Cream of Red Pepper Soup

I am going to try to cook my way through Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu, my totally unoriginal idea inspired by Julie and Julia.

SO, to date, I have prepared the first three recipes.

The first was Cream of Red Pepper Soup, and this illustrates why I decided to do this project:

I would page through my 20+ cookbooks and seldom try a recipe. There was always something quite not right. Like, I don't like creamed soups, for instance, so I didn't expect to be impressed by this red pepper soup, but I was! It was colorful and tasty, flavored with garlic and cumin. I did have minor difficulties trying to roast the peppers in my very compromised oven in the Lake Michigan cottage. The peppers slid off the cookie sheet and nestled against the back wall of the oven. The oven itself is a hazard to work with, and the thermometer is totally off. But I sort of learned how to roast peppers. The soup was blended at the end and I could have strained it according to the author, but I liked the slight texture of the not-quite-totally-pureed peppers.

The second recipe was Praline-Butterscotch Bars...butter, brown sugar, pecans, etc. I messed up a bit with the order of ingredients, but it didn't matter. We ate these within 36 hours and I sent 6 home with Maria.

The third recipe in the first "Menu" was Spring Vegetable Salad. I loved this also. It had asparagus, snow peas, carrots, summer squash, new red potatoes, green beans, all steamed and mixed with oil, garlic, mayonnaise and herbs. I made one change. The recipe called for 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice to be added just before serving. I added only 1 teaspoon to each serving and mixed it just before I ate it. Except for Betony, who had a serving when she was here, I consumed the whole salad in 4 days. It would even be tasty with no lemon juice added, IMO.

The final recipe in the first group is a Fruited Grain Salad and tomorrow I need to go scout out raw wheat berries.

A few days ago I returned from a trip to Oregon. Here are a few photos of that wonderful visit with Steve, Andree, Liv and Donovan...

Snow today after a couple of warmer, sunnier weeks. I hope April is not the cruelest month. Looking forward to this coming weekend when Maria and Deborah come to spend a long weekend with me. It is our Rite of Spring.

The sun has shone for two days straight and although there is still a chill in the air and lots of snow in dirty piles and several inches deep in the shade, it will lose its battle with the sun soon.

Last Sunday, the great black-backed full flew by, mixed in with a steady stream of gulls flying north. AND, a bald eagle carrying a fish in its talons also flew by with gulls and crows staying close, probably hoping for a piece of this meal.

Today was an amazing day on the lake. The water was green and blue with wind-whipped whitecaps. The sky was full of magnificent, stunning cloud formations all day and the light snow-cover from last night left no doubt that cold winter has arrived. I took photos on and off all day, and about 4 pm, I noticed the gulls. They move in the wind right off the bluff, but today the wind was so strong, they were often nearly motionless as they found the balance between gravity and wind. I could see ID marks more clearly than ever before and am getting better at 1st and 2nd year ring-bills and herrings.

AND THEN, I saw new life bird: an adult great black-backed gull. I was absolutely excited and thrilled and had no one to share this with (another life theme at this point), but exclaimed out loud to myself. It flew back and forth and I saw it several times...a deep dark, nearly black mantle with a narrow white band on the lower wing edges and white tips at the end of its long wings. This bird is uncommon here so I feel gifted.

I also noticed an odd little quirk several times on random gulls in the wind: they would be nearly motionless and would give their legs a little shake and I am just now wondering if they were getting rid of water droplets which could freeze fairly fast in the wind and cold up in the sky.

It is the last day of November and the wind is fierce off the lake tonight, rattling the windows. This cottage is old and heats unevenly and not well. Still, today, I was watching gulls move through the wind, back and forth just off my front yard. It was such a play between wind and feathers and suddenly they would swoop down out of sight. Perhaps there was something tasty on the beach. In the strong wind, they moved slowly and I could see gull features quite well, like wing tips, tails, mantles...

I stopped at the Ludington wastewater management place coming from Townsend, walked in the Admin office, looked at the 3 guys working with test tubes and just said, "birds" and one replied, "No Little gulls today..." but he was kidding. He didn't know if there were any out there or not.

I went out and got to look through a Swarovski spotting scope! Absolutely beautiful optically. The gentleman who owned it and was also Little gull seeking had it focused on a frenetic group of Bonaparte's, and I could see them so clearly. He THOUGHT he had found a Little gull, but I didn't see it. Still, it was worth stopping for the chance to look through one of these amazing scopes.

It is the night before Thanksgiving and the wind is blowing and rain is spitting against the windows. I am most grateful for my near and far family..children, grandchildren, sisters, brother, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles. When I listen to the radio and all the talk about holidays and family chaos and the (IMO) overused word "dysfunctional" families, I wonder how they got that way. As someone said, it's just life. I am grateful for shelter and food and birds and books and the blessing of parents who gave me so much.

Heading to Townsend tomorrow for Thanksgiving with the Wetzels.