jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

I’m doing that thing that little kids do — resisting going to sleep for fear of missing something good. I’m so happy it’s the weekend. I’m delighting in knowing I don’t have to get up in the morning. It seems like the later I stay up the more of a treat that becomes.

Damon and I are attempting to watch almost an entire season of The Amazing Race on DVD tonight. We are active viewers, as we play along with the racers. We parcel out all of the challenges and discuss our strategy. It’s so much fun, and we are never cold, hungry or lost.

I did just have to tell Damon to use his indoor voice. He gets really excited.

Who’s more famous?
http://www.famousr.com/

The nor’easter was a little bit of a letdown. It didn’t even rain that hard. But my soup, that was a total win.

Here’s how to make the easiest, most delicious chilly-weather soup:

One plastic bottle of V8
One box organic vegetable broth
One V8 bottle full of water

That’s your broth.

Add garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste.

From there what goes in is largely negotiable. The only part that’s not is the cabbage. Here’s what I used yesterday:

2C brown rice
1C dried navy beans
half a cabbage
5 lovely organic carrots
2 redskin potatoes
2 sweet onions

I cut the veggies into big chunks and threw it all in a the same time.

It took about two hours for the beans to cook through, which is your sign that the soup is done. By then the veggie flavor is well dispersed, and they haven’t liquified because they went in in big pieces.

Once you turn the heat off throw in some lemon juice to brighten things up. When serving, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of each bowl.

It’s so easy you could fall over and accidentally make this soup.

There’s a moment every early Saturday afternoon. Today it came around 1pm. I’d already had a bowl of ice cream, watched a movie, and had a nap. I look at the clock and realize how early it is in the day, and that I can do this all again the next day. It feels the same to me as the start of summer did when I was a kid.

It’s not strictly true for this weekend. I’ll have to spend a lot of it (starting now) on my computer getting ready for our launch. But I still got that feeling.

Tomorrow we’re supposed to have a huge storm. Damon’s calling it “the nor’easter” and is pretty invested in its fearsome forecast. I think it’s just going to be really rainy. We’re coastal, but it’s not like we’re commercial fishermen. But in honor of the nor’easter I’m going to make storm soup. Which is really just a deluxe version of my thick vegetable soup. It will be perfect.

Also perfect: The movie Sssssssss. I loved it when I was a kid and I got it from the library the other day. A mad herpetologist turns his naive lab assistant Dirk Benedict into a snake. I’ve just given away the ending, but it’s still worth watching.

Have you ever had a friend who is genuinely distressed over a situation that seems to be largely of his own making? I have a friend who thinks himself a victim of circumstance, and complains to me at length about his misery. The thing is, his circumstances change but his complaints stay the same. And it may just be the pre-launch fatigue talking, but in addition to being the author of his own problems, I think he is also a whiney babyface.