A Day of Treadling & Cauliflower Soup ((Recipe))

The sewing nook at Quilt Villa has been returned back to normal.

The linens on the beds have been washed and changed, towels washed, dried, folded and put away.

I’ve spent the day puttering here and puttering there, dusting this, arranging that, enjoying the peaceful quiet of a Solo Saturday up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

No, I’m not ignoring my family.  Son Jeff doesn’t have his days off until mid week.  The Hubster is busy with a weekend long tennis tournament and is unable to come up.

Besides…the last time I was fully alone for a day by myself was the day I drove to Georgia nearly 2 weeks ago.  My life has been packed with people since.

And sometimes a girl has just got to have a weekend of rest –without having to use her ears to listen, her mouth to speak, or her brain to think beyond the normal day to day things that fill the alloted 24 hours each day is given.

Besides, there is great satisfaction in commanding the remote and the TV ---rolling the treadle machine to its best vantage point and treadling away to endless streaming on Netflix.

Shown above:  The Making of a Lady.  Highly recommended for those who love period pieces with a bit of suspense!

 

I treadled my way through all of these!

As of one American Patchwork & Quilting Quiltalong with four-patches isn’t enough – I have plans to add THESE to another project.  This just might be the year of the four-patch, which has always been my favorite unit like…FOREVER.  Or is that FOUR-EVER?!

Dinner tonight is the leftovers from Thursday night’s Cauliflower Soup:

SO YUMMY!!

I never think of taking photos while I’m chopping, dicing or otherwise stirring in, but this recipe needs to be added to my recipes tab, it’s THAT good!

And it was fun having Lori dicing and chopping and adding things with me, a joint effort!

Ingredients:

1 large head of cauliflower, chopped small.

2 tsp salt

1 small yellow onion

2 ribs celery, also chopped small

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 1/2 cups diced ham.  (I had slices of spiral ham left from Christmas that I had frozen)

2 Tbl Olive Oil

3 Tbl Butter

1/3 cup flour (Or cornstarch for thickening if you are staying gluten free)

2 cups milk

Place Cauliflower in a stock pot and cover with water.  Add salt.  You need enough to boil the cauliflower by an inch or two, but not too much!  Bring to a boil and simmer until cauliflower is cooked very well.  You want it nearly mushy.

While Cauliflower is boiling:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and saute the onion, bell pepper, celery and ham until union is translucent and tender.   Remove excess water from cauliflower if there is too much. Add veggies and ham to the  boiling cauliflower.

Make the sauce:

Melt butter in the same skillet used for the veggies.  When butter is melted, whisk in flour until all butter is absorbed.  Slowly add the milk to the roux and whisk it until smooth over medium heat.  Continue to stir until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened. 

Add sauce to soup, stirring to blend.  Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Allow to cool a bit and serve with grated cheese on top as a garnish.

It’s even better the next day!

You can use this SAME recipe for broccoli soup and it turns out really great too!  just be careful to drain excess water before adding the thickened sauce.  I don’t like my soup too thick,  but I don’t want it watery either.

You can also use an immersion blender to blend up the soup more before adding the sauce if you want.  I still like to chew my food, so I don't want everything pureed too small.

If you missed this morning’s post – the link-ups are coming in with folks sharing their progress and completions for our Grand Illusion Mystery.  Click HERE if you missed it!  Links will be accepted through Feb 8th – so get those photos posted!

Have a lovely evening, everyone!

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