Oven Roasted Tomato Bisque

Oven Roasted Tomato Bisque

• 2 lg cans (28oz) peeled whole tomatoes, drained and seeded (reserve 3 cups of liquid)
• 2 1/2 Tbs brown sugar
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 ts ground allspice
• 3 Tbs tomato paste
• 8oz thickening cream
• 1/4 cup or about 10 lg leaves basil leaves

Preheat oven to 450F. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Arrange seeded tomatoes in a single layer and sprinkle with the onion and brown sugar.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until all liquid is evaporated and tomatoes begin to color.

Allow to cool slightly, then remove from cookie sheet and put into a blender...Add a dash of chicken broth to help liquefy roasted toms...I do this usually in 2 small batches.

Combine liquefied toms, tomato paste, remaining chicken broth, reserved tomato liquid and allspice to crockpot and allow to cook on low for 8hrs (high for 4hrs)

I add my basil into a "tea ball" and drop into crockpot during the last hr..with 30minutes.

to go, finally add cream and mix well.

Serve with crusty bread and enjoy.


For our family this "soup" is the must have on our Thanksgiving day menu...It would just not be Thanksgiving around here without it...Even when we have eaten with friends in the past, my oldest daughter begs me to make it to take along...So of course I do *smiles*

This Years Menu

Oven Roasted Tomato Bisque

Hot bread rolls

Rotisserie Turkey Breast - Gravy

Oven roasted potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts and pumpkin

Broccoli in white cheese sauce

Green Bean Casserole
Baked Sweet Potato

Pecan Pie
(homemade by our neighbor Ms Lucille)
Hersey's Chocolate Pie

Getting on with this Sheep Business

This week has been all about the sheep.

So much going on and we take the next step.

PRODUCTION.

On Wednesday a dear sweet lady, friend and mentor, came out to visit our little farm..Her husband and her have a very long history in the development of Hair Sheep to Florida and our sheep are decedents of ewes from their flock. We got lots of great information and pointed and a thumbs up on the condition of our ewes. And found out that our young growing ram lambs require 2x the feed to put on as much weight as the girls. So we have doubled their evening rashions. Can't wait to get one of those bad boys in the freezer...YUM

Ruth did a  FAMACHA test and found them to look good and health, which of course is great news for us as the less you have to worm the better the health of  your stock is.

Young Ewes at Evening Feed Time.

Katahdin/St Coix 

As I mentioned before we are taking the next step and starting production....So hubby and I build a new "love shack" in the north pen...For the next 35 days (2 heat cycles) Rocky the Ram Lamb and the 6 2yr old ewes will be housed in this pen....It is going to be a long 5 months (gestation period of a sheep) to see if this was a successful interlude.

Farmer Brown and his goatie helpers working on the love shack.

Rocky the Ram Lamb inspecting the work so far...That Lamb loves Farmer Brown 

And of course there is the never ending feedings...So when ever possible I use child labor lol.

Hey as long as I don't actually pay her it is not illegal *wink*

Yup, that is the "wee one" totting the buckets of feed out to the "meat sheep"

Meat, Lambchop and Jr are very excited to see her. 

The goats are less than impressed the sheep are being feed first.

Other news, we had a 4H meeting this week at school and Sara is loving it...She is half way thru her activity book already and has a whole month to do it lol.

It is that time of yr again, having been hanging out with a couple of my fave ppl painting backdrops for the Kids Choir Christmas program...Though the wee one opted not to be a part of the choir this yr I still love to do the backdrop.

I will be back tomorrow with a very special post. Until then

Blessings Kelsie

Linking up to

The Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop #134

Keeping Busy

As life tends to be with children underfoot and work and farms, we are staying busy...The wee one is growing like a weed and ever the "helper"...which all you moms know translates to me having to do most things two (or three or four) times lol.

She is loving big girl school (Kindergarten) and is now taking Combo2 dance ( Ballet, tap and jazz)

Plus we have 4H....This week she inquired when would she get a cow...Cracks me up...We told her for her 12th Birthday.

She is still very hands on with the goats and helps with the sheep, though they are scared of this super hyper noisy short person...They do however LOVE Farmer Brown...As he and his bucket means food...and they sure do like that.

I am  hoping to try and capture Farmer Brown feeding the sheep one evening, It truly is a sight that brings joy to my heart...We have worked and saved and Dreamed 9 yrs for this and to see it coming to fruition is beyond amazing...The Lord truly has blessed us in abundance...I am sure to be a blubbering joyful mess come lambing season lol.

2 weeks ago we attended the fall meeting for the Meat Sheep Alliance of Florida and become members...We learnt so much and came home very inspired to push on and do this thing...Can't wait for the Spring Festival in April...This week we are having a dear lady come visit our farm...She and her husband are responsible for developing the hair sheep in FL...I can't wait see her again and spend some time picking her brain on areas we need to be working on.

For the first time since last Nov I am caught up on customers photography orders and am looking forward to taking it slow on the bookings for a while and turn my attention back to homemaking a little more...I need to deep clean in general and there are a dozen or more projects I would like to get back to and finish...Like decorating the living room...Also need to start prepping some garden beds now for spring planting...We have not had a garden this past 2 seasons and I miss it and want to explore canning more...So basicly this girl wants to get back to the farmy stuff and less of the photography stuff...Though photography does pay $$...Farm pays me in so much more.

Well I best get going and find some lunch and prep the camera gear for the 2 family session I have this afternoon.

Missing all my blogging buddies.
Blessings Kelsie