Black Bean Soup and Jalapeno Bread

Black Bean Soup, it sounded delicious and I love soup especially when the weather starts to cool.  Even after making and eating this, I'm not sure about it.  It was OK, kind of bland like beans usually are, but I would prefer regular navy bean soup.  But the Jalapeno Cheese Bread, OH YEAH-that's what I'm talking about!  I could have skipped the soup and eaten the just the bread.  I ate a couple of slices and took the rest of the loaf to work to put it out of my range of temptation.  Right now there's another loaf in the freezer quietly whispering my name.
Anyway, I halved the recipe, added jalapenos instead of celery, a little more spice, left out the corn starch and added a can of southwestern corn.  Don't leave out the lemon juice, it really brightened up the soup.

Black Bean Soup

1 onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 celery ribs, finely chopped

1/4 large red bell peppers, finely chopped

2 small chicken bouillon cubes

1 -1 1/2 cup boiling water

2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, undrained

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 lemons, juice of

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

In a pot, combine the first six ingredients; simmer for 10 minutes.

Add half a can of beans, salt and cumin; cook for 5 minutes.

Puree soup (I use an immersion blender which makes it easy to do it right in the pot).

Add the rest of the beans to the soup.

Combine the cornstarch with 1 1/2 tablespoons of water.

Add the lemon and the cornstarch to the soup; cook until thickened.

If I was the only one eating this, I'd probably double the jalapenos, maybe thinly slice the jalapenos leaving in the seeds or use some canned jalapenos so the heat could be better gauged.

Whole Wheat Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Bread

1 ½ tablespoons dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 cups unbleached bread fl our

1 1/2 cups whole wheat fl our (more as needed)

½ cup jalapeno peppers, coarsely chopped and seeds removed

2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 teaspoon Tabasco

1 cup milk, warmed

2 cups (8 oz) cheese, chopped into 1/4 inch cubes

Proof yeast in water with 1 teaspoon sugar for 8-10 minutes, or until foamy. Heat milk in the microwave for about 50 seconds on High. In the stainless steel bowl, add in 4 cups fl our, chopped jalapenos, salt, sugar, egg, hot pepper sauce and warmed milk. After the yeast has proofed, add to the bowl and start kneading, adding in more fl our as needed to create a soft, smooth semi-sticky dough, keep kneading for about 8-10 minutes. Towards the end of the kneading add in the cubed cheddar cheese and mix until combined (the dough can be removed from the bowl and you can ad/mix in the cheese by hand if desired). After kneading, let the dough sit out on a board or counter top to rest, covered with a clean tea towel for 8-10 minutes. Gather up dough and knead gently for 30 seconds.  Then place the dough in a well greased bowl and let rise until doubled (about 1 ｽ hours). Punch down dough and slice into tow even pieces. Shape into two large balls and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray or into two large loaf pans that have been greased. Cover with a clean tea towel and rise again for another 1 hour or more until doubled. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 25-35 minutes or until the crust is a dark golden brown.