Valentine's Lunch With Mama Hawthorne.

Mr. Hawthorne and I drove up to Danville yesterday, where he dropped me off to visit with Mama Hawthorne and Maxine and he continued on to Bassett to visit with his Mommie. Today, I'm preparing a nice soup and salad for Mama Hawthorne's lunch.

And here are my players for the soup: carrot squash celery onion broccoli red, yellow, and green peppers

I melted a few tablespoons of butter in my pan and sauteed the broccoli and the carrots first. Then I added in the onions, squash, and celery.

I added a a few tablespoons of flour, cooking and stirring for a few minutes to get the raw taste out of the flour.

Next, I added in some chicken stock. No, sadly I didn't bring my homemade chicken consomme with me.

Next, I added in some half and half.

Had Mama Hawthorne had a potato, I would have diced that and added it at the beginning and let the starch from the potato thicken up my soup. I just so happened to have a baked potato from last night's dinner with Maxine, so I chopped that up and added it.

Season to taste.

I prepared a nice salad of mixed baby greens, bacon, hard boiled egg, and diced red, green, and yellow peppers, and Marzetti large cut Caesar style croutons. And I must say, for store bought, these croutons were quite good. I made a simple vinaigrette with cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, oregano, Lawry's seasoning pepper, Montreal Seasoning, a splash of soy sauce, pinch of sugar, salt, and some garlic powder and onion powder.

Ohhhh ... Mama Hawthorne? Lunch is served. Mama Hawthorne is too busy to come eat right now. She's sending Doozy Valentine's cards to everyone in her address book. And her address book is about 5 or 6 times bigger than mine.

Here's my cream of broccoli soup, with a sprinkling of diced peppers, grated cheddar cheese, and croutons on top.

This was yummy. And there I am in the soup spoon. Oh ... and Xmaskatie? The tulips you sent to Mama Hawthorne were lovely.