It’s a beautiful fall day as I write this blog. The temperature is about 52 degrees and it’s raining.
Yes, raining!
I love a nice cool rainy day. It makes me want to bake something aromatic like soup or maybe cookies. Soup would definitely be better for me, but there’s nothing like the smell of homemade gingersnap cookies filling the house. But that will have to wait for the afternoon. Right now, I’m sitting in my office, facing the windows, and writing this blog. After that, I will work on some edits for my proposal.I seem to be doing more looking out the window than working today. The colorful leaves are still falling in my area of the country. I live in a neighborhood with mostly oak trees and the leaves seem to take forever to fall. Many times, it takes a big windstorm or the first snowfall to bring them down.
Rainy days are wonderfully relaxing, as long as you don’t have to go out in them. I love to put on the fireplace, grab a blanket, and read a fantastic romance novel. So maybe I’ll take the afternoon off, pull a book off my TBR pile, and enjoy the peace before the kids get home from school.I really shouldn’t have written that last sentence. I jinxed myself! The school nurse just called. The 13 yr old needs to come from school early and then it’s back to the doctor’s office for another check on his throat. There goes my afternoon.
How about you? Do you enjoy a nice cool rainy day? What should I have done this afternoon, bake or read? Do you have a good soup recipe to share? And what’s on your TBR pile?Since I’ve already started shopping for Christmas, I’m in a giving spirit. I’ll give away a copy of Scandal of the Season to one lucky person who comments on the blog today!
86 comments:
just send him over Daz
YAY Barb- congrats on the joy of hosting that troublesome rooster ;-)
Christie, now I want cookies!!! I love soup in autumn. I love it even more with homemade bread (and now I'm craving it with cookies for dessert).
My favorite soup is potato leek and my cookie craving of the moment is oatmeal raisin with walnuts.
I do love autumn, too. The soft rain, the cooling weather and hunker-in-and-be-cozy feeling is so welcome after the frantic craziness of summer.
Hi Chrisie it is cloudy now but we have had some sun.... it is 20C as we are going into summer now.... no falling leaves as none of our native trees are deciduous ... I like rainy days and I think I would rather read a book than bake LOL I have a few books on the TBR pile... at the moment Anne Gracie's The Accidental Wedding is at the top
They are certainly good for reading, and baking :) Sounds like a good day just to watch some tv
Well done Barbara I will be there for a cuppa LOL
Christie
I love cool rainy days and curling up with a good book nothing better but seeing as how things are hotting up over here I will be sitting on the recliner with the AC on and reading and not baking because that will make the house hotter LOL although I really need to start making my Chrissy Cakes very soon and I love the smell of them cooking.
I do hope your Son feels better and as for the TBR pile way too many to choose from I really have a hard time these days choosing what to read next LOL I have just finished Nicola Cornicks One Wicked Sin and really enjoyed it this one is a great adventure to a HEA I have just started Sharon Archer's Bachelor Dad, Girl Next Door a medical romance I do so enjoy them as well.
I would have baked some cookies to eat while I was reading LOL and as for soup I really like a nice home made vegie soup nothing special about mine use all the vegies you have and barley tastes great and warms you up on a cold day.
Have Fun
Helen
Hey, Barb, he's with you today! Huzzah!
Christie, what a fun post. I agree with you about rainy days being perfect for wallowing in a great romance novel. We haven't had rain for a few weeks now and things are starting to dry off. Maybe it's a good thing - I don't have time to wallow right now and that trickle of rain on the roof always makes me itch to attack the TBR pile. Sorry your plans were interrupted!
I love rainy days. I am a baker. I love to make bread, sweet breads, spicy breads and fill the house with good scents. So I enjoyed your post. I hope you consider me for your gift of Scandal of the Season. It looks like an interesting book.
