Sail, Save, and Soup

In the dead of winter, quilts like this always make me smile.

I am reminded that there ARE other seasons, besides cold. 

What.  You didn't know cold was a season?  DH has been having a cold for three weeks now.  Doesn't that sound like fun?

What a great job the quilt maker did.  

SOUP
Thursday was Red Hat day.  Lois hosted us at her lovely new home, where we had a SOUPFEST.  These 'in-house' events are so much fun.  We sit around and yak for a couple of hours.
This Pumpkin Soup was my contribution, and after trying it out on DH a week earlier, I knew it would be a hit.

 

SPICY PUMPKIN SOUP WITH COCONUT MILK

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon red curry paste

1 14 or 15-oz can pumpkin

1 14-oz can Muir Glen Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with Green Chiles (*)

(*) I have been unable to find this product.  Instead, I use regular diced tomatoes PLUS 1 teaspoon of Minced Green Chili (found in Food Basics, brand “India’s Best” in the International aisle)

1 heaping cup roasted corn kernels (either canned or frozen corn, lightly charred in a frying pan)

1/2 cup salsa

1 cup light broth (either vegetable or chicken)

1 14-oz. can coconut milk

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Juice from 1 fresh lime

Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot over medium-low heat and add the garlic, cumin and curry paste; stir for one minute. Add the pumpkin, fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles, roasted corn, and salsa. Stir to combine. Add the broth. Heat through to a simmer and add the coconut milk. Season with sea salt and ground pepper, cilantro and sugar. Heat through gently and bring to a slow simmer.Taste test and add the fresh lime juice to brighten the flavor. Stir. Add more spice if you need more heat.

Serve with organic blue corn tortilla chips.

My recipe was adapted from the original, found on glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

SAVE

As I said earlier, we sat around and yakked for several hours.  Lois finally threw us out before we'd have to be fed dinner, too.  One of the topics under discussion was the price of food.  $8 for a cauliflower.  Whaaatt??  One of the gals picked one up at the local grocers on the SALE TABLE for $ .99.  Yes.  Less than a dollar.  I will make a great little old lady, shuffling along with my walker, because I love sale tables.  But I know people who would not be caught DEAD buying anything from there.  Silly.  Given a choice of going expensive or going frugal, I'll often take frugal, keeping in mind that you get what you pay for.  After all, that is how most of us were raised - wasn't it?  Our parents had to save their pennies wherever they could.  

Because I am still reasonably fit (but let's not put that to the test, ok?) I garden to grow my own organic vegetables, I line dry most of my laundry, I cook from scratch (and that does NOT mean I scratch open a box), I save up several reasons before I get in the car to go in to town, and that car is a Honda Civic.  If something is getting a quick rinse I turn on the COLD tap, not the hot.  I shut the water off while brushing my teeth.  I make my own martinis (ha ha, I had to throw that one in there).  There are lots of ways to save a nickle and over time those nickles add up.

The wee RANT that we got into was over the shrinking farmland in southern Ontario.  Yes we can buy LOCAL cauliflower but it's getting more difficult.  Farmland is being paved over by developers.  It's also being covered with concrete by the greenhouse growers, where our precious vegetables are being grown in chemical solutions.  Yah..., um, ick.  Yes I eat them but I try not to think about it.  Local food facilities, like Bicks Pickles, Heinz, and E.D. Smith are closing.  I'm sorry, but I am NOT eating pickles from China.  Garlic in the stores is pretty much all from China.  No, no, no.  Not eating it.

My gift to you today is actually something I am passing along from the CBC web site.  It's a frugal COOKBOOK with lots of tips.  And a few zucchini recipes.  Which is really easy to grow, by the way.

GOOD AND CHEAP eat well on $4 a day, by Leeanne Brown.

If you would like to read the CBC article, you can find it here.