The best tomato soup recipe you will ever taste

After looking online for a tomato soup recipe, I decided they were no good. Any soup recipe that uses canned tomatoes is not the recipe for me. So I winged it, as usual. Thought this time, I hit jack pot. Mental note, write this one in my cook book. I remember having no luck on the invent a tomato soup recipe mission last year, so I have no idea what happened to me tonight but ladies and gents, here is the tomato soup recipe to knock your socks off...

Bring to a boil and simmer the following ingredients for about an hour
One coarsely chopped onion
Four small zucchini/cougettes, half inch slices
8-10 lbs fresh tomatoes, skinned
Zest of one lime
Juice of half a lime
Some fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper (a lot more salt than you would think)

Once all of the veggies are tender, blend with emersion blender.

Add about 4-8 Oz sour cream, depending on how creamy you want it
Another handful of fresh basil leaves
An inch or two block of grated fresh parmesan cheese

Blend with emersion blender again.

It's so good that I am eating a bowl at 1030 at night instead of going to bed and considering how many jars of this I can either can or fit in my freezer.

I know what I'm eating for dinner tomorrow night. Where is my grilled cheese?!


Easiest way to skin a tomato (in my opinion)
Cut tomato in half through the stem
Cut the stem out of both sides
Lay cut side down on a tin foil lined baking tray
Broil/grill

an inch or two from elements for 8 minutes
Leave to cool and peel away the skins

Technically the correct wy to skin a tomato is to etch a cross in the bottom of it and blanch it in boiling water for 30 seconds then plunge into ice water, then peel. I think this is messy and time consuming. Just my two cents.

HOW MUCH!

Do you have any idea how much windows cost!?!?

I do. Since we drove all the way to Batesville today to go buy some at Lowe's, where they are currently 15% off. Didn't have correct sizes and numbers, essential when forking out this much money, so we picked the windows out and have to go back tomorrow with dimensions and credit cards.

Approximately $475 per window.

Yes, we are buying 11 windows, and that doesn't even cover the entire house, but it's all we are willing to do right now! Dont want to get ahead of ourselves on the renovations.

Danny is a little distressed that the delivery time on the windows is 28 days, so we will be moving into the house before they have finished (or for that matter, started) our bedrooms, but I knew they would take that long, so I had already prepared myself for living in a construction site. Do they make hot pink hard hats? Or do they just sell those at Adult Stores?!

Great summer pasta for dinner tonight...

Shave a small zucchini/courgette with a vegetable peeler, toss with hot cooked pasta, a diced fresh tomato, some diced fresh mozzarella, olive oil, lemon juice and a splash of balsamic and some freshly picked basil. Yummy! Henry even preferred it to his spaghetti.

With one victory, comes a loss...

I know, bad form to post twice in one day, but there was a loss today far far greater than the PetSmart victory. The battle of Lauren Vs the Hornworm has begun for 2010. Current death toll, 17. I am so distraught right now, as I just know that the carnage out there cannot have been created by a mere 17 hornworms, but my eyes hurt so much from staring, I had to give up.

Then there is the problem of going into the hospital for a couple of days.

Therefore I have a very serious and time consuming favour to ask. This favour is very very important to me. Very important. So please consider whether you are willing to take up the responsibility, because I really do need commitment.

My vegetables will not need watering after just two days, but I will need someone to come over each evening to cut up unsuspecting hornworms. An evening death toll really will improve my mood of being stuck in the hospital. This seemingly short time period is long enough for an army of hornworms to totally decimate a tomato patch as beautiful as mine. The biggest problem is the sheer number and density of my tomato plants. You almost have to pick up each branch, or even each leaf, to study its underside closely. This is not an easy task, so really, think very hard before agreeing to it. If you feel that you can commit about 30 minutes each evening to this very worthy task, or if you could just take one evening, that would be great since any defense is better than none. If you are up to the challenge, please come over Thursday or Friday evening to learn how to spot the crafty buggers. It is really hard to spot them as they are the exact same colour as the plant, but there are tell-tale signs to learn.

I dont ask this lightly, as I know how busy everyone is with their own lives, but this is really really important to me. If I dont go into labour until after Sunday, its not a big deal as my parents will be here and Im sure my mother will happily chop the horrid creatures in half for me. I do not anticipate going into labour before then, but you really have no clue what's going on in there and I have to take every precaution to protect my beauties that I have put so much effort into already.

I can pay you in tomatoes or with dinner, and you know I am good to my word.

Please, please help me.

In your debt

Lauren

PS just went back out there and killed 5 more, so feeling a little more positive about it all...

Parsnip and carrot salad

Not much going on here at the ranch. Danny left me for the West Coast, so Im on my own again. The man down the street brought me some fresh eggs, so that was very nice of him. Need to make him some bread now.

When Danny is away, I like to make food every few days and just be able to eat off of it for a while, so that I don't have to cook every night. So Sunday I made breakfast muffins for my 10am snacks, salmon and veggie pasta for 3 night's worth of dinners and parsnip and carrot salad to snack on during the day. Its such a delicious, yet simple salad, I just had to share! Its also a whiz with a food processor and almost better the next day too!