Hey Christie - It's raining here as well...a cold, soaking rain. The wind picked up earlier, stripping the trees of the last stubborn leaves, but I have a Charlie Brown tree in our front lawn - you know, a tree with personality. It's a Japanese something - it's huge - and it's loaded with smallish yellow leaves - and it's waiting. It waits until all the other trees are bare and you clean up the yard. It waits till the scheduled leaf pickups are over...only then does it drop its leaves with one whoosh - and you have to start the lawn clean-up all over again.
Love the smell of homemade soup and baking cookies in the house. Makes me fat(ter) just thinking about it. My favorite autumn/winter soup has an amazing number of ingredients, but here's the gist. Brown up a pound of sausage - any kind- with onions and garlic. Add red wine, beef broth, a can of tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, more red wine and let it cook till the flavors mingle. Add a bag of baby carrots and a green pepper. Let it cook some more. Add a zucchini. Let it cook about ten minutes, then serve over noodles and top it with parmesan cheese. Wonderful and rich - best with a hunk of fresh bread.
Wish I was home today to cook rather than in this tax seminar. Do you think they'd notice if I hid a romance novel inside the tax code?
The last two days have been cold, windy and rainy. It's bringing down the leaves and making me want to cuddle inside with the pups and a good book and, like Christie, fill the house with good smells. Yesterday, I made comfort food - veggie beef soup - and paired it with Tuscan Herbed bread. Wonderful!
It's easy to enjoy a rainy day when you're at nice and dry at home. Ooh, cookies would be great on a cold rainy day. I can't bake, so I would just probably break open a bag of chips and start reading or watch some comedies.
Wow, I guess all the warm sunshine is in my part of the country. It has been beautiful for the last few days. Thank you, La Niña!
What I like to do during the rainy season is to make stock: simmer a large pot of water and turkey parts for hours. This heats up the place and makes it smell wonderful. The stock can be used to make all sorts of soups. Plus, it won't have any weird stuff that can be found in commercial soups and turkey stocks.
By the way, I loved SCANDAL OF THE SEASON. Too bad the necklace on the cover didn't match the necklace Victoria stole from Anthony but her dress was perfect.
I was kind of amused that such a rake like Anthony would behave like a jealous, moody teen boy around Victoria. Anyway, I can't wait to read Sophie's story.
We seem to have an Aussie rooster now. He is clinging to the warm ladies with the cool accent.
Ah Christie, even in my soups I want some meat, I would make chili..LOL
As for a rainy day, which is going on here today too. Curl up in my new fuzzy blanket and bury myself in Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love's Blood Trinity. I want to just devour it whole but I am pacing myself.
It rained all day yesterday too but it did get up to around 62 I think, I have just spent last week off sick with sinus and ear infection so I am moving in slow motion. I came home last night and made sausage balls for our Thanksgiving lunch at work, just my group today and the whole office tomorrow so I will do it again when I get home tonight. I love sausage balls, almost instant gratification.
Congrats on grabbing him, Barb. Love the picture, by the way.
Tawny, I did finally make cookies after dinner. Nothing special though. Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies.
After running my son to the doctor and then to the lab for blood work, my afternoon was shot.
Barb, I love fall and am so happy summer is behind us now. I'm not a heat person. Let me know how you like Anne Gracie's book. I've heard really good things about it.
Blodeuedd said...
They are certainly good for reading, and baking :) Sounds like a good day just to watch some tv
LOL, that's my husband's idea for a rainy day. He loves to hang out and watch movies.
Helen said...I would have baked some cookies to eat while I was reading LOL
Not that would have been the perfect afternoon!
Anna, I hear you about the work. Unfortunately, my afternoon didn't turn out the way I had wished. But I did get the cookies baked (after dinner).
Hi Linda, I love to make sweet breads too. At this time of year, my favorite is pumpkin bread. I even have some canned pumpkin in the house. But that will have to wait until the weekend. Too much going on this week.
Hey, Christie! Your view and your morning sound wonderful! I'm a huge fan of soup come autumn. I went on such a chili tear recently that my family, while appropriately appreciative, gently suggested I break new culinary ground this week.
Hope your boy feels better soon!
Donna, I hope you make it through your tax seminar. I'm off in a few minutes for the Legislative update continuing ed class. Three hours of zzzzzzzzz.
