Fall Vegetable Soup goes into the Crock Pot
Summer is over despite the warm weather. We are well into fall, so it's time for me to clean out my refrigerator and use up the remainder of the fresh vegetables while they are still somewhat fresh and not yet compost.
I woke up yesterday with the desire to putter around in my kitchen cooking and even cleaning up a bit. So out from the fridge and into the crock pot went a variety of veggies:
carrots
potatoes
bok choy
broccoli leaves
onions
garlic
yellow crookneck squash
Roma tomatoes
green bell pepper
red slightly spicy "mystery" pepper
1/2 can of garbanzo beans
extra virgin olive oil
homemade vegetable stock + some water
herbs & spices (including basil, oregano, bay leaf, black pepper, paprika etc)
Turned the crock pot on high and let it simmer for about 8 hours.
Here's my bowl of "End of Summer" veggie soup that accompanied my dinner last night:
Tasty Vegetable Soup ~ and more room in the fridge now too!
For the last couple of days I have had an almost tame deer, a doe, hanging around my house all day and night. I am accustomed to having deer around, I do live in the forest, but usually they don't show themselves so boldly in the middle of the day, nor so close to the house.
For the last couple of days I have had an almost tame deer, a doe, hanging around my house all day and night. I am accustomed to having deer around, I do live in the forest, but usually they don't show themselves so boldly in the middle of the day, nor so close to the house.
I don't usually feed the deer, as I don't want to tame them. I prefer to let wild things stay wild and free. This deer did get a couple of handouts from me. Some old carrots that weren't tasty enough for my soup pot yesterday. She enjoyed those quite a bit.
Here's a photo of her in the background while she was eating the carrots:
My friendly Doe in the background eating her carrots, and my black cat "Charity" (sitting high in his new climbing tree that Jack made for us) in the foreground. Yes, Charity is a boy kitty, but that's a story for another day.
And today I gifted her a big old apple that had been in my fridge for quite awhile. I cut it up for her to make it easier to eat, and she liked that a lot too. She was practically following me around my property earlier. Sort of put me on alert. I am sure I will regret feeding her at some point. Probably when she helps herself to my red petunias on my porch table or when she eats and breaks my fruit trees. She was so cute and so skinny. My heart just softened in a moment of weakness. We are all connected in nature, and she looked hungry. So I fed her.
© Copyright 2008 Mountain Harvest Basket
6 comments:
MMmm! That End of Summer veggie soup sounds just scrumptious! I love how you just gather up all the veggies in your fridge and throw together such a delicious soup.
That deer is so pretty. Maybe she'll be a good girl and not bother you garden or flowers, and only expect a few hand-outs instead. One can hope, right?
Charity was the name of my previous dog's name...she was a pomeranian/papillon mix.
Is that a car play yard for Charity? What a clever idea!
What size is it and is it just a daytime play yard or full time cat yard?
I'd like to build something like that for our outside cat to keep him safe.
~Lisa
whoops...I meant 'cat' play yard...not 'car' play yard. lol!
Hi Lisa,
Not all my thrown together soups turn out that well, but this one does have a very nice taste. I just had another bowl for dinner tonight with pesto garlic bread.
The cat play yard is a daytime outdoor enclosure for Charity to keep him safe from fighting with other cats and stop him from eating the neighbor's cat food. He needs his special wet cat food diet to prevent painful and expensive urinary blockages. (he had several episodes of blockage before I changed his diet earlier this year.)He came to me as a stray cat, neutered already, but he still will spray his scent everywhere. I'd like to keep him in the house with my other two, but just can't. So he has his own little cat apartment that we built for him inside my garage where he lives at night, and his outdoor patio enclosure during the day. He has play things and plenty of shade and shelter from weather.
The enclosure is right next to my kitchen window, so we can talk to each other during the day. The enclosure measures about 10 by 20 feet and goes all the way up to the top of my house awning (otherwise he'd climb out). We used 2x4's for the frames and and stapled welded fencing wire with 2x4 inch grid to the wood.
He loves it in there, and when he has occasionally gotten out, he sticks pretty close to home. He likes being around us.
Your End of Summer soup looks delicious and very colorful, but I don't recall any sharing going on.♥♥
Good on making room in your fridge for our soon to arrive Harvest Dinner fixings.
That was a fabulous photo of Charity and the skinny female deer cruising for handouts. And, it appears that Charity really likes Jack's newly constructed kitty tower.
The panhandling doe will definitely be back. You need a big "no deer allowed" sign by the red petunias.
Doesn't it make you wonder if maybe that doe is sick, the way she is hanging around, so tame and skinny? I know that's a warning sign to stay away from other animals that lose their boundaries with humans, but I'm not sure about deer. Can deer get rabies? Did she look healthy otherwise?
Sorry, I don't mean to be negative about your tame deer, just want you and your kitties to be safe! :-)
Yummy soup....Mmmmmm....pair that with a hearty crusty bread and I'm in heaven!
Hi Bob,
Yes, my doe was back the next day. I haven't fed her any more since my last report though. Since you mentioned that you'd like some of my veggie soup, I brought you some for lunch yesterday complete with a bowl and a spoon! Glad you liked it.
Hi Danni,
You're not negative. And my deer really is not tame. She doesn't appear to be sick. She is alert and moves well and fast. I get a lot of deer on my property partly because I am one of the very few people in my neighborhood who does not have a dog around to scare off the deer. Almost all of my neighbors have dogs that bark at and/or chase the deer. So many of the deer come over here to my place to hide and hang out. Some of my neighbors actually feed the deer on a regular basis. That's another reason why some of the deer are not too afraid of humans.
I suppose deer could get rabies. I think any mammal could. This doe was a bit on the skinny side, but that is not all that unusual around here. The tender spring grasses and weeds dried up many months ago in our summer heat. So her food is scarce this time of year. That's why occasionally I toss a little produce to the deer in the fall & winter months if I have any to give.
Post a Comment