Parsnip and Carrot Salad

Shred one large parsnip and two carrots.

Mix together with the following;

Raisins

Parsley

Black pepper

Lemon juice

Orange juice

Apple cider vinegar

My garden is looking beautiful. My clematis have never had so many flowers and every year I seem to have a bigger and more bountiful crop of irises. I love the fact that I have all different kinds too, so that the blooming period is prolonged. I have a full vase of purple irises in my living room and you cant even tell Ive cut any! I also seem to have alliums in bloom, which were a new additive this year. Though the coreopsis has not bloomed this year, so Im wondering if it is a biennial and the ones for next year just arent ready yet.

Busy busy bumble bee!

I feel like I haven’t stopped since last week, so Im pretty tired. Ended up staying at work til almost 5pm Friday, which sucked and I was pretty wired and feeling crappy too. But I had a little lie down at home, though I didnt sleep, we ate a quick dinner and went to the violin quartet at the Ford Center. It was ok. Not really what I had expected. There were two ‘bands’ one classical (which we like) and one ‘modern’, playing things like Jimmy Hendrix and Robbie Coltrane (which we don’t like so much). Unfortunately the latter had a much larger role in how the evening was divided up, so that sort of sucked, and of course it was a late night, with us not getting home til after 1030.

Saturday morning started with the farmers market at 715am. Im so excited its open again! They didnt have much, but its just the act of meeting girlfriends and going to the farmers market to wander around with no specific purpose. I bought some Christmas tree ferns (bartered on the price!), some spinach, broccoli and greenhouse tomatoes. Meg and I then walked from there to town and ended up in the coffee shop where we met Tasha and Megan for a cup of tea. It was so nice! When I got home, Danny had already placed all of the bags of mulch where they needed spreading and we had the first palette of mulch spread by lunchtime. We then bought it loose, which is way more work, but cheaper. My back was killing me at the end of the day and we didnt even get it finished, but the back yard looks really really nice. In the evening we rode to Sonic and I ate a heck of a lot of food, ending with a root beer float! Although it all made me rather sick Sunday morning, guess Im just not used to fast food.

Sunday was nice, though still busy. I got up late for me, around 8am! Walked the dogs then got back into bed! I showered up and got all fancified and we went to the bakery for breakfast, where Danny beat me at cribbage! We did a belly photoshoot at Rowan oak and I conned Danny into grocery shopping with me. When we got home we did a few odd jobs round the house then Danny went to softball practice and I baked bread and cooked food. We had some friends over Sunday night to sit outside in the almost chilly spring evening air, it was so nice! I made rosemary focaccia bread and served with sliced mozzarella drizzled with pesto, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with seasoning, and a huge bowl of strawberries for appetizers. Then we grilled some steaks and had salad and wild rice. Yummy! They ended up playing Beatles rock band and sounded like they had a blast. Went to bed too late again and am exhausted today.

Could I be slowing down?

I knew I would have to slow down at some point in this pregnancy... I didnt expect it to come this soon though, I must say. For the second consecutive week, I did not want to go to the gym yesterday, and shockingly, I didnt go.

When I got home last night I walked my dogs for an hour and ended up with a sore lower back, of course. We had a delicious salad for dinner (boiled eggs, romaine lettuce, roasted red bell peppers, steamed chopped asparagus and broccoli, a few garlic stuffed olives, mini pickles, apple and sunflower seeds) and I collapsed to the sofa to work a few rows on my baby blanket for an hour and dip a few ginger snaps in some lemon curd! Managed some stretching and squats before bed and was out cold!

So I guess I cant do as much as I could. What a realisation at 26 weeks pregnant!

Another crazy weekend!

I wonder if 'nesting' has set in just a little too early. I say 'too early' because I just cant carry on like this! Not for four more months! Im a hard working fool.

Friday we had our 22 week doctors visit, which I will post about tomorrow after I have scanned in the Ultrasound pictures. Then I grocery shopped, hitting up three different stores, as usual, and easily sinking $200. Dont worry though, Im more like a bi-monthly shopper, so next week Ill just buy milk and eggs, it doesn't cost me that much every week! Walked the dogs, of course. Fertilised my vegetable patch, potted up some seeds, cleaned out my car, took a nap, then went to Taylor Catfish with the Klimetz' for some fried fish, how very Southern of me!

Saturday started out with crepes and stewed fruit, I think Im addicted! Danny painted the new lounge/office so I took myself outside to clear leaves. I cleared leaves like nobody's business! My daffodils are starting to open and I just wanted to be able to see them rather than having to hunt out little specks of yellow in the multitude of ugly brown dried up leaves. Ended up wearing myself out though and sat on a paving stone hoping Danny would come looking for me. Hooray, he did, so I got some help up, thankfully! Had some shut eye with Mojo on the outdoor love-seat, then showered up and took a nap in bed. Made a yummy lasagna for dinner and one for the freezer too.

Sunday was equally active, this time I woke up at 6am, cleared a few buckets of leaves I hadnt managed the day before, cleaned the kitchen and started some bread. All before I got Danny up at 9am! I scrubbed the windows, something I dont do nearly often enough. We moved the furniture into the new lounge/office, dusting as we went, and even vowed to throw some stuff away. Have to get a desk, but other than that, its a beautiful, warm and inviting room that we now both want to spend time in, rather than somewhere we dump stuff we dont know what to do with. Fantastic. Give it another month and we can start on the baby's room!

