Emmental and Beer Soup
The weather has been really good for over a week - good for warmth seekers but not for soup-makers. I was ready to make soup yesterday, it being Sunday and my habit being to make the soup at the weekends, but it was not to be. Too hot and I wasn't feeling up to the task. Not to worry - I made it this evening instead. Emmental and beer soup, a German-style cheese soup, calls for onions, garlic, chicken stock, German wheat beer (I substituted a Belgian beer), Emmental and Gruyere cheeses, and thyme (garnish). Obviously it's quite a rich soup. The thyme on top is the perfect tangy garnish, complementing the luscious cheese. The spouse and I enjoyed it, the younger offspring wasn't too keen and I've yet to hear the older offspring's verdict (yes, he's back). I would make this soup again when the weather is less hospitable and I look forward to trying out the other cheese soup recipes in The Soup Book: pear and stilton, cheddar and chive, and camembert and celeriac with cranberry swirl.
Review
Well, it's six months since I started writing this blog and so I'm going to review my progress. I started off with spinach and rosemary and planned to work with vegetables in season. I haven't stuck to the plan. I've made twenty soups so far. Some of the favourites are cabbage, tomato and meatball (January), Moroccan sweet potato (February), garlic broth (March), Mexican sweetcorn and Tuscan bean (April), creamy smoked mackerel (May), avocado and rocket and the Hungarian goulash. I also know a lot more about bees than I did six months ago, but have left "the science bit" to "the science-bittists". Well, I am an arts graduate.
Golden Days
By this I'm referring to fiftieth anniversaries. The Graphic Studio, Dublin is celebrating its fiftieth/golden birthday with members' contributions based on the theme of gold. I called in on Saturday to have a look. One of the exhibits is an etching entitled "Busy Bees" by Adrienne Symes. It looks better in real life than on the website. While in the studio I spotted another bee-themed etching, "Working Bees" by Meadhbh Arthurs. On ferreting about on the website I discovered Arthurs' "Beehive Homes" and Katherine van Uytrecht's "Bees Returning to the Memory Hive." While I liked those etchings and want to be loyal to bees, I have to admit my favourites from the Gold collection were Kelvin Mann's "Ewe" and James McCreary's "Floating Forest, El Dorado I" (no link, I'm afraid).
Other fiftieth anniversary and birthday celebrations taking place this year include bubble wrap, the film "Psycho", Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Dr Marten's!
News Beat
And last but not least, there have been lots of bee stories in the news in the last week or so. I was so busy trying to share them on the bee-related sites on my social networking site, that I got a warning that I was being too active and might be blocked. Was I being warned to buzz off? Here they are:
Thanks very much to DM and MH who contributed. That's it. No soup for the next two weeks.
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