Your soup recipe sounds fantastic and if it's cool this weekend, I'm going to try it.
PJ, I went into the pantry yesterday and saw my bread maker. I think this weekend will be bread and soup.
Jane, you're right about how nice it is at home on a rainy day. Of course, I spent my afternoon between doctors' offices, lab and pharmacies. Not fun.
Sheree, next Friday, I'll have the turkey soup going. I can't wait for that. I always make way too much but luckily I have a chest freezer and store some in there for January.
And thank you for the comments on Scandal of the Season. I really like when a rake gets jealous and doesn't really know that he's falling in love.
Dianna, I think the GR has migrated down under for their summer. Smart bird!
I hope you're feeling better. There is a ton of stuff going around right now. Half my 13 yr old's friends are sick. It's no wonder that he's down with something.
Susan, I love making chili too. I have a great recipe for a crockpot chili that simmers all day. Makes the house smell great!
Okay, I'm taking a few hours to complete a continuing education class for the day job. I'll be back after lunch! Don't have too much fun without me.
Hi, Christie! We are also having cool, rainy weather--perfect for nesting at home. I love days like this when I can put on a pot of soup and make some lovely, yeasty, crusty bread : ) The cats and I will curl up on the couch with our old cotton quilt. I will read, and they will sleep. The house is warm and cozy and filled with wonderful cooking aromas. Soul satisfying : )
Lovely post, Christie. I'm afraid I'm fed up of rain! It's been cold and grey and miserable for weeks now - the worst weather for ages. I know England is supposed to have constant rain, but in reality it doesn't rain anymore than on the East Coast. It's been a very wet October and November for us, though. And we've had our first frosts. *brrrr*
Love home-made soup, especially with lovely hubby's home-grown veggies. It's been a bumper year for us on the allotment and I'm definitely in hearty soup mood!
I'm all for baking too. Nothing quite like home-made crusty bread.
On the other hand, who can resist the chance to curl up with a good book?! My TBR mountain is about to turn into a mountain range.
Helen - we made our Chrissy puds last weekend and are due to make the cakes this weekend.
I think the smile might give you away, Donna! But, go for it!
Christie -
The best thing to do is to bake AND read!
It's raining here today in Rhode Island and it's suppose to be windy as well which means all those oak leaves that were raked up over the week-end but left in piles will again be covering the ground. Since we have 3/4 acres and they are full of oak trees, that's a lot of leaves!
That means it would be a perfect day to bake wine biscuits (my favorite "cookie") and read Home for the Holidays by Johanna Lindsey that I put aside to read right before the Thanksgiving and Christmas madness starts.
Christie, we had two cold and rainy days in a row, so I know what you mean. Yesterday, I stayed in my PJ's until almost noon, reading, working on reviews, and playing on the computer. I love days like that!
Barb, congrats on snagging the bird! I imagine he loves your avatar.
Christie, I also like rainy days if I don't have to go anywhere. If I do, I'm less than thrilled. I don't envy your trip to the doctor, and I hope the little one is better today. Having to go out in the rain is even worse when you're sick.
Soup is the perfect rainy day meal, imho. We're prone to chicken soup and corn muffins.
My favorite soups are corn chowder, curried lentil, and potato. I think a peanut butter cookie makes the perfect chaser.
Reading and surfing the 'Net are rainy day activities. Making cookies on a rainy day is a good idea. BUT, an even better day to make cookies is on a snow-no-school day! (Note: Keep cookie ingredients on hand throughout winter.) Making homemade bread on a snowy day is also good; especially when eating it warm from the oven and slathered with butter.
I like chili with cornbread on the side, potato soup, and crockpot stew. All easy to make and yummy.
We've had a couple of cool, rainy days this week, although today is sunny and crisp. I love reading and napping on rainy days and agree that soup is a perfect fall dish. The family favorite is kitchen sink soup. (Throw tomatoes, onion, a bit of garlic powder and whatever leftover veggies and meat are available--everything but the kitchen sink-- into chicken or beef broth and simmer for several hours.) We always serve it with cornbread. Yum!