I cannot believe we organised the whole room in a weekend! I then took a nap with Tux on the outdoor love seat (got to appear fair!) and Danny rode at the trails, although how he had the energy for this, I dont know.

For dinner Sunday, I made Danny's favourite, for working so hard. I opened up a pork loin and stuffed it with fried apples, walnuts and raisins (seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg, fresh ginger and lemon juice, then added some cumin spiced bread crumbs). I breaded the meat and roasted it alongside carrots, parsnips and leeks, glazed with a mix of pineapple juice, lemon juice, honey and rice vinegar. We had this accompanied with sweet potato mash, then Danny had corn and I had collard greens (sauted in the same mix as the roasted veggies with raisins). Oh and dont forget the freshly baked bread. I then found room for a scoop of ice cream later in the evening!

What a weekend!

Breakfast Muffins

These are so easy to make (if you have a food processor!) and such a great mid-morning snack! So tasty!

Breakfast Muffins

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two muffin pans (spray oil works wonders).

Mix the following together:
1 c Wholewheat flour
1 c Spelt Flour
1/2 c ground flax
1c Sugar (I used raw, you could use honey)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Stir in:
2 c shredded carrots (2-4 medium carrots)
1 apple, core removed, shredded
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/2 c sunflower seeds

In a separate bowl, mix together:
3 eggs
1/3 c canola oil
2/3 c apple sauce
2 tsp vanilla extract

Stir egg mixture into carrot/flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Use ice cream scoop to place mix into muffin pans. It made 16 for me. I also sprinkled a little mix of cinnamon, brown sugar and flour over the top for a crunchy topping.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. I also broiled/grilled on high for 2 minutes to make the top crunchy, but kept a close eye on it. Use toothpick to check they are fully cooked.

Original recipe from all recipes.

Does this mean its Spring?

Does it mean its officially Spring if my first daffodil has bloomed?

I would take a picture of the cute little fellow (I think it might be stunted by the cold weather) but I have temporarily misplaced my mini-camera and the photographer is in Sacramento. My Hellebore (Lenton Rose) is also looking most beautiful. It makes me sad that is off in one corner of the garden, so I think I shall have to get some more. hmmmm. Perhaps a trip to the garden center friday?

I spent a busy Sunday raking leaves and mulching flower beds, only to go inside and sweep, vacuum and do laundry. Still managed to sit down with my knitting by 4pm and eat the most incredible dinner ever. I just love Spaghetti squash! Its the easiest dinner ever!


Baked spaghetti squash

(2-3 servings)

Spaghetti squash
Lemon juice
Butter
Seasoning

Marinara sauce
Pesto
Chopped olives
Frozen spinach

Cut squash in half length ways, scrape out seeds and innards. Set on baking dish cut side up. Pour in some lemon juice, water (so liquid is about a centimeter deep in center of squash), a knob of butter and season heavily (ie. salt, pepper, rosemary, parsley etc). Bake at about 400F for approximately 1 hour. Stab with knife to see if its cooked (soft).

Leave squash to cool briefly. While squash is cooling, in a small bowl place sufficient marinara and frozen spinach for two. Microwave 4 minutes. Mix marinara, spinach, pesto and olives together.

Shred squash flesh from the outside in. Mix with sauce and enjoy the healthiest dinner you could create with almost no effort!

Stay away... I smell

Well, our water went out again sometime during the night Saturday. Thankfully we had a saucepan of water from Saturday evening which Danny collected before cleaning the carpets. This was very useful as we had about ten people for roast dinner and games Sunday night. The saucepan of water was enough to par-boil my potatoes, boil my carrots and steam my broccoli. I carefully drained the potato water into another saucepan and re-used this water to cook the cabbage. I have kept this water again and will use it to boil my turkey left-overs this evening to make a stock. Now that's resourceful!

I have to say, the turkey was delicious! Thanks Mr Brandon at Zion Farms, Pontotoc, for the free-range beauty! And thanks mum for the Delia Smith baking directions. Oh and thanks Danny for the meat thermometer I got for Christmas. You all helped me bake the most delicious, moist turkey I have ever eaten! I was quite chuffed with myself actually (seriously, who says chuffed in this day and age!), because other than the turkey and the gravy, everything else in my meal was vegan. We had roasted potatoes and parsnips, carrots and broccoli, cabbage, stuffing and Hubbard squash bake. mmmmmm! Thanks to Kevser and Megan for bringing a dessert, I just didnt have that in me! The only hard thing about not having water, was that when I took the turkey out of its bag I got raw poultry juices all over my hands; so I had to use drinking water in a little bowl to clean my hands. Oh and shaping the stuffing balls left my hands kinda sticky too! Thanks also to those that brought water over. Its funny the little things that you dont think about, like drinking water for the dogs; those guys went through almost two of the soda sized bottles of water that Megan brought over. And then there is water for after dinner tea. All in all, we have done well though, to have survived pretty well on just a few gallons of water since saturday!

