Stone Soup

Remember that pumpkin carving contest I mentioned a couple of blogs down? Here is our entry. It wasn't quite finished in this photo; we had taken it into the photocopy room and shut the lights off to check it. I found it difficult to get a decent shot because with the camera lens open for so long in the dark the camera moved a little. Here is the best shot I was able to get. I'll show you the contest tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

Sometimes I sit here patiently waiting and waiting and watching the little slide bar as an email comes in and wonder if my hi-speed internet is really high speed. A friend sent me a link to check it. I still don't know what it means!

I tried it again...

I'll check it at the office tomorrow. If you would like to check yours, go here:

http://www.speedtest.net/

This is my second day here and I am liking it better and better, especially as I see more and more of my friends setting up camp also. I guess we are all nervous about what is going to happen at Y360 and this looks like a comfortable place if our former "home" disappears.

I like the features here. You can import blogs you have at other sites but be careful if you do so. I hit the ok button twice and imported everything twice! Now, I can't figure how to to delete posts I don't want. I really like the cross posting feature...this will save me time until I make up my mind. I wish I could also cross post to Y360.

I cleaned the inside of my car when I came home, vacuumed the floors, put clean mats back in, cleaned the dashboard, side and middle consoles, steering wheel and column and the leather seats. Tidied the trunk too. The car looks quite fresh now. Tomorrow I will get it washed on the outside.

Tonight I am watching televison, Dancing With the Stars. Love that show, find myself smiling through the whole thing. Ironing board is set up already in front of the television. I must be doing something besides watching tv...ironing justifies it...and boy, do I have a lot of ironing to do.

Here is a picture of me and my sister Karen. I was almost 5 years old, she was almost 3. She cried before the picture was taken...I still remember that. The photographer snapped this between the tears. She cried again after! The photo isn't in colour so I will tell you that my dress was all the pastel colours of the rainbow and I loved it. My mother insisted on straps on my shoes...but even then I wanted to look more grown up and wear strapless shoes.

The Menu: Curried Butternut Squash Soup, Chicken Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Lemon Horseradish Potatoes.

Any curry haters out there? I served this soup the other night (left over from the pictures below) to someone who tells me he hates curry. . . so, I didn't tell him about the curry. I guess there was such a mix of flavours he couldn't single out the curry. He loved it. Yes, I told him after he ate the soup. Yes, I am forgiven, he really liked it!

I served this meal last week when my sister and her family came to visit. We had been out daytripping but I had prepared the soup in the morning before we left.

Chicken with Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Peppers was quick to prepare when we came home. I just divided a 3 oz package of herbed goat cheese (plain would do) into equal portions, carefully sliced a pocket into 4 chicken breasts, stuffed a portion of goat cheese into each pocket, added a couple of strips of roasted red pepper and some seasoned bread crumbs and sealed it with a toothpick. Try crushed vegetable thins instead of breadcrumbs, they're great! I rolled the chicken breast in a little beaten egg and then seasoned crumbs and baked at 350F for about 40 minutes on a parchment lined pan. The cheese didn't run out, the chicken was moist and very tasty. Very pretty too, when you cut into it.

Potatoes with Lemon and Horseradish were a hit--as always; I have served this many times. Cut new potatoes into bite size pieces and toss with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup horseradish and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice with the zest grated. (You don't have to peel the potatoes if they are new potatoes.) Bake at 350F until done, turn occasionally. Garnish with fresh lemon slices and parsley.

Something green...I stir fried fresh green beans with a little greek salad dressing and slices of onion. This would be very nice with crumbled feta cheese as a garnish.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup--a recipe one of the girls at the office gave me; her's called for pears and apple juice--I didn't have any pears but mango goes well with curry and I had one very ripe mango on hand so made the switch! It was very nice! I will still try it with pears and apple. Here is the recipe she gave me.

Add 1 medium coarse chopped onion to a splash of olive oil in a soup pot.

Saute until tender. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon curry (I used a heaping teaspoon) and cook one more minute.

Add 4 cups peeled cubed butternut squash, one cup peeled chopped pears (I used mango) and 1/2 cup apple juice (I didn't use it). Add 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (I used vegetable stock made from Knorr vegetable cubes).

Simmer until squash is tender. Puree with a hand blender or in a food processer until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with low-fat sour cream (I didn't have any so used fresh chopped cilantro and it was superb!)

There is an antique shop in Beaverton owned by two elderly and very eccentric sisters. The shop building is a formerly splendid Victorian home. It was quite beautiful, at one time possibly the nicest home on the street with 12 foot ceilings, fine polished woodwork throughout, shining oak floors, paneled walls, crown moldings, tall clean windows. I know this because one of the sisters showed me a little photo album of the house in its former glory. She told me the only thing they had changed after acquiring the home was the paint on the upper wall in the hallway.

We were met with clutter on the verandah and a dank smell when we opened the door to the shop. As my eyes and mind adjusted to the clutter inside I began to notice that it was very organized clutter. Every inch of lightly grime coated space was filled but items were sorted, like things with like. The girls have worked diligently.

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We began in the back rooms and worked our way forward, looking for buried treasure in the clutter. We moved about slowly and carefully, well aware that if we knocked something over and broke it, we would be charged the well inflated price on the tag. I do not think they sell very much but are in business for the love of things they have acquired over many years.

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Later, in the front shop, one of the sisters looked over at the sweater clips that had caught our eye and remarked, "oh, there is one missing!" Suprising that she could know that with all the thousands and thousands of items in this shop. It turns out they had more stored away in boxes...all organized like the shop.

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One sister began to chat with us and when her other left the room, she told us that sister was always threatening to throw out her "things" if she died first! (Each has her own special interests in collectables) She then whispered to me that she would do exactly the same to her! Just a little rivalry between sisters, right?

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I did purchase a "not antique but old" gently read book I had found on the verandah. Bill Bramah's Nook's & Crannies. Each chapter on an interesting place or person he has met while daytripping around Ontario. I have enjoyed the book and after the visit to this antique shop I think I should write one myself.

We left the shop, glad to get outside into sweet air again. I felt my hair had picked up some of the dank smell and needed shampoo.