Earring, Summer League, Driving Test, Soups,

Went to take off my earrings at bed time and found I had one missing. A small gold hoop, I was teed because I haven't had them that long. This morning Tuesday, I emailed the dentist and the bowling alley. The dentist responded that they thought they had it. When I went in there at lunchtime, they did have it. What is incredible, I went there at 9:30 a.m. and the earring was found on the pathway by their last client of the day! Talk about luck. These are very small earrings - one would sit on the end of your finger - incredible that someone saw it at all.

Today, being Wednesday, we start our Senior Summer League. Goes through to the beginning of August.  This basically means that if we want to bowl twice a week, we have to do so on Wednesday and Thursday as they only open on those two days in the summer. I believe they are open on the weekends but that would probably be too crowded.

To start the day, Matt has to go for his senior driving test. Will have to leave here at about 8:15 to be sure to be there for 9 a.m. Meanwhile I am going to use the lovage I got from the Receptionist at the dentists. I found a Pea Soup recipe which I like the look of. I am going to cut the quantities a bit as it calls for about 2 lbs of peas. I haven't made any asparagus soup yet this year, haven't really been able to get enough asparagus yet. Weather has been warmer and is supposed to warm up more this week so keeping my fingers crossed. This is the asparagus soup I got from Barrie's Asparagus Farm, it is the farmer's mom's recipe. I can't tell you how many years I have been making this. I store a lot of it in the freezer. I do have to use the blender with it when it unfreezes mind you.

Barrie's Asparagus Soup Recipe

My Mom's Famous!!!

1 lb asparagus chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cups chicken broth
2 Tbs butter or margarine
2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
fresh chives for garnish

1. In a covered saucepan, boil the asparagus, onion and 1 cup of chicken broth. When the asparagus is tender and still bright green, blend to a purée (this purée can be frozen and used for future batches of soup.

2. In a large saucepan heat the butter and flour on medium to make a paste. Cook until golden. Stir occasionally as you add the 2nd cup chicken broth, making sure lumps don't form.

3. Stir in the salt, pepper, purée, milk. Bring to a boil.

4. Take soup off heat. Measure the yogurt or sour cream into a bowl and stir in spoonfuls of hot soup, little by little. Now, carefully stir this warmed yogurt or sour cream mixture back into the pan of soup.

5. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice, or to taste.

6. Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled with chopped chives. (makes 3 1/2 to 4 cups of soup)

Servings: 4

Author: Mrs. Barrie

Have a great day
 

Ice Shelf, Asparagus. Spring.

This is, to me, very scary news headlines. Apparently there is a huge ice shelf in the Antactic where Glaciers in West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea Embayment  are collapsing past the point of no return. Once this ice sheet breaks away and heads into the open ocean, eventually melting, it embodies enough water to make sea levels rise several feet. Not inches, feet. Luckily, it won’t happen fast, hundreds of years, but nothing can be done to stop it collapsing. My first reaction, glad I don’t live on the coast. This made me think of Hilary Melton-Butchers A to Z posts about aspects of the British Coast. She was already talking about erosion of the coast line, this ice sheet will have a big effect on that. In fact, I think one or two feet would have quite an impact on small places like Britain.

On a more cheerful note, I got me some fresh asparagus yesterday morning.  I immediately made two lots of soup. Asparagus Almond and Barrie’s Mom’s Asparagus soup. Tim Barrie being the asparagus farmer. This is the entrance to the farm and below is a picture of Tim in the fields with his dog. Much to my surprise yesterday the dog is still with them at 14 years. A bit infirm and elderly, but still there. I was quite surprised to see her. They still don’t have a lot of asparagus yet, the weather is still being unkind. They are allowing people $5 bags. I had some for my lunch yesterday and it was heavenly. A year is such a long time. Once the asparagus is really producing, I plan to freeze a lot more this year. It isn’t the same, but it’s better than none. As is the pickled but I have never tried that. They sell it of course.

On our way to the farm this morning I suddenly noticed, it's spring. Lots of trees are beginning to leaf and showing that tender green that only comes in spring. Everything seems to be rushing to catch up and daffodils have sprung up in profusion - it was a wonderful feeling. The trees in the park outside our windows are copying the others and showing off their spring colours. If only the asparagus would decide it needs to do a lot more growing. Makes me feel like singing that song from 7 Brides.

This is one of the soups I made yesterday, it is delicious and freezes well. I always make it wrong, I put all the stock in with the asparagus and then make a kind of white sauce with the butter, flour and milk, works just as well. Typing this I realised I forgot the lemon juice too, duuuh.

Barrie's Asparagus Soup Recipe

My Mom's Famous!!!


