Old Slow Me!

Just realized I forgot to blog after last Sunday's soup. Perhaps it was because of the sheer hoards of people who showed up. Don't get me wrong, we were thrilled to see them all, but kind of surprised. Especially since it was a holiday weekend and there was so much going on all over.

I made a yummy cauliflower soup and pesto bread. Luckily, the Swimmer (a visitor from another island who SWAM here!) brought two baguettes, otherwise we would've run out of bread. He also brought red wine and brie (and no, he did not carry these items while swimming, but that would've been cool).

Because only four people showed up for SS in June, and as I said before, it was a busy holiday weekend, I only made one pot of soup...and we had 19 people here, including myself and the Southerner. I ended up defrosting the leftover soup from June for the last five guests! The Fleece Lady brought dips and chips, and there were a few other contributions too, so in the end, it was a bit of a party. The weather even sort of cooperated in that it didn't rain and most of the guests were hearty Canadians, so they had no problem sitting on the deck.

It occurred to me afterward that we should've had a cake for the Sous Chef because July is her birthday, but I'm sure she'll come out okay at some point this month, so not to worry. I'll even dig out the SS Birthday Princess banner and let her wear it on the big day.

Thanks to all who came, and sorry to miss those of you who couldn't make it. Maybe we'll see you in August!

Rhubarb Soup? Maybe not...

I'm thinking perhaps now that SS is only once a month I might need to remind people. Either that, or they're all tired of my soup! The only people that did come are ones I reminded the day before, so it was a bit on the quiet side, but it was very nice.

First The Actor showed up, and we had a lovely chat over broccoli almond soup...for about an hour and a half. Just as he was getting up to leave, someone pulled into the driveway. I said to him, "Are you sure you want to leave because your daughter is here now?" He ended up staying for a bit, and his daughter The Farmer came in with a couple who are visiting the island with the idea of living here permanently. We had some lovely crackers that The Farmer made, along with soup and bread, and she brought me rhubarb as a hostess gift.

I got very excited because I am a rhubarb JUNKIE. Every time I go to someone's house and I see they have rhubarb I get all shifty and try to get The Southerner to distract them while I snag some. Actually, several people have been very generous with theirs this year, and I'm already getting a very nice stash in my freezer. The Actor said he has some I can have too. Yay! It is so great in bread (make your favourite banana bread recipe and sub roasted rhubarb for 2 of the 3 bananas).

Anyway, that's about it for this month. Summer seems to have finally arrived here, too! Yay!

Take care, and eat lots of soup. See you next month.

Soup Debut

First, join me in sending out warm congratulations to the Sous Chef who is graduating from University this spring! She's just finished her thesis and moved back to the island, so we will be doing even more cooking. Yay! To celebrate, I handed her the recipe for Tomato-Orange soup and gave her the ingredients and she made the soup herself from start to finish. It was a big hit and every bowl got eaten (The Southerner had the last one with his dinner after everyone left).

We had quite the international gathering today. We all live here now, but there were people here today who were originally from the U.S., Scotland, France, the UK, Sweden, Holland, and yes, even from Canada! For a while, it looked like The Neighbour was going to be the only Canadian, but then we got a rush of Canucks at 6:30pm.

Because I can't eat tomatoes anymore (related to potatoes), I've been experimenting with peaches. For example, I made a peach pizza sauce that's quite delicious. And for today, I made Peach-Orange soup. I used all the same ingredients for the Tomato-Orange, so it had onions, garlic, thyme, salt & pepper in it, and it turned out pretty darn good. The Neighbour also can't eat tomatoes, so she had a bowl of the Peach soup instead and loved it. Out of necessity comes invention (is that the saying or did I mess it up and that's just some weird version of what I meant to say? Who cares. I'm too tired from socializing to look it up).

So...a very good day was had by all! Or at least by me and The Southerner! Hope y'all had a great weekend too. See you in June.

April is the best month!

