Bacon Hearts

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Source: flickr.com via Sharon on Pinterest

Reality

I wanted to surprise the kids with heart shaped bacon for breakfast. Since I am so not a morning person, I decided to make them tonight. Now I'm guiltily munching on a plate of sliced, flat, non-heart-shaped bacon.

Hopefully the smell of bacon won't wake the kids up. I'm not in a sharing mood.

But let's be honest here. No one is going to care whether the bacon is heart shaped or not. It's bacon. Enough said.

- Sharon

Fagioli Soup

Italian Pasta Fagioli Soup
3 stars

It's a cold, wet, snowy day here - yes, snow in October! - so I wanted to warm the family up with some soup. I had all most of the ingredients for fagioli and wanted to give it a try.  This recipe claims to be as good as Olive Garden's soup.

Fagioli is a wonderful beef based Italian soup. There are quite a few variations; my favorite had sweet Italian sausage crumbles and barley in it.  I had high hopes for this recipe but I had my doubts when it called for 'one jar of spaghetti sauce.'   Um. Okay.

For the most part, I followed the recipe. Here's what I changed:

- I thought I had penne pasta. I didn't. I had to substitute half a bag of egg noodles.
- I ended up needing to add three or four more cans of beef broth to keep it from becoming too thick.
- I finely cut up stewing beef instead of using ground beef.
- I sauteed the beef in about two teaspoons of minced garlic. Mmmm garlic.  Let's stop for a moment and ponder the wonderfulness of garlic. Mmmmmm.
- I didn't have kidney beans or carrots so I ignored that part.
- In addition to the egg noodles, I added 1 cup of uncooked quick barley to the soup and let it come to a boil.

It's not a bad soup but it tastes like spaghetti sauce. Hrm. Wonder why.

I'll keep looking for a better recipe. This one isn't bad, it just wasn't what I was hoping it would be.

- Sharon

Halloween Trees

Halloween Trees
2 stars

As pictured

Reality

- Sharon

White Bean Chowder

White bean chowder
3 stars

I was really excited to make this soup. I've been in a soup mood lately. You know... really craving the warm liquid that makes you feel toasty warm from your toes to your hair roots.  However, I never make soup.  I make chili on occasion, but soup really isn't something I make.  This chowder recipe spoke to me.

It's a good recipe but I wasn't prepared so I had to scramble as I assembled everything.  Here's how I modified the original:

- I mashed the beans with my hand.  After rinsing them and shaking off the excess water, I dove in and got messy.
- I didn't have frozen corn so I used canned.
- I had baby carrots in the fridge. Grating them on a hand grater is not something I'd recommend.
- I didn't cook it until the celery was soft but I used a small dice so it was a nice, unexpected crunch.
- I didn't have stock or broth so I used bullion. I added two bullion to 8 oz of water.
- It needed salt.

If I make this again, I'll use three cans of beans and more veggies. This would also be good with left over chicken tossed in.

Reality: Okay recipe and I'll make it again although I did make a few adjustments.

- Sharon