Unfortunately, I'm in deadline mode for another fifteen days, so no reading, napping, or cooking until next month.
My TBR pile is mostly in ebook format at the moment, except for In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner by Elizabeth George. Most of my ebook pile comes from here (it's free, courtesy of Mills and Boon): http://www.everyonesreading.com/
And I just finished reading the Drake sisters series by Christine Feehan. I hope I'll be able to get the first book in the spin-off series to my hands soon.
Here's a recipe for a hot coconut and chocolate drink:
http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/coconut-chocolate-drink/
Vote for Suzanne's animal pictures =):
http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/64175/voteable_entries/10797301?order=recency
Well, since it sounds like you're going to have your son home with you for the afternoon - if he feels up to it - maybe you two could make cookies together, eat cookie dough, drink hot chocolate, and talk about nothing. That sounds like fun!
This time of year always brings out the cook in me. I have a great bean soup recipe and really wish I was a good baker. I'd love to find an easy black bread recipe.
If I am at home, I do like a rainy day where I can snuggle with a blanket and read. ON my tbr pile is Sherrilyn Kenyon's No Mercy.
OH Christie, growing up in Ohio I adore rainy days. We don't have as many, hang-in-the-air-slow-rain days down here in Texas. :( But in the last month, I've had two that I didn't have to venture out to work in! YIPPEE.
I spent one day in bed, (I worked the night before), opened the window and listened to the rain as I slept. Rocky-the-wonder-dog snuggled in beside me!
The other I spent starting the edits to The Surrender Of Lacy Morgan. Window was open again, because the rain pelting the sidewalk, house and bushes outside my window was very soothing as I worked.
Afterwards I made a pot of Tomato Basil Bisque. Hubby gobbled it down.
So, for those of you needing something for a rainy day, here's my newest creation.
TOMATO BASIL BISQUE
3 Tbs butter
1 large onion, chopped
4 stalks of celery with leaves, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 Tbs flour
1 large box chicken stock
2 cans crushed tomatoes
½ can water
½-1 cup parmesan cheese
1 8 oz box heavy cream
2-3 tsps basil
1. Melt butter in large soup pot over medium high heat, add next six ingredients. Cook until onions translucent and vegetables are soft.
2. Add flour and cook 3 minutes to reduce starch taste.
3. Add chicken stock, tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat for 15 minutes.
4. Using a hand blender, remove soup pot from heat and blend until all vegetables are minced. IF using a regular blender, use small batches in blender until all soup is blended. (Hot soup will expand in the blender, so use small batches for safety sake.)
5. Add all blended soup back to the pot.
6. Reduce heat. Add basil. Add cheese and stir until melted. Stir in heavy cream.
7. Taste. Add more salt if needed
8. Serve!
I want cookies AND soup..and crusty French bread and...a Diet Coke.
But as I'm feeling a bit under the weather (rainy or not) today, don't see that happining. Really, does Chicken and Stars COUNT as soup?
Hope your boy is ok!
Soup. Definitely soup. And since it would need to be a comfort food, I'd probably make chicken and dumplings. But some Taco soup wouldn't be bad either.
And I'd be reading and lounging around in my bed.
I'm looking forward to making some peppermint white chocolate chip cookies soon, maybe have them with some hot chocolate--those are both rainy day, right?
READ, READ, READ....always read lol
although cookies are good too.
Its coming into summer here in NZ so we're all souped out but my fave is pumpkin soup.
I hope your 13 year old gets better soon:)
Hi Virginia C, on the couch with a cat or two is a perfect way to spend a rainy day.
Anna said...My TBR mountain is about to turn into a mountain range.
Mine too! It's out of control and I just don't have the time to read like I used to.
Hope the weather improves over there. Today is very windy but the sun is out. I'm hoping the wind will knock the rest of the leaves off the trees so we can be done with raking.
Jeanne M, you must tell us what wine biscuits are! I need to know!
