With the weather taking a swift and decisive turn for the Autumnal, the appeal of salad and other such meals diminishes rapidly to be replaced by a desire for soups and other heartier fayre.
I know it is only August and that theoretically we have another couple of weeks before the short sleeves are replaced with jumpers and the barbecue is packed away for another year but the last few days have seen winds whipping through the branches and a significant dip in the temperature. Blackberries, perhaps the most evocative of Autumn fruits, have started to ripen to a vivid purple and the apple trees in the overgrown orchard next door are beginning to bear fruit, albeit a touch on the sour side – not that it will prevent us from making a batch of cider.
If you haven’t heard of the Taste and Create event, I can only introduce it as one of the most fun events in the blogosphere. Started by Nicole of For the Love of Food, it pairs random bloggers together and you get to make something from the other person’s blog. It opens up your horizons, introducing you to some special blogs and amazing recipes.
This month I was paired with Mable Tan of Happee Monkee. She does some fantastic baking and lovely photographs. Her writing is light and interesting, and one can lose track of time reading up on her varied posts.
Lately, I’ve been trying to discover different kinds of soup, and so I had to try her Mushroom Soup with Pesto Toast. And I’m glad I did, because it was fabulous. I’m eating it right now and couldn’t wait to write about it! Slurp!
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I absolutely love making soup - and recently especially so if it contains noodles, seafood and chillies… it’s more of a pasta dish than a soup really. Yet I get to feel smug that I’ve only had soup for dinner!
The soup below takes about 15 minutes to prepare if you have all the ingredients prepared - perfect for a healthy mid week dinner.
Its been a while since I’ve taken part (or at least it feels like it!) so I’m sending this over to Presto Pasta Night - hosted by the lovely Ruth at Once Upon a Feast.
Poor Steve has picked up a summer cold, and this morning was rainy and almost chilly. (Ok, it was 70 when I took the dog out–but compared to the upper 80s we’ve been having it felt cool!) I have been having a hard time coming up with inspiration for lunches and dinner while Steve and Simon have been home, so inspired by poor Steve’s cold, I asked him if some old fashioned chicken soup sounded good. He said it sounded amazing, and Simon was amenable since my chicken soup is one of his favorite things. The only problem is that I’ve been avoiding meat and meat products as much as possible lately. I think I’ve had meat once in the past week or so, and it tends to sit on my stomach like a rock when I do eat it. Fortunately, the boys don’t mind being vegetarian–which is good since today I converted my normal chicken soup recipe to a vegetarian version. (Don’t worry, they both still loved it!)
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