So I’ve been deathly ill for about a week and it’ll probably be another week before this curse subsides. I have a really crappy immune system, my parents blame it on all my surgeries, I blame it on my good fortune. I’ve just now started feeling well enough to crawl out of bed and upstairs to cook some proper soup so I don’t have to eat canned shit anymore. It’s a new recipe, a bit more veggies involved than my usual fare but I am hoping it turns out. I’ll post the recipe here right now but not sure if I’ll feel up to taking photos, we’ll see. Also in another post I’ll write up my favorite tomato soup recipe and see how they compare. A battle of the soupy tomatoes if you will.

Sorry for the crap photo

2am Tomato Soup

The recipe is adapted from Tomato Soup found on www.allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 3 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I had chicken on hand so thats what I used)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (use fresh if you have it)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (use fresh if you have it)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 drops hot pepper sauce (I used Sriracha)

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Saute onion until tender.
2. Add garlic cook for about 10 seconds then add carrot and celery; cook 7 to 9 minutes until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt, thyme, pepper and hot pepper sauce. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Now at this point you can eat it as is if you like a chunkier soup or you can use an immersion blender and carefully blend till the desired consistency.

Note: You could also throw in a splash of cream at the end to make it nice and creamy albeit a tad unhealthy if you are watching your fat intake and what not, I didn’t do it this time because of my cold, dairy just makes the breathing part harder. Also I did put a sprinkle of Parmesan Reggiano in my first bowl but on the second, wanting to avoid too much cheese, I drizzled in some high quality olive oil instead. TASTY!!!

I’ve hit so many walls throughout my life and each one seems to be get bigger and stronger. I slam right into them, and as I lay there trying to recover from such an impact they tower over me, so menacing and intimidating. At this point I am practically cowering, which is pathetic really. What would my 8 year old self say to this weakness, this loss of strength? I don’t really want to know but she’d be disappointed. She would look at me and tell me not to be a baby, think of all the crap she had to deal with and still managed to laugh a little and play with her stuffed animals and climb trees. Between the surgeries, the abuse, the fights and the end of everyday having to absorb it all in her 8 year old mind and still wake up the next day perfectly ready to deal with it. For her to have survived all that intact, then to let the past destroy me now is well, ridiculous.

So this wall. WTF do I do with it? Other than just senselessly bang my head against it. This entry wasn’t really meant to answer anything, just to remind me that I have a lot of work and very little energy to do it, yay me! And luckily no one reads this so I wont feel the need to ask for actual advise. I need to create things again, anything and everything, whether its crap or not. That really feels like the right direction that this point, so off I go then. To charge my camera battery, sharpen my pencils and dust off my notebooks. I will keep you updated audience of none, and let myself and my crappy creations be swallowed into your vast sea of everything.

I think I may look forward to this. maybe…

Mandy

btw

“art is why I get up in the morning
but my definition ends there
and it doesn’t seem fair
that I’m living for something I can’t even define”

touche Ani, but it works for me. or at least i hope so.

So anywho, I am journeying south to Las Vegas to help my Mom, Becky Lanktree of the ever increasing and popular Art Under Glass to help with a large order from one of her whole sellers. And I shall bring with me the one book I have been giving guilty goo goo eyes at for the past 6 months, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It’s a wonderful story so far and surprisingly relevant given that fact the it was authored in the Russian literary journal, The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. So my point, it’s certainly not a hard read, I’ve really no excuse for not having devoured it by now. This is disconcerting to me because reading books has always been my failsafe when I feel non creative or disconnected in a general sort of way. So like I said I wont finish it in the week or so I am down there but my goal is simply this: to at or around bedtime, read be it a few pages or blast through chapters of my book. Yep thats it. Thats all I want to do. It doesn’t seem like much for normally ambitious people but trust me, it’s a stretch for me. lol.

So I suppose thats it, wish me luck on my silly endevour and also send some love my Mom’s way on her neglected blog www.artunderglass.net/blog , she’s going to need it to complete this order on time.

With much love,
Mandy

Ok I know this blog was supposed to be multipurpose and yes I really do have a life outside of cooking. So I’ll focus real hard to post some other topics as well. 

Goodnight and mahalo,

Mandy