From the files--Soup

It's been cool and rainy the last couple of days--perfect days for soup. So when I ran across this recipe for potato soup, I decided to make it. The recipe calls for cream cheese so it didn't hurt that I've had a brick of cream cheese in the refrigerator for a while now that we needed to use. 

Below is a post where I originally published the recipe. The cream cheese gives it a slight tang that you don't always get with a cream soup. However, I love cream cheese, so that was a big win for me. 

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Wally Makes Soup

Wally likes to eat. No, let me correct that. Wally loves to eat. However, he doesn't like to cook. But today, he did just that. I asked him to help me with some potato soup by peeling the potatoes. One thing led to another and in less than an hour he had created a delicious potato ham soup.

True to the family tradition, he didn't follow a recipe. He looked at couple of recipes, took inventory of ingredients on hand and started cooking. For better nutrition he added carrots and used low-fat cream cheese. He didn't use onions as a favor to Ward and he added his own special optional ingredient at the end--Stubb's Spicy BBQ Sauce. The result was a very delicious soup that reminded me of scalloped potatoes with ham. I hope this successful cooking adventure is the beginning of a new trend.

Below are basic instructions for making the soup. Detailed recipe at the end.

Chop potatoes, celery, carrots and ham.

Saute celery, carrots, and garlic before adding potatoes and water. Cook until veggies are tender. Add cream cheese and ham.                                     

Garnish with cheddar cheese and/or Stubb's Spicy BBQ sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Wally's Potato Ham Soup

Ingredients:

Oil, 1 T

Celery, 2 stalks chopped

Carrots, 3 large chopped

Garlic, 3 cloves minced

Potatoes, 7 medium--5-6 cups chopped

Water, 4 ½ cups

Chicken bouillon cubes, 2

Low fat cream cheese, 8 oz, softened and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

Ham, 2 cups chopped (¾ lb)

For garnish:

Shredded cheddar cheese

Stubb's BBQ Sauce, 1 teaspoon/bowl

Saute celery, carrots, and garlic in oil until celery is starting soften.

Add potatoes, water, and bouillon cubes. Bring to boil and boil until vegetables are tender. Approximately 10- 15 minutes.

Lower heat or turn off heat on electric range and add cream cheese. Stir until melted.

Stir in ham.

Note: I added a little of Stubb's spicy BBQ sauce into my bowl. It gave the soup just a hint of spicy hotness without overwhelming the other flavors.

My mom and dad just put a little shredded cheese on theirs.

Everyone was happy. I hope you like it too.

Printer friendly version

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When I took a look at this post, I found it interesting. First because, back in the day, I did recipes on my blog. And second, it has a printer friendly version of the recipe. I'm impressed with myself on that one. :)

Until next time...

Quotes

These mums surprised me just like the request.
They are a new color that I don't remember planting.

The library where I work is not open to the public yet, but we are providing a contactless pickup for materials. The customers have to make an appointment to decrease the chance of too many people showing up at the same time. There is an online form they fill out to make this appointment which has a field for any special instructions. Yesterday we got a different request from the usual of asking for us to pick out a book for them. The person asked for us to include our favorite quote.

Well, of course, I drew a blank on that one. I read clever, funny, and meaningful quotes on Facebook and elsewhere everyday, but I couldn't remember any of them. There wasn't time to search for something so that meant I just went with the first things that popped into my head. This is what I wrote on their receipt.

"Everything in moderation." 

"This too shall pass."

"It's all good."

These are part of my everyday self-talk that I use to help put things into perspective. After the bag was stapled shut, I remembered one that I heard recently that I liked. 

"It's okay to visit the past and the future, but you don't want to live there." Another way of saying, "The present is the present," which is also one of my self-talk sayings.

So, do you have a favorite quote? How would you answer that question if you had essentially no time to think about it and no time to Google for it? What's the first thing you think of?

Autumn--Present and Past

A few days ago, Ward and I took off work early and went on a hike. Our destination was a nearby state park in a mountainous area. (If you really want to know where we were, Camp David is hidden somewhere in an adjacent park.) We walked among hardwood forests with lots of rock outcrops. Maybe it's the geologist in me or the 15 years when we lived along the Gulf Coast and didn't see any, but I'm always happy when I see rocks. Besides the rocks, one of the reasons we went was to see the changing leaves because we thought they might be at their peak in the mountains. They weren't quite there yet but they were still pretty all the same

Every year when the leaves are changing, it takes me back to the special time I had one Sunday morning with my friend Sarah. I have shared this post before, but I think it's time to share it again.

