Twenty Well~Spent Minutes

On the porch swing. After breakfast. With my favorite purple mug half~filled with coffee and my children running about the yard.

Delicious Soup

For the feast of St. Dominic, I made a dinner featuring Spanish cuisine ~since his birthplace was in Spain. The soup you see above, was actually inspired by a Spanish casserole recipe I found. I just added more liquid and a bit more of this or that ingredient, and it turned out really great!!! It was surprisingly light and the flavor very unique ~in a good way;) Here is the recipe, for anyone who may be interested in trying it. I dubbed it;

St. Dominic's Soup

In a large pot, heat several tablespoons of olive oil over medium/high heat. Cut two large chicken breasts into several big chunks, add them to the pot, and lightly brown on all sides. Coarsely chop two onions, and add to the pot with the chicken. Cook and stir the onions until they are almost transparent.

Add two cups of a good white wine and six cups of chicken broth (~or water with the appropriate amount of chicken bouillon.) Peel and cube eight small potatoes and add to the pot, along with four cloves of minced garlic and two cups of fresh diced tomatoes. Stir in the juice of about one large lemon, a dash or two of thyme and parsley(~a sprig of each if fresh) and one to two cups of instant brown rice (you also may use regular brown rice, just know that it will have to cook longer) and simmer over medium heat until the potatoes are fork tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Throw in a couple hand fulls of toasted almonds and pine nuts, if desired, before serving.*

Enjoy!

*When making soup in the summer, I usually allow it to cool to just a bit warmer than room temperature before serving.

Blue on Blue

You know the day will be lovely, when the sky matches the blue of a morning glory.........

Glimpses of my Morning...

Dill Seeds

Just brought in a big batch from the garden and finished the somewhat tedious yet enjoyable job of picking them from the stems.

My great-aunt was telling me how her mother (-my great-grandma) used to make a delicious tea out of the dill seeds. While I will admit that I have serious doubts about dill tea, I may just have to go ahead and try it...........for great-grandma's sake. I certainly have plenty of dill seeds!

A Girly Lunch

I started with several rice cakes which I spread with a cream cheese/sour cream/chive mixture. On top of that I layered fresh cucumbers( which had been lightly coated with olive oil, cider vinegar, salt, and pepper), fresh feathery dill leaves, and feta cheese. Definitely girly........and definitely good.....( -Don't tell anyone, but my dear husband ate four of them!!!! ;)

Computer Troubles

For the past month our computer has really been acting up..........and now it is getting even worse!!!! So until we are able to get it all figured out, you may not see much activity here. Sorry! I really am hoping we can get it all fixed ( -or just get a new computer.....I am seriously ready to throw this one out the window!!!! Grrrr!!!!) very soon!