Cream of Carrot Soup + Weekend Report

Sorry, I'm a bad blogger this week. We had the most amazing weekend and what did I do? Forgot to take photos. I know, bad Mommy, bad blogger! In a nutshell:

• We had good friends over for good food and good gaming on Saturday night.
• We had hot, spiced mead.
• The toddlers played well together and we witnessed the first hugs that Jackson decided to share with others (even though his friend was totally freaked out and started crying...).
• We had pumpkin pie.
• We both volunteered at church on Sunday morning and had a lot of fun getting to know more people there...Jackson likes it more each week as we start to feel more and more comfortable there.
• We visited my friend Becca and her family at their farm in Wisconsin Sunday afternoon...more good friends, good food, and good times.
• We had pumpkin pie...again. :)
  
• We hiked around their property in the woods and the misty rain.
• Jackson's stripey wool pants that just barely still fit kept him warm and dry even though they were soaked and full of mini-burrs.
• He slept the whole way home, absolutely zonked from playing with toddlers Owain + Ellis at the farm.
• Jackson said "Ellis" and "Owi" all night after we got home. He also whinnied like the horses he met there.
• I made up a new recipe for Cream of Carrot Soup on Monday (below) and we stayed home to play and read books on a cozy fall night.

Oh wait! There were a couple of photos on my camera. Here you go:

Jackson sleeping through his Saturday lunch because he woke up at the crack of dawn that morning because we turned the heat off and he kicked his blankets off and he was too cold...we gotta work on that...
• My Scarecrow Dan.
• Settlers of Catan. Gotta love it. Even if I can't speak German and have to trust my opponents to tell me what my cards say...

Cream of Carrot Soup

• olive oil
• a couple of Rock Spring Farm cipollini onions chopped up
• some garlic cloves, minced
• some chopped up Rock Spring Farm sage leaves, direct from Seward Co-op
• a whole bunch of Rock Spring Farm carrots, peeled and diced
• a big potato, peeled and diced
• 5 cups water + 2 cubes vegetable bouillon
• a can of white beans, drained
• 1/2 cup heavy cream*
• a bunch of MN grown native wild rice, cooked in Hoch Orchard apple cider

Saute the onions, garlic and sage in the olive oil, add the carrots and potato and saute some more. Add the stock and then the beans - bring to a boil then simmer for a good long while. Blend/puree/immersion blend the mixture til it's good and creamy then return to the pot and add cream and wild rice. Simmer again until it's all warm and good. Serve with homemade biscuits and a fresh salad.

*I sampled the soup before adding the cream and it was still really good. A dairy-free version can be made by omitting this ingredient!

(My recipe was inspired by the "Harvest Soup" recipe in the "Minnesota Cooks" calendar put out by the Minnesota Farmers Union and Food Alliance Midwest. Where else would I get the idea to cook wild rice in apple cider?!)

Happy Fall!!