the pleasures of summer’s bounty: broccoli soup and roasted broccoli

classic broccoli soup; conifères et feuillus

After about 3 weeks of no rain, the skies turned grey this weekend and the rain came down much to the delight of parched lawns here in Montréal. Unfortunately, this meant not going on a picnic, or a good hike, or bicycling. Fortunatley, weather such as this calls for staying indoors and making soup. Not a brightly coloured autumn soup or hearty winter soup, but a soup that makes good use of summer’s bounty. A broccoli soup! Whereas my husband and our eldest son can’t get enough of it, my two daughters will gladly exchange their soup for a roasted version of broccoli! I won’t argue with that. In the end, broccoli is good food.classic broccoli soup and roasted broccoli| conifères et feuillus

Continue reading “the pleasures of summer’s bounty: broccoli soup and roasted broccoli”

shades of blue: breakfast blueberry oatmeal muffins

whole wheat breakfast blueberry muffins; conifères et feuillus

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance- pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thought. -William Shakespeare

breakfast blueberry oatmeal muffins | conifères & feuillusI love summer mornings when I can wake up with the sunrise and the world (it seems), as well as my loves, are still asleep and quiet. And I have time to sort out my thoughts. I do this best in my kitchen while measuring and weighing, mixing ingredients and watching something great come together.

In this quiet solitude, I take out my hurts and pains; so many shades of blue. I weigh and measure them as I do my ingredients. Some remain raw and heavy as they were the day they happened and I sink them quickly into the deepest, darkest oceans of my thought. In these quiet mornings, I look for answers. That never seem to come. But a walk in my garden always lifts me up; on dew laden grass, barefoot. I hear bird songs over scents of rosemary. I see the miracles of petals and leaves, and small creatures, and the beauty of life and decay and the fragility of it all.

Life is fragile. We are fragile. And we damage easily. But the thing about life is that another morning still comes and begins a new day with a new sunrise and if we are lucky enough to have that, then we should be grateful and make the most of it; weighing and measuring what we have and making something great out of it. Continue reading “shades of blue: breakfast blueberry oatmeal muffins”