you just have to care.

When winter (if that's what you want to call it) hit, I started making black bean soup on a weekly basis - it's cheap, easy, quick, and delicious. Last week, however, I tried to make it again while Nick was at the gym and while taste-testing it, decided I had too much onion in the soup. The onions from our grocery store are extremely large and even though I hadn't put the whole thing in, I felt that the onions were dominating the beans. Feeling exasperated and like a loser for messing up such a simple recipe, I grabbed a wooden spoon and the garbage can and actually tried to take out the onions piece by piece, figuring that if I just kept doing that while the soup cooked for another ten minutes, I could make some leeway.

While slaving over the stove and the garbage can with such tedious detail, I couldn't help but remember something that Nick's dad told me once a long time ago. I had been laughing about how the kitchen and I had never been friends when he said to me, "If you want to succeed in cooking, you just have to care." He was so right and his words have stuck with me ever since. I could have left the black bean soup alone but I wouldn't have enjoyed it and Nick probably wouldn't have either. By caring, and making the effort I felt it needed to be successful, our soup was simply delicious that evening.

I have many friends who are wizards in the kitchen but if there are any of you are like me - too hesitant to step outside their comfort zone, too self-deprecating to have hopes of success, too unfamiliar to know that many recipes are actually very easy to follow - well, it just takes some effort. I'm nowhere near being a wiz of any sort but I'm having fun trying.

While I'm at it, here's the recipe we use for the Black Bean soup. Save it for a lazy night when it's still cold out. It's delicious.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/black-bean-soup-with-crispy-tortillas