Me on Monday

I was just beginning my bedtime routines and rituals, when I realised I hadn’t waved back at Sian today. So here I am.

Today has been all about the soup. Restocking the freezer with some of our favourites. It has also been about the baking. Although the less said about that the better! I tried something new: a fat free flourless brownie. That’s a bit of a stretch for me. It really is a very strange “cake”. I decided it was a poor offering, even though my friend had requested something virtuous. I thought I should have an alternative. While I had the oven on for dinner I mixed up some Cornish Fairing dough. Despite having made these at least a hundred times, with no problems whatsoever, today was always going to be the day they went wrong. They didn’t spread out, but sat stubbornly in their allotted lumps. I whipped them out of the oven, pressed them down with a fork and popped them back in. They became stubborn lumps with fork marks in the top. Ah well. My girl managed two after dinner so they can’t be too bad!

Saturday Soup Kitchen ~ The Germ Buster

September was a super busy month. The usual challenges of settling my boy back into the school routine, after six weeks of holidays. Starting my classes again and this year I had a few (too many) extra things thrown into the mix. I shouldn’t have been surprised to get struck down by a nasty cold the day after my birthday!

I discovered A Girl Called Jack’s Ultimate Feisty Soup when I had a similar “back to school” cold last year. It seemed to cure my sore throat overnight and I didn’t go on to develop an awful hacking cough like I usually do. Since then the recipe has evolved into my own comforting soup and I enjoy it just as much when I am well.

I use less tomatoes and extra stock, because I added lentils to make it more of a meal. I happened to have an odd leek hanging about so that went in as well. I was in a hurry so I grated the carrots instead of chopping them. They cook quicker that way and it meant that I didn’t feel the need to blend the soup once it was cooked.

I don’t tend to weigh vegetables for soup so there’s no need to follow the quantities to the letter, it’s just a guide. I have a Paddington mug which I use to measure out my lentils, but that’s not much use to you, so I’ve given a quantity. I use vegetable stock, but you could use chicken, if that’s your preference. If you want chunkier veg then that would work too. Just extend the cooking time.

Germ Busting Soup

1 red onion finely chopped

1 leek finely sliced

4 cloves of garlic crushed

4 carrots (approx 300g) grated

1.5 litres of stock

175g lentils

400g chopped tomatoes

chilli to taste*

fresh ginger grated**

2 tbsp lemon juice***

 

Heat a good glug of olive oil in a large pan.

Throw in the onion and leek (if using) and cook until softened. I put the lid on, and turn down the heat, to sweat them and retain any moisture

Add the garlic and spice and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring.

Add the carrots and stir, then pour in the stock.

Throw in the lentils and stir in the tomatoes.

Add the lemon juice and simmer for 10 mins or until the carrot is soft.

You could blend the soup at this stage if you wanted to, but I like the texture of the lentils so prefer to leave it as it is. Enjoy!

*I use one fresh red chilli or more usually half a tsp from the jar above, because my children like the soup, but not too much heat.

**I keep fresh ginger (peeled and wrapped in foil) in the freezer and just grate a finger’s width in. 1 tsp of ground ginger would do instead.

***Fresh if I have it, otherwise from a bottle is fine.

PS This soup freezes well and I like to keep some on hand during the Winter months

 

 

 

 

My Month in Numbers ~ January 2014

So, that was January. Thirty-one days gone in a flash.

I ate twenty-two bowls of soup, including several of this Spicy Sweet Potato with coconut milk. It was just one of the new recipes I tried out this month….

….along with these four and one old favourite thrown in for good measure.

I joined Instagram and posted forty-six photos taken with my new phone….

….I also discovered the #greatukfabricdetash and as a result, received these five parcels through the post, all in one day…..

….containing all this fabulous fabric. Including seven metres of the most beautiful gauzy pale yellow cotton with a lovely watercolour style print, for just twenty pounds. I see a fifties summer dress in my sewing future. First things first though….

….I began making a copy of my favourite White Stuff skirt and was astonished to discover that I needed to cut the size sixteen pattern pieces. There is a vast difference between ready to wear (in which I’m a size ten) or “vanity sizing” as it is known and the sizes on dressmaking patterns. Who knew?

I lost count of how many games of Carcasonne I played with my boy. Here I managed to claim victory by just one point! It has been a saviour this month. He sat five mock exams during three days last week and things have been a little stressful around here as a result.

