Soup and Bread for a rainy fall day

Remember that bubble tea I promised you? Well, you should be thanking me on bended knee that I spared you the most epic of gag reflexes.  First of all, it calls for coconut milk. Now, as my poor fiancé knows, I’m nuts about everything coconut. So, I was super excited to try my first carton of coconut milk. I was so sure that it would soon be experiencing a burst of luau in my mouth so it didn’t bother me when I slapped down five dollars for half a gallon. It tasted like cow boob juice. L Ok, so, with a little sweetener it couldn’t be bad. Proceed with my French vanilla tea. After FIVE attempts to get a grasp on the tapioca pearls, I finally perfected them. Excitedly, I added the tea, milk, and ice into a blender. Pour, then dump in some tapioca pearls! This was going to be great!!!..... If you fancy semi sweet, vanilla flavored mucus with frog eggs floating about. Geeeerooosssss.

HOWEVER, I redeemed myself by making a soup so fantastically tasty, and a bread so wonderful that it was completely eaten before I had the chance to nab a picture. So, without further ado, Ranch Chicken Soup and Beer Bread-

Soup-

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced

6 small potatoes diced, with the skins still attached

3 Tablespoons fresh minced garlic (the more garlic, the merrier)

64 oz  chicken broth

1.5 Tablespoons dry Ranch Dressing seasoning

1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

1.  Heat oil into a large dutch oven over medium heat.  When hot, saute onion, carrots, and garlic for 7-10 minutes or until softened slightly. In a separate pan, sauté the chicken, and then shred once thoroughly cooked. Pour the chicken broth into the vegetable mess, dump in the chicken and add the potatoes. Stir, then season with ranch seasoning. DON’T ADD SALT UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!!! Reduce heat to low and simmer until the potatoes are to your liking.  Taste and season accordingly.

8 servings

Beer Bread – Adapted from Recipezaar

• 3 cups flour (sifted)
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 (12 ounce) can beer (I used dad’s “guest” beer, aka, Miller High Life)
• 1/4 cup butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients and beer.
3. Pour into a greased loaf pan.
4. Pour melted butter over mixture.
5. Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.

Doesn’t that sound delicious? I thought so.

In other less tasty news, life continues to keep me busy and somehow, I’m still able to procrastinate. Work is still fun, thank goodness, but my hours are getting chopped. Sunday was a nut house in the morning. The hostess, who doesn’t like me, sat me everywhere and then neglected to tell me I had tables. So sweet. Then later in the afternoon, she just didn’t seat me at all. Fine, I get it. Whatever. Luckily the manager at Starbucks likes me- it looks promising! I mean, 30 hours a week promising with decent pay and hours that allow me to have an afternoon. Yay. And now back to being responsible.