Fall's weekend appearance

Couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. It rained Friday night into Saturday then the sun peeked out in the afternoon. Sunday the air was clear and crisp thanks to the previous day's rain and the cool breeze.

Saw Nights in Rodanthe with my MIL and SIL. It was good. Not great, but better than just ok. At the very least, entertaining and a workout on tear ducts. If you're susceptible to that. Did you see Diane Lane and Richard Gere in Unfaithful? So different from this one.

I've been learning how to make a basic potholder.I got the instructions here. I didn't know how to do a blind stitch but I easily learned after watching a tutorial on youtube. I love the internet.

Since the weather is cooler, I felt like making comfort food. Have you had heard of Mulligatawny soup? The first time we had it was at the Spaghetti Factory. It's served every Thursday at lunch. I needed to find a recipe and the one I finally ended up with is a combination from one I found on allrecipes.com, one I found in Cooking Light magazine and making substitutions that suit our tastes.
If you like chicken & rice soup and curry doesn't turn your stomach, I recommend it. At the very least, try it the next time you see it on the menu at a restaurant. It's fun to try something different. Here's how I make it:

Chicken Mulligatawny

1 onion
4 stalks celery
2 carrots
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon curry powder
8 cups chicken broth
1 apple, cored and chopped

3/4 cup white or brown rice
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast half - cut into cubes
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup milk - nf is fine and what I usually use but use whatever you want including 1/2 and 1/2 if it suits you.

Directions

-Puree all vegetables
-heat oil in large stock pot and add veggie puree, cook for a few minutes.
-add curry powder and chicken stock. Mix well and bring to a boil. Simmer about 1/2 an hour.
-Add rice, chicken, salt, pepper and thyme. Simmer another 1/2 hr or until rice is done. -or- Simmer 2 hours for rice to thicken and become more 'hearty'.
-Add milk and apples, simmer 5 minutes. Serve.

Notes:
If you'd prefer your veggies chopped instead of pureed, then sauté veggies in oil for 5-10 minutes. Add 3 T flour and the curry powder to the veggies and sauté 5 minutes. Then add the chicken stock and continue on with step 2 above. You'll need the flour to thicken the soup. This makes a lot. You can 1/2 the recipe, but we like the leftovers.

And I leave you with snippets of the famous Seinfeld soup nazi episode:

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