Soup for a Snowy Day Lunch

 Tuesday the snow just kept coming and coming.  We went in the late morning to vote in our town elections and when I came home I decided it was a soup lunch day.  Raided the vegetable drawers and came up with this combination:

three celery stalks and one onion sauteing in butter,

carrots, parsnips to add,

about 6 portabella mushrooms,

a potato,

3 cups of beef broth (low sodium),

2 tablespoons flour to add to celery & onion mix to make a roux before adding broth and the rest of the vegetables.

I seasoned it with a small handful of Herbs from Provence and chopped garlic plus some black pepper.

Once it came to a boil I let it simmer until lunch time.  Meanwhile outside the snow just keeps coming.

I placed a handful of arugula in the bowls and served the soup on top with a sprinkling of shaved parmesan.  Dan pronounced it delicious. I thought so too.

And the best part is there is enough to have it again today - Wednesday.

When You Read this Tuesday

 Writing on Monday and posting on Tuesday.

By the time you read this Winter Storm Sage will be upon us.

There will be lots of snow.

Here's how it looks on Monday - we have lots of dirty snow around.

I spotted these sprouts of daffodils and they will be buried by the new snowfall.

I just hope we don't lose power because our new woodstove has yet to be installed.

More Quadruplets

 Remember my amaryllis that I shared last week and the lovely four blossoms from the long stalk? Well, the short stalk that was just opening

produced four blossoms as well.

Even the blossoms on top that are now fading still have beauty.

It has been a grand gift.  I hope I can manage a repeat performance next year.

A Change of Wheels in the Offing

 This car is history for us.

Wednesday we drove to a Hyundai dealer in Keene to check out a hybrid that Dan and I had researched.  We'd been talking about when we would replace the 11 year old Mazda CX 9 and had thought we'd wait until the fall.  However a small oil leak of differential fluid from the back axel (I hope I wrote that correctly) and what it would cost to repair it made us think again. 

The Mazda has served us well - it's been like a truck.  Heavens, we even picked up several hundred pounds of solar panels and carted them home to be installed for us on our neighbor's studio.  It's just that it has been a gas guzzler and it was time to return to a hybrid.  We'd had a Prius as our second car for many years.  No more need for a second car so we had sold it before we ever considering moving to NH.

As luck would have it the Hyundai Tucson worked for Dan's long legs. It's a small SUV compared to the Mazda. It drove and rode really well plus the safety features are so much more refined than what we had in the Mazda. The only Tucson they had on the lot was a gas engine. They had 5 hybrids on the way and though they had been all spoken for when ordered, one of them was now available because financing fell through. It didn't take us long to say we'd take it.  Delivery should be at the end of this month of in early April.  The Mazda will be traded in to the dealer in Keene.

The above car is not the color we're getting.  We had no choice of that.  When it arrives I will share a photo.