Savoring Summer

It was a long, hot, humid summer full of activity and abundant life.  Our neighbor friends, Vicky and Greg, made the hot humid parts more tolerable.  They are super sweet and generous with everything, including their lovely pool.  I feel like we lived in their pool this year and it kept me from going completely out of my mind.  I don't deal with prolonged humidity and heat levels both in the 90s.  I start to loose it.  This week has been perfectly wonderful with daytime highs just where they should be, cool nights, and most of all, no humidity to speak of.  You would think I would be ecstatic, but hand me perfection and I'll want to tweak it, even perfection could use a little improvement.  I'm trying to live in the moment and savor the last of summer; the produce from the garden, the beautiful days at the park, the last few chilly dips in the pool, and not think of the frigid mind-numbing temps of my future in our cold drafty old house.

Lunch Friday was Fat Free Vegan's Sunny Summer Squash Soup, Tomato Rosemary Scones from Vegan Brunch, stuffed grape leaves, and fresh picked plums courtesy of another fabulous neighbor friend, Margie.  The stuffed grape leaves are organic from a can.  I am lazy about making homemade dolmas and my sweet little children are the reason why.  I bought ten containers of dolmas through our buying club on Monday.  These are the last of them.  My kids completely devour them.  Especially, Parker, he has loved dolmas since he started to eat solid foods and he always requests them on his birthday.  The scones were again made with tomatoes, peppers, and rosemary from our garden.  I've blogged about the soup before, in fact it has been a summer favorite for a couple years now and has a space in my cookbook notebook (I print out recipes I use often, slip them in a plastic sleeve, and store them in a binder).  Susan from FFV is amazing.  I've raved about her dessert recipes recently and her blog is probably the one I use the most often for recipes which will be perfect every time.  Of course, I couldn't help but change the recipe around a bit.  I told you, I love to tamper with perfection.  I used yams instead of white potatoes, added red peppers from the garden, and through in leftover quinoa (after blending).  I made this soup Thursday night for an after soccer practice meal.  It is so easy to cut up the veggies and cook the soup before practice then I left it covered on the stove with the burner off.  Rob pureed it when he arrived home so when the rest of us walked in the door, we had dinner waiting for us.  With the added quinoa it was hearty enough to fill Parker's belly after cycling 10 miles and over an hour of running on the soccer field.  I was out the door, as the family was eating, for a much needed girl's night out so I didn't get a chance to taste it until lunch the next day.  As with many soups, I think it is even better the next day.  I fried up the last of the Field Roast Mexican Chipotle Grain Meat Sausages and added a few to each bowl of soup, along with a dash of hot sauce.  Better than perfection.  I love the taste of summer!