Saturday night late personal - Hurricane Irene edition

Making some vegetable beef soup out of the leftover sirloin tip roast from last week (on sale at Publix, of course). Had some Emeril's vegetable broth and a can of crushed tomatoes in the cupboard. Added a packet of Lipton onion soup mix, a couple of beef bouillon cubes, a little dill, and the cut-up roast. Will add a package of frozen vegetable soup mix the last half hour.

It's tasty already (after an hour or so of simmering).

I haven't really given much thought lately to cooking, I guess with all my concentration on stuff at work (like taking that test I took on Thursday). Just been doing the basics - roast beef and chicken. Frozen vegetables and canned artichokes or five-bean salad, etc. Lots of frozen Lean Cuisines. Good enough, but I haven't really concocted anything or made a recipe. Before work took over, I was always making soups, stews, gumbos, a kick-ass West African tuna casserole, etc.

Well, the test is over and I'm back to making soup! Maybe next weekend I'll feel like making my delicious salmon loaf (have two cans of salmon in the cupboard, waiting). I'll go grocery-shopping tomorrow and make sure I have everything I need to make that. (Located the recipe earlier.) It's like I'm coming back to life.

Had a great chat with my friend in Canada tonight. Hurricane Irene is headed his way, and he had already begun his hurricane party with some brandy and Canada Dry ginger ale (to be continued tomorrow). The storm hits there at around 3:00 in the afternoon. He lives inland just north of Maine, and hurricanes hardly ever happen there. (But he lived here for many years and knows about them firsthand.) Hopefully he won't lose electricity.

[Later] Soup turned out great. Can hardly wait to eat it!