Life, Fannishness, and Thespic Infatuation

Went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big screen tonight. Still one of my all-time favorite movies ever.

If you ask me what my favorite movie is, chances are "Raiders of the Lost Ark" will be the first words out of my mouth.

( Summer of 1981 )

Oh, my word, you guys. I just made the most amazing soup for dinner tonight. You know how last week I mentioned having pumpkin soup and how finding a comparable recipe was my new culinary quest? You guys. Here's what I found.

Well, first of all, I found pumpkinsoup.org. Everything you wanted to know about pumpkin soup but didn't know to ask. Lots of interesting recipes there of varying levels of complexity.

But that's not where I got tonight's dinner from.

No, one of my newest go-to sites for recipes (I also subscribe to the hard copy magazine) is the Southern Living website. Being from Ohio, I also try to find things on the Midwest Living website, but nine times out of ten, I like the Southern Living recipes better. (If I want Midwestern recipes, I usually head to the church/fundraiser cookbooks from back home.) The trick is to watch your fat ingredients, because if there's one thing Southerners like to cook with, it's fat.

But I digress.

Tonight's dinner was originally printed in the October 1997 issue of Southern Living.

Pumpkin-Corn Chowder

I used 1 cup of half-and-half and 1 cup of 1% milk in place of the 2 cups of half-and-half. And you could use vegetable bouillon cubes or other vegetarian bouillon for a vegetarian variation.

A mild, creamy soup to warm your tummy on a cold winter evening. And delightfully easy, because if you are what you eat, then I'm fast, cheap, and easy.

Also of note: Today I started burning my favorite Christmas fragrance candle. Yankee Candle's Sugared Plum (which they have since repackaged under a different name and color). I've used this fragrance for years, for as far back in our marriage as either Geo or I can remember. It's a warm, comforting fragrance that makes me content and nostalgic at the same time. It smells like Christmas at home.