I'm on a Roll!

Yesterday evening I made French bread and cream of broccoli soup!

The bread is delicious. I used this recipe. It was easier and quicker than any of the other breads I've made recently - it only rises once, and requires no kneading - but it might be my favorite so far. (Of course, I remembered halfway through the rising that I in fact already have a loaf of French bread I bought from Foodtown two days ago... but hey, whatevs, you can always use more French bread, right? I foresee French toast in my future....)

The cream of broccoli soup was really for Alex, because we were talking recently about how passionately he adores it. I used this recipe (except I sauteed the veggies in oil instead of butter), and while it was really fun to make (I am super enamored with Tom's little immersion blender), I have to say it was kind of bland (even though I added three cloves of chopped garlic to the onions and celery at the beginning, and plenty of salt and pepper at the end). Alex loved it, though, and Tom and Jamie liked it too, and it was good with a little grated cheddar and a slice of fresh bread. I think if I make it again, though, I might double the onions and garlic. I don't know what else to do to make it more flavorful. A splash of balsamic vinegar really improved the lentil soup I made the other day, but I'm nervous about putting vinegar or soy sauce or anything like that in a milk based soup. Hm...

Later, Tom made snickerdoodles. Tom rocks at snickerdoodles. Normally I don't really get what the whole snickerdoodle fuss is about, but Tom's snickerdoodles are outstanding. I wish I'd had room in my stomach for more than one!

In other news, it's raining (yay); I fell down the stairs a little bit yesterday and now my left ankle is sore (no real pain - don't freak out - it's really ok); I've been emailing casting agencies to offer accompaniment services but haven't heard back yet from any of them (trying to decide if the next step is to drop by with a resume/cover letter or to mail it in; I'm leaning toward the latter, as casting directors are apparently notoriously testy about being called or visited without warning, at least by actors); I was going to go to the post office today to mail in my federal taxes and to send Lord Sunday back to Ilan, but I will probably postpone that until Monday; I went to Foodtown and bought a broom (finally! We were making do with the tiniest of hand brooms and a swiffer); and I am learning Esperanto.