Comfort food recipe and request

I love the transition to fall, the first time you need a sweatshirt or sweater and you have to dig around in the closet to even find it. I love that summer packs up its aggresive self and fall sends us all inside to cook and stay warm. It always gets me back into the kitchen and I find a new focus and dedication to making things. It also makes me really nostalgic. Right now, I'm all about comfort foods. I've been making my grandma's banana bread and my mom's bean burritos with extra cheese. Last night, however, the only thing that would do was grilled cheese and tomato soup. I'm not a fan of canned soup and in fact, we have the same two 'emergency meal' cans in our pantry from years ago. Something is lost in canned soup. So, I whipped up my mother's amazing Tomato Bisque to satisfy my craving.

It is easy and so amazing. And, I figured that quite a few other people might have some extra tomatoes right now. So, here is the recipe. While I usually play around and only loosely follow a recipe, this one is truly perfect as is. It does have some, lets just say, non-diet friendly ingredients, if this makes you squeamish just close your eyes as you add these ingredients.

Tomato Bisque

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup butter

3/4 teaspoon dill seed

1 teaspoon dill weed

1 teaspoon oregano

1/4 cup flour

3 cups broth (chicken or veg.)

4 cups tomatoes (fresh is best but canned is really tasty too)

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1 cup or cream (you can substitute one half of this for half and half)

1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

1/4 cup honey

Saute the onions, dills and oregano in the butter. Once soft, add the flour and stir until dry (turns into a rou). Stir in the broth, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to a simmer for about 20 minutes until a good bit of the water reduces. Turn off the heat and add the parsley, honey, and cream. Stir together and serve!

I'd love to know others comfort foods. Got a good shepard's pie or cheesy casserole? Leave a comment or link to your blog and let me know. Also, if you try the soup, let me know what you think.

Addition: I should have mentioned that I usually puree my tomatoes in the cuisinart because I like the soup fully pureed. But, chunk people might prefer to just chop them.

Take that Anthropologie...

We picked up this fun find at one of those stores that is chock full of stuff, most of it not worth a dime. Until you see the one thing that stops you in your tracks. We are hoping to use it hold things near the front door. The best part is that the hooks swing from side to side. I feel like everything made these days, even if it is made to look "old", disregards this kind of whimsy.

Sorry for the odd picture. It was hard to get the whole thing in the shot, so I propped it and tilted the shot sideways.

Soups On!

Well, the temperature is dropping and it's impossible to resist making soup. We have a refridgerator full of seasonal, organic vegetables so I made up this soup to help them all dance together. Then, my friend got involved in this soup exchange and I'm jumping in the ring, too. A side note: I rely extensively on my cuisinart mini-prep and use pretty loose ingredient amounts, I hope this doesn't drive anyone nuts. Also, I made this as crock pot soup (love the way it fills the house when you walk in after a day of work) and made it a few weeks ago so I'm breaking the rules.

Swiss Chard and Navy Bean Soup:
- Use the mini-prep to chop one full onion and two garlic cloves
- Fry with olive oil until cooked through
- Meanwhile, use the mini-prep to chop a full carrot, and about 1 and a half big heirloom tomatoes
- Put the carrot and toms in the crock pot with the cooked onion and garlic
- Chop up chives, and add dried oregano: a handful of chive and about 1 teaspoon of oregano
- Rinse, thoroughly, a large handful of swiss chard. Remove the long stems and chop into smaller bits.
- Rinse a can of navy beans (or cook dried ones, which I never have time for)
- Add 4 and 1/2 cups of vegetable broth or water
-Chop up a potato or two into smallish bits
- Throw it all in the crock pot and add salt and pepper.
- Go off, do something fun and then come home to a great meal.

Queuing Up!

Got a chance for some lone fabric shopping in both a Jo-Anns for the basics and my favorite nearby fabric store, Spool in Philadelphia. Yes, sadly, my closest nice fabric store is over an hour and a half away. Hard to believe but it seems the entire state of New Jersey doesn't have a fabric store nicer than Jo-Anns. So, when I get to Spool, I'm a happy girl. They let me pull out all the bolts I need, then change my mind and start all over again. And, they get excited for me, offer tons of suggestions and hearty encouragement. That said, despite the incredible temptation I (mostly) stuck to my rule and only bought fabric dedicated to a specific project. So, here is the makeup of the current queue: 1) This fantastic fabric farmhouse for the little man (as a Holiday gift to give myself some time), 2) The fabric for the Bend The Rules lap quilt, 3) another baby quilt (possibly) to submit to the Make Baby Stuff and Superbuzzy contest and 4) flannel for the Bend the Rules scalloped quilt, which is so lovely but intimidating given my inability to sew in curves. But, it's all feeling a bit ambitious right now.

