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Broccoli Soup

Broccoli Soup

I suppose I could try and get away with writing that as this week encompassed the St Patrick's Day celebrations, it was appropriate that I made a green soup. I won't try. I chose broccoli as I had a lot of it in the fridge and decided to use it up. The Soup Book contains two recipes with broccoli: broccoli soup and potato soup with broccoli, shallot and mascarpone. Another reason I chose the former is because it also includes leeks and celery and I had some of those in the fridge too. The other ingredients are lemon juice, butter, flour, cream and chives (garnish).

I made the soup this afternoon (Saturday 20th March). I didn't have quite enough homemade chicken stock, so I topped it up with the water in which I cooked the broccoli (Step 1). Good idea - I was very impressed with myself. The recipe involves cooking half of the broccoli and putting it aside for later when it is added to the soup.

It's ready now and we'll probably have it for lunch tomorrow, with creme fraiche substituting for cream. A friend called around this evening and has taken some away. I have found that the recipes yield at least 4 pints of soup so there's plenty to freeze and use later.

Honey bees - film of the life cycle

Quick link to YouTube - www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSk_ev1eZec. A 10-minute film about the life cycle of the honey bee (A Hila Science Video, 2006; www.hilaroad.com).

Bees in literature

I did a Google search on bees in literature. The most frequently returned subject was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I also came across a couple of American high schools' websites where students seemed to have prepared webpages on bees in literature or references to literature courses at universities in the USA.

By following these links I learned that Sylvia Plath wrote several poems using bees in the imagery: "The Beekeeper's Daughter" (her father was an entomologist) and "Bees", which comprises a sequence of five poems ("The Bee Meeting", "The Arrival of the Bee Box", "Stings" and "Wintering") (Source: Ellin Sarot - www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/poets/m_r/plath/swarm.htm). This sequence was later published in Ariel.

Little buzzes

The bee was a symbol of power for the ancient Egyptians, the Merovingians and Napoleon!

There are a lot of art galleries or artists' groups using the title hive!


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