Creamy Totato Soup

I had been looking at the very large bowl in the fridge of the leftover tomatoe juice that I did not  use when canning the tomatoes on the weekend.   I had removed all the tomatoes and now I had all this liquid.    I had told myself I  would do something with it.   So I decided I would make tomato soup.  A first for me on that too.   I make lots of soup  just not tomatoe.  Not sure why, must be something about having the canned stuff when I was younger.

Today I searched for a recipe and found a Martha Stewart Creamy Tomato Soup and then checked Joy the Baker and found she  used the same recipe. So I knew this was the one I wanted.  Plus I didn't want to go shopping for any ingredients.   


Here is Creamy Tomato Soup, from Joy the Baker

Creamy Tomato Soup
adapted from Martha Stewart
serves 6

4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, finely diced
course sea salt and fresh black pepper
splash of red wine vinegar (just over 1 Tablespoon)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 dried bay leaf
2 cans (14 1/2-ounces each) low sodium chicken broth
2 cans (28-ounces each) whole peeled tomatoes in juice (with basil if available)
1/2- 3/4 cup whole milk or cream

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven melt butter over medium heat. Add oil, carrot and onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent and the carrots are well on their way to softening, about 7 to 8 minutes. Add the splash of vinegar at stir until cooked off.

Turn flame to low and add flour. Incorporate into the onion and carrots. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute to distribute the paste and cook off the flour taste.

Add chicken broth and bay leaf.  With clean hands add the tomatoes to the pot, breaking the whole tomatoes up with your hands as you add the tomatoes and the juice. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Using an emulsion blender, puree soup in pot until you’ve reached the desired consistency. Maybe you like more chunks than some folks! If you don’t have an emulsion blender, let the soup cool for about 30 minutes and, working in two or three batches, puree some of the soup in a conventional blender until smooth. Place pureed soup in a bowl and puree the remainder in the pot.

Return pureed soup to the pot and stir in milk or cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Let cool to room temperature before dividing among airtight containers or jars (leaving 1 inch of space at the top) and freeze.



I have to say that my recipe is also adapted.   I probably had 6 cups of the liquid from the tomatoes, so I did not add canned tomatoes or the broth as the recipe called for. I also added my own tomatoe paste I made from here.    Somehow I felt it need some rice.  So I added about 1/2 cup of brown rice (uncooked).   I  let the soup cook for at least 1 hour to make sure the rice well cooked.

You can adapt this recipe to whatever you have around in your kitchen that you want to use up.make it yours.


Delicous !!!  

I`m very proud of how many home grown ingredients went into this soup.  There was the onions, carrots, tomatoes, and the thyme.  Now how can the soup possibly go wrong.

Alice

September Review

Just the other day I looked at the date on my last post here and realized that it was the end of September and I didn`t post once in the month.

These are a few things I did in September.

Starting first with some canning.  I had received from mother-in-law who did a lot of canning over many years, her canning equipment.  

We bought 20lbs worth of peaches and decided to give it a go.  My husband gave me a hand and it was definetely a two man job.   I had followed instructions as per my mother-in-law, as well checked out some websites.   The first time it seems like you have so many pots and equipment going on at the same time, but I could see this being enjoyable once you know what you are doing.

We blanched the peaches and removed the skins packed them in the sterilized jars and then poured a syrup in the jars (2 cups of sugar to 4 cups of water)  I put my syrup in a kettle on the stove, it made it much easier to pour into the jars.  We used pint sized jars,  as it suited  our needs better.   We made approximately 18 jars in total.  Which I`m sure  will be sharing.

We had planted  approximately 12 tomatoe plants in the garden this year.   We had a couple cherry tomatoe plants as well that gave us lots of tomatoes (all at once of course), but the regular tomatoes took a long time to blossom and then to ripen.  We brought all of them in recently and put them in a box covered with newpaper.  Also lined our kitchen window with some that were nearly ripened.

