If we missed the first blizzards last week while out of the country, we were able to enjoy one on Monday; another foot of snow - yay! I spent that day first by drinking hot chocolate in the living roome while going through the huge pile of junk mail that had accumulated while we were gone. I decided not to bake which is what I'm wired to do on stormy days but forwent that since I would be cooking several batches of soup all day Tuesday so I practiced water color painting fruit that's sitting in the fruit bowl for my entertainment. Fun! And you can even tell it's fruit. During the afternoon portion of the snow storm I unwisely ventured out to get supplies for Tuesday's cooking; there were a few scary moments on the roads where you see cars approaching you as they are slip and slide - my heart was in my throat a few times. When I got home, the snow had piled up so high from accumulation, wind drifts and the main street plow coming by that I couldn't get in to our driveway and got stuck tight with the tail of the suburban out in the road. I spent a half hour digging out the sides and tires. I could have gone in to get Dan to help me but I wouldn't let my self stop to go in and do it. The next morning the world was bright with sunshine and glorious mountains of snow. Peaceful and pretty. I couldn't wait to get out and do some shoveling. Then it was on to soup making. Tuesday night was our monthly women's Enrichment night at church and I was set to make three kinds of soup and a fourth for our enjoyment at home. The week previous, I had made the breads to accompany the soups and put them in the freezer. This is what I made one after another: Curried Cream of Zucchini for us, then Tomato Cannellini, Cream of Pumpkin, and Polish Mushroom. The breads were Dill Cottage Cheese, Tomato Mozzarella, and Whole Wheat Parmesan Muffins. A wonderful writer named Ginger Johnson taught us a Writer's Workshop that evening. She focused on journal or diary writing. She read excerpts from deceased relative's journals that spoke of day to day activities without shedding light on who these people really were and what they thought. She asked us to avoid this kind of writing and instead write answers to questions we could ask ourselves. We did 5 sets of 5 minute writing prompts answering questions like these: what do I carry in my purse? What do I eat for breakfast everyday? What is my favorite room in my house and why? Describe my body/looks/ features using only positive words. What are five problems I have right now? Do I like my furniture? What is my earliest memory? And many more. Aren't these great questions? We had a blast answering them within the writing prompts and many of us shared our answers. We were encouraged to write our autobiographies in our journal by answering imagined questions from future readers. It was so fun! And we ate soups and breads and cookies and just enjoyed our time together. Today, Wednesday, was spent in errands and meetings and leftover soup. And Dan is coming home tonight from his business trip in DC - yay!
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| This is the picture of the driveway between the morning's snow storm and the afternoon storm. It was cleared when I left and impassible and hard to see when I arrived home from the store. |
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| These cuties bloomed as the sun came out on Tuesday |
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| Can't wait to shovel off that flat roof over the porch. Not |
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| Hot chocolate, banana, and almond butter. |
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| It's February and the October center piece is still going strong except for one in the stack that softened and sank. |
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| Finished Curried Zucchini Soup - delicious and easy - recipe below |
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Writing prompts: I had forgotten to bring my journal to the meeting so I'll have to transfer these writings to it. I'm excited to keep going with questions. I'll save my "this is what I did today blah blah blah" for this blog.
CURRIED ZUCCHINI SOUP
2 T butter
1 large finely chopped onion
2 lbs of zucchini, sliced
2 cups chicken stock and more if necessary
1 tsp curry powder (or more if you like more bite)
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and Pepper
Cook onions in butter until just beginning to soften, in a large saucepan. Add zucchini, stock, curry, a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes or until very tender. Remove from heat and let it cool down a bit in the pan so that you can transfer to a food processor to puree or use an immersion blender. After pureeing, stir in sour cream, salt and pepper to taste and reheat gently.
This cooks up so quickly. I enjoyed it for my lunch and while I was preparing the other three soups. I also ate it again for dinner tonight.
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