Cooking Up a Storm - Swiss Chard Pie, Chicken Noodle Soup, Foccacia Bread

Yesterday morning I cooked up a storm, using up about 1/2 of the veggies that my mom and dad gave me last week.

First, I made a wonderful focaccia bread to use up the last of my 4th of july tomatoes. I also topped it with carmelized onions and gorgonzola cheese. Yum!

Then, I made a delicious chicken noodle soup. I love to make soup by throwing a little bit of everything soup worthy into the pot. It has carrots, peppers, shallots, onions, swiss chard, green & pink beans, red skinned potatoes, skinny noodles and of course, chicken.

And lastly I made this fantastic swiss chard pie. I posted my recipe below. This is my second time making one of these. Last time I also used leeks, this time I used alot of shallots:

4- shallots, minced
1/2-bell pepper finely chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 bunch swiss chard
1 table spoon chopped fresh basil
1 frozen pie crust
1/3 cup of goat cheese crumbles
3 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspon nutmeg
several thin sliced small tomatoes (cherry tomatoes work well)

Saute shallots and bell pepper in olive oil in a large saute pan. Once it begins to soften, toss in the swiss chard & basil. Cook down for approximately 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prebake your frozen crust until it just begins to turn a golden color (aprox 5-10 minutes at 350). Be sure not to over bake! Take out of oven to cool slightly. Sprinkle 1/2 of th goat cheese on the bottom of the crust. Fill crust with 1/2 of the chard mixture. Sprink the remaining goat cheese and top with remaining chard mixture. Beat eggs with milk and nutmeg and pour into the pie shell. Top with sliced tomatoes. Bake at 400 for approximately 30 minutes, until filling is firm and crust is browned.