Gannon, days like you describe are perfect. My husband thinks I'm crazy because I like cold blustery days. He's a hot weather person.
Kirsten, your soup sounds great. My husband loves peppers so he would adore it. Unfortunately, I can't eat peppers.
Hi Nancy, my savior for the blog! Without you, this blog wouldn't have happened!
Doctor called while I was out at the CE class. Everything is negative so he thinks it's just a bad virus bringing him down. Luckily, they have off all next week so he can fully recover.
Deb said...
Reading and surfing the 'Net are rainy day activities.
That's my every day activity. LOL about keeping baking ingredients on hand for snow days. I always have some cookie I can make up. Except for last year, we don't usually get that many snow days. 60+ inches of snow for us last year was quite a record.
Janga, I like your idea for kitchen sink soup. I'll have to try it some time.
Good luck with the deadline!
Hi Minna, I've only just started to get into ebooks. I can get them through Amazon on my phone. The screen's a little small but it works!
Hi Cyberclipper,
My son pretty much laid on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. He didn't even want to help bake cookies. So I know he's not faking :)
He's home again today and didn't get out of bed until noon. Poor kid.
CrystalGB said...
If I am at home, I do like a rainy day where I can snuggle with a blanket and read. ON my tbr pile is Sherrilyn Kenyon's No Mercy.
There's nothing better than snuggling with a blanket and a book. I hope you enjoy Sherrilyn's book.
Suz, I need my rainy days so I guess moving to Texas is out for me. :)
Your recipe sounds great. I'll have to give it a try.
Joanie, my boys would say that Chicken and Stars is definitely soup. But what do they know.
I hope you feel better!
MsHellion, I love chicken and dumplings too. The peppermint white chocolate chip cookies sound awesome. I love anything peppermint.
Hi Cath! I need to read, read, read! I haven't done much reading lately and I really miss it! Maybe over our Thanksgiving week, next week.
ROFL! Nothing, absolutely NOTHING makes me want to cook. Rainy days serve a very serious, very annoying purpose in my life: they force me to sleep. I can't function when it's dark and cloudy, rainy or snowy. I, quite simply, hibernate! I have no control. It's why I didn't move to Seattle when I had the chance. LOL
Christie, I'm glad it's nothing serious. And I was happy to help with cyberspace.
On my TBR pile is the newest Deanna Raybourn, Dark Road to Darjeeling. That's the latest addition. I've ordered Lois McMaster Bujold's Cryoburn, the latest in the Miles Vorkosigan series.
Sheree, I also loved Scandal of the Season.
Dianna, I finished Blood Trinity the other day. Lots of action. I thought it was great.
Cybercliper, what's your favorite kind of cookie dough to eat? I love chocolate chip. Probably not smart to eat cookie dough, I've heard, thanks to the raw egg component, but I do like it.
Woohooo Barb!
Christie, I used to LOVE rainy days. As I grow older I'm finding I like them less. Maybe because of the ongoing restoration project on this old house. I dread the coming of winter, and cold rainy days are a mark of that season here in the mid-south.
I still don't mind warm rainy days--but I DO dislike long stretches of gray and rain with no break. The odd weather patterns have brought us more than our share of those the past few years. After a day--or at the most two--of cloudy, I'm really ready for the sun to shine again. I tend to get SADD disease in the winter, so that's probably why I like only short stretches of the gray rainy.
I will say, though, that gray rainy days spark my muse like nothing else. Which is an odd combination--that which sparks my muse also makes me despressed....hmmmm....very Hemingway-esque....
LOL, Claudia! Love your post! While I do love rainy days, I'm not sure I'm ready to pack it in and move to Seattle. Then again, if we have another summer like this past one, I might consider it. Way too many 90+ degree days this year.
Cassondra said...
I will say, though, that gray rainy days spark my muse like nothing else. Which is an odd combination--that which sparks my muse also makes me despressed....hmmmm....very Hemingway-esque....
Interesting indeed, Cassondra. I don't like long stretches of rain and clouds. After about three days, I'm ready to see some sun again.