This Sunday I decided to give canning a try..   After checking out some sites on canning, I found that it was recommended after removing the tomatoe peels to put the tomatoes in a pot and bring them to a 5 min boil.   Since I had never canned tomatoes before this is what I did.    We put as many  tomatoes we could in a jar along with some hot tomatoe juice and lemon juice, it was starting to look more like tomate sauce.     Next time I will cook down the tomatoes and make tomato sauce.   Ideally the best tomatoes would have been Roma tomatoes for this, but that is not what we had.

All in all I`m very happy at how much we made.  Not sure how many pounds we had, maybe 8-10 lbs.  

Onto some knitting.   This is Current.  I have had this pattern for awhile and once I had the right yarn I decided to make this for the summer.  It`s a super light summer weight  and the only thing I can say about it, is that I have to stop knitting cardigans in light blue colours in Madelinetosh yarn. This one looks so similar to this one.  

This is one pattern that I had made many times.  This I made for my nephew`s  5 year old daughter`s birthday this summer.  I had made her mom one and then her oldest sister, so it seemed  right that she would get one too.  These bright colours were exactly what  she liked.   I found one skein of yarn that had them all !!!    The family was so impressed that I had all her favourite colours in that one beret.   Here are my notes.    

I could have shared all this with you in one month instead of fitting it all on day, but like they say `better late than never`   Today is the first of October so I`m starting my month in a good way.   My first post.

Alice

Most People

 

Most people don't care enough to make a difference.
Most people aren't going to buy that new thing you're selling.
Most people are afraid to take action.
Most people are too self-involved to do the generous work you're hoping for.
Most people think they can't afford it.
Most people won't talk about it.
Most people aren't going to read what you wrote.
Fortunately, you're not most people. Neither are your best customers.

by Seth Godin


Once in a while I read Seth Godin's Blog.  He writes from a marketing/business point of view but alot of what he says is easily applied to every day life.

I like this particular piece he wrote , whether we are thinking of creating something to sell or just to see who do you really want to be anyways.   Because  most people or  "average" person  will probably not be the one  would appreciate that beautiful Cladonia Shawl  Or those  crazy stripped socks.   Be prepared to not get the reaction from the àverage`person, that you might expect because most people just won`t get it.

Remember  those people who will pay a hefty price for a piece of art, because they can recognize when a piece of art has been created from passion.

Something to think about.

Alice

A Nice Word For Hoarding

After reading this article it made me think of the fact that I never considered myself a very organized person.  My most common thing to do with   clutter which I discovered bugs me more than I ever remember, I revert to trying to tidy it and put it a nice basket or box and off it goes till a look at it again in a couple of years. When you have a house and  only 2 people living in it, it`s easy to do this.   I now think I`m organized again.  But why am I putting  things in  an attractive container to say I`m an organized person, when I should really look at why I still have it around in my life. 

These guys have really made an impact over the last months on my relationship to stuff in my life and my buying habits.  Most importantly was the fact that I defined who I was by what I owned instead of what I did and my experiences. 


This essay was written by The Minimalist :

We need to start thinking of organizing as a dirty word. It is, in fact, a sneaky little profanity—a pernicious little booger—who keeps us from simplifying our lives.

Our televisions would have us believe that there’s a battle being fought on the consumption continuum, a battle between the organizers and the hoarders. And from our couches it’s hard to see who’s winning.

We’d like to posit to you, however, that these two sides are working together, colluding to achieve the same thing: the accumulation of more stuff. One side—the hoarders—does so overtly, leaving everything out in the open, making them easy targets to sneer at. But the other side—the sneaky organizers—are more covert, more systematic, more devious when it comes to the accumulation of stuff. Ultimately, though, organizing is nothing more than well-planned hoarding.

Sure, both sides go about their hoarding differently, but the end result is not appreciably different. Whether our homes are strewn with wall-to-wall material possessions or we have a complex ordinal item-dispersal system, color-coded and alphabetized, we’re still not dealing with the real problem.