April is my favourite month, and yes, it's because my birthday is this month. And so is The Southerner's. Now that we have SS only once a month, if there are any birthdays, then we have cake and The Southerner wanted an old fashioned coconut cake like his grandmother used to make. I had never made one before, which would be obvious to anyone who has, when I said, "Sure. No problem." Because, you know, cracking that stupid coconut is NOT as easy as they make it look on Youtube (but just as dangerous). However, I did it. Yesterday. This morning I noticed our cat, Sophie (who also has an April birthday), playing with a chunk of stray coconut that had apparently gone flying yesterday when I hit it with a hammer.

Anyway, we had cake!

In addition to making the actual cake layers (with homemade lemon curd - this is so easy you should never buy lemon curd in a jar) I also made coconut whipped cream frosting. I have to admit, the frosting is what got me really excited. I don't really like frosting, and while we do eat eggs, we don't generally eat dairy, so I have not had whipped cream in a really long time, but it's the only kind of frosting I really like (except cream cheese, and I can make a vegan cashew cream cheese icing to live for!) so I was flummoxed about how to frost this cake. But then Google saved the day.

All you have to do is get a can of coconut milk (not light) and put it in the fridge for a while. Also, chill your bowl and beater. When it's good and cold, open the can and cut a hole through the thickened coconut cream so you can drain the liquid out (use it to soak the cake layers for extra moisture). Then you simply put the coconut cream into your cold bowl and beat it on high for about 5-6 minutes, add powdered sugar (I used 1/3 cup, sifted) and keep beating it. It is AMAZING (If you are vegan, you have to make sure you use vegan sugar or some other sweetener). It was soooooo delicious! After I frosted the cake, I did chill it for thirty minutes before adding the fresh coconut to the top and sides because it seemed like it was starting to melt a little, but in the end, it held up great.

So many people came today, I'm not going to mention everyone, but I will say that the soup was Curried Cauliflower Rice and the bread was foccacia. Also, some of the guests brought yummy things like gingerbread, wheat bread, and chips and dip. So thanks to everyone and if your birthday is in May, let me know! As of right now, I don't have any on my list and we don't want to miss an opportunity for cake.

Happy Birthday to Sophie (the cat), The Southerner, The Fleece Lady, The Chef, Kim of The Brouhahas, My Agent, and everyone else in April (see how I covered myself there?). Have a slice of cake! It's fresh!

Once a Month is a Party!

So it turns out that there are many benefits to having Sunday Soup only once a month, in addition to not having to clean the house so often. For instance, a lot more people come. Now they know if they don't come this week, they have to wait a whole month, so it gets prioritized. Also, even though I encourage people to join us without bothering to bring anything, when it's once a month, more people bring yummy stuff!

The Fleece-lady brought a lovely homemade salsa with chips. The Englishman brought me a lemon he GREW in his house! The Ex-Librarian & the Hiker brought wine. The Farmers & their friend (first time to SS, so she doesn't have a name yet) brought homemade crackers, cheese, and an avocado (yum!). And then, of course, there was the soup.

Today we had one of my two favourite soups...an Indian dal soup. It's made with red lentils which turn yellow when you cook them, and has onions and garlic, and lemon in it. Yum. It's a bit spicy, so The Neighbour just tasted it. The Pastry Chef probably wouldn't have liked it, but she couldn't come anyway (we missed her). And we missed the Sous Chef too, who did not come home for the weekend. But she did buy herself her first real (gorgeous) German chef's knife a couple of weeks ago and so she can chop like a pro now.

The Realtor also made an early escape from work and showed up - due to the fact that no one wanted to go to his open house when the Super Bowl was on...oh, I'm feeling the need to make a really lame Souper Bowl joke here. Someone stop me, please...?

Also, The Musician and the Irish One dropped in, and maybe I've forgotten a few, but I think that's it. It was great fun. And the best part? I mean, the best part after seeing all the guests and eating the great food? While I am typing this, The Southerner is cleaning the kitchen! And he's going to make avocado omelets with eggs so fresh I actually had to wash them myself because the lady we buy them from took them out from under the hens to sell to him! And we'll add some of The Fleece Lady's salsa to them too.