Silvia, I think your rainy plans sound fantastic. I just checked the weather forecast for next week and it's rain, clouds and more rain. Yippee!
Yes, I enjoy a nice cool rainy day, especially since in Florida, those are few and far between. It's either hot and rainy or semi-cool and dry. You can't beat a rainy day for snuggling up and reading a good book. Baking is nice, but I'd rather someone else did that and I'll do the eating.
I don't care for just rainy days but bring on a real storm and I love it lol. Sleeping in late if possible and curling up with a good book would be my ideal way to spend the day. I enjoy making soup but I really don't have set recipes - a little of this and a lot of that lol.
Barbara, I would imagine you don't get that many cool rainy days in Florida. But up in the mid-Atlantic, we get just enough :)
Catslady, I don't have many soup recipes at all. I think it's time to invest in a good recipe book for soups.
It's a difficult decision for me. Bake or read? Both if I can swing it.
i've got a massive tbr pile. I have Shana Galen, Nelson DeMille, Nancy Gideon, James Patterson and more.
Nancy said...
Dianna, I finished Blood Trinity the other day. Lots of action. I thought it was great.
Yeah, definitely a lot of action, I am sitting here hyper-ventilating in sympathy for Evalle right now.
Hi Chey,
I'm with you. Both baking and reading is the best option!
Catslady, I'm all for sleeping in on a rainy day.
Dianna, it's going to be hard to wait a year for the next Belador book!
Congrats barb on the rooster!
I love cool fall rainy days as long as I don't have to get out in it. It rained here all day yesterday and I had to go do all of my shopping in town and I wasn't fond of the weather but we did need the rain, it has been so dry here this year. If I don't have to get out on those days I like to curl up with a good book or maybe do some baking. My favorite cookie is oakmeal raisin spice home made or course. Last year I made everyone in my family a batch of these cookies in a jar where all they had to do was mix them up and back them. They were very pretty in the jars and made a really nice gift. You layered everything in the jar the flour, sugars, rasins it kind of looked like sand art, very cool.
Good on you, Barb! Make him behave. But don't mention chicken soup!
Christie,
Isn't that always the way of it. You have a perfect plan for the afternoon and then the phone rings! SIGH!
We had a lovely two days of rain recently and one of them even fell on my day off! I will confess that I curled up with some historical romance novels, put a DVD in and piled onto the bed with the dogs and cats for an afternoon coze! It was lovely!!
Right now I am reading Caroline Linden's A View to a Kiss. I have Kieran Kramer's When Harry Met Molly on my TBR stack, along with the latest by Suzanne Enoch, Lorraine Heath, Stephanie Laurens and Nicola Cornick. And those are just the ones I can see from my desk! I need to move somewhere where they have a monsoon season to get all of those read!
As I spend all day baking I don't do much at home. And when it comes to soup, nothing beats my Mom's homemade gumbo!
Popping in late because I've been out in the lovely sunny fall day! Sheree, you must live in my neck o' the woods. It was 80 degrees here on Monday! I'm loving it, but only because I know a big rain storm is headed our way this weekend. ;-)
I HATE driving in the rain, but staying inside and reading while a batch of vegetable soup cooks in the crock pot is definitely high on my list of favorite things.
And fresh baked COOKIES?!?! Maybe we can convince Joanie to whip up a batch of her award-winning choccie chip?!?! PRETTY PLEASE???
AC
Maybe we can convince Joanie to whip up a batch of her award-winning choccie chip?!?! PRETTY PLEASE???
Sorry AC though I did manage to make it to the grocery to buy stuff to make pumpkin cake...
Mmm.... cookies! Soup! Stew! Books! Rainy days are wonderful if you have the luxury of curling up at home with all of the above, Christie! Our family is especially fond of split pea and ham, or a big pot of chili!
It's getting cold enough to snow here. We're in the 30's and it's so gloomy!
I love to read on crummy days. I like to make a yeast apple cake with streusels on top. The yeast always makes the house smell rich!
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