I make a lot of soups, y’all. But this one is really, really good and needs to be shared:
Tomato Soup
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes
1/2 can tomato paste
1 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
2 small carrots, diced
2 med onions (I used a yellow and a red), diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 C broth (I used veggie)
1-2 bay leaves
3 Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 C chopped fresh basil
1 C half and half
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Drain canned tomatoes, reserving juices. Spread tomatoes on a baking sheet in a single layer. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil (about 1/4 C). Roast tomatoes until they are caramelized, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile heat remaining olive oil in a sauce pan over med heat. Add carrot, onion, celery and garlic and cook until veggies are soft, about 10 minutes. Add roasted tomatoes, reserved juices, tomato paste, broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer 15-20 minutes, until veggies are very tender. Add basil and half and half. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth.
Tonight we ate our tomato soup w sliced raw cheddar cheese and fried okra, both on hand after a trip to the farmer’s market over the weekend. Fresh bread and a garden salad with this soup would make an even better (less rich) meal, I think.
These photos are from a couple of weeks ago, when I took Ben and Maddie to see their first movie in the theater, the live-action version of Charlotte’s Web.
Ben dressed up for the occasion.
Maddie needed a booster seat to keep the chair bottom from flipping back up while she was sitting in it.
It was just a buck for each of us to get in, so we splurged on an obscene amount of popcorn. Everyone made it all the way through the movie, I’m proud to say. We only had to get up once to go to the bathroom, and there was only one incident of Ben sprinting down the movie theater aisle shouting, while I chased him down, loudly whispering for him to come back and sit down. I cried; Charlotte’s Web is bittersweet, after all.
I was sick on the couch most of last weekend, and Nathan completely rocked solo parenting while I rested. He did what any good daddy knows to do under the circumstances: help the kids make mud in the backyard and then become beyond recognition filthy. When they came inside, I emptied nearly half the bottle of Spray n Wash on that patchwork skirt Maddie was wearing, but that probably won’t save it. It was worth it, obviously.
Sometimes it’s too hot to play outside.
Today we met friends at an indoor inflated playground. It was Ben and Maddie’s first time to try this kind of play, and I was impressed by how fearless they were about climbing even the highest structures and slides, and by how much exercise they got. They had a blast, and both took afternoon naps–score.
Ben tried vacuuming by himself for the first time yesterday and loved it. Our living room floor has never been so clean. After running it around the floor by himself for a good 20 minutes he proudly declared, “I’m a grown-up now!” Because really, running a vacuum is what adulthood is all about.
The scarf is tied over his ears, around his head Aunt-Jemima style, so that “it won’t be too loud.”
Ben and Maddie built a tower this morning, using nearly every megablock that we own:
I got them to sit still next to it like that by asking them to say, “Monkey boogers,” or something inappropriate like that.
Ben’s interest in Legos has been growing lately, something that Nathan and I are both very excited about, since we like playing with Legos. A couple of days ago, Ben built space ships (where/when did he learn about space ships?), both equipped with “exhausters.”
Pretty sure those green things sticking out from the side are the exhausters.
Not exactly sure where they are here.
The ship on top is a “tire collector,” obviously. Both ships also feature “skunk shooters,” those black hoses attached to the front of the ships.
This is what happens when geeks breed. 
A new statue near the kitchen garden gate. I want to make a gazing pool in front of her. Which I expect will then become another dog water bowl.
Ben and Maddie are keeping a raised garden bed planted with strawberry plants and flowers. We’re not likely to see any berries, though, since M keeps picking the pretty white flowers. B & M each have a garden gnome, really only bc I wanted garden gnomes.
Nasturtiums (Alaska) growing in one of my 4′x4′ beds. I’m using live oak leaves for mulch. If it’s good enough for Mother Nature, it’s good enough for me.
Baby herbs: bay laurel, lime-scented thyme, Cretan oregano, upright rosemary. These are all plants I picked up for cheap at a recent Austin Herb Society seminar on making hydrosols.
Two agave weberi pups pulled from a plant at my first house in Austin, and an aloe that I’m trying to bring back after the cold weather.
Two of the 4′x4′s, planted with beets, chard, kale, marigolds and radishes. Spearmint in that huge pot, which I salvaged from a neighbor’s bulk trash pile. The spearmint froze during cold weather but is bouncing back nicely.
Garden gnomes. This place is infested with them.
Keeping a garden makes me immensely happy. It’s wonderful to have been here long enough to grow some things.
