A day of writing, cooking, and conviviality

I haven’t felt like a writer lately. First it was Hurricane Harvey, which we all waited for with dread, holding our breath for friends and family in the Houston area. That distracted me longer than I like to admit, as I watched recovery efforts. And then it was, oh I don’t know, a variety of things, capped by my unexpected five days in the hospital. Then, of course, it took me a few days to get back to my normal routine. And I had to read the work-in-progress to get myself back up to speed on it.

But today was the day I set to get back to my daily goal of a thousand words a day—and I’m delighted to say I wrote two thousand words. And they weren’t all bad. Now I’m geared up to go again. Hope this productive spell lasts.

The doctor’s advice last week was to take it easy and admit I was tired. I took that to heart in my own fashion and began to sleep a lot—early to bed, late to rise, and a nap in the afternoon. That “admit you’re tired” message bothers me, because I’m never sure if I’m really tired or just being very suggestible. At any rate, along with writing, I eliminated my ongoing cooking experiments.

So today, I also got back to cooking. My effort was black bean soup. I cobbled a bit from this recipe and that and was pleased with the outcome. I contributed it to the dinner party Jordan and Christian had tonight, and it got a highly positive reaction. See the recipe below.

The dinner party was the climax of my fruitful day. Guests were two couples, one Hilary who Jordan went to school with and now studies core exercise with, and her lawyer-husband Brent; the other was SuperDave who is family to the Alters and has been since he and Jordan were in high school, and his girlfriend, Kelly. I like them all a lot and was delighted to spend an evening in their company.

Christian fixed bulgogi, a Korean dish of marinated flank steak slices—wonderful flavor from a marinade that had a lot of things in it including brown sugar and soy—what’s to go wrong? He served it on a bed of rice but with mashed potatoes and salad. My black bean soup was the amuse bouche. All in all, a terrific meal.

So here it is, the end of a most satisfying day, and I’m up past my bedtime. ‘Night all.

Super-easy black bean soup

Warning: I blended this in small batches in my countertop food processor, but the first time I did it, I put too much soup in at one time and it ran all over everywhere. Caution is advised.

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 Tbsp. ground cumin

2-3 cloves garlic

1 Knorr beef bouillon cube, dissolved in 2 c. boiling water

or 2 c. beef broth in a box, low sodium

2 cups boiling water

1 32 oz. canned black beans

Rinse beans and let drain in colander.

Sauté onion in olive oil. When it is translucent, add cumin and cook until spice releases its flavor. Add diced garlic, and cook a minute more.

Separately, dissolve bouillon cube in boiling water, if using. Otherwise, just had beef broth. Some recipes call for chicken stock, rather than beef, but I like the heartiness of the beef.

Add half the beans, bring to simmer, and take off the heat and let cool.

When cool, blend in batches. Return to burner. Add remaining beans and simmer.

Serve warm with sour cream and chopped cilantro or chives for garnish.