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The Present is the Present

I am lucky that I get to spend some Sunday mornings with my friend, Sarah, a special needs teenager. I buddy with her during Sunday School as we visit different programs that she enjoys. Two things you need to know about Sarah (other than how sweet she is) is that she loves nature and can be quite determined.

She was exhibiting these two traits one day last fall as we were walking from one building to another on the church campus to go to a singing activity. I was trying to hurry her along only half listening as she showed me a bug or a leaf that she found interesting along our path. When we were almost to our destination, she said she was not going any further and sat down under a maple tree. After a brief moment of frustration, I stopped and remembered that there was no agenda for the morning except for Sarah and me to enjoy ourselves. It was okay if we skipped singing this time.

Sarah then told me to come and that we were going to play a game to see if the falling leaves would touch us as they fell from the tree. We sat still and felt the warm air of the morning and watched the leaves float around us in a gentle breeze. Up until this point, I hadn't even noticed what a beautiful morning it was.

You have probably heard the saying, “The present is the present.” Never has this been more evident than it was that morning with Sarah. 

(In case anyone is wondering who won the game—she did. Sarah had a total of three leaves fall on her and I had two.)

From the Files--Rutabaga vs. Turnip

We are growing turnips for the first time this fall and they are growing well. I didn't use to like turnips until one year when I tasted some really sweet ones. I have been on the search ever since to find that perfect turnip again. In the meantime, I've acquired a taste for turnips in general and especially like them when they're roasted. 

So since it is turnip season, I've pulled a post from the past when Miss Lander's and I did a comparison between turnips and rutabagas. Maybe I'll try some rutabagas next year.

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2011

Rutabagas

I've always been curious about rutabagas. Well, actually, I've never been curious about rutabagas and have never given them much thought until recently when Miss Landers brought some over from her garden for us to try. This was her first time growing them and she was curious about how they compared with turnips, so she also brought turnips that she had grown.

A bit of research revealed that rutabagas are a natural cross between turnips and wild cabbage. They are a relatively new plant in that the first time they are mentioned in literature is in the early 1600's. They go by many names including yellow turnips and swedes because Sweden is a top producer. (Can you guess they like to grow in colder weather?) The name “rutabaga” is derived from an old Swedish word meaning “root bag.”

Notice the multiple roots and yellow tint of the rutabaga.

How about our turnip vs. rutabaga comparison? This is what we observed. Miss Landers said that as she was pulling them (both root vegetables) that the rutabagas seemed to have more roots and root hairs. Both were pungent when raw and smelled like a cross between cabbage and radishes. The rutabaga had a yellow tint to it that intensified when cooked while the turnip remained white.

We were able to convince Ward and Theodore to participate in a taste test after the vegetables were cooked--which was pretty remarkable considering neither one of them like turnips.They weren't too sure that they wanted to sample anything called yellow turnips. However, they did sample them right along with Miss Landers and me.

We all agreed that the rutabaga had a definite potato taste. Theodore said that the rutabaga tasted as if it were a cross between potatoes and brussel sprouts. A fairly apt description. Theodore and I liked the turnips better with their more peppery taste while Ward and Miss Landers liked the rutabagas better with their milder taste and creamier texture.

In conclusion, will I start adding rutabagas to my grocery list on a regular basis? No. But will I now have something new to talk about when there is a lull in the conversation? Yes. :)

Notice they white color of the cooked turnips and the yellow color of the rutabaga.

 More sources:

• Rutabaga overview--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga
• Rutabaga recipes--http://allrecipes.com/recipes/everyday-cooking/seasonal/winter/rutabaga/top.aspx
• Rutabaga nutrition--http://www.produceoasis.com/Items_folder/Vegetables/Rutabaga.html
• How to grow rutabagas  http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-26.html
• A serious and not so serious blog about rutabagas--http://rutablogger.blogspot.com/2011/04/breakthrough-photosnynthesis-stimulate.html
• I

Thankful Sunday, October 11, 2020

 I am thankful for homegrown vegetables.

