The review: white bean stew (finally) and fancy grilled cheese

I’ve waited a long time to make this damn white bean stew and I was convinced it was going to be a stinker because my expectations were so high. This is, aftetall, the third (or fourth) time this recipe has appeared on the weekly menu. Fortunately, I was wrong. This was good soup, and easy too. Even my picky eaters ate their entire serving. Now that’s a recommendation.

This soup begins with bacon (never a bad thing). Rather than cooking all of the bacon on the stove, I cooked (or rather, Logan cooked) enough on the stove to get the grease that I needed for the veggies, and (Sam) popped the rest into the microwave to save time. I should have chopped the onion, celery, and carrot in the food processor, but the DayQuil was affecting my brain and I didn’t think about the food processor until after I was done chopping. Next time. Here are a couple of photos of the stew in process, though the original photos of the finished stew on The Cozy Apron are so beautiful, I’m embarrassed to include mine here.  

While the stew was cooking (mine only took 40 minutes once everything was in the pot - I'd give it an hour start to finish), I prepped the filling for the grilled cheese sandwiches with artichoke and spinach. I’ll be honest. I pinned this recipe months ago solely because the photos were so beautiful. I didn’t even read the description of the sandwiches until I made them. They are described as tasting like spinach-artichoke dip smashed between buttery, crusty bread. Spot on. That is exactly what they tasted like. So good and perfect for a cold night. The boys went to town on these sandwiches. Spinach and teenage boys? Always a question. Tonight's answer was yes.

I won’t bore you with the details of how I made the sandwiches because I am SURE you are going to take my advice and head over to Joy the Baker right now to see how she made them, and then make some for yourself. While you are there, get a load of those photos. It’s important to have goals, people, and Joy the Baker inspires me to be a better food photographer. Now, go make a sandwich. Seriously.