Gluten-Free Roasted Red Pepper Soup

I was recently lucky enough to acquire this recipe from my friend, Dennis, who is an exceptional gardener and cook. Now Dennis uses his home grown red peppers as well as his own crushed red pepper for this recipe. However, since I have the keen ability to kill even a Chia Pet, I successfully created the recipe using roasted red peppers from a jar and dried, crushed red pepper. It works just as well. As with many great cooks, please note that his recipe is not exact.

This delicious soup is super healthy, delicious, and perfect for the upcoming season.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

roasted red peppers (I used 3 jars)

basil (to taste)

Vegetable or Chicken Broth (I used GF chicken broth - about 3/4 of a box)

2 - 15 oz. cans of whole tomatoes

5-6 cloves of garlic

3 tsp. balsamic vinegar

1-2 tsp. olive oil

1 large onion - roughly chopped

crushed red pepper

Bake the onion, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, basil, vinegar & olive oil in a roasting pan at 350 for approximately 45 minutes. Blend until smooth. In a dutch oven, combine the roasted vegetable mixture, broth to desired consistancy, and crushed red pepper to taste (I used maybe 1 tsp.) until heated through.

Enjoy!

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What Were You Doing?

It was the first weekend of November, 2005. Jessie had recently finished fall soccer. At 12, she was becoming a much better player - aggressively chasing and maneuvering the ball. She was having a great time with weekly horseback riding lessons and occasional mountain biking excursions with her dad and brother.

On Friday, Jeff and I went away for the weekend and Jessie eagerly went to spend a few days with her best friend, Sarah. On Saturday, we got the call that Jes had become sick. Could it be the flu or mono? Another friend was at home sick with mono and Jessie remembered that they had recently shared a water bottle at school. Assuming that she had mono, we kept her at home. The following week, we took her to the doctor, where she tested negative for mono.

Two weeks later, her friend was well and back in school. Jessie's fever had finally subsided, but the headaches and flu-like symptoms were relentless. Two months later, confined to her bed or sofa and beginning physical therapy, we were told that Jessie had tentatively been diagnosed with something called Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. We were so happy to have a diagnosis! We knew so little then. We had no idea that on that first weekend of November, the course of our daughter's life would be changed.

For more information and to learn how you can help,

visit SolveCFS.org.

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Meet My New Acquaintances...

The internet, a source of so many bad influences, can also be a source of friendship and support for so many dealing with unusual chronic illnesses.

In an attempt to connect even further, I'm starting something new. When I find new blogs I will share their link with you. Here are two of the most recent I've found:

Laura Louise, a 26 year old young lady from Vancouver, at Hope Help Health

and

Robyn, a 23 year old student, at "How are you?" and Other Silly Questions

Drop in for a visit. I'm sure they would love the company.

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Finally...See She Wasn't Making it Up!

We have promising news in the study of CFS. The news will authenticate what millions of patients with Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome have been claiming for years. It's an infectious disease. A seemingly simple claim, but so very important to people dealing with CFS.

More importantly, the discovery of the relationship between CFS and the XMRV Retrovirus will, hopefully, lead to more research and an eventual treatment for this debilitating disease.

For a better explanation:

Scientific American

The New York Times

The National Cancer Institute

Encouraging to say the least!

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Delicious Autumn

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~George Eliot

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A Young Girl In Love

Well, she is. On our trip last week, we stopped off in Charlotte to visit our favorite store, Anthropologie, and to have lunch. (This was during the sore throat but before the fever.) Anyway, this book quickly caught Jessie's eye and she was glued to it, which is saying something when you're surrounded by beautiful clothing in Anthropologie!

Double-Chocolate Crumb Cake, Lemon-Poppy Teacake, Carrot Cupcakes...

The book is called Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes by Erin McKenna. Oh people, it's a keeper. Babycakes is well written and beautifully designed. It's a feast for the eyes as well as the tummy. A few of the ingredients were new to us, but we easily found them at Whole Foods.

As I said, it's a keeper.

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CFS, Homecoming, Road Trip, Movie, and a Virus

It's over. We're home. Cleanup after two very nasty males and enough laundry to clothe an army has been completed.

It's been an eventful week! Jessie (above in the blue) and I went to Virginia so that she could go to a homecoming dance with friends from her former school. Unfortunately, her date became sick within 15 minutes of arriving and had to leave. Fortunately, she was surrounded by tons of friends so she still had a blast - sans the boyfriend, who is, by the way, NOT the happy dude in the white bow tie. (Isn't he a cute little riot?)

The day after we left for Virginia, hubby became sick with a nasty virus that we thought was the flu. He even went to the doctor and was given Tamiflu. He was completely over it and back at work in three days. While on the way home from Virginia, Jessie became sick with the exact same virus. We went to the doctor and she tested negative for the flu. This will be the sixth day and I hope she wakes feeling better. The fever is gone, but a nasty cough remains - along with the typical CFS backlash of achy muscles. Of course, we half expected the CFS flare after such an active long weekend.

Oh, one more thing. Jessie talked me into reading the Twilight series last year. We're not fanatical fans, but we are looking forward to the second movie, New Moon, which comes out on November 20th.

Here's the trailer. Any Twilight fans out there?

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