Anyway, a great time was had by all, except maybe Marley (the black cat) because right at the beginning she got a little stressed by all the people and took a whack at both The Englishman and The Irish One so she had to have a time out and go nap in my office. All is well now though (she's still sleeping!). And the rest of us had a great time.

See you next month!

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year, everyone! We just had the first Sunday Soup of the year and it was very, very nice. Great friends, great conversations, candles, the fire in the woodstove, white bean soup and lots of fresh bread. The Fleece Lady brought lovely feta cheese and olives, we broke out the holiday cookies, and consumed gallons of tea. And not just by The Southerner, although I do think he put away quite a lot of African Mint tea!

Today was actually a full day of socializing and food. We started off with brunch at The Sous and Pastry Chefs' house this morning. We just had time to rush home afterward and bake the bread, put the soup in the slow cooker, and clean up the house. Luckily no one showed up until around 4:30 and by then we were looking calm, cool, and collected. Fooled 'em again!

I have to admit it does seem strange, and a little sad too, to write these posts and not email them to my grandmother anymore. I think of her every day, but especially on Sunday Soup days. Still, she's with us in spirit!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and The Southerner and I wish you a very Happy 2011. May your year be filled with love, peace, and lots of good food. Thank you so much for being part of our lives, whether it's in person in our home, or simply reading this blog. We really value you all.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Sunday Soup This Sunday!

Don't forget, this Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, as well as 2011, so don't forget to come to Sunday Soup. Looking forward to seeing y'all!

Last Sunday Soup of 2010

Tonight was the last Sunday Soup of 2010. Time does fly when you're eating soup with friends and family! It's been a big year around here and SS has gone through some changes. There was the second annual SS in May, Sunday Salad, hosted by the Sous Chef and the Pastry Chef when I was on my book tour, a hiatus in July and another in October. And we also lost one of SS's greatest fans, my grandmother (see post below).

Another change is we only have SS on the first Sunday of each month (which apparently still does not mean I will have my act together enough to blog each month as I totally forgot in November). All in all, it's been a wonderful year though and I'm glad the SS tradition will carry on, even if it is just once a month.

It's actually a good thing because we found out that I'm allergic to potatoes. Thanks to the Southerner's excellent use of deductive reasoning. For years either he or the Sous Chef has had to cut up the potatoes when we made the soup because otherwise I would have a hay fever-like reaction. Turns out, all those stomach aches? Yeah...potatoes! Who knew? Apparently, The Southerner. He said, "Ummm...maybe if you're allergic to the peels, you're allergic to the potatoes." Turns out, he was right. Once a month he gets to be right. I was glad that's how he used his opportunity in August. And if we had soup every week now, I don't know how I could possibly come up with that many soups and not use potatoes! Seems impossible to me.

Tonight was a very nice, quiet evening. Chili was on the menu, along with some of my regular bread and The Fleece Lady's wonderful red pepper dip. We also had mandarin oranges and vanilla tea and red wine too. And of course, lots of candles and a fire in the woodstove. They've all left me to clean up (surprise, surprise!) but they had good reason...tonight is the island's holiday choir concert. I hope they all have a wonderful time. And after I'm done...perhaps I'll have that last glass of wine and read a book with the cats in front of the fire. Sounds like a good way to end SS for the year. How about you?

Happy holidays to you all and Happy New Year (a bit early, but you can hang on to the sentiment). Have a great week, and eat lots of soup!

A True Lover of Soup

This is a very special Sunday Soup post. I come by my love of soup honestly. It's generational. Over the last few years, my grandmother has lived on her own, but not really been up to cooking much. Whenever I visited her, I would make her a big pot of soup and put it in small containers for her freezer because she loved nothing more than a bowl of soup for dinner.

