Minestrone!

Hello fellow readers. It's Edwin again (2 posts in a row). Friday night after our Fredericksburg trip Miles came by on his way back home to Oregon. He will probably teach 5th grade in Portland, Oregon. For the summer, he is working for a nonprofit leading camping trips with inner city youth, teaching them camping skills (like the boy scouts). On Saturday, my dad came by and helped fix my car. We had thought that my starter system needed to be changed but before we changed it, my dad took the battery out of my car and suggested (something I should have done in the first place!) that I take it to an auto parts store to get its charge checked. Turns out my battery was beyond dead and the guy at NTB (National Tire and Battery) suggested that I change the battery first and that might do the trick. He was right, it was my battery not the starter and luckily my dad was able to return the part with no penalty. So we got a chance to hang out with my dad for a bit (Chelsea made some peach cobbler to die for! We also had some really good tacos at Torchy's Tacos) and we saved $300 on a car repair, THANKS DAD!

Sunday we went to a church that we both liked and we are meeting with the pastor next week to chat a bit about the church and hopefully (we are crossing our fingers) we can maybe ask about someone from the church being an officiant in our wedding. We really like the church, they are very welcoming, the pastor is a little humorous, they have a very worldly view, and it seems like they provide many opportunities to become involved in the community.

Fast forward to Tuesday! The reason why we are posting today, aside from updating you all on our sweet adventures in as new Austin residents (we've been running by the lake at least 3 times a week, 2 miles each day!... Although Chelsea totally smokes past me halfway through) is about our cooking. We have not updated you all on cooking for a while and last night we made an amazing meal. Last summer when I was in Eau Claire, I picked up a cookbook from America's Test Kitchen and yesterday we took a page from it to make some delicious Minestrone soup. It's a very lengthy recipe (and also a very lengthy post) but we really enjoyed it. As a side, I experimented with some store bought bread and made some really good cheesy bread. Here's the recipe for the Minestrone from America's Test Kitchen "Light and Healthy" cookbook:

1 1/2 pounds summer squash (about 3 medium), halved, seeded, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (Chel and I used a mix of zucchini and yellow squash to give it some color)
2 tsp olive oil
Salt
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, minced (about 1 cup)
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 pounds tomatoes (about 6 medium), cored, seeded, and chopped medium
Pepper
2 tsp minced fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried (we did not use this)
1/2 cup dry white wine (we used a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, it gave it a very floral aroma)
2 (15 oz) cans navy beans, drained and rinsed
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
8 oz green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 cups loosely packed basil leaves

1. Combine the squash, 1 tsp of the oil, and 1/4 tsp salt in a large dutch oven. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat until the squash releases its juices, 3 to 5 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat to medium-high, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the squash is golden brown and just tender, 2 to 3 minutes longer. Stir in half of the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer the squash to a plate.

2. Combine the remaining 1 tsp of oil, onion, carrot, and 1/4 tsp of salt in the pot. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat until the onion is softened, 8 to 10 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat to medium-high, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes longer

3. Stir in half of the tomatoes and 1/2 tsp os pepper and cook until the juice has evaporated and the tomatoes begin to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the remaining garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the wine, scraping up any browned bits.

4. Bring the wine to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add the navy beans, broth, green beans, and remaining tomatoes and return to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook until the green beans are tender, about 15 minutes.

5. Place the basil in a heavy-duty gallon-sized zipperlock bag. Pound the bag with the flat side of a meat pounder or a rolling pin until all the leaves are lightly bruised. Remove the leaves from the bag and coarsely chop.

6. Stir in the squash and basil into the soup and cook until the squash is heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the cheesy bread you will need the following:

1 loaf of store bought french or italian bread, cut into 8 slices
Parmesan Cheese
Chicken broth (we made the bread while cooking the soup, so we used the broth from the soup as it was cooking to make our bread.
Cooking spray

1. Pre-heat oven to 400

2. Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray. Dip each piece of bread into the broth so it soaks up a lot of liquid. Place each piece of bread onto baking sheet

3. Sprinkle a little bit of parmesan cheese onto each slice of bread

4. Cook in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the edges of the bread become a little crispy

5. Pull out of oven and turn each piece of bread over. Cook another 5 minutes, or until edges a beginning to crisp a dark color

6. Completely pull bread out when the middle is soft and not very moist, and edges are crispy

Here are pictures of our meal!











Until next time friends! Today we are just hanging out in the apartment. Later on tonight we are going to a tasting hosted by our caterer and we are meeting with a photographer. Tomorrow we are going grocery shopping for meals when Mary and Andrea come into town (whoop whoop!) We will definitely blog about our adventures in Austin and hopefully Chelsea will find a dress for our wedding! As for me, I will keep busy and tend to the lizards on our balcony. We love you all!