A weekend off!

After having a really slow work week last week, I got to look forward having an un-planned weekend off. I've had plenty of them off this summer but I had to ask for them all off for whatever it was that was in the schedule: camping, wedding, wedding, wedding. Well this past Sat. I wasn't given a shift! Wonderful. How exciting. Instead of spending the weekend with both of us relaxing at home and doing some fall clean-up stuff we decided to go to St. Jacob's farmer's market. I knew Dan wouldn't want to get up too early so I let him sleep in a bit while I went to our local farmers market to get the weeks fresh groceries (I bought lamb!! What do you do with lamb?!) and then picked up a coffee for Dan. He was already up and getting ready, a treat! While I was getting ready we talked with some of our cop friends who were getting ready to go out for breaky so we joined them before our long road trip. I love going out for breakfast and am always looking out for that ideal breakfast spot. Well, I think i found it. I've been to plenty of breakfast places that are good and okay and terrible but this one was the best! Beautiful location, excellent food, cheap, smallish!! It was sooo good. I hear they have good celery bread too so I have to go back soon. If any of you want to have a breakfast date in my area any time soon, call me up. I know a great place! Up in St. Jacobs it was packed!! Oh my goodness I forgot about how busy it gets there. Wow!! it was so full. You can only imagine Dan. He did say that the market was his favorite part of the day (I asked Sarah's favorite question) so he must forget most of the busyness but at the time I was ready to pack it in and leave. I remember Christmas shopping all of a sudden. I loved it though. I wanted to buy bushels of everything. Especially the red peppers. (Oh, Alisha, the soup isn't that hot at all, I don't put the hot sauce in though. Only the paprika.... that's perfect spicy for me). We didn't buy any though. I did get the yummiest baba ganoush that I've ever had and some home made pita crisps for dipping them. I also bought a samosa to try out before I try making them myself (Sarah gave me a recipe that I'm going to try out tomorrow). It was yummy. For lunch, we had the best perogies I've ever eaten. I should try making those by hand too. They can't be that hard, can they? And I've heard so much about the cottage cheese perogies but I can't find them anywhere. I think it was the onions and bacon that did it for me. wow. I'll never eat them without again. At the end of that long day we met friends for dinner which was fun too... lots of all-you-can-eat chinese food. mmmm. Wow, so much food in one day, eh? I didn't eat it all in that day though. I had the samosa and baba ganoush today. The samosa was awesome. I hope I can do it right. I know it'll take practice but wouldn't that be a good thing to store up in your freezer for easy meals? kinda like perogies.
Sunday we went to church with the Wikks. It's been a while since we went there or even seen them (at least since July!) so that was long past due, too. It was a good relaxing afternoon. We met up with our group of (now finally all married) friends for the afternoon and dinner. That was good too since I haven't seen some of them since I got back from Nova Scotia.
In all, it was a good weekend of lots of food and friends and visiting. I think the sun was good for me. It was sunny and hot and now I'm optimistic about this week being a good week too. I hear it's going to rain tomorrow so maybe I'll finally get the house vacuumed. yah right. See you all... recipes and ideas are always welcome!

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

INGREDIENTS:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 red bell peppers
4 large tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons paprika
1/8 teaspoon white sugar
6 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
1 dash hot pepper sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons sour cream

DIRECTIONS:
Roast peppers: rub oil on peppers and put them under the broiler until blackened, turn to get all sides. Put into paper bag and seal. Let rest for 15 minutes, then peel will come right off and core and seeds will fall out. Chop peppers. Reserve one chopped pepper; set aside.
Heat olive oil over moderate heat. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato, bell peppers (except reserved), thyme, paprika, and sugar. Cook over medium-low heat until all the tomato juices have evaporated, about 25 minutes.
Stir in chicken stock, salt and pepper, cayenne pepper, and hot sauce (if using). Bring to boiling, lower heat, and simmer, partially covered, for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Strain soup, reserving broth. Place solids in food processor or blender, and process until fairly smooth. Add puree back into broth.
Melt butter and stir in the flour, cook for 1 minute. Stirring slowly, add the broth/vegetable mixture. Add reserved chopped pepper and bring to boiling. Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and add 1 tablespoon of sour cream to each bowl. For a lighter soup, this is also delicious without the sour cream.
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There it is folks. I really enjoyed that recipe but the Feta and Roasted Red Pepper was a little..... pungent. Any more great ideas of things to do with peppers (lots of green ones too) and tomatoes, send my way! Thanks!

houses and soups

I'm back from N.S. and life has been a slow twirl since then. I say slow because I feel the winter blues setting in already (even though the leaves haven't even changed colours yet) and the future feels like its just going to drag on. It has been a twirl though since I've been working a lot since I've come back and went camping this last weekend. It was definately a cold weekend since the temperature went down to at least 8c. both nights.
I've got the cleaning bug in me. I don't really want to clean my house so much as get together with a sister or mom or friend and just go at eachothers houses. I even bought all the cleaning supplies that both Mom W. and Cass prefer to clean with.... I even got ammonia for the windows (???).
Dan and I went to Mike and Arlenes to hang out last night. Arlene was on a night shift so she wasn't there but we had a good time anyways. Time goes so fast there. Well, Mike tells us that there's a house around the corner from his place - a real fixer uper. Dan and I definately aren't in the house market and both feel like it wouldn't be a good thing just right now but boy oh boy.... am I dreaming now! I just LOVE this house. It is just what I want. I don't know so much for Dan but I can't stop thinking about it. We went and saw it. I don't know if anyone was living there but we snooped around anyway. It does need work but the house is strait. It doesn't have a lot of property but there is nothing but field and bush behind it. It's across the road from a dairy farm but cow sh*t never bothered me... the fly sh*t might though. The land is probably more clay than where I am now but it isn't that bad. Get this, there's even a chicken coop beside the house! No barn. But there's a really good silo (don't know what you could do with that). The mls # is H265909. It's about a 5 min. drive from where we live now so its still far from both families but i bet I can't hear much traffic. What can I say... I'm in love. I'm thinking of asking to have a walk through. Really, I'm not being serious about any possibilities but I sure am enjoying the dreaming. Here's what Dan and mike say: it has an old cistern, propane heating, likely no insulation.... there's a big list but who cares, its fun right? sigh
As a change of subject, here's another thing I've been thinking about: soup. Really, I'm not much of a soup lover. There's nothing really wrong with it but I never choose to make or order soup. I think I overdosed on Oma/Sunday soup when I was young. But I've been trying to find recipes that call for lots of tomatoes and peppers and Cass sent me an amazing recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato soup. Oh, it is sooo good. There's lots of versions out there so it would be easy to find. I've got lunch portions all ready in the fridge for the next couple days but I think i'm going to eat one when I get home already. Its soooo good. Cass also sent me a recipe for Roasted Red Pepper and Feta soup so ... I don't know, I might have to try that one too. mmm. The fun thing is, I'm finding that I have a lot of the ingredients in my garden, including the onions and spices. It feels super home grown.
Well, I've got lots of surfing to do, including Caleb's new blog and my new facebook site, to check out yet so I'm off. Really, check out the house at MLS. Even if you just tell me its a waste of my time, I want to hear what you think.