Pork and Kidney Bean Soup, February 3, 2016

Jeannene was dreading the meal on the day I made a kind of funky sounding pork and kidney bean soup. It seemed like it should be pretty tasty, but we both ended up thinking it was pretty meh. I think part of the problem for me was the texture---the pork and kidney beans and everything ended up puréed, which seemed weird to me. The flavor was not bad, but it wasn't good enough that I would bother sharing it with y'all. However, the gorgeous crudités with pomegranate arils and the grapefruit in rosemary syrup were both splendid! Jeannene doesn't like grapefruit one tiny bit, though, so she basically only liked the veggies. Ah, well, at least she liked those.

To make the veggie platter, I simple arranged some of our favorites on a platter---sugar snap peas, snow peas, baby carrots, green pepper, orange pepper, cucumber slices, radishes. Then, I drizzled them with good olive oil, scattered pomegranate arils across the whole thing, and sprinkled it all with a little Maldon salt. Delicious and completely gorgeous!

Grapefruit with Honey Rosemary Syrup

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

3 tbsp. honey

3 sprigs rosemary

3 grapefruit (I used a mix of pink and white)

Bring everything but the grapefruit to a boil over medium heat and simmer 5 minutes. Cool completely and discard rosemary sprigs. Section the grapefruit, pour the syrup over it, and chill. Serves 4 or so.