Completed House Chores

Or, at least house sewing chores! The pillows are complete.
For the blue pillows, I made a fold over and then used twill tape to tie it for security.
On the front of the flower pillows I embrodiered outlines, mostly while watching political conventions and other circus-like events. For these I put in a zipper running the length of the back.

And here they are in the den, don't they cheer up the room?

Embellishments!

I finally tried out freezer paper stencils and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what took me so long. It's so fun and easy and the result is great.
I used an old (clean) onesie and kimono top from when Callum was a baby for this first attempt.
There is an annoying smudge on this one that I'm going to have to let go of but otherwise I really like. One challenge was that it required me to rely on my artistic skills to draw the image on the freezer paper, which has never been a strength. But, even this problem was solved when I stumbled upon this blog post from This Mama Makes Stuff and found dafont.com's dingbats. More black and white read-to-stencil cut images than one could hope for. This is a really easy process, let me know if I should lay it out on the blog, I know there are lots of places to find info on doing it but I'd be happy to share the process that worked for me!

Felt Food Fun..

We just got little guy a kitchen, he's a bit young for pretend play but he likes to empty and fill things and open and shut doors, etc. Plus, we knew he would grow into it, so we went for it. It was also a great excuse for me to start making some felt food. I love working with felt, no pesky seams or need to add inches when making your own pattern. Here's my egg, bacons, and bitty eggplant. First thing he did was try to put the egg on his head...the kid loves hats, what are you gonna do. I'm going to have to add to the collection, thinking strawberries might come next.

I'm seeing quilts everywhere!

Here's a bend-the-rules lap quilt swap. It will be a commitment to make something for someone else, but also a lot of fun. Care to join in? You've got until the 14th to sign up.

http://btrsswap.blogspot.com/2008/09/easy-lap-quilt-swap-info.html

Buying Kitchen Time

I've given birth to a boy boy. And, by that I mean he really digs modes of transportation. He will play with a doll for a while and hug a teddy bear but what he really wants to do is play with trucks or trains or cars. We go for walks just to see construction sites. So, despite my best intentions of being gender neutral I made these magnets for him. I went out and took pictures of trucks, cars, van, etc. and the printed them, applied a magnet and laminated them. They now live on our fridge. (Let me tell you, the picture taking part is not as easy as it sounds...these vehicles are usually moving or not in a position to stop and take a good photo.) And, holy smokes, they are a winner! I have seriously bought myself an additional 20 minutes of kitchen time.
Here is, of course, the quintessential school bus...complete with bus driver who was more than a little uncomfortable with the lady taking his photo. If our printer was better, these would have actually turned out with sharper color but so be it. The only thing missing is a city bus and a motocycle.
I'm thinking next might be magnets of family members (and the cat) or different emotion faces for communicating feelings...we will see.

My Favorite Quilt

This is my contribution to Mr. Monkeysuit's wonderful Quilt Month. There was a seriously close toss-up between this one and the baby quilt sewn while pregnant. The fabric and a pattern for that one came from a family member given to me on the weekend of my grandfather's funeral. I already felt the cirle of life in full bloom at that moment and constructing that quilt only seemed like a deeper connection between the ages. But, in the end I had to admit that my favorite quilt of all time was made to commemorate our wedding day. Before the wedding I sewed together the squares (or rectangles in this case) and then, at the wedding, I left them out with a fabric marker and instructions for everyone to take a square and leave us a message. After the wedding, I sewed them together to create a hanging guest book. Everyone left such touching remarks and we get to reflect on them all the time. My favorite, "May love be the (true) fabric that holds you together." I'm getting teary just thinking about it.

Speaking of Quilt Month...

Make Baby Stuff is hosting a Handmade Baby Quilt contest and is accepting entries until November 1, 2008. First prize is a $100 gift certificate to SuperBuzzy with lesser denominations for 2nd and 3rd. All experience levels are welcome to join in.I've been in what can only be described as a "Fall Cleaning Zone", more about repairing pants and sewing buttons, finishing and shipping off gifts, sending in swap sheets...generally just clearing up and cleaning up and moving things out of the Work In Progress status to the completed status. It's not very sexy but it's very satisfying. I miss the excitement and thrill of starting a new project, however, so maybe this is just what I need.

A month to share everything quilt-related

Hi All. Mr. Monkeysuit has declared Sept. as quilt month. She has an open invitation for others to join her. I did and am really excited. Check it out and consider joining! The only commitment is one quilt-related posting. How am I ever going to keep it under 10? I am running for my camera right now!

http://mrmonkeysuit.typepad.com/mr_monkeysuit/2008/09/quilt-month-2-first-quilt.html