Today it should get up to 43F, so hopefully there will be water dripping out of our taps when we go home for lunch! With temperatures that warm, I was even able to put the dogs outside as they were getting pretty stir crazy sitting in the house.

Mr Mojo is feeling a little better. Enough to play and use his leg, unless he feels that Tux is getting more attention than him, then he comes hobbling over to me. Seriously, how do dogs learn to play up to their mummy like that!

Quick, easy and nutritious weeknight dinner

Creamy Tomato Pasta for Two

(with a portion of left overs!)

Ingredients
1 Chicken breast, slice breast in half then cut into half centimeter slices
1 half small/medium onion, cut onion in half then slices into thin pieces
1 broccoli crown, cut into small florets and stem into small cubes
sun/oven dried tomatoes packed in oil
Half small tub sour cream
Pesto
Balsamic vinegar
Mozzarella balls (optional but tasty)
Wholewheat pasta, cooked according to directions

Stir-fry sliced chicken and onion in oil from tomatoes until chicken is sealed and onion translucent.
Add broccoli and a small amount of water. Place lid on pan and steam for one minute.
Add tomatoes to pan and stir around for a minute.
Add a couple tablespoons of pesto and balsamic vinegar and mix. Cook for a minute or so.
Add in sour cream and stir until melted. Turn heat off but leave pan over stove (only works if you dont have a gas stove).
Add in mozzy balls and cooked pasta and mix it all together.

Dinner in under 30 minutes from start to finish, I guarantee!

Easiest thanksgiving take along

Well, predictably enough, my attempt at practicing relaxation didnt go accord to plan yesterday. But, on the positive side, I did manage to clean my kitchen so that it was spotless!

Today is going to be a more successful day at relaxation, since Im worn out from yesterday! I made walnut and cinnamon English muffins for breakfast, delicious with honey. I went to the grocery store and now Im going to sit down whilst my bagels go through their first proofing.

I have a little bone to pick with the permanent farmers market on old 7. I have been buying my dried goods there for some time, such as brown rice, 12-grain, bulgur wheat and such. I have a terrible infestation of moths and its only in those items. Or at least I thought it was. So I ordered some 10-grain online, yesterday I threw everything away and today I bought all new tuperware and washed it thoroughly. I poured my cornmeal (not bought at the farmers market but stored in the same cupboard) into the new tub and wasnt sure, but thought there were little black specks in there. hmmmm. Went to pour the Rye flour (also from the supermarket) into its new tub and low and behold, definite black spots and moths. ugh. So I then had to throw both of those away and re-wash the tuperwares. Luckily bagels only require bread flour, which I know is good since I just opened a new packet (from the supermarket), but I have people that want bread so I have to go back to the store to replenish my cornmeal and rye flour stocks. ugh. I cant bare going to the store twice in one week. Thats why I make lists. Anyways, so this morning when I went to the farmers market, dont worry, only for vegetables, I told the staff there that I believed that they had moths in their dried goods because I had some sealed ziplock bags that contained goods bought at their store and they had moths in them, well she said, I wouldnt be surprised, its hard to keep them out of there. ugh. They know they have moths yet they do nothing about it. Disgusting. Now Im not one to say bad things about the farmers market, because I tend to love it, but that is disgusting behaviour. I wish the owner had been there. Hopefully I am now moth free as I have thrown everything away and bought new containers that I have washed and have stopped buying dried goods there. Fingers crossed eh.

On a more positive note (as I hate to finish on a downer) I made myself the best dinner ever yesterday! I was just sad I got full so quickly and couldnt have seconds! Dont get mad at me, I used a packet mix of something, but it was so easy and so tasty, its hard in these busy holiday times, justifying making it yourself (says she who is currently waiting on bagel dough!).

Butternut squash stuffing bake

1 medium butternut squash, peeled (potato peeler works great) and cubed (approximately 1 cm cubes)

1 lg bag frozen spinach (again, not me to go for the convenient option but is clean and pre-chopped), defrosted but undrained

2 packets low-sodium stuffing (butter is optional)

Oil

orange juice

lemon juice

black pepper

Place butternut squash cubes in your chosen baking dish (chose a large, deep one), toss squash in a few glugs of vegetable/canola oil and pour in some orange juice. Bake at 400 F for about 15-20 minutes.

In the mean time mix up the second packet of stuffing (I used the butter, but I dont really have fat in my diet so figured it was ok).

Remove from oven and mix with one packet of stuffing, the spinach, a few splashes of lemon juice and a sprinkling of black pepper in a large mixing bowl. I wouldnt add salt, the stuffing has lots in it.

Squish mix back into baking dish. Top with pre-prepared stuffing.

Bake at 400F until crusty on top and steaming on the inside.

I cooked mine for 20 minutes on the second bake and it was warm enough to eat if you were starvin marvin (which of course, I was), but I would probably bake for 30-40 minutes to get it piping hot, especially if you are taking it to someone else's house.

