End-of-Season Garden Soup

The garden is closing itself down, I'm afraid. The sunflowers, once boasting heights of 12 feet, have toppled, or are listing, and victims to the crows. There are tomatoes, but many are only half-ripened, and the vines are starting to shrivel. And the squash are calling it quits. There will be no more growth on the butternut, or the acorn, or the spaghetti squash.
So we're harvesting. We found a few beautiful zucchinis, a bucketful of greenish-red tomatoes, fistfuls of fennel seeds, a few perfect banana peppers, and some bright green herbs.
The herbs are my favorite, I must admit, and so I was glad when we decided that the perfect dinner would be an end-of-season garden soup, heavy on the basil and cilantro.

Here is the recipe. If there were a taste for green, this soup would be it.



End-of-Season Garden soup:

1 cup fresh basil and cilantro
1 package fresh rice noodles
1 cup half-ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 cups carrots (baby carrots or carrot slices)
1 small zucchini, julienned
4 medium banana peppers, chopped into rounds
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 avocado, chopped into 1-inch dice


Chop the vegetables and the herbs. Divide herbs in half, setting one half aside for the finish.
Heat the broth, water, vinegar, sugar and salt until simmering. Add the vegetables and the first half of the herbs, cook for 15 minutes. Add the noodles and cook at a low boil for 10 more minutes, or until the noodles are soft.

When the noodles are done, the broth is finished. I like to serve the soup in bowls that are filled with the avocado slices and extra chopped herbs. If you can wait, this soup is even better the next day, as the flavors have a chance to blend...

Someone to meet

I've recently discovered a new blog that consistently thrills me. The Storialist writes poems inspired by fashion photos from The Sartorialist. Both blogs are simple and elegant, and I'm addicted.

The Storialist in particular breaks all preconceptions of poetry as a random act. Rather, it's an affirmation that daily practice and attention does make for excellent poetry. I don't know this author, but I do know his or her eye and heart, and so should you. Here is today's post--especially good.

Pencil Case: ta da!

In a long line of projects, it's nice to have one completed. Here is the pencil case I finished last week. I love the Japanese fabrics. The textured red one has a great feel, and its companion flowery print worked well for the ties.

This picture is a bit off, but you really get the idea of the fabric textures from this angle.

And here it is, just before I sent it off in the mail to C. in England.    Now I want one for me!

On the night table: reading

Here's a peek at some books I've been enjoying lately. As you can see from this small stack, I'm a skipper-arounder-reader (fancy new term coined by me), and I tend to jump from book to book.


Amidst most of my stacks of books, there is almost always a collection of poetry. For me, poetry is supposed to be read quietly, and taken one at a time, and so collections of poetry lend themselves perfectly to the reader who jumps from book to book. You can see that my latest companion is Linda Pastan's Carnival Evening. Her poems are of the everyday and the spectacular, with a voice as clear as water. When I read from this book, I take a few poems at a time, savoring. She is becoming one of my very favorite poets...

1491, by Charles C. Mann, is a study of the Americas before Columbus, and it's excellent. If you are at all interested in history, this is a book that will fill in the huge gap in the timeline of American history. It highlights the technological and cultural advances of Native American societies, and it will leave you with a better appreciation and understanding of a period of history neglected in traditional studies. I found this book after we heard a fantastic interview with the author, Charles Mann, on NPR.


The Daring Book for Girls is another type of book that lends itself to jumping around from book to book. The Daring Book for Girls is a compendium of how-tos for girls, and it's delightfully retro and progressive at the same time. It's charming, from the illustrations to the choice of topics themselves. I am enjoying looking at it before sleep, and I've noticed some of my dreams are taking me back to being a tomboyish girl who still liked to have doll teaparties...Oh, and yes, I did notice that the book is actually written for girls. I'm enjoying it as much as I know Ada will. It's to be one of her Christmas gifts...don't tell!

I love a mystery story, and I enjoy the hard-boiled ones as much as the cozy ones. The Genius is the latest by novelist Jesse Kellerman. I recently finished his debut novel, Sunstroke, and this one is just as good. In both novels, the characters are well-fleshed out and the narrative engaging enough to hold you captive to the story until way past your normal bedtime. I'm looking forward to another one of his--Trouble.


So that's the stack on the night table. You should see the "in the wings" shelf of things I plan to read before year's end! More on those some other post.

Chalkboard stair risers

Yet more evidence of my obsession with chalkboard paint, here are the studio stairs. I think this is a great place for a poem to jump into your thoughts, and reading poetry sets the tone for entering our artspace.  My hope is that, now that Ada is reading, some poems will start to make their way into her memory, at least snippets of them.  

The first stanza of Robert Louis Stevenson's "I Will Make You Brooches" is climbing the stairs now.  This poem is an ode to simple and sublime creativity, and here it is in full for your reading pleasure.  

"I Will Make You Brooches"

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight

of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.

I will make a palace fit for you and me
Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,
Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

Happy Birthday AFRICOM

In case you didn't know, AFRICOM is turning one year old today. So I made a cake.

Actually, I was commissioned by my husband to make a cake to celebrate the birthday of US AFRICOM, the newest US Military Command. My husband is a poli-sci kind of guy, and he studies this sort of thing for a living. Yesterday after lunch he called me with a request to "make a cake shaped like Africa. Can you do that? For tomorrow morning?"

Uh, sure. No problem. So, faster than you can say Burkina Faso, I just whipped out my Africa-shaped cake pan and baked away...just kidding. This baby took a while--a lot of sketching and planning, then a lot of piecing and gluing with ganache frosting. The cake itself is a delicious buttermilk base inside, and it's cut from a few cakes and reshaped to resemble the continent. I used a bunch of maps to get it right, and while I was pretty ambitious about the whole thing, I had to stop short of doing outlines of 53 countries. I really liked the waterline I added in blue sanding sugar, though, and I especially love the badge I made for the top. Look at the little islands.

AFRICOM is probably not on the minds of most people that look at my blog, and yet, it's worth taking a look to see what our military does.  You can read about it more on the well-designed official AFRICOM website and in this recent article about it.   My favorite summary is here at The New Atlanticist.   

All in all, the AFRICOM cake project took most of yesterday.  When I finally stopped after 11 pm last night, I was so happy with how it came out.   The poli-sci guy and I were up at 5 this morning admiring it and taking photos, so I think he's happy with it, too.  Maybe this is why I get those lovely gifts!!

Works for Me Wednesday: Kitchen Organizing

Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a themed blog carnival, and the theme for this week kitchen organizing. What perfect timing! I'm on the cleaning binge right now, and the kitchen is on my list for this week.

Here are my top tips, most of which I follow myself, most of the time...

1. This is a biggie.  No paper allowed on kitchen counters.  Cookbooks are allowed in shelves and on the counter while you're using it, but that is it.  I've found keeping the paper out keeps the counters much more organized.  
2. Clean the fridge once a month.  For me, it's the first week of the month.  I was being really good about it and keeping it on the first Monday of each month, but that didn't work for me.   This month, fridge day falls on Thursday.   
3. If at all possible, I like separate food items and non-food items (cooking utensils, etc).  In my house, when they get mingled in a cabinet, they get muddled, and so do I.
4. Don't buy bulk if you can help it.  I used to be a horder, but we ran into problems with food expiring.  And then last year we got a pantry moth infestation from some petfood...ugh.  I never again want to have the disappointment (and disgust) of throwing out big quantities of baking items, etc..
5. Start cooking with a clean kitchen, and everything goes much more smoothly.