Three newish tech features I really wish had happened sooner

Closing one of the tabs in split view is as simple as hitting the X next to it in the top tab window.

One of the tradeoffs of leaving work is no longer having a captive audience to share my delight in new tech features that crop up. Admittedly, I just as often had to share updates about the status of the latest bug, but I also got to spread good news when one of our software providers implemented a feature that could make our work lives better. Hence the reason you're seeing me dispense tech advice into the ether, because I just have to share it somewhere. 

Chrome's new split screen feature

Why, oh why, couldn't this feature have existed while I was working? So many programs I worked with were web-based, and having a super slick way to have two browser windows open side by side without any need to manually manipulate the window widths would have been a total game-changer. Just hold down the shift key before clicking on the second tab you want to add to a split view and then right-click to pick "Add to new split view." If you right-click on one of the combined tabs again under "arrange split view" you'll see options to rearrange the order of the tabs, close one of the open tabs or just restore them to separate tabs. (Or you can right-click on any tab to select that feature and then navigate to add a different tab in split view.) It may not have been available when I could have made the best use of it, but I've still made great use of this new capability, starting with having my Christmas shopping Google spreadsheet open next to a website for shopping. You can also drag and drop a window into a split view, which I learned from this post.

Windows 11 glyphs palette

Another feature I totally would have killed for at work, but one that's still super handy for things like inserting fractions in a blog post. I've used the Windows-V clipboard history feature to pin the fractions, but now can use Windows-V to get at an extensive Symbols panel and history as well as clipboard history, and it remembers your most recently inserted, so I'm finding that just as handy as the clipboard history since I don't need to cull the history to keep the fractions at the top.

Split view in Slack

Also just too late for most of my work life: Slack's new split view. It lets you see two conversations, two channels or two canvases side by side. Just click on a channel (or DM or canvas), Control-click on another channel and then right click on the first channel top pick open in split view. For canvases and lists, the option is under the three-dot menu at the upper right.

Windows+Shift+Minus for an em dash

This one isn't super new, apparently, but it was new to me when I ran across it. This was a development in keyboard shortcuts that I missed when it first happened, probably because I wasn't on Windows 11 at the time. Sure, some people think the em dash is like the mark of the AI devil, but you won't convince the style committee of that one. I worked in a program that had stomped all over any other existing em dash shortcut except for the Alt 0151, so that would have been super helpful. 

Three bean soups

As in three soups that have beans in them, not three-bean soup, which is its own thing. When you think of bean soup, if you're like me, the first thing that comes to mind is navy bean with ham or bacon. But given the variety of beans out there, there's a wide variation of bean soup recipes. In some cases they provide the solid heft, in others, pureed creaminess. Beans' basic blandness lends itself to be a carrier for whatever flavor profile you choose to apply.

The fact that these three recipes are all from Cooking Light is no coincidence. I'm finally starting to slowly go through old cooking magazines to clip likely suspects and recycle the rest. It was one of those tasks that fell into the category of oh, that seems like a good job to deal with when I'm retired. It didn't particularly strike me as odd to retain what are essentially monthly cookbooks, but if casual acquaintances came to the house, they'd invariably comment on the shelves of magazines lining the sunroom. Regular friends don't bat an eye at this apparent aberration, just file that under one of my basic personality quirks.

It's been an interesting exercise going through the back issues. Back then I was going through each issue and writing out on a sheet of scratch paper which recipes I wanted to try from each issue, noting the page number and which sort of meal they were suited for: weeknight supper, weekend lunch, etc. I'd put checkmarks and comments by any I tried and an arrow in front of ones I really wanted to try first. Comparing what I clipped out now to what I wanted to try then shows that tastes change. Recipes I hadn't even marked to try are now in my clipping pile, while some former must-tries didn't move the needle.

This first soup makes me feel vindicated in hanging on to what for others are ephemeral periodicals. 

Creamy truffle-scented white bean soup

From Cooking Light, sometime in the aughts.
Note: This recipe called for bottled minced roasted garlic. That might be a thing still and I just haven't looked for it. At any rate, I opted for roasted garlic from the grocery store deli. I also included a bit of the cooking liquid with the beans, since I used beans I'd cooked and stored in the freezer instead of canned. The recipe also calls for truffle oil, which is dandy, but feel free to try whatever flavored oil you want. My favorite with this is actually a lemon-infused oil.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced roasted garlic
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1½ teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
2 cups broth
2 (19-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (see note)
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon truffle oil or other flavored oil

Method

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender. Add garlic, pepper and rosemary and cook until fragrant. Add broth and beans. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Puree soup. Check seasoning, adding more lemon juice if desired. Serve each of the 4 servings topped with a ¼ teaspoon of truffle oil for each serving.

Rating: Quite nice. Worth making even if you don't have any flavored oils, because the roasted garlic and rosemary do quite a nice job on their own, flavorwise. Decent texture, and really a nice fast fix. While the flavor may deepen a bit if made ahead, it's plenty tasty right away, so it's one you can whip up quickly anytime you have roasted garlic. Well, assuming you have a rosemary bush or the equivalent. Definitely going in the Keeper pile.

Black bean soup

From Cooking Light

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced onion
¼ diced peppers (I used red and yellow since that's what I had)
3 tablespoons chopped carrot
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups broth
1 cup water
3 cans (15-ounce) black beans, rinsed and drained
Sliced green onions for garnish

Method

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery, onion, bell pepper and carrots. Cook until tender. Add garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder and pepper. Cook 3 minutes. Add broth, water and beans. Cook 20 minutes. Cool slightly and puree. Serve garnished with green onions.

Rating: Sludgy texture, but that's not entirely a bad thing in winter, and it delivers your basic chili spices. Improves with reheating, so it's one to make ahead for best flavor.

Leek and lima bean soup with bacon

From Cooking Light, June 2008 issue. Makes 8 skimpy servings.

Ingredients

3 bacon slices
2 cups chopped leeks, white and light-green parts only
4 cups lima beans, fresh or thawed if frozen
4 cups broth
1 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup chopped green onions for garnish
¼ cup sour cream for garnish

Method

Cook bacon in a large, deep-sided pot until crisp. Remove from pan, drain and chop when cool.

In bacon drippings, cook leeks until tender over medium heat. Add beans, broth and water. Bring to a simmer and cook about 15 minutes. Cool mixture slightly and puree in a food processor or blender. Return to pan and season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve garnished with chopped bacon, a tablespoon of sour cream and some green onions.

Rating: As much as I ordinarily like fresh lemon in pretty much anything, it strikes a really off note in this recipe, so if I ever make it again, I'm going to skip that. The bacon is doing all the flavor work here, and it comes in more fully upon reheating, so I'd suggest making it ahead for better flavor. Because bacon. But overall, this one falls into the category of worth trying, better than canned, but not really worth repeating when the world is filled with tastier soup recipes.