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Minnie Marches On

Kitchen Notes

Has it really been over four months since I last wrote up my soup-making activities? Oh dear. I've only made soup three times in the that time: cabbage, tomato and meatball soup, wild salmon chowder and brandied lobster chowder.

Preparing brandied lobster chowder (2015)
I first made the cabbage soup from The Soup Book five years ago in January 2010. On that occasion the tasters were the younger offspring (then aged ten), his cabbage-hating pal and myself. I made it again on 8th November 2014, the husband and younger son having booked their places in front of the TV to watch Ireland vs South Africa, so I was on cooking detail. I've made the salmon chowder three times: twice for the sister J-Zo and brother-in-law G-Cro. Always a pleasure. Most recently I made the brandied lobster chowder again (cheap lobsters in the local supermarket: duty calls) without setting fire to my hair.




Cherry marmalade muffins and pamperato
I still enjoy cooking and baking, and am trying to make good use of the cookery books in our kitchen. Baking has taken precedence:
a festival cake rather than a traditional Christmas cake using a recipe cut out of a magazine about thirty years ago;
cherry marmalade muffins and pamperato for a social event;
cherry and apple streusel cake for my book group;
Cherry and apple streusel cake
Carrot cake and hazelnut and lemon cake
hazelnut and lemon cake and carrot cake, using a recipe I cut out of a magazine over twenty-six years ago, for the spouse's birthday; and
an orange syrup cake for the sister-in-law.










What's the Buzz?

Apart from baking, I'm still reading and noting references to bees and honey. I like these lines by Emily Dickinson:

Fame is a bee.
It has a song -
It has a sting -
Ah, too, it has a wing. 

On the home front, the spouse and younger offspring claimed they did battle with an enormous bee (probably a bumblebee) in our living-room today. The bee won: the humans had to open the window to let her out.

Until next time.

Minnie








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