Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook! So glad you’re here.
Fall is finally here in my little corner of the world. The leaves have started to fall off the trees and today has been one of those postcard-perfect days here in Northern California. The air, having been scrubbed clean by wind yesterday, is fresh and crystal clear today, and it’s about 70 degrees out there.
But instead of a farewell to the summer, it feels like the beginning of something new for me.
Since we lost our beloved little dog, Moxie, I have been a little…well–discombobulated. So has our other dog, Jino. We’re both just a little confused about what we’re supposed to be doing, I think. My day used to be punctuated with interruptions to take Moxie outside or to feed or medicate or comfort her. She was ailing for a couple of years before she actually passed and took several hours of care every day. And that care could come at any time of the day or night; when she needed tending, she needed tending–whether it was in the middle of the day or the middle of the night.
So now we’re all getting used to not having to get up in the middle of the night and having uninterrupted spans of time during the day to focus our attention on projects or blog posts and it’s…discombobulating. Today, my energy has been focused enough to pickle beets, oven-roast tomatoes, make yogurt, make pickled cauliflower, make lentil soup and get all the bed linens washed, dried and folded.
And I’ve had enough time leftover to lavish attention on a blog post. As for Jino, he has started to be more snuggly and attentive. He’s always been a sweet dog with a lovely disposition, but he has preferred to spend most of his time in his little bed in the bedroom–perhaps because Moxie was kind of bossy and ruled the roost, so to speak. Without her as an impediment to my attention, he seems to have come out of his shell a little. This is him when I just looked down to see he had joined me in my office:
So–though we still miss the Mox, I feel like we’ve turned a page and started a new chapter and I have to admit–I feel a tingle of excitement and a renewed energy for what’s next.
Today, I’m continuing my series on soup. Mr. Stone Soup had oral surgery about a week ago and has to be on soft foods for another week or so until his mouth heals. The obvious choice for a soft food diet is soup. Since I can’t do anything like add some homemade bread or a nice crunchy salad to the meal, the challenge has been how to keep the soups “one-and-done” meals in a bowl and interesting enough to satisfy our palettes and nourish our bodies.
So far, I’ve featured split-pea soup and broccoli, leek and potato soup. Split pea soup is a long-time favorite, so that was a home run. The broccoli soup was satisfying and perfectly serviceable, but not the kind of soup that knocks your socks off. Last night, I rustled around in the fridge and found a bag of beautiful bell peppers and thought: “challenge accepted!” If I do say so, I came up with an absolutely delicious recipe for bell pepper soup that will knock your socks off! I’ll be keeping in rotation from now on. No really–this one’s a keeper!
The brilliant warm, rich reds, golds and oranges of the bell peppers in the featured photo put me in mind of the leaves of the trees turning as they begin their march toward dormancy in the cold winter months, so this recipe seemed perfect for this gorgeous fall weather we’re having.
For the soup, I started by sautéing a small red onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in butter in a large sauce pan. After that, I added a little flour, some chicken stock, a potato and simmered that for a while. I added the bell peppers and let the whole thing simmer for about a half an hour.
Click here for the full recipe for bell pepper soup.
I finished it by pureeing it with my hand-held immersion blender, added a little cream, and viola! This one’s a keeper! I’ll be serving this one to guests as a first course for dinner parties–it’s just that good.
Join me again tomorrow when I will feature lentil soup.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
