roasting

 I stood in the middle of the kitchen, around me was an organized mess with tomatoes in various stages of preparation. A giant basket of tomatoes was half empty, a bowl of roasted ones hot from the oven waited to be transformed into soup, the instant pot had fragrant onion sauteing, a dishtowel cradled 2 piles of tomatoes, each pile carefully weighed out. Another jumble of red orbs was cut, read for the oven. Rock and roll tumbled from my little green speaker. I stood and smiled, a feeling of complete bliss washing over me. I snugged my apron around my waist and spun to the next task.

It was a long day and hardly the best day to have the oven blasting out heat, but I had a giant basket of tomatoes from Trudie that had to be attended to. When Carm came in with the basket yesterday my stomach dropped… what the hell was I going to do with close to 100 tomatoes? Well, I slept on it. When I woke up this morning, before the sleep had even left my eyes, I checked online for a recipe for tomato soup that used skin and all… I found a promising one that required the tomatoes to be roasted for 45 minutes… I got up and turned on the oven. Did I mention that it was 31C today?

While those were cooking I started washing others to freeze them whole… I didnˋt get far into my task when I decided to roast them all in batches to make up the soup (after looking for containers of course). So there went my day… chopping, roasting, chopping, roasting. I did 5 batches and have already entered soup days into the calendar for the next 6 months!

There are probably enough tomatoes left for 2 more batches but they arenˋt fully ripe… Iˋm out of containers too!

I use Google calendar to menu plan, lately when weˋve been stocking up on things I make an entry in the months ahead… the actual day might get changed around when Iˋm within final planning range… but they wonˋt get forgotten!

It was one of the most satisfying days Iˋve had in a while and the feeling of peaceful easy feeling is still in my limbs.

And the soup? Carm thought it was the best tomato soup heˋd ever had (thatˋs my honey always supportive).

Awesome!

“my kitchen”

“peaceful easy feeling lasting all day”

“creamy roasted tomato soup”

“picking fresh basil to store with the roasted tomatoes”

“a quick dunk in the pool when I took a break from the kitchen”

“the smell of flowers on the back deck”

“Spike running down the hall with the zoomies”

“the little white flowers on the spider plant”

dark already

 It struck me this morning that there are only 4 months until Christmas and that yes, it is the end of August already… in a few months the weather will flip from +30 to -30 boo hiss. Next month weˋll be happy to have weather in the teens (celsius of course). Some trees have already started their transition to their winter hibernation. The hawthorns are always a harbinger of fall fast approaching.

The calendar is not the only indicator of oncoming winter… itˋs pitch dark now way before 8:30.

Spike seems to be having a few bad days - this morning he had a poo accident in the house and at some point peed in his bed (which was a devil to get the cover off - so many zippers). Yesterday heˋd been outside at 7am, had breakfast then slept in the bedroom until past noon. He seems a little more disoriented. He can still get up on the futon which I consider an indicator of health. Thankfully heˋs nowhere near a trip to the vet as his quality of life is good.

Adia of course is fit as a fiddle. She made a leap onto the deck yesterday that took her into the chairs - a good 4 feet in from the edge. It might not seem impressive in the writing of it but the deck is over 3 feet high there!

Awesome!

“early morning golden sun across the hayfield”

“that first sip of coffee”

“a yummy supper of leftovers”

garlic stored

 Itˋs been another sultry day where outside activity is slowed. This afternoon we trimmed the garlic and after ½ hour outside I felt sick and woozie… Iˋve never been good in the heat and itˋs certainly not improved with age. I remember lying on a sofa one hot dusty day when I was staying with Auntie Rena all those decades ago. I felt that I wasnˋt trying hard enough and was weak. Silly really.

We did end up with a wall of garlic in the furnace room - a shield against any neighborhood vampires. The crazy thing is that weˋll go through it all and more by next summerˋs harvest!

We also dug up the potatoes that weˋd thrown into the dirt in the spring on a lark as they were sprouting in the pantry. We didnˋt get buckets but enough for a few meals. Tonight weˋll have some with the brisket that Iˋve got cooking in the instant pot. (my mouth is watering at the thought). I might make a browned butter sage sauce for the little gems.

Spike is walking circles around the living room so it must be almost time to take him outside before bed. He may be thinking about his bedtime snack too ;-)

Awesome!

“warm pool water encouraged me to float around for ages”

“Adia doing the zoomies around the potato patch”

“little potato gems hidden in the earth”

“huge bulbs of garlic”

“trying a new recipe for brisket - the dry rub smelled wonderful and the cooking water with onion and a bunch of spices smelled promising”

“lots of music”