Awesome Soup Day #9 Chunky Bean & Veggie Soup

This soup day turned out to be a great success. Good soup, good bread, good salad, good wine and good friends so what more could we wish for. You might say, a bright sunny day and interesting conversation. Well we had those too and even though it was only the first day of February, the sun was warm enough to sit outside and have pre dinner drinks with Priscilla and Kyle , who came to share our soup day.

The soup was somewhat like a chunky minestrone soup but had the added larger size veggies and cannellini beans to give extra fiber and protein. It was rich tasting, with veggies that you could taste and chew: carrots, tomatoes, celery, and leaks and a smattering of spices. It was hot , steamy and delicious. We all declared it was very good and Mike and I rated it as a 9 all a round. Why not a 10 you ask? Mike explains that if we give it a 10 we will have

no higher point to aim for.

With the salad I made sunflower seed bread which has a base of honey and a small amount of seeds and is termed a sweet bread. It rose beautifully this time and was a light delightful bread to eat with the soup. The only problem I had was to slice it as it was so hot and crumbly .Slices were pretty much of the doorstep variety but delicious spread with butter.( ie. spread)

Mike had made a fresh spinach salad to go with the meal tossed in a light dressing which included bacon pieces, onions and garlic. Just right for this meal.

Our friends had brought a lovely Chianti wine, Gabbiano Chianti Classico. This is a lovely smooth Italian wine from a vineyard established in the Middle ages and protected by an Italian knight Il Cavaliere. This is a wine we will certainly use again. It was a great compliment to this meal.

Interesting people make interesting conversation and our conversation ranged from colonial India, voyages on liners through the early days of the Suez Canal, building cabins in wild Alaska, Japanese food and customs and even a little Japanese language. Kyle is recently retired and is a member of the “No wrist watch society” so Mike and he swapped stories on how to adjust a retirement lifestyle by doing things you always wanted to do and now have actually time to do that and enjoy life. Cheers for retirement.

And that's what just what we did on Awesome Soup Day #9. Enjoy life.