Tall ships and snow

I read in the paper today that three tall sailing ships will be in Duluth the first weekend in August. This is the Pride of Baltimore II. I'm not a fan of traveling especially into crowds (I think this is the weekend of the Bayfront Blues Festival) and this is a celebration of the 150th anniversary of Minnesota's statehood so there are bound to be a bazillion people around but I would love to see those ships. Nope just checked...the blues fest is the next weekend.

We finished up our safe driving for old poops class tonight. What a nice group of people. One lady brought cheese and crackers and venison sausage. I think that's a sign of a friendly group when someone brings food.

I made a delicious and easy tomato soup tonight for dinner. It's called sherried soup but I left that out because I forgot to buy it. Didn't seem to matter. I used dried basil and parsley because where do you find that stuff fresh in March when it doesn't look like limp sun-baked weeds. I used the immersion blender on it, too, because we don't like tomato lumps. It was great with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Sherried Tomato Soup

6 tablespoons melted butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 46-ounce bottle or can tomato juice
2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 to 3 tablespoons chicken base
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
Black Pepper
1 cup cooking sherry
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
chopped fresh parsley
chopped fresh basil

Saute diced onions until transluscent. Add canned tomatoes, then tomato juice, sugar, pinch of salt, and black pepper. Stir and bring to a near boil then turn heat down. Add sherry and cream, basil and parsley to taste. Serve with croutons or crackers.

I'm listening to some of that music that irritates you when you hear it on an elevator. It's relaxing at night and I like to tun it on if I wake up at some ungodly hour. New age they call it. I'd stick a pin in my eye if I had to listen to this crap when I was fully awake.

My neighbors crocus are poking their heads up through the dirt. Poor little things will have brown tips after the deep freeze the next few days but I guess they must be used to that. Don't put your long underwear and mittens away yet, Minnesota.