Today, I had Naomi and her youngest daughter, Mikayla, over for lunch. (Hi, Naomi!) Lots of fun. It was short, but it was nice to have someone to visit with, even for an hour. Now that Jason is working at DMI, it means that I am vehicle-less during the day again, and it is easy to feel house-bound. It hasn't been too bad, since it has been summer and we can still get outside to play and go for walks, etc., but come winter it could get interesting. Hopefully we will be able to either afford a second vehicle by then, or find someone for Jason to carpool with a few days a week.

I have also been busy getting class outlines together for the scrapbooking classes I will be teaching at Scrap Away this fall. Scrap Away is the weekend event the Baptist Church puts on, which I was able to attend this spring. They have decided to move it to the fall, and Amanda and I are teaching classes at it. I am really looking forward to it, although I was a bit stressed trying to get all my information in, since I thought I had more time than I actually did. However, it's done, it's in, and I can breathe easier now. The Scrap Away link is where Amanda and I will be posting our class information and projects, so if it's not working yet when you try it, try again a little later to see what we'll be up to.

Anyhoo, as a final bonus (before I go get to work on the Scrap Away site), I'd like to post the soup recipe I made at lunch today. This is a super-yummy soup that everyone I've served it to likes--even my vegetarian grandparents! (Although I'm not sure if it dampened their enjoyment or not when I told them it was made with chicken stock. Homemade stock is really key for great-tasting soups. I'll post a recipe for that another time.)

Cream of Potato Soup

Serves 8.

2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 med. onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. cumin seeds
8 med. potatoes, peeled and diced into small chunks
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
8 cups homemade chicken stock
1 tbsp. Celtic sea salt
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
fresh ground black pepper, to taste

In a large pot, sauté onions in butter and olive oil over medium-low heat until soft. Add garlic and cumin seeds and sauté for another minute or two, then add potatoes, carrots, stock, and sea salt. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat and blend in pot using hand-held blender, or run through a blender in batches and return to pot. Add cream and pepper, and serve immediately.