There are lots of fun things you can do with this should you have the inclination. You could add fresh cranberries to the mix, but my wonderful husband refuses to eat cranberries. You could make your own stuffing and add chopped walnuts or other favourite dried fruits. One thing I might do thursday (as this is what I am taking to family potluck thanksgiving) is pre-cook some breakfast sausage and mix it in also, give it some kick. A chopped sautéed onion would be yummy in there or your favourite winter squash. The possibilities for an easy dinner or accompaniment, are endless!

This year I give thanks for my wonderful, caring, generous, hardworking, selfless, and most importantly very handsome husband!

What a fun packed saturday!

Even I cannot sometimes believe how much I fit into one day, and its only early evening still!

Another good reason for getting up early!

My day began with an hour long phone call to my mummy whilst I ate my toast and drank my tea. I then made a second cup of tea and took it up to the end of the driveway where I cleaned up my flower bed by the road. Removed some straggly annuals, chopped up some rowdy perennials, cleared all of the leaves even though I know there is more to come and pulled up weeds. Looks much better. Then I set to planting the remainder of my new bulbs for this year. I have gone kinda light on the new bulbs this year, partly because Im kinda running out of room for bulbs ( I figure I have somewhere in the 2-3000 range hiding underneath the surface of my garden); 150 daffodils, 75 tulips (I still hate that these are annuals in the South), 24 alliums, 5 new day lilies and 3 moved from another area, 3 trout lilies (which I am intrigued about as I have never grown before), 40 spider lilies and 3 colossal blue hostas.

I then ate my lunch on my beautiful back deck, following which I had to rest my eyes from the sun and fell asleep for just a short while! Long enough to get a numb botty though!

I begun the immense task of clearing the leaves on our property. Before you say get a leaf blower, I have a leaf blower, and in places I use it. But there is something so very therapeutic about raking leaves for me, and I like getting down and dirty in my flower beds so that I can see all the new naughty weeds poking through. The weeds are reasonably thin thanks to my July blitz and thick layer of mulch, so that was a pleasant surprise. I moved two new baby rose of sharon hibiscus that were growing in odd places and gave them some prime real-estate. I obviously did not clear all of the leaves but I can see the ground in several flower beds so that makes me happy! Unlike most (my husband being one of them), I really like clearing leaves. I have to be careful when I do it though, do it too early and you will have to do it many many times over. Do it too late and the many bulbs are already popping up and you end up being unable not to step on some and squish them. Leave it even longer and the tiny snails contingency strengthens their numbers ready for the spring on-slaught. Another reason I like being out in the garden at this time of year is that the birds are migrating and swath into the trees in huge numbers, squawking all day long. Not to mention that it is just beautiful in my backyard!

Tired of being outside I began to clean the kitchen so that I could mess it up! I made short crust pastry which became the ugliest mince pies you have ever seen in your life! I roasted some root vegetables and made myself a delicious vegetable dip for my mid-morning snacks at work. If you ever think you need to just work some veggies into your diet, try this as a dipping snack - you can even dip it with carrots and sugar snaps (my current favourite snack!) to add more veggies.

Beet Vegetable Dip

2 medium beets

2 carrots

1 potato (sweet or baking)

1 bulb of garlic

1 onion

Any other winter veggies you fancy - winter squash, rutabaga/swede, parsnips ...

Wrap in foil and bake at 400F until soft and tender, about one hour. I tend to wrap the big things separately and the little things together.

Broccoli florets

Im sure any greens would be fine too, just cook til tender.

Place all of your veggies in the food processor (squeezing garlic out of skins and peeling the beets) with a glug each of olive oil, lemon juice and orange juice. Add some seasoning; this time I used italian herbs, salt and pepper but another good choice would be fresh rosemary and thyme, mint and lime or if you are so inclined you could add hot sauce. I also added two large pinches of cumin, I think this is essential to deepen the flavours.

This is the crucial point in this dip... taste! I dipped with chips but I think carrots or veggie sticks would be awesome too. Then adjust whatever you need to your liking. I like lots of black pepper, so I added more. Its delicious warm but great cold too, an awesome snack to take to work or to a party with some pita chips.

So where were we, back to what else I did with my day. Since I still have lots of jacket (baked) potatoes left over from fake bonfire night, I made some gnocchi. First time ever, and I have to say, I was a little nervous but it was so stinking easy! I havent tasted it yet, so Im not going to give you the recipe, but when I eat it later and its delicious, I will post the altered Epicurious recipe.

While shaping my mince pies, I talked to Danny's grandmother on the phone, but no, I do not think this is why they are so ugly. I think I just got lazy and wanted to eat the mince meat. Thankfully there were a few teaspoons too many in the jar, which of course needed to go into the dishwasher so I had to eat them!

Now that I have taste tested my veggie dip, eaten the left over mince meat in the jar, and checked a couple of the mince pies once they came out of the oven, Im not sure Im going to be able to eat dinner when Danny gets home! Its late anyways, maybe I can just make him some soup! Good thing you can freeze gnocchi!

Anyways, that's what I did with my saturday. I wonder what sunday has install! I guess Ill need some sleep to recover!

Photo Update

One day we decided to visit the beach and Banburgh Castle. Of course, it was raining, but isn't that the only way to do the British Seaside! There was an ice cream van in the car park (behind mum) and we vowed to get an ice cream on our return to the car, but of course, the van had gone by then. So we back tracked all the way to another town, just to find a 99! And find one we did!

