Soup's on.

I made my first soup from scratch yesterday, with the slow cooker. Can I call it 'from scratch' if I used canned artichokes and chicken broth? I think so. Cream of artichoke soup, baby. The real deal.

The last part of the recipe called for using a hand held emulsion something or other, which we don't own (surprise). Instead, I scooped out batches of soup, plopped it in the food processor, pressed chop, and watched as half of it escaped from the top or the bottom. Then I was supposed to strain all the soup through a collander to get rid of the fibers. I guess the processer didn't puree all that well because my soup didn't strain. It was very fibrous. But still delicious!

Having only one car is getting more difficult. Not so when I have nothing to do all day, but if I make A Plan, you can count on N's work schedule to mess it up. Tonight the spouses are getting together for our monthly "coffee" (read: dinner, no coffee involved ususally), and I volunteered to pick up two other people on my way there, at 6. N has to work until at least 6. He was VERY reluctant to ask someone else for a lift home. Why? Don't ask me. After some pushing, he's going to go to the gym after work and then we'll swing in and pick him up after the dinner. Sigh. I can't imagine throwing kids into this planning mixture.

Off to look for hotels in Florence and Rome! Life is pretty good.