Cream of Pumpkin Soup - low carb! And a short update.

First up - yummy fall soup!

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

1/2 c. chopped onion
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. ginger
2 T. butter, melted
2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1/8 t. black pepper
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 t. salt

Saute onion in butter in a medium saucepan until tender. Add 1 can chicken broth; stir well. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Transfer broth mixture into the container of a blender or processor. Process until smooth. Return mixture to saucepan. Add remaining can of broth, pumpkin, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper; stir well. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in whipping cream and heat through. Do not boil. Ladle into individual soup bowls. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chopped pecans, if desired. 6 servings. 27 net carbs. total, 4.5 carbs per serving 

Thanks to Kellie on the Pea Board for sharing this delicious low carb recipe. I've already printed it and have it in my crate of vacation materials. I can't wait to make it!

Now for the update - 

Once again I haven't been around for awhile. Well, I am around...just haven't had time to sit down and blog. I thought I better post something before someone in blog land thinks I ended up dead under a pile of crap in the guest room.

Things are crazy busy, the living room is STILL not done, however JC Penney had a big 4 day sale on window coverings and I made a mad dash to the Florida Mall to snag 5 sets of 2" blinds (2 for the living room, 2 for the office, 1 for the guest room - poor guest room has only 1 window...). I can't deal with mismatched window coverings on the front of a house. Makes me crazy! So 4 were a must since the living room and office both have a front facing window and a side window. What's one more? Might as well get the one for the guest room too. $120 for all 5 36" wide blinds. Yippy!

Of course Mr. Paisley put up the 2 in the living room last night and yes...I now have mismatched window coverings. ARRRRRGH! With any luck at all I can get him to at least do the front window in the office tonight. Right now he's laying in the driveway under the truck. Remember my BRAKE! issue? One of the brake lines is leaking. The one above the fuel tank. So that's what he's working on right now. Yesterday he actually had to work (woo hoo for OT! Covered the cost of my new blinds and then some ).

Today is G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.! It's a true Florida Fall day - sunny, cool breezes - the Yankee Harvest candle is burning on the stove, the windows are open, the AC is OFF (if only for the afternoon) and I'm attempting to cross a whole bunch of stuff off my to do list so I can get this show on the road. 

Yesterday was interesting - I thought I'd get a lot done with Mr. P at work half the day. I actually got to sleep in a little (8am is "late" for me LOL) and when I got up and started the "chores" I kept thinking I was hearing a siren chirping. At one point I was walking thru the kitchen toward the front door and I notice there are a couple of sheriff's deputies at the end of the street in the cul-de-sac. Interesting. Let me put my shoes on and think of something I need to do outside real quick (ha!) so I slip on my flip flops and head out to the truck to get one of my bales of wheat straw ($4.99 each at Old Time Pottery - these are smaller than what you'd get at the feed store, but way bigger than those mega rip off little bales they sell at the craft stores). So as i'm throwing straw bales...here comes one of the deputies. He wants to know if i'm missing a pig. There's a cop joke in there somewhere I just know it! Ummm no sir...I don't own a pig, therefore I am not missing one. Don't know anyone around here that owns one either. He's suspiciously eyeballing my bales of straw. How do I  always manage to pick JUST THE WRONG thing to be doing when the cops are around? My nosy butt needs to learned to stay out of things. 

Really - it's not my pig. Evidently there was one running loose down the road by the lake. Haven't heard anything else about it, so I guess the wayward swine must have been corralled and ... whatever.

On that note - we have one VERY annoying iguana right now. Midori is driving me nuts. He's young. He's currently pretty darn orange...which means...he's been eating too many carrots. No, not really...none of them have had carrots lately. Better yet - it's mating season. Lord have mercy on this small creatures soul because i'm ready to wring his little green scaly neck! His new favorite thing to do is sit in the bottom of his cage and scratch at the plexiglass walls. You know that nails on the chalkboard noise? See where this is going? I couldn't take it anymore yesterday so I closed the bedroom door and put up the gate to block the kitchen and just turned him loose in the family room for a couple of hours to try to use up some energy. That was all well and good until he decided to climb a lamp and then some artwork hanging on the wall (which of course came down, along with the lamp). The girls are laying in the sun on the screened porch...I put him out there twice and he totally flipped out. FLIPPED OUT. So rather than let him hurt himself, I put him back in the cage. So he's making me nuts...I will be calling Dr. Bruce next week to find out how much it costs to neuter an iguana. He's not being aggressive at all - he's still very sweet, he's just CRAZY. 

I'm off to bake the pumpkin bread that I didn't get to yesterday - chances are I won't get any blogging in this week, but we'll see! Hope everyone is having a fabulous fall!

Florida Fall Sunsets are pretty cool...I caught this one coming home from work a few days ago.