No matter how organized we are, we must continue to care for the stuff we organize, cleaning and sorting our methodically structured belongings. When we get rid of the superfluous stuff, however, we can focus on life’s more important aspects. Said another way: We can spend the day focusing on our health, on our relationships, on pursuing what we’re passionate about. Or we could, of course, reorganize our basement again.

Once the excess stuff is out of the way, staying organized is much easier anyway.


Alice

Listen

Listen
To the dream within you.
It’s there
In whatever
Puts stars in your eyes
And makes your heart sing.
Listen
To your feelings,
And you will hear
Who you are
And what you must do.
Listen
To your needs,
And you will know
Where to find
What you are looking for.
Listen
To the wisdom within.
It is trying to lead you
To your destiny.
Listen
To the song in you,
And your life
Will be one of harmony.
You will be
Who you were meant to be.
You will be complete
And at peace
And happier than you’ve ever been,
If only you will
Listen
To the dream within you.



Alice

The Race

Hello all.  To update you on the status of the shawls they have been finally opened and everyone apparently loved them and I have been told that I will receive a picture of everyone with their shawls.  Exciting !

I saw this link appear on my facebook this morning and wanted to share it not only for you but so that I could reference it for myself on a daily basis.    This post was writen by a very young man (early 20`s)  I`m blown away by the insight of this generation has on life.  More excitement !

Enjoy the read !

The Race - by Tynan

There's a race going on, but it's not an ordinary marathon. First of all, it's not a mere twenty six point two miles long. We don't know how long it is because we can't see that far; no one has been to the end of the course yet. And, really, it's more of a relay race than a marathon. The entire history of mankind has been running it, passing the baton to future generations. And now the baton has been passed to us, and we're on the course.

Even though we're all entered into the race-- every single one of us-- not all of us are running. Some people are sitting on the side of the road. As you run by, you can see them, staring at the sky with a glazed over look, completely oblivious of the honor that has been passed down to them.

Other people are on the road, but they're walking. They're zigzagging all over the road, but going in the right direction. They'll never make it to the end of the road. Neither will anyone else, but the irony is that the walkers are the only group who DOES think that they'll make it to the end. They have no idea how long the road actually is, so they figure they've got all the time in the world. Walk a bit this way, walk a bit that way, sit down with the sitters for a few minutes, start walking again.

Along the road, also, are joggers. They're mostly running in packs. Whenever one of them starts to get ahead of the group, the rest of them yell at him and he slows down and rejoins the pack. The packs of joggers are like soldiers, plodding away as a big unit. They won't make it to the end either. They know it, but they've accepted it. Just keep jogging, stick with your pack, make it as far as you can.

And then there are the runners. I'm a runner. Most of my friends are runners, but we don't run together. We're all screaming down the road as fast as we can, lungs gasping, legs aching, ankles threatening to give. But we keep running. Sometimes I'll pass a friend, and I'll smile at him and taunt him and whoop out loud, begging him to come run with me, like wild horses on a plain. Sometimes he'll run with me and even pass me. Other times he'll shrug and let me go past. My friends pass me, too. I always try to keep up with them, and maybe get ahead of them, but a lot of times they're faster than me. Sometimes we run alone, other times we clump together by chance. We never stop moving.

As we progress down the road, the scenery becomes more and more beautiful. We pass beaches with cool refreshing oceans lined with comfortable beach chairs. They're mostly empty, inviting us to sit down. There are stunning green fields punctuated with wildflowers. Picnics are laid out for us. How refreshing would it be to sit under the sun, quench our thirst, and get fat? The temptations become more and more enticing as we go farther. The determination we began with is threatened more severely with each mile. Occasionally another runner will slow down and exit the road, looking back at us, begging for understanding.

