photo post

Here I am in Tennessee!!

Yes, I am carrying flour, and no I did not take this photo.
I am staying with my sweet sis in law and her husband and their new baby!!!!!!
I am hoping to spoil them with lots of home cooked foods!!

They made the mistake of sending me to the grocery store!!
I love the grocery store!
Even with a bum ankle, I love the grocery store!!

But I didn't want to talk about that. I wanted to post a few pictures. I have a blog post to write about my trip, but I am too tired to give it a good go, so that will wait for tomorrow.

IT IS SNOWING HERE!!!!
I AM SO VERY EXCITED ABOUT THAT!!!
I was born and raised in the south and can count the number of snow days I have had on my personal phalanges!
I am looking forward to using my camera tomorrow to take in some of the wonderfulness!!
I quickly snapped this one of the ice crystals beginning to collect on this holly bush.

And seeing as how I am on my sis in laws computer managed to delete the other I took of a pretty red leafed bush!
That is just how I roll.

I also loaded these photos in the reverse order I wanted to talk about them and am finding it impossible to move them about...so yes, my friends we are back to the good old days of making due!!
I took this one yesterday of my very favorite cup. It caught my eye, and I snapped.


And yesterday I said I would take a picture of where that suitcase resides in my house.

So, there ya go.

I miss my family already!!
That's all I've got. I am tired and sitting with my foot up, enjoying the fire about to eat some icecream.

Gimping about

I am trying to not be busy today as I finish 5 loads of laundry, make salsa, granola bars, and peanut butter balls.
In between that I will be writing out instructions for creating chicken soup, beef stew, and breakfast burritos. I was gonna pre-cook all these things but know without a doubt that I cannot stand that long today!!
Oh, and writing the specific schedule of the children for wake-up and get out of the house on a school morning.

You see my friends...I am headed out of town for several days and my dear husband will be assuming the role of house dad and I must pave the way!!!
Now don't get me wrong, he is more than capable, but I do feel that it is my duty to make it as easy as possible when he is filling in for me!!
So, while I am "taking it easy" on my sprained ankle I will accomplish all of this stuff too! Since I scaled back on the cooking I think it will be quite manageable.

Now, I plan on taking my camera with me and imagine that my host family will do me the honor of allowing computer time.
But, just in case that doesn't happen, don't worry about me if you don't hear from me til Monday.
I will miss you though!!
I am packing my bags today and will head out in the morning.

Not this bag however. Segue to photos of the day in process...

This suitcase has been with me for sometime, but I don't think it has ever acted as luggage!!
I am fairly certain I found it at a yard sale 20 some years ago and have been waiting for the perfect spot in my home to put it. It has lived in the attic for almost its whole time with me.
I would take another picture of it in its current spot but that would mean another trip downstairs and another trip upstairs which I haven't planned on!!
When I go down in a bit, I will stay down! Safety in numbers!
As in the fewer times I travel up the stairs the fewer opportunities I will have for destruction!!

My oldest child decided to make some cookies last night.
Flour was everywhere. I thought I had gotten it all taken care of til I looked closely at this photo today!!

These little bowls sit just behind the mixer in a little inset window. They have a nice light dusting of flour on their rims!!

Oh, I look forward to new things to photograph on my trip!!
Wish me luck as I gimp through the airport and my weekend!

Well, I said I would and so I am.
Here are today's hastily snapped photos, so that I could at least say I did it.

These red berries are very plentiful around my area of the world. I just love 'em!



My time spent looking at this is plentiful.


That's all I've got folks!

Monday is (not) photo day

I took a bunch of photos yesterday.
So many of them were so blurred, or boring...they just didn't make the cut.

Late in the day I twisted my ankle pretty badly trying to make a quick dash up my stairs so I didn't get this jewel posted until this morning.
It is yesterday's photo, I am still not off the hook for today!


This wasn't even an intentional subject matter decision.
I was just messing with a new button and clicked to check a setting.

Such a visual feast!!
You're welcome!!

Decadent Soup

I had a sleepover party last Friday night!!!
My best buddy and I were hosting one of our dear friends this weekend who was in town for a visit.
We decided it would be fun to have a yummy dinner then play Wii and Xbox or watch a movie, or just hang out and chat.
And drink coffee!
We managed to accomplish all of those things and more!

I wanted to cook something that I would never get away with fixing for my family, but would feel decadent to my food loving buddies and I.
A good starting place was to choose a vegetable.
And what my friends, is possibly the worst vegetable on the planet (besides spinach) to children and husbands everywhere???

Now mind you I did very limited research on this topic.
As in...I never left my own dinner table!!!

Nope, its not broccoli.
I have 2 here who really dig broccoli.
And, cauliflower doesn't count either, just because I say it doesn't.
And no one really likes brussel sprouts until they learn how to cook 'em right, so those don't count either.
And lima beans aren't allowed in my house so that is not the answer!!
Hmmmm let's see what does that leave us with??
Beets and mushrooms.
I will give you a hint, it is not beets!
Can I just say ewwww.
I mean I like beets, but can't imagine a meal based around beets.
Although, there are probably plenty of you out there thinking the same thing about mushrooms!!

Well, I love mushrooms and fortunately so do both of my friends, so I decided to do a cream of Portobello mushroom soup!!
I proudly announced this intention to my family the evening before and after a long dramatic pause the whole family said...."ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww" and also remarked on how glad they were that they were gonna be out of town!!!
Ahhhh ha ha ha, evil chef Jen strikes again!

I am going to link to this recipe Cream of Portobello Mushroom Soup , not because I really used it, but because it is a good starting place for those of you who need specifics.
I didn't really have much intention about blogging this recipe, though I did take pictures as I went along with the intention of having pictures at least, taken for the day.

