Tuesday

Trevor is currently learning about medieval monasteries. We've kept our history pretty low key this year, so I jumped at the chance to have a Monks Supper tonight. (Thanks to SOTW Activity Guide.)

Trevor helped a lot making the soup, and it was FUN! It made me realize, once again, that although I spend a lot of time with my kids in school, I need to be working more at fun time outside of school. We all would benefit from that, I'm sure.

We also had sliced cheese, sliced apples, beer (as in the diet, root kind), and bread and butter (although monks only had butter for special occasions). It was too bad that Robert and Holly didn't care for the soup--Trev and I both thought it was terrific, and we both had seconds. I could eat this often.

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Lentil Soup

2 T. oil
2 c. green lentils
1 T. minced garlic
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
1 potato, cut into 1" cubes
8-10 c. water or chicken broth (I used about half and half)
2 bay leaves (remove before serving)
1 T. chopped parsley
1 t. thyme
1 t. oregano
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add oil; when hot, add garlic and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring just to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Cook two hours, stirring occasionally. Can blend/puree before serving, but I just mashed it up with a potato masher to keep some of the texture.

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It had been warm and drizzly all day; I am loving this weather. It was a nice change from the sun, and since it was 70 degrees, we still sat on the front porch to do some school work. Robert and I spent too much time watching the awful pictures of the California fires. We have friends who evacuated late Sunday night.

Trevor's chess club met tonight, so we had a bit of a drive. I snapped this right by the church where chess club meets. I would love to spend a day or two just driving around and taking pictures.


Hmmm. Maybe three days.