Tuscan Bean Soup & "cool kid" Cran-Apple Crisps

I ripped this recipe out of a magazine a long, long, long time ago. Okay, it wasn't like ten years ago, but it was at least one year ago. It was back in the good old days of Dick and I scraping every single penny we could to get by - I was taking 21 credits worth of classes while working two seriously part-time and crappy paying internships, and Dick was also a full-time student and working to the death at Real Estate right when all the stinky you-know-what was hitting the big fat economy fan. Anyway, I was just browsing through a very old Better Homes and Gardens at the plasma donation center (holler, BioLife Plasma! hahaha), and I ripped the page out with this very recipe on it and shoved it in my purse, which eventually made it into my recipe binder. What a journey! I'm so glad it came all this way - it was delicious!!! And quite appealing to the eye, if I do say so myself. You can even see the steam coming up! It's a healthy & perfect for cold weather - which is now officially upon us. Hope you like!

Tuscan Bean Soup

From Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

Ingredients

1 c. packaged peeled baby carrots, coarsely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, rinsed & drained

1 32 oz. box reduced sodium chicken broth

2-3 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed

1 5 oz. pkg. baby spinach

freshly cracked pepper

cracker bread

Directions

1. In 4-qt dutch oven cook & stir carrots and onion in 1 Tbsp oil over med-high heat for 3 minutes. add beans, broth & seasoning. bring to boiling; slightly mash beans. reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. meanwhile, in large skillet heat remaining oil over med-high heat. add spinach; toss with tongs 1-2 minutes, just until wilted. remove from heat. ladle soup; top w/ spinach, sprinkle with pepper. serve w/ cracker bread.

Finally in the Club!!!

I learned about the Tuesdays with Dorie cooking/blog club about a year ago from a couple of the other cooking blogs that I follow, and I thought it was super cool. At first I was intimidated because the things these cool club kids were making were pretty out of my league & pretty fancy shmancy, but my courage has grown over time, and I asked for the book (Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan) for my birthday this year. One of my BFF's, RJ, gave it to me, and that very night I came home to send my official email to get in. For a little while I thought for sure they didn't think I was cool enough for the club because it took a little while (honestly, it seemed like forever because I was so excited!) for the response to come. But as of this week, it's official....drumroll, please....I'm in!!! I'm now one of the super cool Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers/bakers! This is not the first recipe I've made from the book, but the first one I'm blogging, so here it goes:
These crisps were delicious! I invited my family over for dessert for the very occasion of making my first TWD recipe that I'd be blogging, and they were a hit all around. It was the first time I've ever made anything with fresh cranberries, and let me just tell you that the end product is to die for, but the raw uncooked berries are not my fave. I have the eat-as-you-cook habit, so I tasted them as I was putting the crisps together, and let's just say I'll never do that again. hahaha

Cran-Apple Crisps

Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan