Saturday's Backyard Bounty: Slow Cooker Zucchini Soup

Zucchini Soup is a great way to use up those extra zucchinis. This soup is surprisingly tasty and quick, perfect for days like today when I had lots of preserving to do! We had a relaxing dinner on the deck after a busy day. To make this soup you will need:

6 Tbs butter ( approximately 120g or 4 3/8 oz)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 pounds zucchini, ends trimmed, and cut into chunks (I always end up using closer to 2 pounds of zucchini)
2 heaped tablespoons white rice
1 Tbs chopped fresh basil
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup half-and-half (I use cream or, if we don't have any, sour cream)

Instructions:
1. Put butter, onion, curry powder and zucchini in the slow cooker, cover, and cook on HIGH to sweat the vegetables
2. Add the rice, basil, and broth, cover, and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours.
3. Puree with a handheld immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cream. Cook on low until heated through, about 20 minutes.

Here are the results of our day of preserving my parents' fruit - 21 jars of plums to eat this winter!

This week I've been thinking about children and gardens. Remember my bean towers? Well, now that space has been transformed into a bed for some tiny cauliflower seedlings.

I loved the bean teepees, and put a lot of effort into them, but the beans came and went and had to be replaced. This reminds me of how quickly children grow. Like a garden, we've just mastered one area when everything changes and we have to plant something new! It can be frustrating. Sometimes I'd like them to be like a craft project that could be completed . . . but God has made them like a garden that constantly changes. Also, think of the fruit we preserved today. We had a short time to pick the plums or they would be gone. So it is with the little children in our lives. They will grow so quickly and NOW is our chance to invest our time in raising them. This time will not come again.

More snippets of our week in the garden . . .

We planted cauliflowers, peas, silverbeet, and cuttings of oregano and rosemary.

We ate chicken and vegetable pot pie including our patty pans, and pasta with a fresh tomato and basil sauce created by Dave, among other things!