Another day I took a walk along the river with some random old folks (or perhaps they are my parents!).

I skinned 28 lbs of tomatoes this morning with India Arie, then made 8 quarts of marinara sauce. We had some for dinner, delicious! Very simple but huge quantities of everything (28 lbs tomatoes, 3 large onions, 3 large bell peppers, 3 garlic bulbs - apparently I like things in threes! - oregano, parsley, lemon juice, red wine, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, honey and salt and pepper) and hey presto, sauce 'til next summer! It probably works out a little more expensive than store bought canned marinara but it is preservative free and most ingredients were locally grown. I have recently been discovering how easy life can be with the right equipment, and today gives another example, or two. Danny bought me a woosher. You know, a little hand help food processor you lower down into the sauce pan (although make sure its submerged because hot marinara scalds, believe me, I know!). It made life a lot easier today, and I didn't get any burns on my hands as my mummy bought me the best oven gloves ever from John Lewis. I must be the only girl in Oxford, MS with British made, John Lewis oven gloves!

I then attempted to make french baguettes, which was going rather well, at least until just before I was supposed to put the bread in the oven (after 24 hours of babying these things). I don't have a linen couche, obviously, so I nestled my baguettes on some wax proof paper (parchment paper) on a tea towel, and fabricated a couche as suggested in the recipe. Well, then to bake the baguettes I obviously had to remove the tea towel and as I pulled it out, oh so gently, the beautifully lofty baguettes just kinda went, pllllhhhhh and sunk into shriveled little things that looked like gathered up skin on a really old person. They rose again a little in the oven but then stuck to the wax paper (I mean, what is that stuff good for!) so if you ignored the fact that the bread had wrinkles in both its own skin and its papery outer layer, it was tasty bread. Back to practicing on the french baguettes for me, the nice thing is even the disasters are still tasty!

Also today, as if that wasnt enough for one day, I beat Danny at Cribbage this morning over coffee and a brioche at the Bottle tree (although I have to say, he made a good come back and I barely won) and then this afternoon we painted our bedroom. When we get all the stuff back in there Ill take some pictures but Im not convinced any one other than me will like the colours; well, hopefully Danny doesn't mind them, but its probably a good thing dogs are colour blind! The colours are all based on the bed sheets I recently purchased from Anthropologie. I am not the kind of person to make rash decisions when it comes to parting with vast quantities of my hard earned cash so I coveted these bed sheets for months. I looked at them in two different stores, making the girl in the shop re-make the demonstration bed with the linens I was considering, before finally purchasing them. I loved this bedding! Then as part of the re-decorating of the bedroom I decided to wash everything; curtains, bedding, baseboards, windows, you name it, we cleaned it this weekend. Well, last night I decided to do something Ive never done before either, I ironed my new bedding so that it would look beautiful on my bed in my freshly painted, spotlessly clean bedroom (if only for a short while). I chose this bedding because the colours were so bold and vibrant and guess what... they faded with the first wash! I followed the washing label and everything. So Anthropologie will be getting a phone call from a very disappointed little British girl tomorrow. Bad news is, they don't even sell this bedding anymore so they will not be able to send me a replacement. I have based the colour scheme in my bedroom on bedding that is no longer bright and cheery! Grrrrr! That being said, you can imagine the colours of the walls! The back wall is Mulberry pink and the three other walls are powdery blue! I LOVE IT! We shall see just how awful the faded bed sheets look up against the bright pink wall when we get all the furniture back in there tomorrow, but Anthropologie better be either sending me a refund or a fresh set of bed sheets!

So much to do and only 6 days 'til we leave for New Zealand!

So little time!

Im desperately trying to organise and get ready to leave again!

I spent an hour tonight scrubbing the outdoor cushions as they are rather dirty; seems you need a cover over them. hmmmm. I only got finished with two cushions. We have eight chairs. I had hoped to finish this, and many other jobs, before Danny got back. I think its safe to say, it ain't gonna happen.

Made some bread though, so thats good. The bread is for this lovely old guy at work who brings me an entire bag of butternut squash every autumn as he knows how much I love them! Thanks John Milam! In fact, I received the bag today and already ate one for dinner, thats how much I love butternut squash! I peeled it (the wormies love butternut squash for some reason!) and cut it into small pieces, just under a centimeter, then tossed it in oil, lime juice and honey and baked it on 400F for about 40 minutes, adding chopped red onions with 20 minutes to go. Meanwhile boiling the speckled butter beans and green beans from my garden and adding in some chopped garden fresh tomatoes. Tossed it all with olive oil and brown rice; a most delicious dinner!

Im never going to do all the stuff on my list, its almost bed time and I only have two more nights to go!!! Meanwhile Danny is helicoptering to Mount St Helens to look for survey pins all day. I dont know! Not a very equal distribution of responsibility here is there! At least Im still at home!

I went to visit my good friend Megan and her 3 week old daughter, Harper. Squirmy little things, babies, but pretty cute! We shall be having lunch again together tomorrow, infact Megan, we will be eating left over dinner, if thats alright with you! Harper can have milk again, gosh, what a boring diet!