We haven't been big vegetable gardeners. There are many reasons for this, but over the years our vegetable gardening has consisted mostly of a random tomato plant here or there. That is until this year. During the intense first couple of months of the pandemic lockdown, I decided that we needed raised beds for a garden. Ward built two plots and we began planting. As I have mentioned before, all of our spring/summer plants and seeds were given to us by friends. From them, we got a meager modest harvest of brussel sprouts, lettuce, cucumbers, crookneck squash, carrots, and bok choy. We enjoyed each serving of what we grew and savored it since we knew there weren't many more to follow. The deer, rabbits, and stink bugs needed their share, you know, and uncooperative weather didn't help the plants either.

In August, I planted a few things for a fall garden just because. The turnips and radishes have done quite well, and one lettuce plant and one pea pod have so far escaped the rabbits. But the most exciting part is that I picked three tomatoes from the revived plants. (Between the deer and the stink bugs, we got only one tomato from five plants during the summer.) I love fresh tomatoes! And if the weather cooperates, we may get more. So for our homegrown vegetables and the tastiness they bring to our table, I am thankful.

This morning I finally got around to thinning the carrots and some of them are big enough to eat. The tomatoes weren't quite ripe, but I wanted to pick them before we got rain from Delta and they possibly split. And when that happens, the bugs always get there before we do. Also, I pulled some radishes and turnips. The biggest ones are pictured. The radish is about the size of a baseball and the turnip is about the size of a softball.

A Fall Afternoon

It's a pleasant afternoon. The sun is shining while the wind is rustling through the trees. There is definitely the feeling of fall in the air. These are the days that I want to hang onto before they turn into the winter cold. I took advantage of the welcoming afternoon and explored my yard. Here are a few of things I saw. 

The volunteer zinnia bed still has a lot of color although some of the blooms are starting to fade.

The zinnias come in various shades of pink in this bed - from this light pink...

...to this dark pink.

Even the ones that are starting to fade are providing nectar for small skipper butterflies.
These are the only butterflies I see now.

This love-lies-bleeding plant seeded itself from last year. Last year they were
huge and unruly, so I tried to pull up all of the seedlings I saw this year.
This one snuck by and is behaving itself,
so maybe they'll get another chance next year.

The marigolds are in full bloom now after not blooming all summer. This follows the timing for many plants which has been different this year. The very hot and dry middle of the summer stunted many of them that have only come alive in the past few weeks with some rain and cooler weather. This is odd for marigolds which usually do well in hot weather.

However, the mums are blooming right on schedule.

This group of mums has almost doubled in area in the 3 1/2 years that we've lived here.
I would like to redo this bed, but the mums are so happy here, I don't want to disturb them.

The yellow mums are in the back and these pink ones are in the front.
I planted them a couple of years ago and they have come back strong each year. 

The vinca are still blooming, but their foliage is starting to yellow.

The earliest trees are just starting change colors. Yes, fall is here. 

Whatever

When I write a post, I like to have a purpose and a particular thing I want share. This often hinders me from writing because it seems too difficult to try to form coherent thoughts without a clear reason for sharing. That's a bit of perfectionism, I guess, and that along with the feeling that I don't really have anything very interesting to say leads me to irregular posting .

When I started this blog nine years ago after encouragement from a friend, I didn't even really know what a blog was. I had ideas of what I wanted to write about, but I soon figured out that I wanted to tell other people's stories and those were not mine to tell. I tried all kinds of things trying to find my blog's voice. I did Food Waste Friday with the Frugal Girl and I made up recipes and shared what we ate because I saw that was what others were doing. It didn't matter that I didn't like to cook. 

In addition, I wrote about musings from my kids in their younger days and did a round of posts on school memories from different friends and family. I did a series on differences between boys and girls that I had observed and participated in the yearly A-Z challenge. Also, I regularly posted encouraging sayings for myself where I would caption one of my photos and did Thankful Sunday posts to practice gratitude. 

I skipped along from here to there until I started doing my Second Looks. Then I was excited. I enjoyed exploring my yard each week trying to see the flowers and not the weeds or actually trying to see the weeds as flowers. I learned all kinds of things about the plants and critters that lived there and the discoveries were exhilarating. That was when I hit my stride. But I have a different house and a different job now that take up both my physical and mental energy most days. And the blog shows that.

But, I'd like to do more and thus, my dilemma. 

So what does all of this mean? Well, it means that without a clear idea in mind, I don't know what I'm writing. I sat down to write about the massive picture deletion project I've been doing and I ended up never getting to the topic, but let me see if I can wrap it up. While going through old pictures, I've also thought about old blog posts and I am going to start sharing some of those just like I am sharing some of my old pictures with family and friends.

Until next time...