inspiration: Monet, destroyer of couch and assorted other household locations
I woke up one morning composing this haiku in my head. I was literally playing with words and counting out lines while I was in that between fully asleep and fully awake stage. That’s never happened before. I grabbed for my phone to take notes before my eyes were even fully open. LOL. My honey thought something was wrong, I grabbed the phone so fast.
Have you ever sleep-dreamed a poem or story idea?
Monet would like to know. And wonders if you have a couch she can destroy, or at the least, rearrange.
Winter has hit our area with the first snow (followed by icy rain and skating rink roads). As I wondered what to make for dinner yesterday, I noticed the last butternut squash reclining on the bench. Hmmm.
Back in the day (pre-RV life) I used to purchase tons of squash-type produce and decorate the house. Then we would eat our way through the decor. Now, with space at a premium, that practice has halted. But. That butternut sat there looking at me. “Me, me! Pick me!” my over-active imagination called out.
Bundled up from the cold, I realized I had everything I needed to make butternut squash soup. Yay! It was a soup and salad kind of night.
Here is the recipe. Or, I should say, the list of ingredients I included. I did not follow a recipe per say, but I’ve made butternut squash soup in the past, and I always read the ingredients on interesting recipes when I peruse cooking magazines. Also. I did not measure much. Maybe not at all. It was all by look, feel, and experimentation.
Butternut Squash Soup
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 sweet potato (red garnet is my favorite), peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon butter
olive oil
about 2 cups of chicken stock
dried sage (or fresh, which I have but I didn’t want to go out to harvest it), crumbled (lots)
black pepper
cayenne pepper
half and half
1. Melt butter and a few swirls of olive oil in a medium heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add onions and cook for a few minutes.
2. Add butternut squash and sweet potato to onions. Add the chicken stock, enough to nearly cover the squash and potato. I wanted this thick, so I relied more on the boiling liquid and steam to cook the ingredients. Add pepper and sage. I wish I had thought about garlic, which would been delicious, but I didn’t think about it until we were eating the soup.
3. Cover and cook until the squash and potato are soft, between 30-45 minutes. Stir occasionally.
4. Once everything is soft, remove from heat. I used an immersion blender to blend it all together, but a potato masher might work as well. Add a few swirls of half and half, stir, and serve hot.
This was SO tasty and it hit the spot. I’m already dreaming of soup leftovers for lunch today. It turned out nice and thick.
Some other options I considered as we enjoyed the soup: garlic (added at the onion stage), topped with crispy bacon, topped with garlic pepitas, or topped with homemade garlic croutons.
Cheers for soup season! What is your favorite soup?
It is so true. The meme where one day, the zucchini is tiny but the next it is ginormous. I searched my garden 2-3 days before this day. Nothing. Maybe a tiny fingerling. One at the most. Then comes this day. BAM. Eight fully ready to eat zucchinis.
Also tomatoes, wax beans, and green beans. I wasn’t even planning on harvesting. But once I saw the zucchini, I knew I was overdue.
Lunch was this. So delicious. I would eat this every day if the tomatoes and rustic bread always tasted so good. A little butter, spicy brown mustard, tomato slices. Done.
And for dinner, we had a two-bean, fresh corn off the cob, red onion, cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil, and balsamic salad. Yummy! Don’t you just love summer garden meals?
But I need some more recipe ideas for the beans. I can’t keep up with them. I give them away, eat a ton, freeze a few (not a great option since we live in the RV-storage space is at a premium). We’ve had stir fry, meat packets including beans, and potato bean onion ground turkey soup.
Ideas please! What is your favorite fresh green bean recipe?
Patting myself on the back here. I found a recipe in a magazine and had nearly ALL of the ingredients on hand! Now that right there is amazing. But also, fresh frozen halibut from a fisher friend, dill growing in the garden, and ginger in the freezer.
We’ve had several good experiences with fish tacos. But I am a careful sort of cook with fish.
And. Ta-dah! This recipe works great! It wasn’t too hard, didn’t have too many steps, and nothing weird or difficult to find at the store.
Success was confirmed by my own taste buds, plus my honey loved them, and leftovers (how long can you keep fish taco leftovers anyway?) were devoured and seconds requested by Jamie and Donavyn next door.
After cleanup, and several photos, because yes, I am one of those people who take pictures of their food, I dug out the magazine. Two stars for me!! This recipe came from Bon Appetit. What?!!! The prep was pretty simple and the taste delish.
It’s a keeper. Anyone else have any fresh caught or frozen halibut?
Just look at all of that corn, beans, and radishes!
