Cauliflower Soup…Yum!

 

One of my family’s  favorite home made soups is Cauliflower Soup.

This soup is creamy and rich (definitely not diet food).

It was one of our favorite dishes that didn’t have a recipe- until a few years ago when Liz made me figure one out for the family  cook book.

The recipe really started about forty years ago when I was a BYU student spending a semester in Salzburg, Austria.  We lived at the Hotel Steinlechner, just blocks from the beautiful  river.

It was a dream come true for me-a small town country girl who had never really traveled much!

I don’t think I have ever been to a more beautiful, romantic  place.

Ever!

And the food…..

Heavenly!

(The above  photo was from Google.)

These photos were typical daily bike ride views.

Check out this interesting tourist link.

Anyway,  back to the soup….

(It is hard not to get side tracked as I relive experiences through my old photos.)

Our chef at the hotel was a really good cook, and he was a nice enough person to allow us to wander in to his kitchen on a few occasions.

He shared some of his recipes with us.

Most of them didn’t translate very well due to the different ingredients, measurement systems, (my understanding of German) etc., but I did remember that he added  a different spice to his Cauliflower Soup.

NUTMEG.

A few years later I combined a few recipes and came up with a similar version of his soup.  My friend Camille Jensen had a tasty clam chowder soup recipe and I used the white sauce part of it.

I still like to throw things in the mix, but the recipe is pretty close to how I make it.

Cauliflower Soup:

1 large head of cauliflower

1 cube of butter or margarine

1 cup flour

4 to 5 cups milk

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 to 2 teaspoons chopped or dried onion

1 to 2 cups grated cheese

1 teaspoon salt

pepper (to taste)

Cut the cauliflower in to bite size pieces and steam in a small amount of water (1 to 2 cups).  I add the salt and the onions now, too.  Cook until tender and then mash up the cauliflower with a potato masher.  (I like to leave a few little pieces for texture and visual appeal.)  Do not drain off the water.  In a large skillet, melt the butter and blend in the flour.  Add the milk and stir until it is smooth and it thickens.  I usually add the cheese and the nutmeg as I am stirring the milk.  After the milk mixture is ready, combine it with the cauliflower and water.  Simmer until the flavor melds together.  Serve up hot.

I hope you like it!

JoAnn

P.S.  The only reason we didn’t gain 200 pounds while we were there was because we spent hours each day walking or biking to all the beautiful places!

 

Writers’ block…..HELP!

I’m tired of looking at my same old post,

but don’t have much to say.

This field where I grew up will soon be full of green plants (corn?),

and I’m hoping to soon have something interesting to blog about.

Did you know that the Preston Citizen (newspaper) comes out once a week and it only takes you about five minutes to read all of it?

Every single word.

It used to have wonderful “news” such as who traveled to Logan to spend time with family or who had company from out of town for the weekend.

Or…

“Miss JoAnn Hall from BYU came home for the weekend.”

Maybe they had writers’ block, too!

Have a great week!

JoAnn

P.S.  My class is all finished with our end of year testing!  Yeah!!!

 

 

Teacher Appreciation

We are officially on “countdown” at school.

Every morning someone updates the number of days left- posted on the board in the faculty room.

We are at 21more days!

Students are getting restless.

Teachers are tired.

Testing is exhausting!

Where is summer?

To help us get through this time, our PTA hosted a wonderful luncheon today.  We have a pretty small PTA, but they really out did themselves.

A large majority of our parents are Hispanic and since the parents furnish the luncheon, we get wonderful home made Mexican food.

There were lots of spicy meats and rice dishes to put on tortilla shells.

The yummy desserts included some Flan.

This picture of Flan came from Google, but it was similar to what we had.

(I didn’t have my camera there!)

Everything was delicious!

My cute students have been writing me notes and letters all week, too.

Their creative thoughts (and spelling) make me smile.

I’m keeping them out where I can see them to help me hang on a little longer.

Now.….if I can just keep the restless ones busy!

JoAnn

 

I did it…..sort of… and country roots rise again!

In keeping with the “theme” of my last few posts, about getting out in the fresh air (in an open, moving vehicle) and belting out familiar tunes from my youth, I made a feeble attempt this last weekend to fulfill that desire.

My sister Linda and I drove to Preston to visit our Aunt Mardene  who was recovering from cataract surgery (and our sister Diane).  Mardene lives alone, but is such a determined and independent person.  She needed a little help putting all the eye drops in, but other than that she was doing great.