A couple of years ago, my aunt and uncle bought my grandmother a machine that allowed me to email her copies of this blog and then it would print out for her automatically. No computer, no new learning curve, just a weekly update of Sunday Soup. She saved them all in a three ring binder. She loved the blog so much, whenever I knew I'd be going down to Portland, I'd start saving one bowl out of each Sunday Soup and freeze it, then I would take a cooler full of frozen soup for her so she could enjoy all the soups she'd only read about.

Yesterday, Grandma passed away after a short battle with pneumonia. One of the very last things she ate was a bowl of tomato soup. I'm sorry to say it wasn't mine, but I did see her last week, and she was eating soup then too. She was so proud of my book being published, even the nurses knew about it. I always joke that there are two things in my family a person can do to make everyone else proud...be a major league baseball player, or write a book. I think in Grandma's eyes, a good pot of soup also gave you a certain status. It's sad to think I won't be sending her anymore Sunday Soup blog posts, but when my mum asked me if I wanted her collection of SS posts back, my aunt said quickly, "I want that!" so maybe now I'll send the posts to my aunt instead.

Please join me in raising a bowl of soup to one great lady.

Norma Tommerup
1922-2010

The Times They Are A Changin'

When we started Sunday Soup, we decided to try it for one month and then continue doing it after that for as long as it was still fun. Don't worry, it's still fun, but my life has gotten a lot busier over the last year, as has The Southerner's. It seems like there are more things we'd like to do on the weekends too, and since I work during the week, and The Southerner does a lot of volunteer work on Saturdays, we don't really have a day off to just hang out together...and we like each other, so we want to!

Next week is our third anniversary of our move to Canada. As we have for the last two years, we're having a big pot-luck during Sunday Soup on 26 September. It should be lots of fun! After that, the things are going to change a bit.

First of all, there will be no SS in October. We have a few things planned for a couple of Sundays, so it just makes the most sense to give SS a miss in October. Starting in November, we'll be on a new schedule. We will only have Sunday Soup on the first Sunday of every month.

So...to get you through the rest of the year, here's our schedule:
September 26th - potluck
October - No SS
November - SS on 7th only
December - SS on the 5th only

Today was a very nice SS. Kind of quiet. The Southerner made the soup, a yummy black bean, because I was busy off at a woodworking workshop with The Neighbour. We each made very cool cutting boards and we showed them off at SS. The Pastry Chef arrived with her first place ribbon for her dressage competition today too. She won in both her events. Congrats to you, Sous Chef!

And that's about it for this week. Hope to see you at the Potluck!

Double Dose of SS

I forgot to post last week because a friend loaned us his entire box set of Monarch of the Glen and we started watching as soon as the last person was out the door. The Southerner was hooked on the Scottish scenery from the first frame and he wants to move there now. But don't worry. We're not going anywhere. He would freeze to death in Scotland!

I know some of you watch TV regularly. Or at at least occasionally, but we watch TV so rarely we have to dust it off in order to see the screen each time we use it. This week, because of Monarch of the Glen we have watched more hours of TV than we've watched in the last three years combined. And we're only through Season 3 (of 7)! And yes, this is why I did not blog last night too.

Anyway, the soup last week was one of my all time favourites. It was a coconut milk-red-curry vegetable soup. You can put any kinds of veggies in it, and/or tofu. It's really yummy. I can't really remember who came last week because all I can think about are the characters in that TV series. I don't think any of them were here, but I can't be sure.

Oh, wait! We actually did have a guest from Scotland last week. The Sous Chef brought her houseguest who was over here for a visit from Glasgow. I made sure she got some nice English Breakfast tea since everywhere she went on this hippie island all she could find was chai and organic herbal blends. I even sent a tin along with them for their road trip to Banff.

This week, I was going to make a nice coriander scented carrot soup, but when The Southerner saw how many of his homegrown carrots it would take, he got a bit shifty. "All of those? But those are for us.... " It kind of reminded me of how The Pastry Chef let her celery die from frost last year instead of eating it because it was too cute to harvest. Anyway, since carrots were out, I made another of my favourite soups, a yummy red lentil dal soup. And there are lots of leftovers in spite of having a pretty full house last night.

