Beautiful Soup, plus other random stuff.

My contribution to the week's dinners:

Wintery 10-bean and root vegetable soup

1 cup 10-bean soup mix (this is actually mostly a variety of lentils/split peas and barley with maybe 3 or 4 kinds of actual beans in it, from the bulk bin at the hippie grocery store), soaked overnight, water changed in the morning and soaked until I started the soup
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped small
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped small
1 celery root, peeled (this is difficult, but so worth the flavor!) and chopped small
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped (plus the leafy tops thrown in)
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes with jalapeno
2 precooked chicken or turkey sausages (I used part of a turkey kielbasa and one chicken sausage, precooked), chopped into rounds and halved
seasonings to taste (I used 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriender, 1 tsp mexican oregano)
salt and pepper

Soak the 10 bean soup mix overnight and through the next day, changing the water at least once. About 2 hours before you want to eat, put the beans in a big soup pot and cover with 6 cups of water, heating to a rapid simmer and let it cook for about 45 minutes. Dump in all the vegetables (including the leafy tops of celery stalks), seasonings, and add some vegetable or chicken stock base or boullion if you like. Cook another 45 minutes, checking the largest beans for doneness. Add tomatoes and sausages. It will be done in 15-30 more minutes. Makes mass quantities of super tasty soup. The sausage is optional (the soup is super tasty without it as well) but I like animal protein in my soup. Serve with crusty bread. Very low fat, high protein, and high fiber and so delicious!

A thing that happened this week:

We were at the grocery store buying food and a DVD display caught Dan's attention. He found a copy of the Dark Crystal for 10 bucks, and as it's a childhood favorite and a movie I've wanted to own, we threw it onto the conveyor belt. The clerk scanning our foodstuffs asks, "Is that a good movie? I've never heard of it". "Yes it is," I told him, and realized he was likely a teenager and therefore born way after the movie came out. "It was made by Jim Henson," I told him. Blank stare. "You know, the guy who made the muppets?" Blank stare. "I don't know voice actors," he said. "Jim Henson was the guy who invented Kermit the Frog!" I exclaimed. Another blank stare. SERIOUSLY!?!?! Here's a kid who is at least 16 if he's old enough to be a checker at the grocery store and he's never heard of Kermit the Frog or the Muppets? What are they teaching kids in school these days? Sheesh, way to make an almost 30-year-old feel ANCIENT.

Also, Sunday is our 2-year engage-a-versary. 2 years since I said yes and we started planning the Big Event. It hardly even feels like it's been six months, let alone 2 years, but then again we're only 6 weeks away from our first wedding anniversary. Where does the time go?