August 4th

After a week of much needed rain, the sun came back out, proving to the locals that summer was not over yet despite their certainty that "fall was in the air". In fact, it's supposed to be 30 degrees this week (mid-eighties). Wahoo! When I started Sunday Soup, I thought that on the really hot summer days I might make salad instead of soup, but that was before I spent a summer in our new locale (western Canada). Down south, I can see why this idea might've made sense, but even with the warm and sunny weather yesterday, by 6pm, we were lending our guests fleece shirts to keep them warm in the shade on the porch. So the soup pot is still on and I expect it will continue through the summer.

One of the many Steves that we know came yesterday (we know a lot of them, but they're all special in their own way) and brought his entire family. We've had some of his family here at different times, but never all four of them here at the same time. That was a very nice surprise!

One of the nice things about living here is that people don't bring you hostess gifts like flowers (not that I'm opposed to flowers)...they bring you produce! Brenda brought The Southerner some beets! I'm not sure if they read my post last week and knew that because I had come around to zucchini (I'm eating zucchini bread as I type this) that The Southerner was going to try beets now, or if it was just coincidence, but either way, we have a beautiful bunch of beets with the greens, which is like getting two veggies for the price of one because the greens are delicious too! I expect we'll eat them before the weekend, so no borscht in The Southerner's immediate future. I think that might be too much to ask of him this early in his introduction to beets!

Oh, and just so you know, our house guest, Miss Southerner, who he brought with him from Tennessee is fantastic to have around the kitchen. If you're not careful, she'll do ALL the prep work and the dishes too. Gosh, hate that... :-) In fact, she's making French toast now out of leftover bread.

The Southerner, our friend Kathy (who was also here yesterday), and Miss Southerner are going to do a gig this weekend at Steve's theatre (along with another pal who was absent yesterday), so at the end of SS, they broke out the guitar and did some rehearsing. Oh, boy! This is going to be one good show! I can hardly wait! All I do is listen (and provide pre-show food, and after-show food, and rehearsal snacks, and...well, you get the idea...I'm the caterer), but I am a really good listener, and I'm looking forward to this week of music in our kitchen.

And speaking of music, we know about a zillion musicians and we've told them all that next week is going to be a music oriented Sunday Soup in honor of Miss Southerner's visit, so I'm expecting a lot of people next week (you know...offer a musician a free meal and the soup pot better be deep!). Not sure what the soup will be, but I have a whole week to think on it. Send your suggestions and remember, it's got to feed a lot of hungry musicians, so cheesy & creamy soups are out unless I want to take a loan out to buy the ingredients. I guess I could leave The Southerner's guitar case open in the kitchen and see if anyone throws in money!
The late great Mr. Fatboy and Elizabeth the guitar!