Now onto a new month, with the possibility of lots more counting along with Julie.

My Month in Numbers ~ January 2013

I should warn you that this post turned into a bit of a food fest. If you haven’t eaten yet, or are sticking to a diet, you might want to look away now!

Eight red peppers turned into four jars of Sweet Chilli Jam. Delicious with cold meat and with the home made chicken fillet burgers we had on Saturday.

Four new recipes tried, including Pasta with Pancetta, Leek and Mushrooms.

Paprika Chicken from The Hairy Dieters book…..

…..with three more peppers.

Five kilos of sweet potatoes and carrots made into several litres of Meadow Barn soup to restock the freezer. It doesn’t last long in this cold weather.

Twenty bananas whizzed into the same number of smoothies, along with a variety of other ingredients. Including frozen forest fruits, which I found lurking at the bottom of the chest freezer. Best Before End: 19th October 2008! I’m still here.

That’s my little round up for January. I found it easier with a theme. Linking up with Julie and all the other counters at Notes on Paper.

What’s On Your Wordesk Wednesday? #187

One, two, miss a few (four to be precise, but who’s counting?) and here we are on the 187th edition of this jolly blog hop.



I bought the Summersville charm pack a few months ago, because I liked the cute houses, with no clear idea in mind what I would do with it. I browsed around the net looking for a pattern, but most needed at least two charm packs. I kept it safe until I happened across this design, which uses a charm pack and a jelly roll (with the addition of some extra fabric) to make a pair of twin size quilts. Perfect.

As luck would have it Lu Summers had half metres on sale in her Etsy shop and I snapped up a few designs. A jelly roll consists of 2.5” strips and amounts to about 2.5 metres of fabric. I should have enough to cut up. I’ll be adapting the design and adding some Kona solids into the mix. If you are more of a papercrafter and bored of all this sewing talk, don’t despair, there’s something here for you too. Paper tape.


How cute is that? It’s similar to washi tape, only a bit thicker, and you get a whole 50 metres on a roll for £5.95. Bargain! Not that I’m trying to tempt anyone to break their stash diet so early in the year, but it is rather lovely and you could always share with a crafty friend.

I’m heading over to Julia’s place to link up with the rest of the desk hoppers and then it’s into the kitchen to turn all the leftover veg into soup. I seem to have ended up with an abundance of carrots, which I’ll be turning into this family favourite.


Thanks for stopping by.

Meadow Barn Soup

When I make soup, I tend to just throw everything in and don’t really follow recipes. I made a big batch of carrot and sweet potato soup, to take on my recent weekend away and it seemed to go down very well. I’ve had a few requests (you know who you are) for the recipe, so I’ve done my best to write one.

Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

Olive oil

1 large onion

2 sticks of celery

4 large carrots

2 sweet potatoes

200g lentils

1.5 litres vegetable stock

Chop the onion and fry in a little oil for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped carrots and celery, put on the lid and sweat until softened.

Add the chopped sweet potatoes, lentils and vegetable stock.

Bring to the boil, then simmer with a lid on for approx. 30 minutes.

Use a hand blender to blitz the soup until smooth.

This amount served 12 of us at the weekend with ease, although I did thin it down a bit with extra vegetable stock when I was reheating it.

I realise that saying I used two sweet potatoes is not particularly helpful. I would say that they weighed around 750g in total and the carrots a similar amount. I didn’t tell you to peel the veg, but I’m guessing you know that already. Also, you will need a very large pan if you make the full amount in one go!

Hopefully this makes sense. Any questions please shout and I’ll be only too happy to answer. Enjoy!

PS If you would like the cake recipes from the weekend, the chocolate muffins can be found here and the lemon drizzle cake here.

Soup’s Out For Summer

I was in full autumnal soup making mode last week and then the temperature rose...…and rose again. I wanted something a bit fresher and lighter to match the unexpected hot weather and I think this soup fits the bill.

Take 1 red onion, 2 sticks of celery and a red pepper, chop roughly and put in a food processor. Blitz until pureed.

Heat some olive oil in a large pan and add the blitzed veg. Fry gently for a few minutes, then stir in 2tbsp tomato puree.

Add 2 tins chopped tomatoes (I use one with added chilli) 200g red lentils, 1 litre of stock (whatever your preference) and 2tsp sugar.

Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add 1 tin chickpeas (drained) and heat through for approx 5 minutes. Enjoy.