Soup making is in high speed around here. As in almost daily a pot is boiling. A new Roasted Red Pepper Soup made its debut and it is a winner.
Oh, my. One more time I wish I had smell-o-vision so you could smell how delish my house is right now. Between the roasted peppers and the sautéed herbs de Provence the smell is divine.
DF Evon gave me a red pepper soup recipe I’ve shared here and is quite good. This time I used Skinnytaste.com’s recipe. Gina is one of my go-to gals for light and healthy recipes.
Here are the subs I made:
Brandy versus wine. The other pepper soup I made called for brandy which I rarely use, but have on hand, so I decided to sub that. And, I didn’t want to open a new bottle of wine for ¼ cup.
Reduced the onion and garlic by about ½.
Herbs de Provence is not something I frequently use so I don’t have that made up. I do, however, have all the ingredients on hand so I mixed it up myself and then stirred it into the olive oil before I added the veggies.
Fewer peppers. The recipe called for three peppers and I had one large one and about ½ of another. Never let not having exact ingredients stop you from making soup. One reason I like making soup, and not baking for instance, is because soup is so forgiving.
My peppers didn’t peel easily after roasting, so I left the peels on. After the soup was blended, you’d never know.
I used a blender instead of an immersion blender. The creaminess that blending creates makes the soup feel more satisfying. Only two tablespoons of sour cream and the texture and flavor is more like a bisque.
Be so careful and patient when blending. Put no more than one cup in the blender at a time and pulse lightly until the spurting to the top stops.
Blended soup goes into a big mixing bowl and combined. Here’s the thing though. It quickly cools down. And I like my soup piping hot. Like burn-the-roof-of-my-mouth hot. Like slurp-off-the-spoon hot.
So I ended up sticking my bowl in the microwave for a few seconds. And topping with a few pumpkin seeds. And a few more in my mouth waiting for the soup.
The taste of this soup is so delicate that it went down my throat in about 30 seconds. And one bowl apparently isn’t enough.
And for dessert? Homemade Warm biscuits and sour cherry jelly (from Trader Joe’s).
Oh, what a perfect lunch.
A Couple of Pet Purchases
DS Monique sent me the water fountain her cat no longer uses. I have had a fountain with past cats and there was no interest.
But this time.
Roxy and Kinsey love it. Mandy might use it but I’ve never seen her.
This flower plastic cat fountain came from Chewy and it’s on sale. More on Chewy next post, but it’s a great company to buy from.
We had a tiny bit of bad behavior around drinking and hopping on countertops. This has completely stopped that. Wish I would have known that years ago.
We keep the fountain in the kitchen on the wood floor, so when I heard about DogBuddy dog mat, I snapped it up. (Please do not tell my cats they are using a dog product.)
It’s really nice with a lip and big enough to add a food dish or two. We have the 24” x 16” mat.
New Year Workout Routine
The 2022 exercise mix looks much like the 2021 with the addition of knee/quad strengthening moves.
Three strength training classes (including barre) and chair yoga are my weekly must-do classes. The cold and wet weather has grounded me to the treadmill rather than many long walks.
Abs are on the schedule every day, but most other muscles are every other day.
So grateful this old body is still moving and healthy.
And here’s to a healthy and happy new year to you and yours. God bless.