Dragons, Soup, and Swap

Dragons. I don't have a picture that relates to my post today, but here's a picture of Ethan with "Legend," the stuffed dragon he got to take home from class today. He gets to keep him all weekend and write in a journal that has followed Legend each weekend over the past 10 years that Ethan's teacher has been teaching. He is super excited.

Legend is a very well behaved dragon. I think Ethan will even take him along to a birthday party this evening...should make a fun story for the journal. Ethan is hoping Legend likes pizza.

Soup. Well, we tried a recipe for the first time this week, and it was delish. It was the roasted tomato soup recipe that your mom emailed to us about a year ago. We just barely tried it, and it's fabulous. Maybe you guys have all made it already, but in case you haven't, here it is with just a few changes I would make.

Aunt Joan's Roasted Tomato Soup

Tomatoes (enough to fill a cookie sheet when halved)
1 Head of garlic
1 Onion
Oregano
Basil
Thyme
Ground Pepper
Salt
Olive oil
28 oz. Chicken broth (I just made mine with bouillon)
1 t. Sugar
1 c. Cream

Half or quarter enough tomatoes to fill a foil-lined cookie sheet. Lay tomatoes cut-side up. Cut the bottom off a whole clove of garlic and set cut side down on cookie sheet. Aunt Joan sprinkles with 3 T. of olive oil, but I just sprayed the foil with PAM. Sprinkle tomatoes with salt.

Roast for 1 hr. Cool for about 30 min. or so.

Add 1 T. of olive oil to a large soup pot. Add diced onion and some more salt. Sweat over medium low heat until the onion is tender. Add your choice of spices for the last minute or so. I used oregano, basil, thyme, and fresh ground pepper.

Once the garlic has cooled, squeeze roasted garlic out of peeling and add to the onion mixture along with the roasted tomatoes and 28 oz. of chicken broth. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Then blend the mixture in a blender. Return the soup to your pot and add 1 cup of cream. Serve.

We did make it with the full cup of cream, but I think it would be just as good if you substituted some milk for the cream. Maybe 1/2 c. cream, 1/2 c. milk. It's up to you.

Swap. This week, I participated in a toddler busy bag swap. I know many of you don't have toddlers anymore, but I think it works well for pre-schoolers as well. The gal who organized it sent us this site to choose what activities we wanted to make. We didn't have 20 people interested in participating. We only had 5, so we each chose 2 projects, made 5 each, and then swapped. It was great. Now I have a little bag full of fun activities for Sam. It's great for keeping him entertained, and many of them will work awesome for church as well. Give it a look.