Soup, Salad and Curtains

I'm having another productive day. This morning I finished making some curtains for the front entry. This was the last set of curtains I needed to make for the house. Yes! And it only took me two months to get them all done, haha.

Here is a close-up of the pattern.

It's similar to the pattern on our living room rug (but not matching.)

The funny thing is, the curtains and rug have a strong resemblance to Monster's bed, which we bought long before we moved into this house and started decorating. 

Hmm... Am I subconsciously trying to make my whole house look like Monster's dog bed that he despises? Ha. If anything, I should have my couches re-upholstered to look like his bed and then, just maybe, he won't sleep on them, either.

I also did a little cooking. Hot temps = light meals, like this Cauliflower Pesto Soup from Appetite for Reduction.

I give this recipe 4 stars for kid-friendly cooking. Jackson helped add everything to the soup pot, and then he helped me blend it in the food processor. The whole thing took no time at all. Some soups need to cook for 45 minutes or an hour, but not this one. 15 minutes and done.

The soup tasted fine, but I'm afraid it's no Arabian Lentil & Rice Soup (but then, what is?) I can find better uses for fresh basil, like Nigella Lawson's Pea Pesto Soup. Now that is an incredible pesto soup. I make it often, since the kids adore it.

We also made AfR's Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad with Grilled Tofu.

I was so pleased with how my grilled tofu turned out. Look at those lovely grill marks. I used my grill pan. I had never grilled tofu before and I was afraid it would fall apart. I did lose a couple of triangles. You have to be careful not to get cracks in the tofu while pressing it, or it'll fall to pieces on the grill. 

I was happy to use these little single-serving packages of vermicelli noodles that I bought at the Asian market awhile back. Aren't they cute? I recommend breaking the noodles into small pieces before cooking them and adding them to the salad. Otherwise, they're difficult to combine with the other ingredients, being so long and stringy and clumpy.

My only complaint with the salad was that there didn't seem to be enough dressing. The dressing has a fantastic flavor -- garlic chili sauce, agave, lime juice -- I just wanted more if it.

Finally, a big thanks to Shenandoah Vegan who quickly identified yesterday's mysterious "alien flowers" as passionflowers. I love their curly purple tendrils.

My babies (and their babies) are up from their naps, so we've gotta run. Have a good evening!