I have to admit that I was planning on letting this blog post slide, but then I saw that The Shark mentioned SS on her blog! The Shark has never been to Sunday Soup, but it's on her list of "Things to do Before I Die" so I expect she will swim into the harbour someday and show up at our door.

There's probably more to tell, but I'm taking the day off from work for Labour Day and it's rainy and cool, so I think I'll go see if The Southerner wants to meet on the couch and watch TV, er...read a book.

Drop that egg!

Today we had egg drop soup with New Zealand spinach that I picked out of the garden this morning. It's best freshly made, so I had hot stock on hand and then had all the other ingredients ready and I made four bowls at a time as people wanted them. It's quite easy and fun to make. You can find the recipe here. Obviously, I used vegetable stock, not chicken stock because this is a vegetarian house.

The Southerner was away for ten days, but got here just a few minutes past four o'clock, so he was in time to visit with everyone and tell us about his trip to bicycle mechanic school in Ashland, Oregon. He's now passed out on the couch, resting up for bedtime (after riding over to the garden to make sure I didn't kill it while he was gone...I mean, to check on its progress).

All in all, a very nice Sunday Soup today. Although, we do have an unusual number of wasps (or yellow jackets, depending on where you're from) on the sunny porch, and it was too cold to sit on the shady porch, so we did have to stay inside. It wasn't that warm though anyway. Fall is already in the air.

By the way, if you're wondering why there wasn't a post last week, it's because only The Neighbour showed up and while our conversation was scintillating, and we actually had a seven course meal, starting with fresh vegetable soup and ending with raspberry mousse in chocolate cups, I was too full to write about it. I'm sorry y'all missed it though. That'll teach you to skip Sunday Soup just because it's 34 degrees outside (that's 93.2 for you Yanks).

Zucchini coming out of our ears...

Last summer was a great year for zucchini (what summer isn't?). We had one plant and this year, as I defrosted the last of it in June, I begged The Southerner, "Can't you just plant half a plant?" He laughed and then planted TWO! One yellow, one green.

As fast as I can figure out things to do with them, he brings me more. But abundance is a good thing, so I just try to be creative instead of whining. And it turns out, yesterday, he saved my tofu bacon.

We had rain yesterday for the first time since June and because of it, laziness ensued. I slipped on my raingear over my pajamas and went to the farmer's market for breakfast essentials - doughnuts and egg sammiches- and before The Southerner had realized I'd even left the house, I was back and in my pajamas again. I spent the day drinking tea and reading, and then took a nap and when I woke up, The Sous Chef was on her way to cook. Egads! Cook what? I had no idea. At least until I looked around the kitchen and saw the pile of yellow zucchini overflowing in the fruit bowl.

I quickly ran to to my computer and typed in Spicy Zucchini Potato Soup and this recipe popped up. And yes, I did just make up the name of the kind of soup I hoped to make and a recipe did exist online. Magnificent thing, the internet! By the time The Sous Chef had arrived, I had showered and actually looked like I knew what the big cooking plan was. I was back in my pajamas though, so she was a little suspicious.

I've made a lot of zucchini soups. In fact, you may remember last year The Fix-it Guy challenged me to make a zucchini soup every week for the month of August and I did it. And people still came to SS. But this was by far the best one. I think it was the addition of red potatoes. It was also probably the easiest one.

I wasn't quite so quick on the "What are we making for dinner tonight?" question from The Sous Chef though, and we ended up getting The Southerner to make a salad while we "ran an errand." In other words, went to the coffee shop for take-out panini sandwiches - is panini sandwiches redundant? Maybe it should just be panini or sandwiches...either way, it was a lovely day and a nice evening with good food, and today's Sunday Soup was full of friends and frivolity. I hope you have an excellent week and I'll see you here next Sunday.

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.

Sunday Soup is on hiatus for the month of July

Hi All.
FYI, we're not doing Sunday Soup for the month of July. This was a tough decision for us because summer is such a great time to have wonderful soups made from fresh veggies right out of the garden. It's nice and sunny and we can all gather on the porch too. We usually get lots more people in the summer too, which is fun.

