True Confessions

Well, it's time to "fess" up and tell you first, the sukkah is down, the holiday is over and I didn't post the final picture! Sorry...well, there's always next year! Second, I have a thing for Mark Bittman of the NY Times food section. Just when I am sure that there is no variety to the food we eat; he comes up with something interesting! This past week David declared our home "Chicken Free"! He said he could finally understand why my Dad started to hate to eat the yellow things! Well, Mark had a recipe for a Zucchini-Pear Soup in this past week's paper that was great; it passed the test, no chicken in it! For those of you who might be interested:

3 TBS butter or extra virgin olive oil, or a combination
1 med carrot, peeled and diced
1 med onion, peeled and diced
1 med potato, preferably high-starch (russet or baking) peeled and diced
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or a pinch of dried thyme
Sale and pepper
4 med zucchini, trimmed and diced
2 med ripe (but still firm) pears, peeled, cored and diced
4 cups chicken or veg stock, or use water (I used veg stock for obvious reasons!)
mint leaves for garnish

1. Put butter and/or oil in a large skillet over med heat; within butter melts or oil is hot, cook carrot, onion, potato and thyme with a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper. Stir occasionally, adjusting heat so vegetables do not brown. When onion is softened, about 5 minutes, add zucchini and continue to cook until everything is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Add pear and cook until has softened, about 5 minutes more. Add liquid and bring to a boil; taste and adjust seasoning. Cook mixture, then puree. Serve cold or reheat and serve hot, garnished with mint, if desired. Serves 4

Well, this is definitely the season for this soup. It's the end of the zucchini season and the pears are wonderful!

Birds Feeding Frenzy

It is Fall here and the dogwood trees are covered with tiny red berries. The birds have located this buffet and can be heard during their feeding frenzy from early in the morning until sunset! Between the birds on the trees, the deer eating the crab apples off the tree in the front of the house (haven't been able to get a picture of them yet) and the bunnies running around it is like an annex to nature's classroom! We also seem to have a family of garden snakes, I try to stay out of their way!

I haven't posted the sukkah in its final stages as the cross branches have not been taken out of the woods yet! I'm sure this will be done by the end of the holiday, or not!

Sukkah Construction

Well, it is that time of year...Sukkot! Every year we go through the debate about whether or not to build a sukkah; this year David decided to bite the bullet and buy a "real" sukkah! The kit he bought had the sides and brackets to use to hold the whole thing together. You had a choice in construction; you could purchase everything from them or buy the wood yourself. David decided on the later option and he did a fantastic job of purchasing the lumber; cutting it and, eventually putting the whole thing together! As you will see from the final picture WE DID IT! It looks great! With less than 24 hours to go the only part left is to put the branches across the top and the decorations! Promise, a final picture when it is ALL done! The premise of the sukkah is to build a portable hut similar to what our ancestors used when they were traveling in the desert! There are some who sleep in their sukkah, not sure if we'll go that far! The other thing that was interesting about building the sukkah was that we worked on it for so long it was totally dark out, so, believe it or not David agreed to put the outside lights on! Wow!