Autumn on Prince Edward Island. Leaves are beginning to turn. Whitecaps dot the sea in front of the HG/BSK home (40 feet of windows provide startling visuals of the sea, birds, clouds, sunsets). Warm weather will return for a spell as it usually does in PEI September. In the meantime, BSK concentrates on cooking that warms the body and spirits. A BSK specialty is soup (HG has written about this skill before. Sept. 4, 2019). Today, BSK harvested the tomatoes, red and green, that made a comeback in BSK’s vegetable garden after Hurricane Dorian. This was supplemented by tomatoes purchased at the Charlottetown Famers Market from a man identified solely as “The Cherry Tomato Man.” This gentleman told BSK that BSK’s brother in law, Yossi M., is “the coolest guy on PEI.” HG agrees. Back to the soup. BSK placed quartered tomatoes on a cookie sheet. Olive oil. Salt and pepper. Roasted in the oven. Red peppers were roasted over open flames on the range (these would give the soup a tantalizing hint of smoke). BSK removed the blackened skins of the peppers and cut them into strips. Onions, garlic (abundant), chopped celery and carrots plus the peppers went into a pot for softening. The roasted tomatoes were added. Chicken stock poured into the pot with sprinkles of cumin and aleppo pepper. After cooking, BSK used an immersion blender to bring the soup to the proper level of smoothness. Winds were blowing as HG lunched on a bowl of the steaming, multi-flavored soup. Superlatives cannot do it justice. Bravo, BSK!!
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