Black Bean And Salsa Soup

We have been doing a lot of Australian wines recently. Today's offering comes from yet another huge
Australian wine company founded by a young British doctor over 150 years ago. Dr. Penfold's
started by planting vine cuttings from the south of France at a modest stone cottage on the outskirts
of Adelaide in South Australia. The cottage was called The Grange. Penfolds Grange wine is anything
but modest; it is considered Australia's finest wine. At well over $500 a bottle I won't be reviewing it
here or in my upscale wine column. Penfolds has been making this particular South Australian
Chardonnay since 1976. Today's companion wine is a Chardonnay from one of the finest wine areas
of Australia.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't think that Nile Spice feijoada na slow cooker soup has any animal
products. It's full of beans and protein, and would be a great meal for vegetarian, too.

If you prefer a more traditional meal, make a vegetarian meatloaf, bake some sweet potatoes, and
steam some broccoli. Gravy can be made from vegetable stock if you really want that brazilian
Feijoada comfort food feel.

Pack snacks. Stock up on healthy bars, nuts and even healthy sandwiches. Pack your carry-on with
healthy goodies so you aren't spending money at the terminal on expensive crappy food and you are
sure to have something on hand when hunger strikes.

As you can see you slow cooker Feijoada can do a lot of grazing for a very reasonable price. Plan
plenty of time to visit all the "houses" to collect your "treats." There are plenty of dessert items to
satisfy your sweet tooth, and they run in the same price range as the entree-type items.

Some of your best tasting meals will most likely have been prepared in slow cooker feijoadas, and
this is mostly due to the nature of how they are cooked. It just seems that everything tastes better
when it has been prepared this way. When your meal is prepared in a slow cooker feijoada, the
flavor gets locked in because of the fact that the cover keeps the vapors trapped within the pot so
they soak back into the food contained within it. That is how everything stays so moist and tasty.

While for their entrees you can order from their house specialties like the beef steak (bife a
Brasileira) which is thin cut tender beef sirloin steak, grilled and finished with garlic and sliced
onions served with fries, rice and beans, or the fish stew which has salmon, whitefish, shrimp
sauteed with olive oil garlic, onions, bell peppers feijoada em brasilia tomatoes, or even the bean
stew (feijoada) which is black beans cooked with bacon, pork sausage, cured beef and pork ribs.
Served with white rice, collard greens, farofa, banana, vinaigrette and orange just to name a few.