Mommy Cooks, Bakes and Sews but apparently does not Clean

The sun is shining. The SPF 50+ is waiting. There's a slight breeze in the air and the Daughter is already pulling on her booties in the hall. Off to the veggie patch we go. There might not be time for sewing but everybody needs to eat so at least there has to be time for cooking and baking. First, the best cream of tomato soup I have had the pleasure of tasting so far in my near forty years. Basis of the recipe I got from the Smitten Kitchen. I pretty much followed the recipe to the point where she gets carried away with watching Lost and I got hurried by rumbling stomachs. From then on I did as she did, and pureed the soup with an immersion blender until smooth, added the cream and brought it to simmer. Then took a portion for the Daughter and went on to finish the adult version. As there was no brandy to be found in the house, I substituted it with as dash of Ferreira Late Bottled Vintage Port. Seemed to work just fine...I did also add the smidgeon of cayenne pepper and just a teeny bit of salt and some chopped chives on top.

As for the grilled cheese sandwiches I was a bit deviant. First, take a generous loaf of any country style bread and cut into thick slices. Place slices on an oven plate covered with baking sheet. On one side place slices of tomato with sprinkles of salt and black pepper on top. Again, no arugula in the house so used mache lettuce of which put a few sprigs on top of the tomato. Then, chunks of emmenthal and one side is done. On the top slices, just spread some butter and stick all in the oven. Just keep there long enough for the cheese to have slightly melted, at which point remove from the oven, take the top pieces and press them on top of the cheesy ones. Cut in half and enjoy. Oh, the tipple there is French cidre de table , the veeery dry kind that smells like old, musty cellars. Lovely.

On the baking front, the stash of chocolate chip cookies was running out so decided to give this honey cookie recipe from Wee Folk Art a try. I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out as we had run out of regular honey and I had to use this rosemary honey from Portugal instead.

Worked wonderfully though so I can heartily recommed you to try herbed honey with these cookies. Otherwise it was a really straightforward recipe and the Daughter had much fun rolling the dough and placing the lumps on the oven sheet.

The cookies are nice and chewy and honey sweet in the middle....

This time instead of poetry I am ending with this ad and hoping that some cleaning fairy pays us a visit tonight as I am a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y hopeless when it comes to just keeping it organized and tidy. There must be a gene I'm missing or something.