Soup saga

My weekly soup challenge has not gotten off to the strongest start. The curried carrot and apple soup I made after the last soup post (October 18) was delicious. So great, in fact, there were sadly no leftovers! It turned out we didn’t have as many carrots as I thought, so I threw in a sweet potato and it became a curried carrot, apple and sweet potato soup. It worked well because there was sweet potato in the buddha bowls we also ate, so it all tied together nicely.

The next week, I did not make soup at all. I chaperoned the primary class field trip to the apple orchard. Anna started Sparks and those evenings are a blur trying to get back out the door on time. Matt was away two full days for work. I decorated the house for Halloween and prepped for our Halloween party happening on the weekend. (We did make apple pie muffins - that  totally stuck to the muffin wrappers, the topping entirely flaked off and they were too dense and dry. Better luck next time!) I had TWO nights out that week and the Friday was my birthday. There was just no time to think about soup. As simple as it may be it just wasn’t on the menu.

Last week, we got our Nourish Your Roots food box from the school fundraiser. Without a doubt, soup was happening. I really wanted to make leek and potato soup and lo and behold, both ingredients came in the box, along with lots more yummy fall fare. I found a recipe for leek and potato soup with carrot and celery on the Nourish Your Roots website. It was good though a bit bland. I’m glad I made garlic & pepper croutons to add some texture and crunch! Have you ever made your own croutons? I was daunted at the thought when I came across the recipe in my Oh She Glows cookbook but tried it once and have never looked back. It’s SO easy! Spread olive oil, rub one garlic clove, sprinkle garlic powder and salt over three slices of bread, slice, bake at 400 for 15 minutes, voila! Three slices were enough croutons for 4 of us.

But the saga of last week’s soup is that I was far too ambitious. I left things way too late and made pork tenderloin with roasted apples and onions at the same time. Plus the croutons. Each task fine on their own but combine doing all three at the same time? There was no “Once it’s on the stove you’re handsfree!” —smug me. I was chopping vegetables and browning the tenderloin and peeling apples all at once. It was labour intensive and it was not a day my kids were cooperating by just finding something to do. They were fighting and annoying and hello, day after Halloween what was I expecting?

So in the process of making dinner I managed to melt the bottom of the rice cooker to the top of the stove. : (  It was just a little too close and the heat a little too high. And oh, I managed to also burn part of the melted rice cooker to my hand. I’m talking little bits of melted black plastic STUCK TO MY HAND. It was not a good scene. Good thing it looked (and felt) worse than it was. There’s just a small burn on my hand. A reminder that this was not the kind of meal to make on my own on a Thursday night. Lesson learned.

In fact, I’m not having a great run in the kitchen at all. I proceeded to shatter our coffee pot carafe against the edge of the counter on the weekend and we still haven’t replaced our toaster that short-circuited weeks ago. We’re now down 3 appliances that we used religiously...might be a very boring Christmas. And maybe I better not touch the slow cooker for awhile…

So, I’m four weeks into the “weekly soup” and down one. I think I’ll forgive myself because really, who’s counting, besides me? I’m planning another soup for this Thursday and guess what? That’s all we are having. Soup and some nice crusty bread. Or maybe croutons!