With the dreary weather and rain, rain, rain, I thought that it would be a perfect day to try my Mom’s bean soup. I think two years ago for Christmas, she had created these beautiful mason jars with pretty beans sealed in with some seasoning and instructions tagged to it. I had it in my pantry, but honestly forgot about it. Then we had it at her house last month, and I thought, I really need to try to get this bean soup going.
SO – today is the day.
Actually, it started last night. On the tag it says to soak beans overnight. I have never done this before- so I just filled the jar with water. Who knew I should have used a bowl! Of course, they expanded and when I woke up this morning, I had half hydrated beans all over my counter. This was my first of many mistakes.
I read the rest of the directions, brown up ground beef, add 3 cups of water and let it heat up. Given the state of the beans, I figure I better cook it all day. I added all the ingredients, except the tomato soup. I didn’t have any tomato soup! So V8 juice will do right? So I threw in some v8.
While my wonderful soup was cooking, I decided what better to go with soup than homemade bread. I hauled out my bread machine, grabbed the recipe book out of the cabinet and went to work. I was so proud of myself at this point…until, I hit start on the bread machine. I realized, I had read from the “Pizza Dough” recipe! DAMN. Now what? Breadsticks??? I switched the bread back to dough and kept my fingers crossed.
A few hours later, I am back to the soup. Beans are still hard, and now it has no taste. Was it the V8 juice? Not enough sodium in it? I decided to add tomato sauce and beef bouillon in hopes to give it some taste. Now my toes are crossed.
The dough is ready. Have I ever made breadsticks before? NO. But pizza crust is really good. So I made them into bread shaped (sort of) sticks and put them in the oven.
They came out great, nice and golden. I melted butter with garlic (I am so glad they are friends!) and brushed it all over them. I figure, whatever I messed up in the recipe, I will make up for in butter!
Then it was time to taste test the soup and guess what? It’s not so bad. I think I saved it.
Moral of the Story:
When you can, follow the directions, when you can’t, add more butter.
