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Our Roger is 6 years old today....
He started out as this cute little bug...
...and has just kept on growing and growing.
He started kindergarten this year, and quite likes it. He's waited and waited for his turn.
He likes Dude Perfect trick shots, and sports of all kinds, but NOT peaches or hot dogs.
He is our Roger, and just like all our other precious grandkiddos, we love him lots! Happy birthday, Stinky Face!!
What you may not know is that my family has very strong opinions about tomato soup. Half of my kids actively loathe it, while other half will request this soup every time they come home to visit. They've never really been wishy-washy about their opinions, either. They love it or hate it, and that's it. My husband and I are on the pro-soup side of this argument, and sometimes you have to stray from the old faithful recipe just to try something new, and we're perfectly willing to do that. Just don't tell our tomato soup-loving kids, because they'll clutch their chests like they're having a heart attack.
I got a new cookbook recently. This gal lives out in Wyoming and raises her own cows, pigs and chickens, and grows a big garden. This particular recipe drew me in because I could use my bottled whole tomatoes, rather than just the juice I use in our old standby recipe. We've recently harvested the garlic, too, so that was another point in its favor. It's really good, and even better heated up for lunch the next day. So let's say you wanted to try an easy tomato soup recipe from scratch. You could try this one and be pretty happy about what you accomplish. Then, if you're like me, you could tear pieces of homemade bread toast into the soup and eat it that way. I'm not fussy, I'll use goldfish crackers instead of the toast, or biscuits would be good...or garlic toast....
Creamy Tomato Garlic Soup
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the onion and garlic and saute until tender. Stir in the flour, sugar, salt, pepper, and basil, and stir until the flour just starts to brown...a couple of minutes. Add the chicken stock and the tomatoes with their liquid.
Using an immersion blender, puree the soup to create a creamy consistency. (If you don't have an immersion blender, you can puree the tomatoes in a regular blender or food processor before you stir them in.)
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the soup begins to thicken. Add the cream and stir. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Adjust seasonings if needed, then serve with a handful of shredded Parmesan cheese on top.
So around here this week....
We have had amazingly wonderful cool days. I know there are those of you out there who are hating life with the temperature change, but I'm doing my own, private happy dance...and still sleeping with the window cracked a little, despite the frost warning nighttime temperatures. It will warm back up into the 70's next week, so warm weather life isn't totally over, but my walking buddy was not happy this week. You can see that the birch tree is changing.
....so I'm seeing this on the ground.
The colder temperatures have really perked the roses up. They are very happy.
The onion harvest is in. No, we didn't plant red onions on purpose. The starts must have been mistakenly labeled as Candy onions. I guess this will be the Great Red Onion Experiment. My guess is they won't last anywhere near as long as the Candy onions.
I've been trying out a new planner format. We'll see how I adjust to it. I'm not sure it's big enough, but I do like seeing the whole week at once.
Sent to me from the kids and grandkids this week, I got a series of pictures from Collin, who took James camping overnight, then checked out the Antietam battlefield.
James was pretty impressed with the armament.
And he was well prepared for his walk.
Collin found this on the ground. We have no idea what it is, but I suspect the green part is a casing for something else...a seed or a nut of some kind. My husband called it a Thorn Apple, but when I Google that, the images available don't look like this.
I got this from Levi's mama, and he's apparently pretty excited to come visit us for General Conference weekend.
And lastly, this week's letter board wisdom from my sister. It made me laugh, and I pretty much agree.
I'm posting my entry here for the first Perfectly CAS challenge. All challenges will be designs that use only 1/3 of the available space on the card front, and leaving the rest as "white" space. Not necessarily white, but empty. I'm going to give it a try.
The theme for this month is "flowers."
And this is my take on it. I used some American Crafts paper, some leftovers from a Cocoa Daisy planner kit, an Avery Elle stamped sentiment and some Nuvo drops. The most appealing part about this challenge is the time it takes to accomplish. Win-win.
My hands have been busy during my husband's recent hillside adventures.
I finished the last project from the July Primitive Gatherings wool subscription box. Loved this little table mat.
Plenty of fussy stitching, but it was worth it.
Speaking of fussy stitching, I also finished another Primitive Gatherings summer block of the week. This is block #5 out of 9.
There were Cretan stitches, Lazy Daisies, Bullion Knots...
....and these little rosebuds, made by starting with 3 Colonial Knots, then 3 staggered rows of Stem Stitch.
I also decided to put together the 3 year's worth of Cathy Zielske's 30 Days of Thankful pictures. It was always my intention to print them off and put them in albums, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it.
2016 went into a 4x4 album.
I used a lot of her printables
It was great to see these pictures again.
This is one of my very favorite projects to do every year, whether or not the pictures get printed.
This is 2017's album.
Again, I used printables,
and digital templates,
so this particular project went really quickly.
30 Days of Thankful will be happening again this year. It's never a bad idea to stop and be grateful.
