adventures in curry: easy mulligatawny

Well, the fog still persists and so does my urge to make copious amounts of comfort food. Today after I got home from work, husband and I took the dog to the beach. We're fortunate enough to have a state park only a couple of minutes away from our house so I try to take advantage of it whenever I can.

In the summer, it's crazy busy with Canadian tourists, but I love taking walks on the beach in the fall and spring, when it's blessedly free of other people. :) I know I'm too introverted, but it's just so peaceful when we have the whole beach to ourselves.

After returning home, I wanted to make something warm and cozy. So I turned to one of my favorite women of all time, and definitely my favorite blogger: The Pioneer Woman. I love P-Dub with all my heart. She's warm, witty, creative, and glamorous in a country kind of way. And her recipes never lead me astray. I decided on her Mulligatawny soup (and not only because she begins her post with a Seinfeld reference).

Easy Mulligatawny 

I've never been averse to curry, but I hadn't exactly sought out recipes that had curry in them, just because it had never seemed that delicious to me. This soup changed all that when I first discovered it a few years ago.

The photo really doesn't do it justice, not even a little bit. With diced chicken, an onion, a granny smith apple, curry powder, chicken broth, and half & half as its main ingredients, it's pretty amazing. The half & half gives it a beautiful velvety texture and the apple gives it a surprising sweet crunch. If you're looking to experiment with curry, this is definitely the way to begin. It's easy, has simple ingredients, and has a deliciously unique flavor.
Just be sure to wash all the dishes ASAP. Otherwise your house will smell like curry for one whole week as opposed to only one day. ;)

While I was going through my email after dinner, I found this amazeballsness in my weekly newsletter from ThinkGeek:

Catty Stacks Modular Cat Condos Cats are sort of like babies in that they tend to love the bags and the boxes that new toys come in more than the actual toy themselves. Give a cat a box and she can play for hours trying to discover the untold secrets of every last corner of that cardboard mystery. Rather than wasting anymore time with toys, why not just get your cat her heart's desire: moar boxes! Build your cat a box mansion with these stackable, superstrong Catty Stacks Modular Cat Condos. Big or small, nimble or not, Catty Stacks are made from strong Corrugated Ultraboard that can handle cats up to 20 pounds. Stack Catty Stacks high and low and your cat can explore, jump, play, hide, and scratch the day away.

Despite the fact that one of my cats doesn't fit the weight requirement (*ahem*...), this looks pretty rad. Some day I will buy a ton of these and make the most epic cat fort of all time.
Because that's what crazy cat ladies do. :D