January 20th: Curried Carrot & Coconut Soup

I saw this recipe the other day when I was looking for other recipes and I thought that it looked easy and quick and tasty. My thoughts were true. With an unexpected visit from my mom (who had gone far too long without seeing us, her words) it was a low maintenance soup, even for a first go around, so I could chat with her and then pause mid-cooking to pick up Nuala from her dad's. 

It used to be that mom would join us for dinner at least once a week, but that was when Nuala got out of school earlier which meant we could have an early dinner and she could make it home without too much driving in the dark. These days Nuala doesn't get home from school until about 4:45 at the earliest. It makes dinners with grandma almost impossible. But today was a remote learning day which meant no after school activities and no drive. The roads had finally thawed from our big snow and Grandma just couldn't take it anymore. To be clear, we weren't avoiding my mom, but because of my sister's Covid diagnosis and my mom's possible exposure we didn't see her when we normally do, then she went away and then we had snow and ice. Life in the south during a pandemic just got all up in our business keeping us tucked in our own little worlds. But today we had a visit that was long enough for soup and hugs which was just fine. 

With the soup, we warmed up some leftover cottage loaf. It worked particularly well to clean the bowl and according to both my mom and Nuala, the kale chips were perfect. Considering 75% of the time I burn them or they come out hopelessly soggy I was maybe even more pleased with that than I was with the soup. 

Definitely a do-over.