Sunday morning

Sat outside on the steps, the coolness of the morning lingering, listening to the sound of church bells calling someone to worship.  Sometimes a voice calls out from up the street, sometimes a car goes by, once a crow cawed, but otherwise, quiet.  The air has been hazy since yesterday morning, the winds shifting this way, carrying the smoke from all of the fires burning.  All the childhood places, burning.  Burning out of control.

Got up early-ish to finally roast the tomatoes (I picked half of them before we had the rain storm), threw those in the oven, and started going through the produce drawers.  Found some onions that needed salvaging, peeled off the outer layer, and sliced the sweet one thinly and tossed onto the pan with the tomatoes, then a few cloves of garlic and salt for good measure.  In the end it didn't amount to much, and since it was paste-like, I ended up adding it all to the soup instead of freezing it.  I peeled the skin off after roasting, all my tomatoes have very thick skin this year, not sure if it's the weather or the variety.

This is the soup, so I can find it again (and I never really measure anything.)

Two ears of corn, kernels cut off and reserved, cobs broken in half and tossed in a pot with enough water to cover by maybe a half inch.  Bay leaf and a few slices of dried mushroom I had sitting around; poured the tomato liquid from the roasting pan into it as well.  Covered and let simmer.  Chopped what remained of the small, red onion fine, chopped half of a padrón pepper fine, small celery rib (fine), and a clove of garlic.  Browned the onion and garlic in about a Tbsp of butter and a little olive oil, added the remainder of vegetables once the onion had softened.  Salvaged a zucchini (by salvage I mean other things had started to melt in the produce bags) by rinsing and then peeling for good measure.  Chopped about the same size as the corn kernels, threw that in the pan.  Added a pinch of saffron, salt, pepper, and a bit of pimentón  When it had cooked for about 10 minutes, decided I might as well add the tomato, onions, garlic from the oven.  Stirred and let it dry out a little.  Removed the bay leaf, cobs, and mushroom bits from the broth, added the vegetables.  Simmered to reduce it some.  Tasted pretty good at that point.  Added probably 1/4 lb of the salmon (the thick, west coast type of smoked salmon) and probably 2 Tbsp of fresh dill.  Let simmer.  Added cream at the last minute because I had some I needed to use.  Turned out pretty good.

If I were to make it again, I'd add something like fennel (fronds, bulb, seeds, pernod?) to it, and omit the cream.  But it's fine.  Now only another 1/2 lb to use up.  When I went to the library to pick up a hold yesterday, there was this tome of a French cookbook on the counter, so I checked that out as well, and lugged it home.  The recipes seemed doable, not overly complicated.  Might make rillettes with some of the salmon (like a fancier version of tuna salad, omitting the mayo.)  I was told I might have two weeks before it went bad, but I'd like to use it up sooner, generally don't do well with old food.

Still need to write, but at least I did something with my morning, can not say that much lately.  Need to go meet someone from the buy-nothing group to loan her a Spanish phrase book for her Camino.

And write.