Would You Like Soup with That?

I've been so grateful to have today off from work, because I've needed it to work on my stuff for school, due next weekend. But I think I'm done for the day...I just can't do any more. No, I'm not done. And I need to study the 24 questions I've answered, praying they are the right answers (and complete!) because I will be tested on 8 of them next Sunday. Of course, I don't know which 8. And I don't have the answer for one of them. And I can't find the answers for a couple questions for my New Testament class, although I've read and re-read the text several times, it's not popping out at me. And the take-home test for the other class has me baffled as I can't seem to formulate my responses properly. I sent the prof an email for some clarification, and he responded, but I think this is one of those things that will be a "learning experience" and I'm going to spend the rest of the semester trying to recover my grade. And remember...I NEED good grades (a B average) in order to maintain the scholarship.

But I'm fried for now.

And I'm going to share with you a dream I had last night, because it says so much, and has reminded me to have trust. Because God will never throw us to the wolves, no matter how bad things seem to be sometimes.

I dreamed that I was in a huge house which apparantly was a part of the Church where I work. And I had my own room, and so did everyone else. We had to, because we were staying, for some reason, there with Father. And he was very concerned for all of us because outside, we were being attacked, these guys were trying to get in, so Father ordered a special security company (SEAL-type guys) to fend off the attackers. And we were to take care to lock the doors and windows, especially at night, and to leave only with an escort. Father was very much a father in this dream...his entire focus was to protect us all from these outside forces. And I remember feeling very comforted by that, sensing that he could be trusted to defend us, his "family", for we had all become a sort of family there in the church. In fact, we were right at home.

That dream doesn't need a lot of interpretation, does it? The meaning is there on the surface, right where I needed it. The components...trust, love of the Father, home, belonging, protection...and elements of reverence which are harder to explain. You kinda had to "be there."

Yeah, I have a lot of angst about the Church, about things that are happening, and concerns about the spiritual things in my life and how they are impacting or are impacted by my professional life. But in the end, I know that we must all trust. Because God has our best interests at heart, He is always there, and even when the wolves are at the door, we are not alone. And our safety is also in our numbes. Indeed, we are family, and as all families do, we battle each other. But I'd still argue that when the chips are down, we find our common ground and raise a united front with our leadership and with each other.

Anyway, that's enough pontificating for now. On to the food!

Last night, I made a favorite, Roasted Red Pepper soup. It's very easy, and while I have a recipe, I actually just used it for guidelines.

The first time I made this soup, I'd found a web site that explained how to roast peppers. But I couldn't find it yesterday, as most of what I saw was about how to PEEL peppers by roasting their skins.

So I'll try to go step by step with what I did and used:

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Roast Red and yellow peppers and the Garlic and hot pepper (serrano).
Or use few jars Red sweet roasted peppers
1 Small jar yellow sweet roasted pepper or fresh-roasted yellow sweet pepper
1 to 2 red Serrano peppers
3 cloves of garlic (roasted)
1 tbsp olive oil
1- 14 1/2 oz Chicken broth
1/2 cup Whipping cream
Fresh Basil leaves

1. To roast peppers, remove the core and stem, rinse away the seeds, and slice into strips. Brush the skins and flesh with olive oil (light coat) Place on cookie sheet or some other proper baking device in 400-degree oven. Watch for the skins to turn a little black/bubbly, turn over to roast other side. (I'm not good at this so turned them a couple times before I was satisfied that they were properly roasted.)

2. I used a combination of fresh and canned (in a jar!) Peppers. I had 2 large jars of red peppers, one of them with garlic. I used 1 fresh roasted yellow pepper and 1 jar of yellow peppers.

3. In a sauce pan combine Red and Serrano peppers, garlic, basil and broth. (Because I used so many peppers, I increased the broth, to 2 - 14 oz cans of vegetable broth and 1 can of chicken broth. I think my chicken broth was low-sodium. I also used chopped roasted garlic from a jar)

4. Bring to a boil, Reduce heat and simmer uncovered 7 min or till liquid reduces by one-third. (OR you can just let it simmer for awhile...with all the extra broth, I first put a lid on the soup in order to just let the flavors blend, and then I took the lid off and let the soup reduce.)

5. Cool slightly. Meanwhile in Blender combine yellow pepper and 1/4 cup of cream, blend, place in bowl and chill. (I used a hand blender, which comes with a cup. This works WONDERFULLY. I did chill it, but the chilling part is more geared towards this as being served as a cold soup. So if you don't have time to chill it, don't worry.)

6. In same blender (after rinsing out), place batches of red pepper mix and blend until smooth. (I just rinsed off the blender and stuck it in the pan to blend all the chunks of pepper. Another plus for the hand-blender!)

7. Strain if necessary. Put back in pan and add the rest of the cream. Heat though. Swirl yellow pepper cream in soup. Serve!


This is a really wonderful soup that can be served hot or cold. It is supposed to be a thicker soup, but because I added so much broth, mine is a bit thinner, but still tasty. I also added some Thyme, Marjoram, chili powder (I used only 1 serrano), celery salt, and some other herb mix of garlic and onion.

The cool thing about this soup is that you can make it from stuff in the jar, you can make it with only 1 14 oz can of broth, you can make it vegetarian, and you can make it in less than 20 min if you follow the original recipe. I just like to let things simmer a bit because I think it enhances the flavor. But if you don't have time for that or you don't want to experiment, you'll still end up with a great soup.

So, now, on to the rating portion.....this gets my highest rating. If Jesus came to my house, I would not be afraid to serve Him this soup. Thus, this post earns the tag, "Food I would serve Jesus". (My lowest rating is, "Food I would NOT serve Jesus). As Jesus is the standard, if it is acceptable for Him, it would be acceptable for anyone. Because we should always offer to God our best.

And I have a lot of soup, so if He comes to my house tonight, or tomorrow, I'll be happy to hand Him a bowl!