Rebar for Christmas

Christmas was very lucrative for my kitchen. She now has a pastry cutter, a cookie sheet that doesn't look like it's been through a bombing, the Rebar cookbook, and a hand blender/food processor! You can be sure there will be lots of chopping and blending happening from now on.

This week's undertaking was Rebar's black bean soup. If you're asking "how complicated can black bean soup be?" then you've never made anything from the Rebar cookbook. The preparation began on Tuesday with Rebar barbeque sauce and chipotle puree, both ingredients for the soup. After simmering spices in apple cider vinegar, straining them, making an emergency trip to the liquor store for "1 bottle dark beer" because the pub across the street doesn't do offsales, and using my wicked hand blender that doesn't splatter, the BBQ sauce was done. And my apartment only smelled like vinegar for three days.

Last night Megan came over for a mexican party bearing gifts of tortilla chips, la cerveza mas fina and black beans and we boiled, spiced and beat this soup into existence. It was delicious. Just as good as I remember from Rebar night in Saskatoon last year when Lindsay made it. Worth the effort? Well, if you think of cooking as a hobby rather than simply a life-sustaining activity, then why not?

After supper we went on an expedition to the Gladstone Market, one of the many sketchy corner stores in Fernwood, and bought coke and ice cream for movie night. We watched The Thomas Crown Affair that I borrowed from the library (new excitement in my life) and it was most excellent, even thought I'd already seen it but didn't remember until a few minutes in. Well, like Megan said, I might be smart in some things and not in movies, because I didn't even remember how it ended.

Excellent selection of Oreos at the Gladstone Market with my hot pink shoe posing for the camera.