Sunday, November 27, 2011

When I was sick and lay abed

I had three pillows at my head
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.

     -- "The Pleasant Land of Counterpane", Robert Lewis Stephenson

Only two pillows. And sadly, the toys are not beside me, except for a book ("The Tiger's Wife", which I highly recommend). The computer, on which I am typing now, is in the next room. Obviously, the stove, source of Breathe EasyTea, is in the kitchen. And the woodstove, source of wonderfully cozy heat, is not in the bedroom either.

This is a pity party post.  Saturday night I excused myself early from an evening with friends because this Horrendous Cold hit me upside the head, in the course of about an hour, complete with a fever, a sore throat, and a compelling urge to go to bed.  I got a chill earlier in the week, and for me, the outcome is almost always a bad cold.

Today was going to be the day to work around the house, do some picking up, and get out the Christmas decorations.  Instead I slept late, missed my morning coffee with Thelma, and have had TWO serious naps. At 2:11 pm, I am still in flannel pj pants, a turtleneck and sweater and neckwarmer, and my bathrobe.  I did order the photo Christmas cards, though.

Poor pitiful me.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

nothin' like a good bowl of soup

I made some great soup tonight for supper.  Soup is really good when you've shovelled many inches of Heavy Wet Stuff in the morning and then tromped around in it late in the afternoon (in the dark) to get horses in.  And I suspect that if you cook the turkey carcass after Thanksgiving,  the broth and meat scraps will make this even more deelish.  These are the quantities I used, and it made enough for 3-4 generous servings.  Vary quantities as you wish to make a soup as thin or thick as you like. * means you can do this part ahead

Roasted vegetable soup essentials
= 1 small butternut (not buttercup) squash (about 1lb.), peeled, seeded and cut in 1" strips
= 1 medium yellow onion, cut in 8ths
= 2-3-4 cloves peeled garlic
= 2-3 medium-sized carrots, peeled, cut lengthwise and then cut into chunks
= 1lb small peeled boiling potatoes, quartered or halved depending on size

= 2-3 cans of chicken broth or 4+ cups turkey broth or a combination of both
= 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, plain or basil/oregano flavored

Roasted vegetable soup options: (use any or all)
= shredded turkey scraps (I used leftover chicken) or slices of kielbasa
= several leaves of regular (not baby) spinach, washed well, stemmed, and sliced or kale
= fresh green beans, cooked (like those big fat green beans cluttering up the freezer)
= cannellini beans  or angel hair pasta, broken into short lengths
(beans and kielbasa would be wonderful)

*Roast the veggies. Lightly coat a roasting pan or cookie sheet with sides with olive oil. Put all the essential veggies on pan/sheet. Sprinkle a little more oil and toss to coat.  Add salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until tender (turning occasionally, and they burn fast ...)  When the veggies are done, separate out the squash and carrots and cut them into smaller dice.

* Put the rest of the roasted veggies in the food processor and add the canned tomatoes. Process until almost smooth.

(If you do all that ahead, bring the ingredients to room temperature before you start soup-making.)

When you're ready to make the soup, put the veggie puree in a 3-quart pot, add enough broth to make a medium-thick soup, and bring it to a boil. Lowe the heat and  let it simmer for 30 minutes or so. (Add more broth if it starts to stick).  If you're going to use angel hair pasta, add it during the last couple of minutes.

Add the squash and carrots along with any options that you want. Add more broth to make the soup the thickness/thinness you prefer.  Cook another 5-8 minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

Life moves on

A post I started in early November and never published, but is still true.

So many things have changed since Irene. Drive up Thayer Brook Road and you'll find the landscape is unbelievably changed.  Thayer Brook is back where it belongs, going through its culverts and no longer threatening Thelma's and Bruce's houses. But the homes, yards and pastures along the road have been changed dramatically.  The devastation in Bethel, Stockbridge, Rochester, Pittsfield, Jamaica, Queechee, Killington,  Bridgewater, and countless other towns will take months to repair.  Some roads will not be fully repaired  until next summer.  In some places, "restoration" will never be possible. Life moves on, whether we like it or not.

We are still nervous when it rains hard.  Some people who come to the Montpelier contradance are already worried about whether they'll feel safe driving on reconstructed roads when the snow begins.  I think many Vermonters will not feel safe until after mud season next year.  Most Vermonters believe that this past summer - warm and wet, and then Irene - demonstrated that our local weather is really changing.  Even those who don't believe in climate change are willing to say that we have entered a different weather cycle. Life moves on, whether we like it or not.

Fortunes at Norwich are changing.  Across the country, grad school enrollments are down, and so are ours.  The graduate school needs to make additional "continuing education" offerings to improve our revenue, and to move away from offering a single product (graduate degrees), but the university isn't ready to invest in the technology upgrades and marketing strategies that we need if we're going to get away from "all our eggs in one basket".  Life moves on, whether we like it or not.

Thelma has closed the horse barn.   She told us a year ago, which is why Raven moved next door when Berta offered me the space this past spring.  Last week Betsy Kelley put her 30-year-old mare down, since she was unlikely to make it through another winter, and Beth Warrel took her mare Annie home. We still plan to have Sunday coffee, but at 9am, not 8am. Thelma is now an Empty-Nester, and although she says she appreciates not doing the chores, and not having to be tied to home, she misses seeing and hearing the horses.

And we're  also all finding out what it means to be part of a global economy.

Many changes, and life moves on, whether we like it or not.  Except for Netflix, who found out the hard way that if it ain't broke perhaps fixes should not be attempted.