However, both of my friends said..."You are gonna write this out aren't you???"
I have a feeling one of them might actually cook it and the other will suggest that I need to cook it again!!
Ha ha, either way it will be nice to have a record of what I did for future reference.

So, once again here is a "no recipe" recipe for Cream of Portobello mushroom soup!!

I began with 4 hearty mushrooms.


I like to scrape out the "gills" from the underside and peel off the skin from the top.
It is fun to see how big of a chunk of gills you can get to come out at once.
Ok, fun to me! Fun is sooooooo relative, is it not??

Scraping the gills is a must. Peeling, I do believe is a preference!
Here they are ready for chopping.

I did a medium chop on them so the saute time wouldn't be too very long.

I then went outside to see what was still green in my poor frost bitten herb garden and was not surprised to find a willing shoot of rosemary! I snipped off a piece about 4 inches long to add to the mix.
Our other participating ingredients...

chicken stock, garlic, and a touch of white wine.

Oh, and I almost forgot....LEEKS!!

That's right folks I said it. Leeks!!
Both of my buddies outvoted me on this one and brought these to the house to add to the soup.

I must say I was a willing participant but ONLY because I had recently had a soup prepared by a friend which called for leeks that I happened to have purchased for her because I knew she was searching for them and I was at the store and saw them knowing she had been unsuccessful in her search, and the soup did not carry an "onion" flavor....it was just good!!! Real good.

There is just nothing like a nice long run on sentence, don't you agree!!!

And leeks are so pretty.
And I knew in the end I was going to use my immersion blender to puree this soup, so I knew I wouldn't get a random "bite" of leeky onion yuckness.

There is just nothing like made up words to describe certain things in life, don't you agree?!

My girl and I barely made it through the unfamiliar smell while we were chopping, but suffered through for the greater good.
So into the pot went a swirl of grapeseed oil and one and a half leeks to saute til clear-ish.
I was using a fancy garlic pepper today, but if I had been using fresh garlic it would have gone in here as well.
Then I added the mushrooms and cooked them down a bit too.


Next up was flour for thickening. I had read plenty of recipes and felt that 1 Tablespoon per mushroom was a good ratio.
The flour goes in and the whole thing starts to look like a train wreck. It had very disturbing clumping action which I just pressed on through, again knowing the blender would take out any remaining culprits.
Distressing as it may seem you must fight the clumpness and let the flour cook a bit before adding the chicken stock and wine and herbs and spices including salt, pepper, parsley and garlic.
(For this pot of soup I used one box of my favorite stock and about a cup of white wine. It fed the three of us nicely and we did share with my girl too who managed to choke down a few bites, really wanting to be a big girl and enjoy it!!)
I wanted the flavor of the rosemary without the fuss of it so I left the sprig intact to take out of the pot before whirling with the blender.
This concoction simmered for as long as I could stand to wait.
Oh, about 20 minutes or so.
I then gave it a mighty dose of immersion blending...removing all clumps and bumps and lumps. It was not a smooth soup, but it also wasn't clumpy, bumpy or lumpy either. I could have strained it, but wanted a bit of substance in my bowl.
Then I poured in what was left in the carton of the heavy cream; you know what was left after making and devouring two whipped cream topped chocolate pies this last week. (While I have the capability to personally eat 2 full chocolate pies in a week, I did share them with my family and guests!!)
Ohhhh, let's say about a half a cup.
Yeah, that sounds good! More or less would be just fine dependent upon your taste buds and waistline requirements!!! ha ha ha

At this point I stopped taking photos cause let's face it...mushroom soup is just not pretty!!!

I just let it gently simmer for a few more excruciating minutes and then gave up and served.
I was very hungry!!!
I think that about covers it.
My decadent soup mission was a success!!

When it comes to living life...
...it just doesn't get much better than sharing delicious food with best buddies.
Trust me, we didn't stop there!
It was just the beginning of a weekend of delicious bites and memory making activities!
I love you Tara and Je$$!!! Now go make some soup!

We have had a steady stream of spitting rain here today, so I went out between spurts to shoot a few wet things.

Tiny weed grass growing in my tomato plant pot.


My bare wisteria vine.


My wet fish, who did come up to eat today.
He is just about to slurp in that piece of food.

I need to figure out the right time of day to shoot my fish. The camera wants to focus on the top of the water instead of what is in the water.

Sigh...so much to learn!!!

And...here is Storm!

He isn't outside, nor is he wet, but he is in his appropriate container.
Poised at his food bowl, ready for a treat.

Happy Sunday!

Exploring the market

No, I cannot remember what these are, but aren't they gorgeous.
I lost all "public shyness with my camera" today as I strolled through the Hubbel and Hudson Market.
So many gorgeous things to behold.

These I do remember were radishes.

Long carrot-like pink radishes!


And these... more radishes!

Easter egg radishes. I have never heard of such a thing.
It is nice to get out and explore!

A smorgasbord for the eyes at every turn!


These were tiny little apples which caught my eye. I could hold all three in one hand and still had room for more.

Take a close look at that stem...it looks like a little snake head! ha ha ha!
It isn't I promise.
Digging the picture taking thing today!!!

It is a good thing I stayed up late posting too.
My faithful ever close by Shelby dog, kept raising her head from her blanket.
She was hearing something.
I went to explore what the sound was.
Oh, no worries...it was only the hamster who had gotten out of his cage because sister fed him (while brother is away this weekend) and left the lid off.
He was happily exploring, but took kindly to me putting him away.
Emergency averted!