Cooking: Minestrone Soup

Justyn has been craving minestrone soup talking about how he's totally gonna make it someday. Well.. he never got around to making it, so I made it for him tonight. I found a recipe through tastespotting.com. Link: http://tideandthyme.com/?p=187

Justyn said that I can make this ANYTIME. He loved it that much. I altered the recipe since I was impatient and didn't want to wait 2 hours before it was ready to eat. First I cooked the bacon until they were just about crisp and then added the onion, leek, carrot & celery. Those sauteed for 5 minutes. Then I added the crushed tomatoes, 2 bay leaves, 2 cups of water & 2 cups of beef stock. I let that come to a boil before adding the zucchini and potato. Half an hour before I served it, I added the green beans and pasta. 15 minutes before serving I added fresh basil & parsley. So in total, I only let the soup cook for an hour but it came out really nice.