1 lb asparagus chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cups chicken broth
2 Tbs butter or margarine
2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
fresh chives for garnish

1. In a covered saucepan, boil the asparagus, onion and 1 cup of chicken broth. When the asparagus is tender and still bright green, blend to a purée (this purée can be frozen and used for future batches of soup.
2. In a large saucepan heat the butter and flour on medium to make a paste. Cook until golden. Stir occasionally as you add the 2nd cup chicken broth, making sure lumps don't form.
3. Stir in the salt, pepper, purée, milk. Bring to a boil.
4. Take soup off heat. Measure the yogurt or sour cream into a bowl and stir in spoonsful of hot soup, little by little. Now, carefully stir this warmed yogurt or sour cream mixture back into the pan of soup.
5. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice, or to taste.
6. Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled with chopped chives.
7. (makes 3 1/2 to 4 cups of soup)

Servings: 4

Have a great day’'

Shooting in New Orleans, Strands of Pattern, Oranges, Snow.

Now we have a shooting at a Mother's Day Parade in New Orleans, when will the NRA and others wise up for goodness sake. Something needs to be done about the ease of obtaining guns, OK, it won't happen overnight, but once something begins, it will happen.

One of my newest blogging friends, Jeffrey Hargett sent me a copy of his book, Strands of Pattern, sadly this has not yet been published because I would love for the rest of you fantasy readers to be able to enjoy it too. I am no good with reviews, but I was delighted with the story and with the new form of magic which Jeff introduced, the subject is compelling and, last but not least, there are dragons. The story revolves around a particular religion where their Steward (virtually a god) has been imprisoned and the believers are trying to free him. This religion is full of unbelievable cruelty in the name of this Steward and if they do manage to free him, the world will suffer. All very exciting. Only problem is, as far as I know, Jeff hasn’t written the sequel
.
Matt came up with something this weekend, he started thinking about orange juice, how much he drinks and then how much other people drink, etc. etc. and he cannot fathom where it is all coming from, must be gallons made into juice. OK there are orange groves in Florida, South Africa and Spain, but…. still a lot of juice consumed every year. Its kind of something we take for granted isn’t it? According to Wikipedia, 80% of the juice in the States comes from Florida which is second only to Brazil in world wide orange juice production. So what about California and other States which grow oranges? And where does Brazil’s juice go? I know that both Spain and Africa produce wonderful oranges, better than Florida oranges (sorry Florida) at least to eat, surely they too must produce juice? In the UK we used to get oranges from both those sources and when my parents live in Spain they had orange trees which produced the most wonderful fruit. Obviously more investigation is called for.

I hope all Mothers had a great Mother’s Day. It can’t have been much for the local mums weatherwise, it was cold and actually snowing for goodness sake. Not hard or for long, but it snowed two or three times and was blowing a gale as well. Certainly not a day for outside activities. Periodically the sun would come out again and brighten everything up then, boom, dark and snowy once again. Weird weather for May. Tim Barrie at the asparagus farm says Mother Nature is now off his Christmas list!

For those who particularly requested it, here is the recipe for Asparagus Soup which I got from Tim Barrie at the asparagus farm. It’s his mom’s recipe and I have been making it for years.


Barrie's Asparagus Soup
My Mom's Famous!!!

Makes 3 1/2 to 4 cups soup

1 lb asparagus chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cups chicken broth
2 Tbs butter or margarine
2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
fresh chives for garnish

1. In a covered saucepan, boil the asparagus, onion and 1 cup of chicken broth. When the asparagus is tender and still bright green, blend to a purée (this purée can be frozen and used for future batches of soup.
2. In a large saucepan heat the butter and flour on medium to make a paste. Cook until golden. Stir occasionally as you add the 2nd cup chicken broth, making sure lumps don't form.
3. Stir in the salt, pepper, purée, milk. Bring to a boil.
4. Take soup off heat. Measure the yogurt or sour cream into a bowl and stir in spoonfuls of hot soup, little by little. Now, carefully stir this warmed yogurt or sour cream mixture back into the pan of soup.
5. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice, or to taste.
6. Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled with chopped chives.

Servings: 4

Author: Mrs. Barrie

Have a great day

Asparagus, Bowling Banquet.

Sorry there was no blog yesterday, first Matt had another slight TIA and we were dithering about whether he should go to the hospital or not and then once it was all over I called our hairdresser and she said 10:00 (by now it was about 9:15) so we had to rush. Once that was over, I then had to deal with my Avon orders and later get ready for our bowling banquet in the evening. Lots of excuses, but all good reasons.

Then I checked Facebook and Barrie’s Asparagus had posted that they had a little asparagus for sale so that meant I had to arrange to pick some up before the banquet. Luckily the golf club where the banquet is held is close by. We got there around 5:15 and I saw Tim Barrie's farm store for the first time. They sell a lot of local produce or locally produced items. I didn't really have a lot of time for browsing but I know they have locally made chips with an asparagus flavour, local chocolates which, naturally, tempt me! They also sell corn in season and locally made produce and baked goods of all kinds. Then there are the soups, particularly asparagus soup starter which is sold in jars. Tim told me they are working on other asparagus based products such as salsa.

