Skip to main content

Making Sure the Days Are Full Enough

It's 5th January and I have been busy in the kitchen. We started the new year with a favourite old recipe - cinnamon duck with redcurrant sauce - from Good Housekeeping (April 1992).  Basically, you sear duck breasts in a pan with a stick of cinnamon, then transfer the breasts to an oven (skin side up) to roast while you make a sauce with onions, thyme, stock, red wine and red currant jelly. A delicious start to the year. 

Getting ready to roast tomatoes

Yesterday I decided to make soup from one of our cookery books other than The Soup Book. I selected River Cottage Veg Everyday! (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2011, Bloomsbury) but didn't go for a straightforward recipe. In order to make Hugh's Mexican tomato and bean soup, I first had to make roast tomato sauce (1.5kg of tomatoes yielded about 550ml of sauce) and go on the hunt for a tin of black beans. Finding black beans was the hard part. Once I found them, there was no holding me back. The spouse said of the home-made tomato sauce: "Very good. There's no comparison!" The soup was very tasty too, a tangy contrast to the baked Mont d'Or cheese that we ate afterwards - the spouse's Christmas present from the younger offspring. 

Mexican tomato and bean soup served with sour cream and avocado

 My second venture yesterday was Liam Charles' Christmas gingerbread fudge. Strictly speaking, it's not fudge: too waxy and not crumbly at all. The assorted spices hit the palate at once but the aftertaste is of black treacle. Once I see a recipe which involves heating condensed milk and adding white chocolate, I drool. However, I'm not sure that I'll make this "fudge" again. 
Christmas gingerbread fudge

 While getting ingredients out of the store cupboard yesterday, I noticed that my bag of dried apricots and one bag of ground almonds were perilously close to their respective expiry dates. What could I do with them? Why not make the apricot and almond cake I cut out of a magazine in April 1989 and first made for the older offspring's christening? I did that today and lo and behold! The older offspring did appear at my front door! 
Apricot and almond cake

 Thoughts for the new year 

 This year the spouse and I will celebrate milestone birthdays. Reflecting on this and on the new year has caused me to think about what I would like to do. This poem by Ezra Pound gave me pause for thought: 

 And the days are not full enough 
And the nights are not full enough 
And life slips by like a field mouse 
Not shaking the grass. 

 I hope I can shake some grass this year. 

 All the best. 

 Minnie

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuscan Bean Soup

Tuscan Bean Soup This recipe calls for canned beans (borlotti, flageolet or cannellini) and as I have been tidying and cleaning out our cupboards I've used cannellini beans. I have to mention that the younger offspring has done an impressive job on the cupboards. That's enough about him. Back to me and my soup! Other ingredients include onion, carrots, leek, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree (I substituted sun-dried tomato paste as there was an open jar of it in the fridge), chicken stock (I had to use a cube as my home-made reserves have been used up) and spinach.When ready it's served with ciabatta bread, grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. So it's quite a rich soup. We've just had the Tuscan bean soup for lunch. All enjoyed it. The adult males were particularly forthcoming in their praise. The spouse liked the "tomato-ey sharpness" and mused that ham stock should be considered as an alternative to chicken stock. Bees' Cheese and other recipes H...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lovage Soup

Lovage Soup   Today I made lovage soup, the second recipe by Sophie Grigson in The Soup Book that I have used in the last four days. She introduces the recipe with these remarks: "If you don't grow this old-fashioned herb yourself, ask around among your gardening friends or head down to the nearest garden centre to see if they sell it. " As I mentioned in my last blog entry (18th May), lovage now features among the herbs in my front garden. As the spouse left the camera at home, I took some photographs. Parsley, sorrel and lovage in Minnie's garden. Rosemary, parsley and lovage in Minnie's garden.  I had hoped to add chervil to my collection of herbs - there's a recipe for vegetable and chervil soup in The Soup Book - but "Young Stephen" wasn't able to source any for me. At least he tried. Just while I'm mentioning Stephen, I have to reveal that the spouse and the older offspring claim that he has been mention...
1 comment
Read more

A Sting in the Tale

Nettle Soup I have hesitated to make nettle soup from The Soup Book but last weekend I decided to overcome my doubts. The spouse and I were having a leisurely, offspring-free day in town and I spotted bagged nettles on a vegetable stall in  Meeting House Square . I checked with the stall-holders that they would have nettles again this weekend and determined to go back. The next day I was at a friend's and her husband was about to make nettle soup. My fate was sealed. I had to bring the younger offspring into town this morning and once I had completed various other errands I made my way to Meeting House Square. I bought the nettles and some chard and spinach for my next soup-making stint.  Yesterday the younger offspring and I could have picked all the free nettles I could ever have wanted down by the local river, but I wondered if they'd been sprayed with anything or by any beast. On arriving home from town this afternoon I put on my rubber gloves and washed the nett...
3 comments
Read more