of beets and rutabagas and nurses

silver beet and cannellini soup recipe. This looks good.

Lima beans originated in the Andes (think Lima Peru) and also in Mesoamerica. I happen to really like Lima beans... I think I'm the only one around here that does ;)

There is beet and cannelini soup of my own making on the stove, not quite the recipe above, but apparently great minds think alike. Mine has some chicken in it. I have a rutabaga I was planning to combine with apples and make a soup - but that one will have to wait for a little while longer. With winter coming there are all these beautiful root vegetables asking to be used - I just wish they were from my garden, but no -- those did not do well and these are all from the store. I do like that they are cheap and keep quite well, and stretch very well into soup. Esme watched me peel and cut up the beet and said it was pink like strawberry... but she definitely knew it was a Mama food... Mark says he is surrounded by rabbits! More meat for him ;) I said.

Esme went to Jackson again with Grandma and Daddy to see Grandpa. He is going to Memphis now for another surgery. Esme got to watch the change a dressing on Grandpa's chest with the trainee nurses, who had a blast talking to her, and she told me all about it when I got home from work. She said the doctors had Grandpa and he had owies and the doctors helped to FIX it and Grandpa went with the doctors to fix his owies more. That was a pretty good explanation after Daddy told me what had happened in his words ;) She has been really interested in medical questions the past week. Further from that - she is watching the original Transformers shows now, and she is talking about the robots and they are breaking and shooting and flying and fixing etc etc... She stands on a chair with her arms out in front of her and says she is flying to save the robots. She has so much to say now that it is very amusing at times!

off to do laundry and stir soup...

//notes// soup turned out quite well:
1 beet, peeled and then cut into thin pieces
greens from beet, washed, plucked off vanes and torn up
about 1/2 cup cannellini beans, from dry, soaked overnight first
red wine vinegar
several pieces of chicken from the freezer
1 small green pepper
2 small tomatoes
pepper, salt, basil, garlic, dash of chili powder
about three to four hours mostly covered (vented side on cover) on 4/10 heat boiling with water until everything was soft

I had Esme eat a bit of beet saying it was a red carrot. They were sweet, but not quite as soft as she expected. She ate it, but didn't think it was great. She ate some of the chicken pieces out of the soup and thought that was passable.

I won the first grade reader on Ebay last night. 'the new We Three' It has Dick and Jane type stories (different names) and should be a fun durable hardcover for Esme to get some reading practice in. She is bringing me books more often now, although not all of them have words she can recognize and I hope this will add to the stack that does. There is also a book 'Telling Time with Big Mama Cat' that I have ordered with my sewing rec money. It has moveable hands on a plastic clock and Mama cat has 'appointments' for things she needs to do in the house at certain times of the day while her people are gone. I think Esme will like that.

I have several closing shifts this week... which means late nights and probably earlier-than-I-want mornings.... c'est la vie. I'll be tired by the time Sunday comes around (next day off)