and yeast. And it is just as easy to make (and my hands hardly got dirty too).
Here is the recipe and seriously it is a super asy way to bake bread.

Also, I love soup. So I wanted to make a minestrone soup for the first time too. I took this recipe from Tyler Florence and adapted it a bit to make my own recipe. Here is it and it too is great.

Ingredients

2 cans vegetable stock
3 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 cup salad pasta noodles (the mini-mini rigatoni noodles, the kind you can use to make necklaces)
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp sage
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
3/4 pound sweet Italian pork sausage
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 zucchini chopped
1 bunch of green chard, chopped
mushrooms chopped
1 potato, chopped
1 (28-ounce) can crushed plum tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2 (28-ounce) cans cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling on top
and bread

Preparation

Brown the sausage, add garlic. When completely cooked through add all the vegetables and spices and cook for 15 mins on medium heat until softened.

Then stir in the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, cannelloni beans, and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Then pour in the salad noodle pasta and cook until the noodles are done. If you need it to add more water add about a cup more or until the desired consistency.

Garnish with parmesan cheese.

NOTE: I cooked the soup for a long time mostly because I was trying to keep it warm. I don't think it mattered how long it simmered, but definitely don't put the pasta noodles in until about 15 mins before you are ready to serve (so they don't cook too long and get mushy).

the image and bread recipe came from Artisan bread in 5 mins