Things I'm Digging...

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that February is over. I'm not one to wish time away, but the month was filled with so much snow and dreary skies that I'm truly celebrating this new month. March has announced itself in a lovely way with warmer temperatures, a shining sun, and an easy morning routine with the family.

As dreary as the weather was last month, there were things that made it brighter. Our fireplace was put to good use every snow day and I enjoyed tending the fire. Finding a great recipe and making the best banana muffins ever was a joy as well.

A new tradition in our family is to ask people to remove their shoes when they come into our house. However, I don't want anyone to have cold feet so I decided to knit several Pocketbook Slippers to keep them in a basket by the door for our guests. So far I have one and a half pairs done.

There was a time in my life when my nose was in a book all the time. Over the past several years I have had trouble concentrating on reading and have missed it and knitting has never been a good match with reading until this little gem came along, thanks to my knitting buds. Currently I'm reading Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos and so far I'm enjoying her prose and her references to The Philadelphia Story (if you haven't seen it, go and rent it now).

On TV, I'm tuned into LOST and through Netflix I've been watching Six Feet Under, which I can also recommend since every time I watch one episode it's like a potato chip and I just can't stop after one. The acting is good, the story lines are interesting and I'm now a big fan of Michael C. Hall and may have to check out Dexter next.

I'm also getting a package together for Leah at Our Yellow House for our swap, but I can't show you that yet.

Ok, I'm off to make some more muffins.

Whim Soup, Take 1 (Vegetarian)

Growing up, I preferred Campbell's soup to my mom's homemade. Luckily, I've outgrown that. I started enjoying homemade soups because they tasted better and had less salt. My mom makes great soup and I'll happily choose it over any can any day. However, I thought soup was hard to make, so until about a year ago all I ever tried to make was chicken noodle soup whenever we became sick.

Then, my friend Linda gave me the recipe for what I now refer to as Whim Soup. In your crockpot, you add broth, some veggies (frozen, canned, fresh or a combination) and add a handful of herbs (most often Herbs de Provence) and cook. Easy peasy and delicious.

While we lived in Belgium, I rarely followed a recipe and soup became my go to meal. I faked it using products like this spice "boullion" and this handy gizmo. Buttons thinks I'm the greatest soup maker in the world and so I desire to make more soup. (I've also been making bread, so she's thinking I'm some sort of June Cleaver. However, I'm not vacumming in pearls...or...er...vacuuming.)

So, the point is I made a soup we liked a couple of nights ago and I thought I'd share, just in case you wanted to try it and now I have an actual recipe for it!

Whim Soup, Take 1 (Vegetarian)
32 oz organic vegetable broth
30 oz (approximately) chopped tomatoes (with juice)
15 oz undrained canned garbanzo beans
15 oz drained canned corn
1 frozen package of spinach
1 small handful (3 tablespoons?) Herbs de Provence
3 teaspoons of garlic (Button's request)
1 1/2 cups of small alphabet pasta

Combine broth and tomatoes, puree in crockpot.
Add everything else EXCEPT pasta.
Cook on low or high depending on when you want it done.
Make sure you cook it long enough for the spices to soften.
Cook pasta, drain, add to soup and serve,
preferably with homemade bread while wearing pearls.

(Wish I had a picture, but we ate it too fast.)

Fun Friday: Easy Recipe

Ok, this is actually inspired from a recipe from Marsha (heavily featured on this blog over the past 2 days). It's come to be my "go-to" recipe when I need something quick but I want it to be good.

Cook some pasta. Saute some olive oil and garlic. Add some capers along with some of its juice. Add in black olives, artichoke hearts, lima beans, peas, edamame or any combo until it's nice and hot. Add the drained pasta and cook it together for a few minutes until everything has a toasted look to it. Add parmesan cheese and some pepper to it if desired. Serve it with a salad or another vegetable dish and you're done. Buttons is crazy for this recipe and I hope you'll like it too!

Watermelon Salad

Watermelon Salad

(All ingredients are approximate)
1/2 of a medium watermelon, chopped
4 oranges, peeled and chopped
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
2 lemons
salt

Combine watermelon, oranges and cucumbers and squeeze juice of both lemons over the fruits and cukes. Sprinkle with salt and stir. I like the effect of putting it back in the watermelon shell, but you don't have to do that. This recipe comes from a woman named Maria who I used to work with in San Diego. She's originally from Mexico and told me they also add chili powder to this salad and call it pico de gallo. (Not the pico de gallo I'm familiar with, but there you go.) It's a salad that's easy to make, tastes like there's some magic ingredient and is so summer-licious!