I felt something crawling down the side of my forehead… I lifted my hand up and grabbed it… took one look and placed it in the sink and crushed it with the backside of a spoon that was in there…
I had a silent scream inside me but was in the middle of making a soup for supper and was on a time crunch so I put it out of my mind and continued on…
the old me would have thrown things, screamed, possibly cried and for sure freaked out on the farmer for the fact that we lived somewhere that had ticks…
I almost don’t even recognize this new version of myself… this is what having dogs, kids and living on a farm does to someone… nothing seems to startle me anymore…
a little background information – it was supposed to rain that night so I decided it was time to get my garden in… we have a new little puppy, Winter, who was very excited to plant it with me…
my other two dogs tend to go on adventures and upon realizing the amount of ticks they were coming back to the yard with I promptly got them some medication that kills the ticks when they bite the dogs… I’m pretty sure it is really terrible stuff but when it’s the option of 30 ticks on your dog or possible liver damage, I chose the miracle pill for them…
my little puppy has a vet appointment coming up so I was waiting to chat with the vet about what to do for her…
as I began seeding the front of the garden, Winter had wondered off into the back of the yard where the longer grass and trees are… I was so absorbed in planting my Kohl Rabi that it did not occur to me she was frolicking around in prime ‘tick’ grounds…
upon her return to the garden plot, she was in a playful mood… I was seeding potatoes by then and she was attempting to steal my potatoes from me… I thought this was cute and adorable and decided to play along with her…
so we wrestled for the potatoes, me pushing and tickling her and her getting her nose and face in every hole I dug to place a potatoe in… during this play time, I made the decision to head butt her a few times… I even growled at her for fun…
rubbing my head all over her face and ears and neck…
looking back on this decision now I perhaps deserved the tick on my forehead… I perhaps was even willing a tick to be on my forehead…
mistakes were made… I shockingly still have much to learn about this farm life…
when my children arrived home, I was just about done making the soup and going to head to burn my clothes and have a shower…
I called to my 15 year old boy something that perhaps ruined a few country songs for him… “quickly come check me for ticks”… the pale look on his face told me that perhaps I should have not ruined our already fragile teenager/mom relationship and should have enlisted the 8 year old… but I couldn’t trust her to be thorough enough… he gave a quick check though my hair and behind my ears and then went to his room to daydream about moving away someday…
this soup is so delicious it was worth it for me to stick it out making it… it was in the farmer’s lunch the next day and he texted me that next to Clam Chowder, this is the second favourite soup he has ever had…
I had seaweed in my one basket with sushi making supplies (this has not happened in years but I don’t think this stuff goes bad… I could be wrong)… so it was exciting to use it in a soup – similar to how you use a bay leaf… to season the broth…
the dill flavoured olive oil I purchased at a school fundraiser tastes unreal… I drizzled it on the cauliflower and roasted it… the kids almost ate all of it off the pan before I could put it on the soup…
imagine a distraught 15 year old slurping this seaweed died broth and spilling it onto his white baseball pants right before we had to leave to go to a game…
I didn’t have to imagine it…
curry lentil coconut soup with charred cauliflower
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 can unsweetened full fat coconut milk
- 1 cup lentils (red or green)
- 2 tsp mild curry powder
- 3 inch strip kombu (dried seaweed)
- 3 cups arugula or kale (stems removed)
- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1 head cauliflower, chopped
Directions:
- in a soup pot, on medium/high heat, add oil, carrots, onion and salt
- saute for 5 minutes and add garlic
- add broth, coconut milk, lentils, curry powder and seaweed strip
- cover and let simmer until lentils are soft
- remove seaweed strip and add arugula and lime juice
- serve with charred cauliflower spears on top
- for the cauliflower, heat oven to 450 degrees
- chop cauliflower and place on parchment covered baking sheet
- drizzle olive oil (I loved the dill flavoured olive oil) on
- sprinkle with salt and cumin
- mix and spread out to bake
- bake for 25 minutes
for a simple dessert (I had put these in the farmer’s suppers), cocoa coconut macaroons are easy and quick…
and when your entire world has been shaken by a tiny little tick, you need some simple dishes you can send out to the farmers…
as calm as I was, I am now considering telling my vet I lost one of the pills for my dogs and need another one… and consuming it myself…
if only they made pills for mosquitoes we’d be invincible!
cocoa coconut macaroons
Ingredients:
- 3 cups unsweetened coconut
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla
Directions:
- in a bowl, combine ingredients
- using a medium sized ice cream scoop, press coconut mixture firmly into the scoop and release onto a parchment lined baking sheet
- bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes
- macaroons should be slightly hard on the outside and soft inside
- if you would like, melt some chocolate in the microwave and drizzle over the macaroons and sprinkle with salt
i feed a farmer 
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