Carrot Soup and Homemade Crackers

It has been so cold and gloomy and icky here that I've been looking for ways to cheer myself up--I just don't do well in winter.

One cheerful thing I did was to order and plant a bunch of seeds. I planted so many I'm not even sure what I'm growing, but they're all some type of flower. Since the cats LOVE to eat plants, I have my little seedlings growing in aquariums with screen tops and so far the cats have not been able to maul my little flowers.

Carrot soup is one of the cheeriest recipes you can make--it's bright orange, and is full of summer, just picked vegetable flavor. This is the first time I've made this recipe and I wasn't sure how I'd like it since I'm not a huge carrot lover (Dave is), but it was actually quite delicious and not overpoweringly carroty.

Here's the recipe for the soup. If you don't like curry powder, just go ahead and leave it out. I added a good dash of hot sauce when I made it.

To go with the soup, I made some fabulous homemade crackers. These are really good and taste rather like Wheat Thins (with rosemary and garlic). There's a neat video that shows you exactly how to make them and you'll be surprised at how fast you can have fresh crackers on the table. Here's the recipe and the video.

I hope that if you're also experiencing yucky winter weather, you're able to find some cheerful things to brighten your day.