A Wednesday in Near Paradise

Rained and drizzled all night, my newly planted charges are really happy about it. This appears to be a quite wet year when I remember back to last spring, good for plants but somwhat cool and a biut cloudy for my sunny disposition. Made eggs over easy with Chuck's terrific huge fresh eggs deliverred yesterday by Bob just before soup. The oh-so-thin bacon fume is delicious but just a bit too much heat (EDF man showed up at the door to read our electric meter) and poof! It's up in smoke! I ate the ruination and made another batch for Kelly's use. I sliced up a few of the little white potatoes and friend them in sweet butter, all made a wonderful filling breakfast before we spend today painting walls, doors, baseboards and that damnable fibreglass sponge that I've put up on the wall to make it "smooth".
Off to the painting people, off!
The whole day went well, Kelly painted windows and baseboards and doors and I climbed the awful rickedy ladder dozens of times painting the fiberglas mat white and cussing all the while. Hours went by and the job was typical, slow, sloppy and unsatisfying at this stage as there is still the crown moulding to complete and the mini-shelf that will be placed above the wainscotting to dress the room up a bit. The pictures attached show the fiberglass mat in all it's glory, a before and after if-you-will of how it looks. I wiped enough dripped paint off the floor and other newly painted beige surfaces to paint another wall at least! I love painting but this is less than easy due to the wattery nature of the paint itself and my sloppiness.
After the painting was done, about 1:30 we adjourned to the little kitchen to make a potato, garlic and onion soup. Here you go! 2 lbs of white or red potatoes peeled and chopped into small pieces to cook rapidly. an entire garlic peeled and chopped coarsely, one onion diced. 3 tablespoons of dried or fresh sage, 2 bay leaves.5 cups of water, 3 tomatos chopped, two tablespoons of olive oil and a 1/2 cup of cream or milk.
First combine the potatoes, garlic, onion and sage with the 5 cups of H20 (water!) in a 2qt pot and bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through. At the same time saute the chopped tomatoes in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil until they are cooked and thickened. Nice and simple. Now strain the cooked mixture, save the cooking water!
Using a hand ricer or a food processor or other high speed device that scares the hell out of cats and that mushes stuff up fine...process the cooked potatoes, onions, sage and garlic...pull the bay leaves prior to this else it is a disaster! Combine the processed mixture, the tomatoes and the water and bring back to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue until the mixture is smooth and of the proper consistency for your soup. Add the cream or milk and turn off the heat. Add salt to taste. Serve either warm or COLD, delicious!