Jules in the Kitchen

So, I like to cook on Sundays. Saturdays are for cleaning, and such, but I find the process of cooking -- the cleaning, and the chopping, and the sauteeing and the simmering -- to be very relaxing when I have a whole afternoon open and no real deadlines to meet. I like to turn on General Conference, or my MoTab Pandora station, and its very uplifting and spiritually (and physically!) enriching. I'll usually do two or three dishes in a row, and that way I actually eat good food during the week.

Here's what came out of my kitchen today.


Cranberry Orange Jam with crystallized ginger, from this recipe at Serious Eats:

Not just gorgeous, also delicious.

This bread:

The texture is wonderful, but I forgot the salt. Ooops. I had some carrot ginger soup in the freezer that I made a while ago, but never ate because it was disastrous as a soup. Seriously awful. But then I had the genius idea of subbing in the soup for some of the water in the bread, which made up for SOME of the salt lack, but otherwise, you can't really taste that it's there beyond a kind of earthy flavor to the bread.

And finally, Cilantro, Chicken, and Black Bean soup, adapted from this recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen:

This is a winner. And paired with the crusty homemade bread above? Yum-mo!

I realize that my blog has been super boring lately, but that's mostly just because *I've* been super boring lately. Basically, I've been working, and reading, and going on run/walks, doing the Young Women president thing, and cooking. And that's pretty much it. Whee! I'm not complaining, though. Last year was pretty hectic, so I'm enjoying the slower pace. For now anyway...