11 days 'til we leave for New Zealand!

Quick weeknight dinner (and its vegan)

I haven't really felt like cooking much this week, but we still need to eat. Im also trying to get our food stock down to nothing by Saturday when I leave, so Im all about throwing stuff together.

Whenever we have rice for dinner, I always make sure I cook way too much for one meal. So I decided to use it up last night! These are the veggies I used because its what I have to use up, but you can use whatever you have in your fridge or freezer; peas, carrots, corn, cabbage, whatever you want, just make it colourful! I often also use fresh ginger and garlic, but didn't have any and couldn't be bothered to chop, respectively!


Fast Fried Rice

Ingredients:
a good lug of vegetable oil
1-2 c pre-cooked brown rice (seriously, whole grain products are so much better for you!)
1/4 onion, chopped into small pieces
1 small zucchini/courgette, chopped into small pieces
1 small red bell pepper
two handfuls of green beans, chopped into small pieces
one handful of cashews or your favourite cooking nuts
Lemon juice
Your favourite Asian stir-fry sauce, just a few lugs as you have other liquids in here also
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Sesame seeds to serve


1. Microwave rice for 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Heat oil in pain on almost the highest setting. Stir fry onions until translucent, about 2 minutes.

3. Add other veggies and stir fry another minute. Add all liquids and stir fry another minute.

4. Add rice and stir around until everything is mixed together. Add nuts. Adjust sauce levels so that everything gets covered well. Might want to take off heat at this point so that rice doesn't stick to pan.

5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds once in bowls.


Dinner in 15 minutes, start to finish!

Easy weeknight dinners

I love running, I love that time alone, the pounding of your feet, listening to pumping music for an hour, being alone with ones thoughts or without any thoughts at all, but gees, running does something to my body that no other exercise can do! I am so exhausted today after a 6 mile run yesterday, having not run in a while! I had a wonderful evening of laundry and ironing ahead of me. I wanted to re-hem my linen pants too. But instead I came home from work a little early and laid on the futon. Couldnt sleep because all I could think about was eating so got up and had a piece of avocado on bread then tried laying down again. I was out cold until just now when the dogs got up because Danny came home, almost three hours after he left! Needless to say, Im not a napper, so now I feel all groggy and am even less inspired to do my ironing and chores than before. Another night will go by that Im not organising stuff. ugh. Danny says thats what the weekend is for, but I dont want to be doing this stuff on my weekend, I want to be going to the farmers market and weeding and canning salsa. I guess Ill just have to squeeze in laundry and dusting too, somehow!

We have had some good dinners this week, and quick to prepare...

Monday I made this mammoth sandwich. If you and your significant other like different fillings you could try what I do - make all the different sandwich fillings and set them on a plate, just providing the bread! We used this amazing french country bread I made at the weekend as a starting point. I would give you the recipe, but it was such a mission, Im pretty sure none of you would try making it, so Ill save myself the typing! Our topping options were herbed chicken, avocado, roasted red bell pepper, dry pan-friend zucchini and tomato slices, marinated artichoke hearts, marinara sauce, pesto and cheese (cheddar and mozzy). Since I had everything except pesto and cheese, my sandwich was aout 4 inches tall! I took three full bites before it fell apart onto my plate! But never panic, I ate it as two halves, a roasted vegetable marinara half and an avocado chicken half! Still delicious! Danny somehow kept his together til the end.

Tuesday I made Cookbooks 101 Summer Squash Gratin with a slight modification - I used sweet potatoes for half the potatoes. I actually sliced the squash all up sunday with the food processor, and tossed in it lemon juice so when it came to cooking tuesday night, all I did was blend the fresh herbs and toss it all with cheese (I used feta) and the potatoes, pour it in to the baking dish and top with french country bread cubes. This was accompanied with home grown greens beans and pork chops (not home reared!).

Wednesday I made an attempt at tomato soup with grilled cheeses (actually used up the last of the french country bread which was rather hard by now, but decent if sprayed with some olive oil, filled with cheese and squished in the George Foreman Grill - the perfect, evenly cooked grilled cheese). My tomato soup was less than perfect and in fact, according to Danny resembled marinara sauce more than soup. I skinned some tomatoes, I used all different coloured hierlooms, because thats what I had. I sauted some onions, garlic and fresh oregano and parsley, added the tomatoes having blended them with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, red wine, balsamic vinegar and a tiny dash of hot sauce. A totally unplanned additive was a cup of shredded zucchini because I ended up having to shred another one for my cupcakes and had some left over. I thought it was yummy, would have been better blended more but my blender has a crack in it so I avoid using it. Still trying to decide if I want to replace it with another cheapy one or get the super impressive one Meg has.

So this leads me to the question:

What is the difference between marinara sauce and tomato soup?

Please help me out with this seemingly unanswerable problem.

Tonight I am not cooking. I havent the energy. Left over gratin sounds pretty darn good right now, for my second dinner of the day!