We don't stop running. We can't stop running. We know that we'll never ever get to the end of the path, and we've accepted that. We know that others are thousands of miles ahead of us, and that no amount of running will ever close that gap. Winning the race isn't even something to be considered. Instead, one day, our bodies will fail us and we'll fall onto the road, never to move again. As we fall, we will plant our batons in the ground, offering them to the next generation, hoping that whoever picks it up will understand what we've done, and will run and not stop. And if whoever picks up our baton won't run, we hope he will enjoy the scenery we've brought him to.

The running never gets easy. Those who have stopped at various points in the road give the appearance of happiness. They're wearing fresh clothes, drinking pure water, and eating delicious food. Meanwhile, our bodies and clothes are covered with sweat and blood and dirt. We are thirsty and hungry and tired. The only reason we believe comfort even exists is because we can see other people enjoying it on the side of the road.

Why do we run? Those from the sidelines, the ones who never ran to begin with, don't understand. They think we're fools, running a race that we can't possibly win. Our ancestors have already gotten us a thousand times farther than we can run by ourselves. Why kill yourself just to move, relatively speaking, a smidge farther? The walkers don't understand, either. We'll all get there eventually, they think, so why such a rush? The joggers figure that it's too dangerous to run by yourself, and that by staying in a pack they'll at least get somewhere, and don't have to worry about being abandoned.

We run because there's road ahead of us, and because we have legs. We run because someday someone will find the baton that we've left, and we owe it not to them, but to the descendants of their descendants, to move the baton forward. We run because we love to run.

from  http://tynan.com/

Alice

And Then There Was Six

Here we are  July 7th and have not shared the finished shawls that will be going to my family in Portugal on July 11th . 

I was originally going to knit one shawl for  my Aunt as I had many memories of her wearing  shawls .  This is the process that things unfolded:  

1.   This is Terra by Jared Flood. This shawl I saw at the my local yarn store, and it was done in that exact colour and yarn.  I knew that`s what I wanted to make this for  my aunt. but after it was finished I thought she would like something heavier and more neutral in colour.  Then I had the idea to make this one:

2.  Milk Run by Cat Wong   It`s my second one.  Made the very first one for my mother-in-law and she loved it`s warmth and size.  

No, that yarn in the background is not mine, I took the picture at my local yarn store.

Shortly thereafter I decided I could not just do one but was going for 6.  One for each of my cousins wives (4) and one for my female cousin.  

For each person I was making, I would reflect on their personality, but at the same time wanted to offer something that was fun, original and the yarn had to to be special.

3.   This is Cladonia.   Each time I finished the shawl, I would say ``This is my favourite one``.   I was enjoying the process of making these shawls, as my heart was involved with each one I made   But really..this one was so much fun and the colours of the stripe was so vibrant and complimented each other so well.   And the lace on the bottom was so pretty. 

4.  This is Henslowe.    I started knitting this pattern with a lavender colour but then I came to a point where I just didn`t like the way it looked and I knew I have to rip it out.  This was a huge setback as I had been flying along with the other ones and I knew I want to knit this pattern again.  So I putted it aside, and had to start something else.  This shawl was knitted back in February for myself and I never wore it, so I had the brilliant idea to include it as part of the 6 shawls.  It is such a beautiful shawl and it that red colour is so striking. 

5.  This is Terra.   This was the second one I made in the exact same yarn but just different colour.  If I could have knit 6 shawls this is probably the pattern I would have picked.  A very simple but lovely shawl, that can be worn so many ways.

6.  This is another Cladonia.   The pale colour yarn in this shawl was the one I had started on the  Henslowe but ended ripping it out and this is where I used it.   The combination of the pale purple against the deep blue was very striking.    So impressed with this one too.

At the end of it all I knit the shawls with people in mind, but when I was wrapping them up I decided to leave the shawls unmarked and let each person pick the one they were attracted to. 

I can honestly say this was a labour of love. I had no idea I could have knitted such beautiful shawls in such a short time. My knitting skills were also improving with each one. With the right motivation we can accomplish whatever we want.

 A little piece of me goes in each shawl.  That was my intention all along for making them.

Alice