Once Upon a Rainy Day. .

OR. .

Soup's on 'Yo. .

take your pick on the title!

We were so fortunate to be on the receiving end of a nice cool, cloudy, drizzly day yesterday!!

It was a little hard to get out bed. .you know, with the cool air blowing through the open windows and all!

In addition to the excitement of having rain. .I noted it to be a great day immediately when I had company for breakfast!!

Look who I saw while eatingt!! The little female hummer is still feasting on all the fall flowers. .The liatris is now in bloom right out our dining room window. .if you look closely, you can discern the running water of the waterfall behind her!!  Oh, am I having a great time watching her. .I just wish she would have brought a Mister with her!! If she did, he is scarce, cause I haven't seen him yet! 

We also spotted a bluebird this morning. .They have been gone since June, after their eggs hatch. .we have had bluebirds winter here before. .so I am hopeful that these will stay around. .their color sure does brighten the day!

As work rolled along Thursday morning. .I decided that soup was on the menu for supper. .

Alphabet soup, if you please. .look at that rich tomato-y broth. .mmmm!

And. .since I had the afternoon off. .

and baking is one of my favorite things to do. .

I felt the need the need to whip up some cinnamon rolls. .

Cause there ain't NOTHING like cinnamon rolls to go with your soup!! 

The soup doesn't have any meat in it. .just lots and lots of veggies. .so I like to fix a little plate of summer sausage, cheese, pickles and olives!! 

We scored about 1/2 inch of rain. .

but because someone knocked over my good rain gauge. .

I'll never know for sure!

We are still considered to be in a serious drought. .

but we'll take every drop we get!!

And more than anything. .with the cool temps. .

the promise of fall seemed nearly too good to be true!! 

Before I share my recipe for our first soup meal of the season. .my camera had apparently been high-jacked. .and I thought you might enjoy the mugshots I found!! Actually, I was pretty impressed with the first photo that I found. This was taken from a dining room chair, out the front window. .I think I like it better than any photo of the pond that I have ever snapped! The green stuff on our side of the window is the veggie plants headed to the greenhouse soon. .tomatoes, peppers, cukes, squash and chives. They are doing well. .and I recently added some small pots to try to root some agastache cuttings from my friend Pat. .Leaves are still green and pliable after a week. .I'm hopeful! 

Very attractive. .

don't you think?? 

I'm just glad that they chose to take their photos AFTER I spent an hour cleaning my kitchen. .

See Aunt Lisa. .I do clean sometimes :-)

Heeeeellllllllooooooo. . .

Miss Thing is getting sassier EVERY day!!!

She has a new cocky point, wink, and tongue click thing that she does. .

Too bad Dev's pictures of that were blurry. .

but they made me laugh!

Hope you have some cool temps around your parts soon. .

And. .

I hope you LOVE the soup!

Alphabet Soup

10 cups fresh or frozen veggies, any kind (I used corn, peas, frozen broccoli and pepper mix, celery, and Grant's purple carrots from the garden)

46 oz tomato juice (realizing that I was out of mater juice, I subbed in 2 14 oz cans of tomatoes, and 1 can of tomato sauce. .oh, and about 1/2 cup of salsa from a huge jar that I wanted to get out of the fridge :-)

6 cups water

6 tsp beef granules

1 pkg onion soup mix

1 Tbsp salt or grill seasoning

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp garlic powder (used 2 large cloves of garlic from my garden)

7 oz alphabet pasta

Cook all ingredients except for pasta in a large stockpot for 20 minutes. Add pasta & cook 10 min. Eat with cold cuts, summer sausage, sandwiches or relish plate.

This recipe is easy to adapt or change. The original recipe rocks. .but I wanted to show you how adaptable it really is!! I found the alphabet pasta in a bulk food store. .though I must have found it in a large grocery store the first time I made it years and years ago!! 

Enjoy!