On My Mind

Dec. 5th declared a National Day of Mourning in the U.S. for a past president. Some Federal offices will be closed.
My dH has to work.

Hubs made a great effort to put up the lights. Yay!

Musing about I need a good hobby. I thought of knitting, but then figured I didn't need all the extra hats, mittens or scarves that would come of it. I have allergies so gardening is out. Maybe cooking? Nothing fancy just mastering some homemade things from scratch.

Every trial, every tribulation, every frustration, every tear I shed is a small price for
the reward of seeing you smile. I love you, Mother.

Soup is nice. Also quick (most of them), and tastes so much better than even the best you've ever bought. Also cheap - so if it does (I can't think how) go horribly wrong at least you haven't wasted much money.

French onion? Maman Blanc's vegetable? Tomato rice? Leek and potato? I can send you a recipe if anything there tickles your fancy.

Countrymouse - yes, please and thank you. Soup sounds terrific. If you can send, the Maman Blanc vegetable and the Leek and potato sound great. Wow, thank you.

Leek and potato (this is from La Cuisine Familiale Française, so if it sounds odd blame my clunky translation)

3 fat potatoes (it doesn't say to peel them but I wouldn't dream of not peeling them!)
3 leeks (size not specified)
1 ½ litres = 2 ½ ish pints water, boiling
100g = 4 oz butter
salt
slices of toast

15 mins prep
1 hour to cook

Wash the vegetables. Chop the leeks, cut the potatoes into pieces. Melt (half?) the butter* in a big saucepan or flame-proof casserole, put the leeks in and fry them until they just turn colour and go "golden", stir in the boiling (or just boiled) water, throw in the potato pieces.

Add salt to taste. [Don't skimp, but don't forget you can always add more but you can't take it out]

Leave it to cook over gentle heat for an hour.

Put it through a vegetable mill if you have one. If not, any liquidiser or hand-held blender will do just as well.

It says to pour the soup onto your pieces of toast in a tureen, which is nice if you like it like that, then add the uncooked butter.

* I'd never noticed this before. I guess what they mean is... Do your original leek-cooking in one or two ounces of the butter, then stir the rest in at the end, or use it to butter your toast.

It's nice, anyway! - even though I've apparently been getting it slightly wrong for 35 years.




Maman* Blanc's vegetable and chervil soup

It is important to get the slices really thin so that the vegetables cook fast. The easiest way is using a Japanese mandolin, but if you have a food processor that should have a fine enough setting on it. Doing it by hand takes pretty good knife skills if you ask me!

20 minutes prep
10-12 minutes cooking

1 onion, cut into teeny weeny dice
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced ⅛" thick
3 celery stalks, sliced ¼" thick
2 leeks, with their two outer layers stripped off, cut into slices ½" thick
½ oz unsalted butter
1 large zucchini, halved lengthways and then cut into slices ¼" thick
2 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 ¾ pints boiling water
a large handful of fresh chervil, roughly chopped (flat leaf parsley is fine if you can't get chervil)
salt, freshly ground white pepper

to finish, optional - crème fraîche or more butter

1. Sweat the vegetables. Large saucepan, medium heat, melt the butter, put in the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and leeks, cover the pan, turn the heat down low, and leave them for five minutes. They should only soften, you don't want them to take on any colour.

He says: season with 8 pinches of sea salt and 2 pinches of white pepper. I love Raymond Blanc dearly, and I have never eaten anything at his restaurants that wasn't delicious, but to me this amount of salt is insane and I use half that amount at most. Add gradually and taste it, I should.

2. Cook the soup. Now add the courgette, tomatoes and boiling water (it must be boiling hot to reduce the cooking time and to help keep the colours bright). Boil fast for 5-7 minutes, until the vegetables are just tender. Stir in the chervil, or whatever herbs you like, at this point.

3. Whisk in the crème fraîche or butter (or both!). Taste and correct the seasoning. If you like your soup smooth you can blend it but it looks much prettier as it is.

*Raymond Blanc's Maman, that is.

Well, I've done it now...

Somewhere far away on a shelf in a warehouse there is a line of iPhones waiting to be picked and packed, and one of them should be shaking in its little shoes because it is going to be mine come Saturday afternoon.