However, we've discovered that there are events in the summer that we'd like to attend and often can't because of SS. This year, two of them are taking place the first two Sundays of July, so we took it as a sign that it was time for a little break for The Chef and some adventures for both her and The Southerner.

So this year, after over two years of continuous soup, we're taking a short break. We'll be back in August though, so don't forget us. And you know what August is...right? Yep! Zucchini Month!

Garden Fresh!

Today we had Green Goddess Soup. It's called that because it's green and I like alliteration, not because I think I'm a goddess. But if you want to think so, that's okay.

The soup included, from The Southerner's garden: kale & New Zealand Spinach and from The Farmers' garden - organic broccoli. It also had potatoes, green beans, onion, and secret spices. Okay, the secret spices are actually not that secret. I used Italian vinaigrette salad dressing base from Penzey's. I once made salad dressing out of it and it was totally gross, but it's nice in soups.

The bread was the usual, with olive oil. And The Neighbour brought her famous chocolate chip cookies. We were treated to a lovely flute performance by The Flautist (new nickname, for those of you keeping a cast list) on one of those wooden Japanese flutes that I can't spell properly. Very charming and we all enjoyed it. The Fix-it Guy could barely stay upright and if The Southerner hadn't kept him talking, I'm pretty sure he would've slumped all the way down onto the couch and taken a nap. It was because he and The Fleece Lady had traipsed all over the island for the Garden Show.

The Pastry Chef did show up, but The Sous Chef decided to lay low since last night she came over to cook and ended up reading a novel on the couch while I made both the soup and the dinner. That's okay, next time I'm going to read on the couch while she cooks!

And that's about it from here. Hope you have a great weekend.

An absence in the neighbourhood!

It's that time of year again...the Neighbour's birthday. We laid out the Birthday Princess banner (most recently worn by The Fix-it Guy on his birthday - sorry, no photo) and the bread of choice was her favourite, corn bread....but where was the Birthday Princess? Nowhere to be seen, that's where! The banner sat forlorn and abandoned, the cornbread got scarfed down by everyone except The Neighbour, and the very mild (as in not-spicy) three bean soup was enjoyed by all...all except The Neighbour.

Never fear though. She did not fall down her stairs or trip over one of her cats, she simply spent the day on a hike with a friend. And I did manage to save her both soup, and one piece of cornbread.

We had a very nice time in spite of her absence and The Sous Chef brought a bunch of her friends from Uni, so it was something like a party (with soup instead of beer). We had a full house, and even spilled out onto the porch - a very nice day indeed.

And I still have the Birthday Princess banner for the next princess...I believe that might just be The Sous Chef (she's already "ordered" her cake - she wants a vanilla one like last year).

Have a great week everyone!

It wasn't my fault!

Last Sunday, blogger was down so I couldn't post about Sunday Soup. I actually didn't go to Sunday Soup, so it would've been hard to come up with much to write anyway. I had a big week on the road last week (book signings, yay!) and so I actually hid out at The Neighbour's house for a while catching up on my to-do-before-I-go list.

This week was quite the scurrying around for soup. I didn't even make it until 3pm! We'd gone down to Victoria for the weekend to do a book event at Tall Tales Books, and so yesterday was a bit crazy. But I made my old stand-by, Potato-Leek, and everyone was happy. It all worked out great. And The Fix-it guy brought a salad with the yummiest dressing ever. Mmmm...lots of garlic! He even let me keep the leftovers. Oh, and did I mention he grew the lettuce? Yep!

It was nice enough to be out on the porch for the FIRST time all year, so The Neighbour and I sat out there for a while, but there was fresh bread and olive oil on the table, so everyone else stayed in the kitchen, sopping up the oil with the bread and having a lively discussion on...yep, the oil disaster in the Gulf. Sometimes, it's not all fun and games at SS, but serious conversations are part of it too.

Anyway, thanks for checking in and see you next week!