Carrot Ginger Soup w/Tarragon & My B-Day!

This week has been a whirl wind. You don’t want to know. Really. S*** hit the fan, people got on my nerves and I had to get real aggressive with others.

I almost chucked my pumps at a creditor, but then I thought he wasn’t worth a $400 replacement.

I just don’t like people this week.

So while you’re reading this, pretend you’re a fuzzy animal that would make me smile.

And so far, only once this week has a friend made me smile. Not even so much smile as much as he was able to take my mind off real problems for 2 hours. I invited Sean over for lunch on Wed. and he accepted. I never invite friends or biz contacts into my home during work hours. Home is work and work is in my home and it just doesn’t feel right. But Sean is cool and loves to eat my food. Plus he’s always on time. I’m talking about 45 minutes early on time.

Who does that??

So when he showed up at 12:15, with another man answering my door, I played it cool. “Oh yeah, Reg meet Sean, Sean meet Reg.” Reg trains me, Sean *manages* me. This doesn’t seem so bad, right? However, the hiccup occurred when Sean’s purpose for having lunch with me was walking out the door with Reg!

I gave Reg the food I had reserved for Sean.

I like to share and show appreciation, so I shrugged my shoulders and asked Sean to get over it. This just meant a very unplanned and untimely trip to the grocery store.

The flip side is that we would be having fresh SOUP for lunch and not leftovers (though after a spoonful, I realized the flavor had set in very nicely).

Classical music playing on my mac, Giesha Dior laying on her back in her plush chair, Sean on the couch screaming at his lawyer over a song copyright infringement and me in my newly acquired Obama shirt, scurrying in my rinky dink kitchen, making some warm, feel good and ultra aromatic soup.

For a moment, I was feeling okay. I was happy to be sharing food with someone who extends himself when I need him to. And quite honestly, after a 2 hr. workout to get my bootie TV ready, I was hungry as all get out.

So I whipped up this carrot soup. Bon Appeéit sent me a few recipe cards, one of them being a carrot orange soup with tarragon. I hadn’t had a carrot soup in about 9 years so I decided to make it with my own twist. Loving, carrots as of late, lusting over liqueur and tarragon, I was excited to make my version of this perfect fall sopa. Theirs had much more orange juice and no ginger, a must I thought would take the soup to “new heights”!! Hee hee, I’m so clever. It just hit me: that’s the name of the resto in DC where I last carrot soup.

Sean was impressed as Vivaldi’s “Autumn” (from his 4 Seasons masterpiece) was approaching it’s crescendo simultaneous to the blender smoothing out the mixture. I was getting hungrier and couldn’t wait another 15 minutes without dipping into the pot.

The tarragon was just amazing, it made me happy to think I cook for a living. I mean, for me, feeding people is so joyous!

Over lunch, we looked at my cookbook mock (I know I’ve not mentioned it being done), sipped on a tasty Shiraz/Cab blend, talked about a music project I’m working on, how to reinvent my imaging and what my plans were for my b-day on Sunday! The greatness of the soup just made the conversational topics so much more interesting.

Yes, yes, I flew to DC last night to celebrate mi cumpleaño on Sunday! Won’t tell age, guess if you dare, but it’s great to celebrate my birthday with my fam! We take birthdays very seriously around this house. In fact, exactly two years ago today my parents and I were in Paris, eating fruit tartes and clutching baguettes; later drove to Monaco for 5 days (stopping at an incredible al fresco market along the country side of France)–all in celebration of my chilly weather b-day!

It was great, really, but that’s how we do!

Don’t know what the plans are if any, but I hope to see all my old school friends and jump to Manhattan for a quick trip to the Village. And more importantly this year, I came home to vote! What a perfect weekend to be in Va!! Parties in a tutu skirt my mom is making, with the baddest pumps I’ve bought this season, sporting my uber chic Obama shirt I bought from an indie designer in Soho, NY and standing in line for hopefully no more than an hour on Tuesday! Well, this is the funny part, my parents are voting Republican and the five of us are voting Democrat, so I must call the NBC to come out and witness! My father will not be happy, but this is history baby!  A loud Cuban-American family walking to the polls (yes, the poll precinct is on our block) and all 7 of us voting at the same time in support of two distinct candidates!

BEAUTIFUL!

Back to my soup. I love it. I think you will too and hope you make it. It’s quick to make for dinner, taking no more than 40 minutes, including prep time. It’s healthy, full of vitamins and rich in color and taste. Tastes even better the next day. If you warm it up on the stove top, add a bit more orange juice. I’m so glad I made it. And look forward to doing it again. This is the first in the Holiday food installment. I hope to attack non-Latin traditional foods, some of which I’ve made before, others which I’ll conjure up in good form!

HAPPY FALL, GOOD EATING AND GET OUT AND VOTE!!! NEXT TIME I WRITE, WE WILL HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT!!!

THANK GOD!

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Eat well, love unapologetically, pray with true intention, and take care of yourself.

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