The Prodigal Daughter

My friend Riley gave me a lot of tomatoes from his father’s garden recently. I was going to make salsa with them but it got cold and yucky out yesterday so I made this instead. I pulled from a bunch of different recipes and then kind of made it my own. I think it would also be good with basil.

2 lbs heirloom tomatoes
2 carrots
1 half vidalia onion
2 celery stalks
sage, salt, pepper, oregano to taste
1/2 cup goat cheese, 1/2 cup of milk
garlic

pre heat oven to 450
quarter tomatoes
put them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with garlic
put them in the oven for about 20 minutes (until they are caramelized)

meanwhile coarsly chop celery, carrot, and onion
sautee the carrot and onion first in a large pot with olive oil on medium low heat
add the celery and let it soften
remove the tomatoes and add them to the mixture
add spices and about a quarter cup water

in a separate pan melt goat cheese on low heat with the milk
combine with rest of the ingredients

DO NOT let this boil, keep on extremely low heat
use a hand blender to make the soup smooth

serve

What did I do all day? Well other then look for a job, I went to this really cool art gallery near the coffee shop I frequent. It inspired me to create a shadow box based on my father. The best thing about living across the street from Alanna and Breanne is that I can go over there and use all of their art materials even when they aren’t home. Which they weren’t.

I had two pictures of my father that I discretely took from a drawer in a side table inside my parents’ house. One is of him playing around with what is presumably a cap gun. The other is him with his mother (who died when he was 15, and I regrettably never met) on Halloween. I used a PH neutral glue to attach the pictures to a cardboard material used in book binding so that the pictures wouldn’t be eaten away slowly by some acidic glue. I also attached different clippings from magazines that remind me of my father to the same material. The paper on the back was something Bre had laying around (thankfully). Everything within the box means something special to me and it’s a fabulous way to remember and preserve my father. I also seem to be extremely good at creating shadow boxes. It’s a really good creative outlet for me. If anyone wants one I would be more then happy to make one for you or If anyone would like to know more about how to make one I would be happy to explain. Hot glue guns and a non acidic glue are key.