Soups

This week has been the week of soups.
I really enjoy learning about and connecting to ancient roots of humanity. Traditionally, i.e. thousands of years ago, Christmas was celebrated all over the world and many of the festivals shared some common themes. Themes including celebrating the light in the darkness; worshipping the sun to fight off the darkness of winter. The winter solstice is celebrated and I hold that very dear to me because I am born on the winter solstice and I believe in the celebrations and symbols that holds. I believe in the cycles of the earth and I feel even more inspired that I get to have a profession that follows the cycles of life in women and childbirth. Anyways, another theme is celebration of food, the harvest and paying honour to grain. That is why we bake and feast at this time and that is certainly what I have been doing. This week, I have made 3 pots of soup and one pot of broth (with which to make the soups)

Broth
Many vegetables left to simmer in the pot
Adrian helped me; peeled the carrots, stirred, etc.
I have really been enjoying the time I have had to relax with him; we don't necessarily have to do anything but we can have so much fun doing it. In this season of celebrating, I just like celebrating him, he helps me to feel very happy, so happy that I will smile by myself just thinking about how happy. I am also really proud of him as he is now officially part of 2 other bands; Ophelia Syndrome and The Entertainment which are both gigging. I got to see Adrian with The Entertainment in Toronto last week, go hunney go!

Potato soup with Swiss Chard
This soup was an experiment in getting nutrition from dark leafy greens... okay, I have a confessions. I love eating vegetables. It is related to what I blabbed about earlier - how earthy vegetables look and taste makes me feel so close to the earth. In all honesty, I would love to eat a carrot fresh out of the earth with some of the dirt on it. Yes, some of you find that gross but that is what makes us all so special. Please note, Adrian ate this soup with the dark green leaves in it and enjoyed it, yes, the carnivore enjoyed it.

Potato leek soup
I made some of this soup to take to my grandparents. My Opa is pretty sick and frail and my Oma is stressed and worn from caring for him. Please send them prayers, good thoughts and well wishes. They have in my past brought me both joy and stress in their relentless love for me and their relentless desire to prosletyze me. But despite their efforts to convert me, I still love them to bits.

Butternut Squash
This soup is a beautiful bright orange so it reminds me of celebration. These past couple of weeks, that is what I have done; celebrating a break from school by sleeping in; celebrating food and creativity by baking and celebrating friends by visiting. I also get to celebrate my birthday, wahoo! I am 23 on the 21st. I know birthdays can sometimes feel anticlimatic, but I always get so excited and I think I love having my birthday near Christmas because after my birthday, I get to celebrate Christmas so it is overwhelmingly joyful.

So these soups are my hommage to the earth. I am cooking to honour the earth from which the food came and I am storing these soups to be eaten in the NewYear (in case you are wondering why one 22 year old would need so many pots of soup)