Saturday night I checked the weather expecting to see the happy spring-like trend of days in the 40s continue. And instead I got the storm watch notice, warning us of impending snowpocalypse and school closures. Off we went Sunday morning to make sure we weren’t going to run out of anything essential. The sun continued to shine. Kids continued to ride bikes up and down the driveway. But by early afternoon the sky darkened and kids came indoors. Temperatures dropped. A few hours later, snow was falling.
It’s still coming down, at as much as an inch per hour at times.
I managed to shove a door open and got the shovel to clear away the worst of it. The husband manned the snowblower and between us we cleared doorways, steps, a path to the garage, and the driveway. But with about a foot of new snow and no plow yet, we’re not going anywhere. Which is fine, we were ready for this.
Currently there’s a pot of soup simmering on the burner and whole wheat bread in the bread machine. I love soup and fresh bread on winter days. I make soup based on whatever’s handy and whatever seasonings will complement it. Today’s soup:
1 ziplock sandwich baggie’s worth of frozen turkey from the holidays
Around 1/2 cup of frozen cranberries, also left over and not enough to do anything else with
3 chopped celery stalks
a chopped carrot
About a cup of frozen green beans
3 bouillon cubes
around 1/2 cup of long grain rice
water to cover
Organic curry seasoning and a few dashes of nutmeg
I don’t measure so this isn’t very exact. I throw things in until they look and smell right. That’s kind of the magic of soup, it’s always different because what you have on hand varies.
Books and soup have a lot in common. They take simmering time. You keep adding ingredients, a dash of this, a handful of that. They get better as they cook. They take patience. Sure, you can open a can, dump the contents into a bowl and microwave it, but real soup comes from raw ingredients that you patiently work with over a low heat for as long as it takes. Sometimes the end result needs fixing. Sometimes it wildly surpasses expectations. But there’s a lot to be said for just enjoying the process.
Recent Comments