Black Beans

I had a number of peppers in the fridge that needed to get used, and to me, peppers mean black bean soup. So after work yesterday, I picked up black beans and red beans while in town, and set them to soak over night. This morning, they were well soaked and ready to cook.



So I took some a couple of onions, four bell peppers, and four peppers of kinds I can't ever recall the names, and a whole ton of garlic. Everything got chopped up (bell peppers in rather large pieces, hot peppers in tiny little pieces, since while I love hot foods, I don't much care for getting an entire huge bite of spicy) and then added to some hot oil in the soup pot. Tossed the veggies around in that for a while, then added the beans, vegetable broth, and water and set the whole mess to simmer for two hours while I got ready for work.



I decided that it must be done, and served myself up a bowl with a dallop of plain yogurt (we were out of sour cream, a problem I have since fixed while in town). The final touch on seasoning was sea salt, cinnamon, and cocoa powder.



The soup is almost all gone now, having been served with a great response to the people working booths at the holiday bazaar down the street while I was at work.

The cheesecake from a few days ago, made with the surplus of yogurt we had, is just about all gone as well. It turned out pretty good, though it could have used a bit more sugar mixed in. That problem is solved by tossing some strawberries with sugar or honey over the top.



Tomorrow I plan on eating nothing but leftovers, and taking the dogs on a long hike. Working and cooking for the past couple days has left them with nothing more than a few games of fetch, meaning they are waking me up by bouncing on the bed like mad in the morning.