What's Cooking Wednesday - Tomato-Spinach Soup

What I'm reading: Contest entry #3 of 8

Thanks to Mike for his great post yesterday. Remember, there's still plenty of time to comment on both my Monday post and his Tuesday's post to enter to win books. And another reminder about my POV workshop at Savvy Authors. I'll be giving books away there, too. If you know someone who might benefit from a basic craft workshop, point them that way. I'm blogging about it today at their site. Please pop over.

And, I'm still open to more easy gluten-free desserts for our neighbors. I live in the boonies, so fancy ingredients, like gluten-free flours, are hard to come by.  Likewise, baking at 9100 feet presents its own challenges, so I try to steer away from cakes.

My books always include food. Sometimes, however, the scene doesn't end up on the page of the final product, as is the case with Sadie's Tomato-Spinach Soup. In my Pine Hills series, Sarah often eats at Sadie's. One of her favorite things for lunch is their Tomato-Spinach Soup. I'll be making this one for our monthly dinner pot luck on Friday. (In truth, the original recipe, which I've varied, came not from "Sadie" but from Sandra McDonald, my first writing mentor.)

"Sadie's" Tomato-Spinach Soup

Ingredients
Vegetable cooking spray
1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
¾ c chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 ½ cups salsa
1 c fresh tomato, chopped
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 10-3/4 oz can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

Directions
Coat a Dutch oven with cooking spray; add olive oil, and place over medium-high heat until hot.
Add the onion and garlic, saute for 2 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil.
Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup)

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It's Been How Long?

What I'm reading: Infamous, by Suzanne Brockmann

Yesterday, when I started on my usual blog rounds, I noticed that Elizabeth Spann Craig, a frequent visitor here, mentioned that she'd been blogging since May of 2009 and was taking a 'blogcation' for about a week.

That got me thinking ... how long has this blog been around? I went to the archives and discovered I've been here at Terry's Place since July 10, 2006. Over the years, things have changed. I've learned more about the business. I've learned more about blogging. And I've watched the user interface with Blogger change as well.

I thought it would be fun to re-post my initial blog here, and you can see how things have changed. (The following has not been edited.)

Catching Up a Bit

What I'm reading: Lakeshore Christmas, by Susan Wiggs; To Scotland with Love, by Karin Hawkins.

Good Stuff from while I was gone -

I came home to an award from mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig, a previous guest here and a frequent commenter with a marvelous blog of her own. My kind of award - no strings! Thanks, Elizabeth.



And an invitation to present my "Storyboard Plotting for Non-Plotters" as a workshop for a Jacksonville RWA chapter in February. And while I'm there, I can hook up with Sandra McDonald, my first writing mentor.

Right now, I'm working on that pesky scene I mentioned a while back. The 'is there a reason for a budding relationship, and even if there is, how much needs to be on the page.' I had two plane trips to mull over it, and I think I've finally got a handle on it. I'll have more next week, after I actually write the revisions.

Hope you'll have time in your busy holiday season to pop in from time to time.