Week in review

My where has the time gone? It just seems I was writing and it's already a week ago.

The past week Ken's baby, our 1969 International Scout, got a little worse for wear. The master cylinder went. No problem , we'd get another one, or replacement parts. Oh, yea. They don't make them anymore. We have phoned all over, I went down to Bonner's Ferry as they had one. Got there and it was the wrong one. Came home and Ken has started looking again. Found a place that had the replacement parts. went and got it, nope wrong ones. Then they found the right picture in one of the books and have now ordered the parts. They should be here this coming Tuesday. Seeing as I have always been told is believing. I hope it is the right one. The "Whoopee" is Ken's Baby. It takes him all over the country side, on his morning trips around our little community, brings in our winter's wood takes him hunting in the fall. I don't know what he'd do without it. for sure he'd have a lot less fun. I love going for rides in it and taking our dog out for a "run".

Oh, I cooked up a friends Tina's soup recipe. I don't know where Tina got it from, but since Ken likes Cauliflower, and I had one that I had to use up I made this. 5 stars from our family. And I will make it again.

Tina's Cream of Cauliflower Soup

2 med. onions chopped
2 med. carrots grated
2 celery ribs sliced
2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup + 6 Tablespoons butter, divided
1 medium head cauliflower chopped
5 cups of chicken broth
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt ( I never use this much!)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper ( again I just use my shaker and if I need a bit more I shake it again)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried tarragon]6 tbsp. flour
1 cup milk
1/2 c/ heavy whipping cream ( I used what I had it was 10 % coffee cream)
1/4 cup. sour cream ( DH walked in just when I was going to add this, he wouldn't have even tried it if he had seen it go in so I left it out, but it is good with it in)

Saute onions carrots celery and garlic in 1/4 cup butter, in a large heavy bottomed pot.
Add cauliflower, broth, parsley, salt and pepper , basil and tarragon.
Cover and simmer 30 minutes or until veges are tender.

Meanwhile in a saucepan melt remaining butter, stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk and cream.
Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Add to cauliflower mixture.
cook for 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently.
Remove from heat, stir in sour cream.

Serve.



Pat's notes. I put my notes in brackets above. also, Cauliflower was on sale here for $1.89 each, so I always buy the biggest one I can find. It was twice as big as some of them. I used Little over 1/2 the cauliflower ( the rest I had cooked for a company supper. ) in summer you could grow your own or buy them for less.

This makes a lot of soup. I fed 3 of us for lunch today and we had big bowls of soup. I still have about 1/2 the pot or a little more left.

There were some other things that happened this past week, but I will sign off for today. It's January and my month to re-read the Tight Wad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. I started reading it yearly back when I first bought it in 1998 I believe it was. So that's my January book. Helps to refocus my ideas, and if I have gone too far from frugal thinking gets me back to living a better lifestyle. Also helps me to focus since I retired at 56 not 65! Then we moved to where we wanted to spend our retirement, and I am so glad we made that move. What could be better, hmmmmmmm,
OK, well, gardening time is coming soon.