We're Back!

Happy August, Everyone!
Boy, July just flew by and Sunday Soup is on again. We've decided to take July and January off each year. We did miss you all, and we're surprisingly low on island gossip, considering I never really thought of Sunday Soup as a gossip hub. I think it's more like we just don't know what our friends are up to these days, what trips they're taking or what concerts they've been to, that sort of thing, not actual gossip.

Today was a fairly quiet, ease-back-into it Sunday Soup. The Pastry Chef and The Sous Chef showed up at the beginning and stayed for a few hours and The Fix-it Guy came alone and held court at the table. It was really nice and relaxing. So relaxing in fact, The Southerner had to make some vanilla black (caffeinated) tea and we had to break out the chocolate in order to keep The Sous Chef awake. After the chefs left, The Neighbour showed up, bearing gifts of our favourite kind...a bag of organic vegetables! While it's true The Southerner is growing us tons of great food, we're always happy to take more organic veggies off anyone's hands! Yay.

The soup today was a special one because it was entirely out of The Southerner's garden (except the celery which came from The Farmers, but don't tell him). It was a lovely and light soup, made with veggie stock, yellow and green zucchini, onions, carrots, potatoes, and the aforementioned celery. I made it this afternoon so it would be really, really fresh and it turned out quite delish.

Because we went to a potluck last night, I totally forgot to make any bread. Since I had the time this morning, I made the more challenging kind, you know...the kind that takes some muscle to stir up and then you have to knead. I used a recipe for herb walnut bread with lemon zest. It's really yummy! And even though we ate tons, there is one whole loaf left! Fabulous.

Before everyone arrived, I toasted a slice of the bread (just to make sure it wasn't poison - I'm thoughtful that way) and added oven roasted tomatoes and olive oil and it was sooooo good! There is definitely more of that in our future. Like, probably for dinner. Oh, guess what we're having? Roasted vegetables from The Southerner's garden and red quinoa. We're pretty much eating some variation on onions, potatoes, carrots, and greens for the rest of the summer and beyond!

I just read a great memoir on learning to cook at le Cordon Bleu in Paris, assuming you eat meat or you aren't too queasy about the details (I am, but I toughed it out) called THE SHARPER YOUR KNIFE, THE LESS YOU CRY. I highly recommend it to any of you foodies out there.

And that's about it for this week. I do want to say that during the hiatus, The Sous Chef had her birthday. While we didn't celebrate it at SS, I did make her a cake and have her over for dinner and she did wear the Birthday Princess banner. Anyway, Happy Birthday a bit late to The Sous Chef!

I'll leave you with this picture. The Neighbour's cat, Tigre is not a favourite of our cat, Miss Marley, so when he followed The Neighbour over to our house, Marley took refuge on top of The Fix-It Guy's truck! So cute, if you ask me.