Minnie's Soup Kitchen

Eggs molee with vegetable biryani If you're still reading this blog then you'll know that my posts have become quite infrequent compared to when I was still enthusiastically engaged in my soup-making project. That started about ten years ago. I was gung-ho to work my way through the 200 recipes. Still, 170 wasn't bad going. Yesterday I made curried parsnip soup, which I first made in May 2012. It was very tasty and well received by the spouse and younger offspring.  So much has happened in the last ten years and even in the seven years since I first made the parsnip soup. The older offspring is now married. The younger offspring is at university. The spouse has become prodigiously creative in the last eighteen months and  blogs prolifically  about his accomplishments. I have dabbled in various things - poetry, calligraphy, comedy improv, knitting - but baking and cooking remain my favourite pastimes and creative outlets. So far this year I've tried about ...

Early-flowering camellia February 2019 was surprisingly mild. The camellia in my back garden has dressed herself prematurely, fooled by the smile of early spring (a line from Anne Bronte's " In Memory of a Happy Day in Spring ".  I baked a couple of things, one of which was a very old favourite: chocolate brazil nut cake. The recipe was published in Good Housekeeping in April 1989, just in time for the older offspring's christening party. It became a firm favourite of the spouse's. I would make it for his birthday each February.  As we battled against middle-aged spread the recipe languished in a  folder. This year I decided that the spouse deserved a special treat and so dusted off the recipe. We are more restrained than in previous years and my office colleagues enjoyed their share of this special cake.  My second bake of last month was from the Kaul sisters' " Three Sisters Indian Cookbook ": semolina saffran biscuits. I had a job track...