Oh. Wait. You can’t see anything but a few stems and missing row of radishes. That’s because we have invaders. Of the rabbit-y sort. The ones who LOVE almost everything in my garden: corn, radishes, green beans, parsley, kale (they really adore kale), and another leafy green similar to chard. All gone.
Plus. Holes. They love excavating as well. I think they can smell the new corn kernel seeds I planted, because several holes line up exactly where I replanted (and replanted).
Ignore the weeds. I gave up in frustration.
We have bunnies (formerly known as pets). People have dumped them. So now between the neighbors and us, we have a colony. A fluffle. We are happy that most of them live beneath the neighbor’s outbuildings (while 4 live at Taylor and Jamie’s as actual pets). But the green pasture is alluring. And the used-to-be growing garden a delight.
Two black bunnies edge nearer to the the pot of gold at the end of the garden rainbow. Grrrrr.
So today. Take that. And that. And THAT!
We installed a bunny barrier. It’s not tall, but we only need to deter Peter Rabbit, Cottontail, Flopsy, Mopsy, Benjamin, and their buds from free ranging the garden beds. We hope.
The question is, besides onions, garlic, basil, several chocolate cherry sunflowers, a few green beans, and a marigold or two, what is there time to replant (time number 4 for some items) that will mature before the frost?
Sigh. It was looking so good! Grumble grumble. Back to the drawing board.
On this date, April 23, 1979, at my dad’s birthday party, this guy popped the girlfriend question. And the rest, they say, is his (and her) story. Our story. What an adventure it’s been! 43 years ago.
The attempted photo recreation…
circa now
The journey continues, my honey and me, best friends.
Hello, friends! Just look at what I call “Girl in a Tree.” Her (current) favorite thing to do is climb trees. She was more than happy to shimmy up and strike a “missing-teeth” pose with Karen Rostoker-Gruber’s traditional retelling of a Yiddish folktale, A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale. Thank you, Miss Autumn.
And thanks to Karen for sending me a copy of this beautiful book and Kathy Temean for hosting Karen and her picture book. You can read more about Karen on Kathy’s blog, Writing and Illustrating.
Now, as a person who lives full-time in an RV with her husband and quite hunting-crazy cat Monet, I know something about being crowded. When all the grands are over (7), there is nary a place to sit. We have to double-up AND use the floor. Inside the RV, we have also had: 2 cats, 1 dog, a fledgling goldfinch, spiders, earwigs (YUCK), flies, wasps, adults, grandchildren, 2 bunnies…I think that might be it. Thankfully, this crowd was not all at the same time. Oh, and the occasional Monet-attempted catch-and-release mouse.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading A Crowded Farmhouse Folktale. Told both in rhyming and lyrical text, the mix was perfectly combined for a satisfying read. Not too much of either, but just right. For a fun retelling of a traditional story, you need to read about Farmer Earl and his crowded farmhouse.
What I Like About This Book:
-humor abounds, though I imagine Farmer Earl would not feel the same way
-the hugely huge family (this phrase cracks me up)
-a fun, re-imagining of a classic tale
-the animals and chaos
-perfect little rhyming couplets that young readers will pick up in no time
-the combination of both lyrical and rhyming text
-adorable and engaging illustrations filled with plenty of details to amuse readers
Amazon Blurb:
Farmer Earl has had enough―his home is too crowded! So, he visits the wise woman in town for help. She tells him to bring all his ducks in the house. And then all his horses. And all his goats too! How will there be more room with all these animals? This updated folktale uses humor to explore what it takes to gain a new perspective.
RV life in the winter, particularly in a four-season location (like the Pacific Northwest, east of the Cascades), is not a piece of cake. Nor is it for the faint of heart.
I should have opened with a question mark and let you guess first. How many fleece blankets do you think a person would need to adequately block window drafts against winter chills? In January. While living in an RV? And all-season RV. At least that’s what it says on the side.
Nine. We require an assortment of 9 lap throw-sized fleece blankets to tuck along the cracks of all window openings to block drafts. Is this a pain? Yes. Do I despair? Yes. Murmur? Unfortunately. Yes.
But we are warm! The draft-blockers do their job. So well, in fact, that on super chilly mornings, they block the heat to portions of the curtains and the curtains freeze to the windows. Don’t worry! It eventually melts and we wipe away the beaded rivers streaming down into the window tracks.
Extra tasks are required for RV life in the winter. There is a longer daily chore list. But we keep warm. Our tricks of the trade keep us nice and toasty, despite ice, fog, snow, sleet, wind, rain, and sub-freezing temps. How about you? Any winter RV tricks you’d like to share with a couple of RV popsicles?
Love, Laughter, and Life 