Cream of Chicken
1. Onions sauteed in butter.2. 2 T whole wheat flour; mixed to a paste with the buttery onions.3. Added milk slowly, heating and stirring constantly.5. Salt.5. Added half a can of Swanson's chicken broth.6. Can of cubed chicken, including the juice.7. Pureed a can of potatoes and juice; added to the becoming-soup.8. Pepper.9. Stirred; heated.Soup's on!

Dreaming in Color
Last night I dreamed in bright colors! I dreamed horses of roan and palomino, bay, white and black, buckskin. There were five white horses and a girl with long, blonde hair was riding one. I remember viewing her from the sky and wanting one of the white horses to ride for myself. So beautiful.Then I dreamed chickens, so many chickens! They kept breeding, producing more chickens, itty bittys and regular chickens, all stuffed together, and I was scrambling to clean out more pens with more feeders and more waterers to make room for all the chickens. They were colored, too; gold and speckled with black, russet and white and yellow and dove gray. Most beautiful were a number o

Plans for Soup
Inspired by the turning leaves and colder weather, I'm planning soup for supper. I've had a butternut squash in the crisper for a couple weeks now, waiting for this particular idea to pop into my head. Originally, I planned to bake and mash the squash like potatoes, which is great, too, but today soup seems even better!Recipe for--um, what shall I call this?--Butternut Cheese Soup!I already cut the butternut into fourths and deseeded it, turned the open sides down in a glass, baking dish and added about a 1/2 in. of salted water. It's baking right now at 375F. Takes about an hour to be soft enough to mash, which is what I want.With that done, I have t

Heart for Quail
Every year Al purchases quail from a farm for dog training. This year I threw a fit and wouldn't take care of them for him, so he's doing the feeding/watering/cleaning himself. However much I've removed myself from their care, the quail are still sitting there next to the pen for my banties. Every morning and often during the day, I can hear the quail cooing--more of a tiny "pi-pii"--wooing me. They know my weakness, that I would save them from their inevitable and senseless death, make plans to house and husband them, breed and raise their generations!--if only they could win my heart with their charming calls.

Oatmeal
Dad has forgotten how to make oatmeal, and Al never learned. I wonder, sometimes, how they would survive without me here to feed them both like baby birds.When I discover two, large, failed attempts at bowls of oatmeal, Al says to me, pointing at the oatmeal box, "That's how you make it, 2 to 1, right?" How do I tell him that you have to follow the spirit of the instructions, not the letter? He wouldn't understand. "Yes, dear, that's the recipe." I scrape the glop from one bowl into the glob in the other bowl and path out to feed it to the chickens. When I return to the kitchen, I add oatmeal to the grocery list. *sigh*