This Week + Comfort Food -- Jacques Pepin's Cream of Tomato Soup

It has been a busy emotional exhausting week here at the farm and all over the USA and I might say the world. Amongst all the melee, Rikki Snyder and I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday taking photos of projects and rooms for my upcoming book on pattern (2018 release). It was exhausting and the house is in a shambles. You can't imagine the behind the scenes. To set up a shot, we have to move all the furniture around, clear all signs of life, set up the props and projects, stand on ladders, try to find the perfect piece of fabric I have somewhere for a backdrop, and more. 

Rikki and I have worked together for 5 years now and we have developed a rhythm to our days as we work through shot lists, ticking off each photo. It is nice to feel so comfortable around a photographer, to understand how they work and to have confidence in the images they are taking of my work. Rikki and I seem to have very similar visions as to set ups, styling and more. As I am designing and working on a project, I am thinking all the time about where it will be photographed and how it will look on the pages of the book. 

My friend Gail Callahan (aka The Kangaroo Dyer) offered to help out on Tuesday. On Wednesday, my lit agent's intern Taylor helped out (and learned a lot). Thank you Gail and Taylor! We finished up in the dark on Thursday taking photos with very long exposures. Seriously, it was dark out and we were trying to take photos of the bedroom walls. We finally had to give up and call it a day. We have one more shoot in December and then I have lots of re-writing, editing, illustrating, etc. 

If you can believe it, I still have garden tomatoes ripening. For the first time in four years, I had a bumper crop. I've been making an easy recipe from Jacques Pepin for a Creamless Cream of Tomato Soup. I've been freezing it too as it makes great pasta sauce. The Cream of Tomato Soup Recipe is below.   

Jacques Pepin's Creamless Cream of Tomato Soup

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion - 1 cup coarsely chopped
2 large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 pounds tomatoes - cut into 2 inch pieces
2 1/2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/4 cups water
2 Tablespoons butter

Heat olive oil in soup pot. Add onion garlic, thyme, and oregano and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, pepper and water. Bring to a boil and cover. Reduce the heat to low and boil gently for 15 minutes. 

Using an immersion blender, process the soup until creamy. 

Serve the soup with toasted croutons and a dab of basil pesto. It also makes a nice sauce for pasta if you cut down the water a bit. 

The recipe is from Jacques Pepin's Essential Pepin. I love this book. It has over 700 recipes - many of which I have made. Nothing is too complicated and it all is delicious. It also features many illustrations by Jacques which I think is such a nice touch. Did you know he is quite the painter? 

Julia voted in her very first election. She was beyond excited and has been talking about it for over a year. I am not the most politically minded person but I was glad to support her interest in the democratic process. Although the election did not turn out the way Julia wanted it - the whole thing was a good experience for her and me as I watched her grow as a person and a citizen. Here she is at our little Town Hall putting her ballot in the box that rings when it is cranked through the slot. Voter turnout was very high - of 572 registered voters, 502 showed up not counting absentee votes. 

I hope you all have a nice weekend and can find time to cook or bake or knit or sew or make.