"I wonder if my owner will be kind to me?" it is thinking. Poor little devil.

Recipes are copied. Thanks Country. I'll let you know how it goes.

My little Jitterbug shakes so much it sounds tinny and cuts in and out just when it is ringing.
If cell phones could think, it would be saying:
"I hope she doesn't throw me out the window....I know she wants to."
And:
"You should hear what she says after hanging up" "I will get her back and not end the call so others can hear".

Not to anthropomorphize the little cell, maybe they really do think, talk, etc. CM?
Is the little thing coming by boat this time?
Congrats on your new I-phone. Did you and MsMadge shop together?

GingerMay, if you'd like to take up knitting, there are quite a few interesting charity knitting groups. Hats for preemies, socks for soldiers, Linus blankets -

Ginger May- to add to Linda, hospice always needs lap blankets.

A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.



James E. Faust

Linda, Smeshque - thanks for the idea. I had wondered about giving to charity, but thought nobody would take a somewhat personal handmade item of unknown origin. Guess I'll look into it now. Thanks!

Ginger, there's also the Red Scarf Project, which helps kids who were in foster care but are over 18. Scarves are a really good first project.

My landline quit working this week, but my internet connected to the landline still worked. Weird?!?  After 3 days, the technician got my landline fixed...now the robocalls can start calling me again.

When I have to leave my cats alone for a couple of days, a good friend stops by once a day to feed them and change the water.  When I lived in the "BIG CITY", I hired a professional & bonded Pet Sitter.  A little expensive, but worth it as I could relax while on a long vacation.

“Everyone has inside them a piece of good news.
The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.”

– Anne Frank

Humility is not a weakness.
It is strength under control.

CountryMouse - just an update that I made the potato soup last weekend. It was great and smelled terrific too with the leaks. The ultimate comfort food. Thanks again.

CM, I do a similar potato/leek soup except my recipe calls for chicken broth instead of water. I like that it ends up kind of creamy without milk or cream.

'It came without ribbons,
It came without tags,
It came without packages, boxes or bags.
MAYBE Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store...
MAYBE Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more...'

Blessings of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
May we remember, treasure and empathize with those less fortunate.
May we all take at least one moment this holiday season for ourselves.
May we reflect on our Blessings, Strengths, and Achievements this past year through His Grace.
May we find Peace, Love and Hope as we journey into this New Year.

Blessed Be.

My mind is on the fritz.

“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”
– Maya Angelou

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.” 
― John Wesley

On my mind today? Self care.
Eating more fruits and veggies to nourish my body.
Just decided I'm taking that vacation I've been putting off.
Stepping outside each day to breath fresh air and be still for a couple minutes even though I have to bundle up in 3 layers.

H2O, enough sleep, exercise, good quality food, socializing. I know a lot of people do this automatically, but I find it a struggle especially during and after dealing with yet another health crisis. After that all I want is to escape and watch Netflix, isolate, eat comfort food and drink tons of coffee to make up for my exhaustion.

But it's a recipe for double exhaustion. I am resisting the urge. Off to fill up my water bottle and ignore my coffee stash. I'll take walk here as it's a beautiful day and then more learning to love all those fruits and veg : )

After a sleepless night and returning to sleep @ 7:30 a.m.,
my dH had set an alarm for 8:30 a.m., he says it was to call his chiropractor.
He did not call his chiropractor, and came right back to bed.
Now I am tired, skipping heartbeats, almost noon, as his non-sensical,
non-schedule schedule interferes with mine.

Brain fart day here.. both mom and I had an eye dr apt,, hers at 845 and mine at 9.. which somehow I interpreted at 945 and 10... and I was insistant to the dr office that was our times.. oh boy! But it was a slow day, and they graciously got us done. Upon our return.. I checked the cards.. opps! Even hubs said,, ugh, I think you were late! My brain is starting to go now too!

Oh dear......just when I am at my wits end with dH, turns out he was getting sick, and hiding if from me.
A migraine and sinus infection, with few outward symptoms.

Mindfulness. Mindful to pull back when my thoughts wander down the dark road of despair, and not get carried away with all the horrible "what if's" that may never become reality. Mindful to recognize the good stuff no matter how small... didn't lose power in the snowstorm, a nice man held a door open for me, the mechanic actually fixed my car.