Monday, May 23, 2011

Strawberry Soup + Weekend Review

Our weekend was just fabulous: Slow. Simple. Sunny. Divine. A little work. A little play. A lot of good food. I would that all weekends be such. (Do you ever just randomly break out into very bad old English --- or is it just me?)

An ideal Saturday in my book starts out late - well, as late as dogs that wake up every morning at 6:30 allow. They were kind actually, and went back to sleep after their morning walk. So we snoozed in for awhile. Then unhurriedly got up and went about making a delicious brunch. I love brunch food. Ours was fairly simple. It consisted of: Rosemary Eggs, Scones, Fruit Salad, and Coffee. The best part was that we enjoyed it outside listening to the birds sing, the brook laugh, and some Celtic music play.
 Hubby mowed the grass, while I planted our vegetable garden. We're off to a late start this year...hopefully we'll have some tomatoes by October! I got a sunburn in the process. ME! Miss "slather up or cover up". Ugh. First one in years. - Then hubby disappeared for awhile, and when I came in for lunch he had surprised me by starting to change our bedroom furniture around. We'd been talking about doing it for awhile, and I was thrilled to have a good start going!

After a quick lunch and shower, we were off to our local town's Food and Wine Festival.The weather was perfect and the live jazz band added so much to the atmosphere. We met some neat people, tried our first savory crepe, and sampled some delicious local wine.

Then it was back home to finish up the bedroom arrangement, and head off to a well-earned sleep.

Sunday, I made some Amish Oatmeal with Currants and Strawberry Soup before church. So fresh and easy - and we again leisurely dined outside. Just delicious. "Weekend" food makes me never want to eat cereal again!

Church was nice. Came home, took a nap, and played some Wii (hubby won), worked on the menu for the week, blogged, and enjoyed some Road to Avonlea to the coziness of a thunderstorm.

We are rich indeed. That's what I call a weekend!

Thought I would share my Strawberry Soup recipe with you all - especially if you're in the midst of strawberry season like we are here in VA!

Strawberry Soup
Perfect for a brunch - everybody will think that you fussed, when really this recipe is a snap to throw together. So refreshing and crisp (and healthy to boot!) - I think you'll enjoy this addition to your springtime repertoire.

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce
2 cups of hulled strawberries
3 splashes of white wine (sweet, preferably)
20 mint leaves
6 ice cubes
1 T agave nectar (optional)

Mix everything together in a blender and serve chilled in bowls. Top with a mint leaf. The agave is only really necessary if you're not using sweet wine and your berries aren't that sweet on their own. Makes 4 servings.

So what did you do this weekend?