National Soup It Forward Day
Missed National Soup It Forward Day yesterday! The idea is to deliver love and kindness by the bowlful. I double batched my soup so I can bring some to my park association mentor, whose wife is currently in care. It will give me a good reason to drop by and have a visit.🍲
Here’s the recipe of the soup I made today. It is really easy, and one to make if you’ve got other things on tho go. Other than the initial prep and sautéing, after you bring to a boil and turn down the heat, you can putter around doing other things with the occasional stir.
I use the President’s Choice Blue Menu dried soup mix of green and yellow split peas, red split lentils, long grain white rice and pearl barley (but you can easily mix one up yourself). This is based on the recipe on the back of the package with some added oomph from pantry staples and you can mix it up to what you have on hand or prefer. I call this version “rustic” so I don’t have to cringe at the “rough dice” (friends who have gone to cooking school – avert your eyes 🤦🏻♀️ )
1 cup of soup mix, rinsed
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of mushrooms, sliced or pieces/stems with liquid saved, or 1 cup fresh
1 can (796 mL) of diced tomatoes
1 L Chicken Stock
500 mL water (minus liquid saved from canned mushrooms if used)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
Sauté carrot, onion and mushrooms is some olive oil. Add minced garlic, soup mix, stock, water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 60-90 minutes*. Add frozen vegetables at the end so they don’t get overly mushy. Season to taste.
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*I find that you can reduce the simmering time if you soak the dried soup mix for about 15 minutes in warm water, maybe while you are dicing and slicing the fresh vegetables and mincing the garlic. You’ll just have to check on the texture near the 60 minute mark.
I’ve used sodium free versions of the canned mushrooms, diced tomatoes and stock, but use what you have on hand. I have made with mushroom and vegetable stock so I could bring to my vegetarian friends.
Here, I’ve added some fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to act as the salt and add some umami to overall flavours. I’m excited to get a nice crusty loaf of bread to have with this.
If you have some leftover roasted chicken, it would be a nice addition of protein, either shredded or diced, and added at the end with the frozen vegetables to warm through
One day, I’ll hope to join a local Soup Sisters organization as I do love cooking for others even if it’s not the fanciest.
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#HugInABowl #SoupItForwardDay#NationalSoupItForwardDay #cookingislove #homemade #soup
Day 4 – Ideal Audience
Day 4 –
Publish a post you’d like your ideal audience member to read, and include a new-to-you element in it.
This is actually more challenging than it seems, especially for my blog as it is. Originally, it was going to be called I on Food & Drink as in the business of dining, food and drink pairings are one of the objectives: “Try this Merlot with the roast pork loin” or a chef creates a dish to complement a certain wine. But then travel was going to be part of it as some of these amazing tastings happened on while on a trip. And then if you are travelling, then part of the experience is the culture or life of a place. It is easy for me to make the connections in my mind so that’s why it became I on Food, Drink & Life. As I mentioned in a previous post, I hope that maybe one day I might spin off the “Life” part into a separate blog, that will have to wait until I find time to write some more of these posts.
I popped in the Blogging U’s course area The Commons and saw that there were several others who did feel the same way. We write about several topics as we’re interested a lot of different things.
(Part of today’s assignment was to include a new element. I often post photos but have never included a video. Someone showed me this years ago and it appeals to my sense of humour 🙂 )
So while I don’t collect hobbies as is shown, I suppose I collect or dabble in interests – more like, Jill of All Trades, Master of None.
However, Blogging U mentor Michelle reminds us that
You might not write about one topic, but there’s no way your audience is everyone — you have a unique perspective, personality, and writing style and not everyone is going to be drawn to that. Your “ideal” reader might not be someone who cares about a particular topic, but it is someone with whom your point of view resonates.
That shifted the mindset of the assignment. Who would my ideal reader be?
I imagine my blog as a conversation with a friend: someone who enjoys good food and good drink, but isn’t a hardcore wine geek or singe malt snob and sometimes enjoys a little story with them. They are open to trying something new, exploring different flavours and sometimes new perspectives and ideas.
So grab a drink or snack, pull up a chair and let’s have a chat.
I on Food, Drink & Life 
Day 3 – Say Hello to the Neighbours
I do believe that if you are being your authentic self, social media does mimic life in that “like finds like” – you will find blogs and accounts that cover all the things you are interested in. In my case, Food: Bacon, recipes, ingredients, experiences; Drink: Whisk(e)y, Wine, Cocktails; Travel, Scotland, crime fiction, grammar, bees, corvids, nature, sustainability, social good, life hacks, culture, Judaism, leadership, branding, graphic design, consumer goods packaging, business, social media (of course!), content, news, media, old school letter writing, stationery…and the list that goes on.
So you have something in common with someone, start a conversation, i.e., comment on something you have read and hopefully the writer will reply. Maybe it’s just one comment and a reply, maybe it’s a conversation on a topic or better yet. over several topics. Over time. with certain people you click with, you may become one of the “regulars” that become part of daily or weekly interactions that one looks forward to. Maybe you connect over the one topic, but you may discover it could be several topics, or you may get introduced to something new. Then, if you are lucky and the planets align – perhaps there is a bloggers conference for the topic that brought you together, or holiday or work travel will provide an opportunity to meet in real life (if you are so inclined.)
So Hello Neighbours! and remember, put the SOCIAL back into SOCIAL MEDIA. It will make the experience much more fulfilling.
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