Leaving Barrie's farm, we were early at the golf club and had to wait for the rest of the party to turn up. We were in a different room which was smaller and a tad more cosy. There were only 22 of us but considering the bowling alley doesn't exist, that's not bad. I was surprised, one man, who had just lost his wife turned up, but I'm glad he did, seemed to enjoy himself. She was the main bowler of the family although he used to bowl years ago. It was nice to see all of these people many of whom we hadn't seen since last year although several of the others we will be seeing next Thursday as they are part of the travel league to which we belong. I was delighted, our friend who used to own the alley where we bowled (now closed down) presented me with a 300 pin for my achievement earlier this season. I thought that was so nice of her especially as my own alley had only given a mug the for pins over. I will try and scan the badge tomorrow.

I bought quite a lot of asparagus yesterday and will probably be turning some of it into Tim Barrie's mum's soup which is some of the best I have ever tasted and I didn't have nearly enough in the freezer last year. But I am looking forward to my first feed with lashings of butter on it, yum.

Barrie's Asparagus Soup Recipe

My Mom's Famous!!!

1 lb asparagus chopped 1/4 cup chopped onion 2 cups chicken broth 2 Tbs butter or margarine 2 Tbs flour 1/2 tsp salt dash pepper 1 cup milk 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt 1 tsp fresh lemon juice fresh chives for garnish

1. In a covered saucepan, boil the asparagus, onion, and 1 cup of the chicken broth. When asparagus is still tender and bright green blend to a puree (this puree can be frozen and used for future batches).

2. In a large saucepan heat the butter and flour on medium to make a paste. Cook until golden. Stir occasionally as you add the 2nd cup chicken broth, making sure lumps don't form.

3. Stir in the salt, pepper, puree, milk. Bring to a boil.

4. Take soup off heat. Measure the yogurt or sour cream into a bowl and stir in spoonfuls of hot soup, little by little. Now, carefully stir this warmed yogurt or sour cream mixture back into the pan of soup.

5. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice, or to taste.

6. Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled with chopped chives.

7. (makes 3 1/2 to 4 cups of soup)

Servings: 4

Source Mrs. Barrie

Have a great day

Busy Tuesday, Fossils,

Life is suddenly pretty busy with all kinds of medical and other appointments this week which is why I couldn't write a blog this morning as I just didn't have time. We went to the Asparagus farm in the morning and I bought extra asparagus in order to make some soup. We decided to go to Cora's, in Cambridge, for lunch - we went there a few week's ago with friends if you recall. We both had crêpes mine with ham and cheese, Matt's with spinach in the crêpe and a salad alongside. Very good again. We also discovered that there is a new Cora's opening fairly close to us in Kitchener on July 6 so that is good to know. Afterwards we went to get a foot Xray for Matt and then to the surgeon to drop of the CD. After all that we finally went to Costco. We bought lots of stuff there including a leg of lamb and some lamb chops. Plus some of the haddock loins we had got there before and which are very good. Oh and lots more stuff, told you it was the $200 store. Then of course all the meat had to be split up and put away in the freezer. Don't forget we are not young and fit like some of you so this all takes a lot of effort. Today it was my foot nurse plus Matt had to buy a lottery ticket for tonight. He won $10 on last week's. I wish there had been a few more zeros after that - tomorrow its eyes and the weekly shop. At the moment nothing on Friday, whoopee. On Nova last night there was a fascinating programme about finding the bones of an animal they had never seen before or heard of anything similar in the world. The bones were discovered in an ancient cave in Australia by accident, as so often happens. They called it a Thylacoleo. It was a marsupial lion. Through extensive research they have worked out what it would have been like although they guessed the skin colouring of course, as well as how it hunted and killed its food. They figure it was a very aggressive animal and not one to meet on a dark night which is when it probably would have hunted. There was computerised video of the animal - its amazing what can be done now. I have decided to make the Asparagus soup from Tim Barrie's web page which is linked on this page. It's his mother's recipe. I just might make a batch of the purée and freeze it so I have plenty for future soups.

Barrie's Asparagus Soup Recipe

My Mom's Famous!!! 1 lb asparagus chopped 1/4 cup chopped onion 2 cups chicken broth 2 tbsp butter or margerine 2 tbsp flour 1/2 tsp salt dash pepper 1 cup milk 1/2 cupsour cream or yogurt 1 tsp fresh lemon juice fresh chives for garnish In a covered saucepan, boil the asparagus, onion, and 1 cup of the chicken broth. When asparagus is still tender and bright green blend to a puree (this purêe can be frozen and used for future batches). In a large saucepan heat the butter and flour on medium to make a paste. Cook until golden. Stir occasionally as you add the 2nd cup chicken broth, making sure lumps don't form. Stir in the salt, pepper, purée, milk. Bring to a boil. Take soup off heat. Measure the yogurt or sour cream into a bowl and stir in spoonfuls of hot soup, little by little. Now, carefully stir this warmed yogurt or sour cream mixture back into the pan of soup. Add a teaspoon of lemon juice, or to taste. Serve in individual bowls, sprinkled with chopped chives. (makes 3 1/2 to 4 cups of soup) Have a great day.