The Big Red Pot

The first day of Fall started off with RAIN.  And lots of it.

Kev said 300 inches to be exact.

Or maybe he said 3.

My ears were too water logged to hear properly.

I was drenched to my bones within one second of leaving my house.  That's what keeping your umbrella in the car will do to you.

And all that time I spent straightening my hair was a waste.  I was in complete afro mode within thirty minutes and the hair continued to grow throughout the day.

I didn't even have to say "hello" to anyone that came in to the store... because my hair did it for me.

It was pretty bad.

But the rain ended up being great for two reasons.

#1.  Because we definitely needed some rain!! 

#2.  Because I had soup on the menu in honor of Fall - and there is nothing better than soup to comfort a wet, frizzy-haired, person.

Except for maybe dry clothes and a hat.

My soup recipe came from The Pioneer Woman.  Italian Chicken Soup.

And, of course, it required me to use this...

It has been mocking me from it's permanent place on the stove all summer long.

And I finally had a reason to fill it to the brim with goodness.

The other thing that I made was bread.  We do not eat that much bread anymore... except for my Ezekiel toast and pizza dough... but it just seemed like the right thing to do.  So, I looked through the pantry and came up with Beer Bread.

I had made the bread a couple of years ago after getting the recipe from a friend's blog.  ( Hi Courtney!)  It was so easy to do and so good to eat.  But don't let the "beer" ingredient throw you off.. because it doesn't taste like beer at all.  In fact, I'm not sure exactly why it requires beer - but it does.  So, I do what I am told.

It turned out perfectly!  Fluffy and sweet.  Kev even said that he thought it could be a dessert bread.

Dessert bread.  I like the sound of that.

The soup was pretty good... just not enough "kick" for us.  Even though it required several jalapenos - of which I even left in the seeds.  But it was nothing that a little hot sauce couldn't fix.

The only problem is that it made A TON!! Like "feeding an army" ton.  Not to mention that I multi-tasked while making the soup... and made Kev an old school favorite- Mamwich.  I have to work a lot over the next couple of days..so I figured soup for dinners + Mamwiches for lunch = a happy Kev.

It's a good thing that soup freezes well. 

And a good thing that I have gotten over my fear of frozen foods.

At least when I'm in control of it.  :)