An ode to my boys

I am home alone with nobody but my furkids to keep me company. I tried to snap some pictures of them earlier, the light was low and my photographer is away right now so please forgive the terrible photos. Infact upon closer inspection, my pictures are terrible but here is one of them together and one of Mr Mojo's wonderful haircut. I promise to get better pictures at the weekend when Danny comes home. They have been good to me this week, my babies!




Oh, and his ears arent always up like this, its just that the camera made a funny noise when focusing without a flash and his ears perked up every time!


I made another amazing discovery tonight! If you are busy one evening but want a delicious dinner, you must try making this, its a cinch! This makes enough for two. Erm, what shall we call it, Butternut squash and fig spaghetti, not a very original name eh!

Preheat oven to 400F
Peel and thinly slice half a butternut squash (my slices were about 0.5 cm wide)
Slice half an onion
Place in baking dish with some vegetable oil and honey and bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile get a saucepan ready with water for wholewheat spaghetti and cook according to package directions.
Add a handful of halved figs to baking dish and bake a further 8-10 minutes.
Toss the baked food with the spaghetti and if you like, throw in some feta, blue or gorganzola cheese. Absolutely delicious and oh so simple! I can tell this is going to be a household favourite in the fall!

Collected some more tomatoes today, some of the big ones! Might make marinara for my love at the weekend! Or some tomato basil soup for myself!

The rain is following me!

I swear to you, the rain is following me! I cant say rain during the summer in Mississippi is a bad thing though, so I wont moan about it.

Im home!

Some minor disasters on the way home, but nothing we cant handle. I had no tv for the duration of my 9 hour flight from Amsterdam. Only unfortunate because I was actually looking forward to watching some movies and because they actually had some I wanted to watch. Lots of people actually didnt have tv's in service, so it wasnt just me. I found the government car that Danny had left me just fine, although I did have to put gas in it, yeah thanks Danny. Picked up the dogs and drove home, getting increasingly tired. Went to the lab to get the car, let the dogs run around the grounds a little, unsurprisingly they were extraordinarily excited. This is where we hit our largest issue, although it was easily fixed, thanks to Megan and Andy... my car was dead. Someone (mentioning no names, Danny!) had left an interior light on and the battery was dead. Luckily Andy was just down the road and also luckily Danny had recently bought jumper cables, so I was on my way in no time! Left the car running a while when I got home, just in case. Picked some tomatoes and cucumbers as night crept in, ate some ice cream and went to bed, absolultely exhausted!

It rained on and off all day so I didnt get outside into the increasingly unkept garden. I cleaned the kitchen thoroughly, fridge and oven and all! Very satisfying. Shaved and shampooed Mr Mojo, at least until the thunder started up again and he wanted to go inside, but at that stage I only had his belly left, so I figured it wasnt so bad to leave it. Had my full body massage during the afternoon and bought a few things from the Farmers Market, since my vegetable patch isnt doing very well. I did make a lovely salad for lunch though, from my garden, mostly... cucumber, tomato, corn and pine nuts ( the last of which were not from my garden) with soy sauce, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar and a dash of honey, salt and pepper. Delicious! I did enjoy being waited on hand and foot and my parents house last week and ate yummy dinners in Lower Bourne but if you like cooking, there is nothing like cooking for yourself. For dinner today I had some white fish from the freezer (I think Charlie Bryant caught it in the spring) with a peach and blueberry chutney (which incidentally was delicious: peaches chopped, blueberries, onions, balsamic vinegar, nutmeg, cinnamon and a small amount of honey, yummy!), zucchini, green beans and boiled potatoes! So simple and so delicious. 20 minutes from start to finish.

Going to try and stay busy this week so that I dont notice that I am man-less for four more days.

Yummy citrus salad

Well I was going to write about something else tonight, but I got blown away by my own wonderful dinner creation that I thought it more important to report this!

Well lets begin with the dressing... place the following in a jar, tighten the lid and shake whilst dancing around the room to your favourite tune:

Honey

E.V. Olive oil

Lemon Juice

a splash of orange juice

a dash of salt

sprinkling of pepper

a fair amount of parsley flakes

a large tablespoon of good Dijon Mustard

This was served over romaine lettuce, celery, thinly sliced red onion, strawberries, kum kwats, walnuts and I had an avocado whilst Danny had salmon smeared with homemade pesto and baked wrapped in tin foil.  We also had a delicious parsnip carrot slaw with our salad, the idea for which came from Group Recipes but I added Rice Vinegar and used honey instead of sugar.  I didnt measure anything, as is my way, and just poured juice over it until the veggies had soaked it all up.  Should I make it again, I would add grated fresh ginger, as I just cant seem to get enough ginger into my diet!  And if you are wondering how I grated 3 parsnips and 3 carrots in a snip, it was thanks to my handy dandy new food processor which I love and was worth every penny!  Im just itching to make a carrot cake now that I dont have to stand there for hours grating carrots... maybe this weekend! mmmmm cream cheese frosting, I can just taste it in my mouth already!

No, I did not manage to eat the entire plate, but the lemon in the dressing should keep everything good 'til lunch tomorrow.

Well, it was my goal to go to bed by 9pm tonight to combat this exhaustion that is plaguing me... however it is now just past 10pm and I am not yet in bed.  Fingers crossed Ill be there soon!