Waiting for Fall

We had great cool weather for about five days, and then the Santa Ana winds hit yesterday.  Hot (90s), dry (10% humidity) and miserable.  The five cool days got me in the mood for fall, complete with a little fall celebratory dinner (Kelly, the mom of Natalie's RTS sister, AnnaKate (or maybe just Kelly and I are sisters!) had a great fall celebration that I envied).

So I planned to make an autumn vegetable soup to celebrate.  Even when the Santa Ana winds came, I figured it would be ok to have soup (and fresh bread from our bread machine).

Before that fall dinner, Natalie saw her surgeon so he could look at the surgery site.  A scab had developed, but it wasn't really healing up, and I found out why.  He found a piece of suture hanging out and cut it off (I had never seen it!)  He said it hadn't been absorbed by Natalie's body, so her body "spit it out".  He cut it very close to her skin, which ended up causing a little blood.  But hopefully it's going to completely heal now.  I thought we would be done with follow up visits, but he wants to see her again in 10 days.

It does make sense that a surgeon would see her until the wound is completely healed!  I asked if it was healing well so there wouldn't be a keloid (people with RTS are more susceptible to keloid scars) and he said it was too soon to tell.

So we came back from the surgeon and Lukas and I made soup.  It smelled wonderful.  The bread smelled wonderful.  Tom and I loved loved loved the soup (allspice, fresh thyme and cayenne for seasoning, with butternut squash, carrots, tomatoes and kale).

I made a double recipe.

The kids didn't like the soup.

We have a lot of soup that I can't really (won't) serve as a meal for the whole family.  I have a "rule" that the kids have to eat something the first time it is served, but they don't have to eat the leftovers if they don't like it.  Lukas ate a modest portion.  Natalie was coaxed to eat several bites when bribed with fresh bread.  Konrad doesn't like bread and wouldn't touch the soup after the first bite.  We're still working on him with table manners, but it's harder when he doesn't care if he eats anything at all.

So I divided it up into containers to freeze for Tom and me.  We loved it!

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler...69.  I hope so!  Blowing leaves may look like fall in the pictures, but when it's accompanied by an oven feeling, it's just not the same.