We decided to take her for a country ride.  It is sort of a tradition in our family to drive around Cache Valley and look at all the pretty places.  We drool over some of the hidden farms nestled against the hills and always fall madly in love with any aging barn.  If the farm has a white fence around it we can’t get enough of it.

We headed a few miles east to the “town” of Franklin, located right on the Utah-Idaho border.   (In our world, a small community is called a town and a creek is called a river.)  Franklin was the very first settlement in Idaho and you can see the 1860 on the mountain.  The town is also famous for La Tienda, the service station/restaurant/convenience store that sells lottery tickets (to all the Utah people).

This is the little mountain we climbed every Easter along with all our cousins.  We would hike up to the cave at the top and then roll our Easter eggs down the mountain.

(That could have been a lot of deviled eggs instead!)

 

This lovely place is for sale!

Wouldn’t it be a nice spot to live?

However, this one is more in my budget!

Don’t you love the variety of the scenery?

 

Here are a few more shots.

 

It is kind of a sad scenario that instead of a riding in an open Mustang convertible we had to settle for an old mini van with the door wide open, but Linda did a good job hanging out to take pictures.

We might or might not have sung any Beetles songs.

Still, it was a good day!

JoAnn

 

A blast from the past and some more spring color

 

I’m excited to say that  I have indeed enjoyed some reflective moments this weekend listening to some old, familiar songs from my teenage years

and

I have taken a few new pictures, too.

I haven’t managed the wild free ride in an open car part, yet.

(If you are wondering how the two things connect- they  really don’t, except that they both make me happy.)

You can listen to the music as you scroll down the post.

Remember his concert, Barbara? 

We were so excited to tag along with her brother.

 

(This one is just a sampler-you don’t get the whole song and some of this music is not my favorite.)

 

 

 

But first, Happy Birthday, Linda!

 

We had a fun birthday party last night!

 

I just love these flowers against the white fence,

 

and these flowers climbing the rocks.

More tulips…

The weekend isn’t over yet…..

stay tuned!

JoAnn

A Little Bit of Nothing….and some pretty tulips

 

It’s such a beautiful time of year.

Everywhere I go I see colorful blossoms and early spring flowers.

Trees are covered with explosions of pink and white.

The weather is not too cold-and not too hot.

(It’s my personal comfort zone of 70-74 degrees!)

Our grass is GREEN!

It’s perfect.

I should be giddy with excitement.

Unfortunately,

I can’t think of one single thing to blog about.

We’re testing at school and the days are long.

I’d rather be working in my yard.

This weekend, I think I will take a little drive, armed with my camera (and maybe some 60’s music).

Too bad we don’t have our old Mustang convertible any more.

I’ll enjoy some:

Bobby Vinton

Herman’s Hermits

Beatles

Herb Alpert

The Monkees

The Rolling Stones

The Mama’s and the Papa’s

The Beach Boys

 

Any other suggestions?

I hope it works!

JoAnn

 

P.S.  I will miss Dick Clark and his forever young attitude!

(The man never aged.)

I think I’m still alive….

Spring Break did not disappoint.

It wasn’t exciting and thrilling to document,

but it was productive

and we had some fun, too.

First off, our crab-apple tree decided to time its grand entrance for this week.

This tree really makes me happy right now!

At the end of the summer all those pink blossoms become little apples that fall.  Then- not so much.

It is a price I’m willing to pay.

Our painting job is coming along.

Some of you expressed concern that we were headed in a boring brown direction, but we had it red for around ten years and we needed a change.  (I still love red.)  This room opens up to three other rooms and  that involves a lot of color matching, so we needed something kind of neutral.

We had quite a debate about what to do with the wooden shelves.

Nobody loved the color of the stain so we decided to paint.

(These permanent decisions are too stressful!)

 

I had wanted to paint the backs the wall color, but after another debate we decided it made all the decorations disappear and  blend in too much.

(My good husband did a lot of extra work to allow me to “see for myself”.)

We are slowing getting things finished and I can’t wait for all the messes to be cleaned up.

Half of the bookcase is now finished..

We are pleased with how it turned out.

We also  enjoyed a fun family Easter party in Idaho.  There was lots of food and plenty of cousins.

Easter eggs were created.

The weather cooperated and we had an outdoor egg/candy hunt.

The Easter Bunny even made an appearance.

The worst part of Spring Break…..

It didn’t last long enough!

JoAnn