This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘Pond’ Category

Keith hasn’t fed our koi since mid-October, 2010.  If you feed them when the water temperature is below 55 degrees, they can’t digest the food – which expands in their innards and makes them go pop.  The weather has warmed up – as has the water – so time to feed them, right?  Only they wouldn’t eat.  So this little video clip shows the fish, but not them rushing to the surface frantically to snatch the first morsels of the year as was my plan.  Sigh.

Fish aren’t the only things around here that (eventually) need to eat.  Keith and I start talking the weekend’s cooking mid-week before so trips to Costco, Sam’s and HEB can be worked into the crossword puzzle that is our family’s schedule.  Tomorrow, Keith wants to make some special toasted cheese sandwiches he’s seen created on a cooking show (being on disability gives a guy plenty of time to watch Emeril, Alton, etc.)  And what goes best with toasted cheese sandwiches?  Tomato soup!  At least my kids have always thought so.

I’ve tried several tomato soup recipes and finally distilled them into one of my own.  Everyone who has tried it has liked it – and I’ve served it plenty’o'times.  So here’s the recipe.  It takes about an hour to fix, and the only bad part is the clean-up.  You have to wash your food processor, blender, a big cooking pot and big bowl.  Other than that – it is very, very easy, as you will see.  And tasty, as you’ll see if you make it.

Ingredients?  Nothing fancy.

-  A handful of baby carrots, or two big peeled carrots

-  2  medium-large onions

-  2 28-oz. cans of crushed tomatoes

-  1 can of tomato paste

-  1 qt. of chicken stock or broth (I like stock better)

-  1/3 cup flour

-  3 bay leaves

-  2 tsp. basil

-  1 tsp. oregano

-  1 pint half’n”half (or cream or milk)

-  1 stick butter

-  Dash of pepper

-  Dash of powdered garlic

May also want some garlic salt.  Depends.  I usually don’t add this until the very end, after I taste it.

Put your carrots and your chopped onion into the food processor and really grind them up.  Melt the stick of butter, and add the carrots and onion to it, stirring occasionally on low-medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes – until it’s all soft.  If you skip grinding your carrots and onions, you have to cook them a lot longer.  It’d rather grind and wash than stand and stir.

Now add the 1/3 cup of flour to thicken it up.  Stir continuously for about 3 minutes.  Notice the color lightens.

When it’s nice and thick – add the chicken stock, crushed tomatoes and the seasonings.  Stir and let it simmer about 10 minutes on low heat.  Looking prettier!

Here’s the messy part.  Remove the three bay leaves.  Scoop out about a cup – maybe a cup and a half – of soup base.  Put it in your blender, and liquefy it.  Really pound it.  That liquid is hot, and your blender is going to spray it up to the top.  So for goodness sakes, don’t scoop in more than a cup or so of the liquid.  Nothing says a trip to the ER like hot tomato puree in your face.  When it’s liquefied, pour it into a big bowl.

When the base is all liquefied, stir in your dairy.  The soup will lighten color.  And now’s the time to taste it.  Does it need a little garlic salt?  This batch did, but some batches haven’t.

Voila!  A gallon soup tomato soup, plus a lunch-sized jar.  Well, it would have been a lunch-sized jar except…..

My favorite stirrer decided she wasn’t waiting until tomorrow to enjoy a bowl.

The koi may or may not eat tomorrow – but we’re sure going to.

We have koi joy at Casa Woodworth – baby fish.  See the whole school here, bubbling the water for their morning breakfast.  The big black one is Lois’ fish – “Chargoi.”   Hannah’s white “Cinderella” sports butterfly fins.  Julia’s “Sherwin” has the two red bands  They’re scarfing up handfuls of fish nuggets several times daily.  Keith will keep feeding them until the water temperature chills to 55 degrees (October’ish), then resume feeding them next spring (March’ish).   Eating in the winter would cause deadly belly bloat – sort of like tamales chasing refried beans on a long car trip.

The babies are very small, quick and hard to see.  They generally stick close to the walls of the pond which – now, incredibly, in this 11th episode of “A Man in His Pond” – is five years old.

The blurry (sorry!) little baby is center right.  The girls think we have six babies – our own sextuplets.

Speaking of babies….I’m glad to have all four of mine home after their summer jaunts.  It’s been a few weeks since we’ve all been together.  Julia and Rachel returned from children’s church camp today.  The washer and dryer have not stopped since they hit the door.

(l-r)  Hannah had a week at Sarah’s house, plus youth camp.  Julia had a week at Sarah’s, plus children’s camp.  Rachel had a week at Sarah’s, plus children’s camp (as a counselor.)  Lois had a week at the national Latin competition in Fargo, ND, plus youth camp.  Keith and me?   Well, we got to spend one night in a motel when our air conditioning at home went out.  Plus we took weekly oh-so-glamorous trips to Costco and Sam’s.  We’re wild, we are.

Now it’s all about back-to-school.

College.  High School.  Elementary School.

And of course – our new school of koi.

The Easter Bunny brought Julia a butterfly kit – the kind where you provide food and a shelter, and send off for the caterpillars.   Julia’s spent part of every evening worrying over those fuzzy little bugs – feeding them sugar water, making sure they were not too hot or too cold – putting them near the light when they needed it.   Tonight, we let them go.

Julia is convinced they’ll fly back to visit.

They may come back to the pond to drink.   San Antonio is in a prolonged drought.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our family is changing with Rachel’s upcoming graduation from high school.  She’ll be only half-ours when she’s in college and after that – she’ll be responsible for her own food and shelter.  I’ve spent a chunk of every day worrying over this first baby bug – feeding her, making sure she wasn’t too hot or too cold – putting her near the light when she needed it.

Senior Awards last week – DECA State Competition in Fashion & Apparel, School Store Manager and Choir – Woot!  She was the very last of  300+ honorees (whew!), so, lots of applause!
Lois and Hannah are coming right up behind her, with Julia bringing up the rear.

You rear them to let them go.

But I, too, am hoping they “flutterby” often.