To my sister, Sharon:

This Is Just To Say
(with apologies to William Carlos Williams)
I have eaten the bread that you said I should make and which you were right-- it was easy Forgive me I do not like my bread so dense and so plain

These words were especially true the first time I baked the infamous No-Knead Bread first
introduced on the NY Times food page back in November.  After I tried it once--and completely
failed--my dear sister told me to try, try again--so I did.  

The bread turned out better this time, but I'm still not exactly pleased.  First thing, unlike Sharon,
I'm not exactly burnt out on my regular bread yet.  (Makes sense--Sharon's been baking FGWW
Bread a year and a half longer than I have.)  And it still had a flavor that I don't like--it's called
the "soaked wheat flavor".  Yup. Admittedly, when it comes to cooking, I care more about flavor
than health.  I'll prove that in a (not so skinny) minute.

So.. What to do if I ever get bored with my bread?

I can try to learn to like FGWW No-Knead Bread, or this: 
 

 Cinnamon Raisin Bread/Cheese Bread

Heheh. Flavor over health.

Just to drive the point home, lemme leave you with a recipe:

Easy Tortilla Soup

1/2 pound sausage
1 med-lge onion, cut into large dice
1 can or 1 1/2 c. chicken broth
1-2 cans black beans (I used home-cooked beans for both)
1 more can of beans of your choice
(black-eye peas, white beans, pintos or even kidneys work here)
1 can Italian tomatoes
1/2-1 can of Rotel tomatoes
1-2 t. cumin
1 T. tomato paste, or (easy choice) ketchup
salt and pepper to taste (I didn't need any)

Tortilla Chips, crushed
Grated Cheddar or Monterey, or Pepper Jack cheese

Brown sausage in a medium to large saucepan until no "pink" is left. Add in onion and saute until onions are slightly caramelized. Add remaining ingredients and cook until flavors have melded. When serving, top with crushed tortilla chips and cheese.

**And if you want to be healthy, you can always make your own tortilla chips with corn tortillias, some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a hot oven. And you can get your sausage locally. (That's for Sharon.)

**edit**

Today I made this soup with canned beans (two cans black; one can pintos), and added 1 t. chicken base and two bay leaves to compensate. I added 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin; that seemed to do it. I think I got a little more than 1/2 a pound of meat though--maybe 5/8-3/4 a pound, because I used two small onions, and added an extra can of plain tomatoes. After adding the extra can of tomatoes, I did add some extra pepper, but still no extra salt. I hope this helps for anyone who tries it with canned beans!

**end of edit**

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