Root Soup

When it comes to soup there are only a limited number of recipes that Bert is prepared to try. He dislikes any made from root vegetables or squashes with the obvious exception of the potato. His reason for this is that he finds soups such as parsnip or carrot 'sweet' and, in his view a soup should not be sweet.

Nevertheless, I plan to work my way through 200 Super Soups with no thought to his odd preferences. Sometimes he'll like it, sometimes he won't. He wasn't too sure about yesterday's French Onion. That would have been the spoonful of sugar (to caramelise) and the cup of medium sherry. But last night's mild aversion to French Onion was nothing to the horror when Swisser served him a large bowl of vegetable soup made with carrots, parsnips and swede. I thought it was delicious and was particularly impressed with the aromatic spices she'd used, especially the ginger. Bert said that the ginger was the worst part and if he'd had to eat another spoonful he would have boked. I took the recipe anyway. He can eat weird Lidl fish on my root soup nights.

After lunch, we went for a brisk walk on Runkerry beach where Bert lost his mobile phone. He has some hopes of getting it back. It is absolutely worthless, being the cheapest and most basic phone in the shop so anyone finding it may well think it was thrown away because it is so crap. Anyway, I was more gutted than him, as only yesterday, I'd gotten him to put his accountant's number back on his phone after a year of asking him to update his contacts. Ever since he lost his last phone, back in September 2015 he's been getting me to look up phone numbers for him, numbers he should have put on his phone the last time he asked me.

Anyway, losing his phone with all the inconveniences that will bring him is surely karma for turning up his nose at Swisser's root soup. So, you may wonder, what are Bert's preferred soups?

Leek and potato, mulligatawny, pea, chilli bean & pepper, any fish chowder and,

his all-time childhood favourite, chicken broth! Just look at the glee on that little face. Poor hen. She thought Bertie was her friend.

Not Dead Yet

Rusty and Lily. Not on the menu...yet

Tonight’s menu featured Pea and Ham Soup made from a recipe of my own devising, using split green peas of a similar age to Miss Martha. The sell by date on the packet was December 2011. The ham is that same parcel rescued from the freezer where it had been languishing since Christmas 2015. I also made a carrot cake with some middle-aged carrots that have been hanging around since Saturday last. A week is a very long time for a shop bought carrot and there probably wasn’t a vitamin left but sure the eggs were freshly laid. Which will make up for it. Thanks hens.

It is good that we have embarked upon the eating of ancient foodstuffs as our continuing existence will give hope to you all when, in the coming apocalypse, we will all be far too poor and hungry to throw out perfectly edible food.

Take it from me, times are going to get tough. I don’t think I’ll ever get the pension I so looked forward to at eighteen when I would soothe myself to sleep thinking ‘only forty-two years to go’. And when the ravening hordes come storming up the road intending to stamp through our herb garden, steal our hens and barbecue Rusty and Lily then - our young friends, Bilrus, Dave, Ben, Peter and Locky will fire on them from the tree house with home-made bows and arrows. Dave will be the Chief Archer. If the ravening hordes get really cheeky we may have to get the heavy artillery out. I hope warning shots over their heads will be enough to deter the mob.

End of Month Resolution

I hereby announce that I will post to this blog every single day in December. I've already bought and given most of my Christmas presents so I should have the time.

It's a week since I posted and I've been busy, busy, busy. Busy doing what? As my reader might ask.

I have been making soup, all from this trusty little book 200 Super Soups by Sara Lewis. So far I've made four of them so only another 196 to go. Tonight we had mulligatawny and it was delicious. It allowed me to use up some rather elderly lentils and sultanas and they were perfectly fine. At least I hope so. So, if I don't post tomorrow it will because I have died from ancient lentil poisoning.

I also made more chilli jam from the very last of the crop.

And then there were the autumn leaves. That lot came down in one big dump and I've been collecting wheelbarrow loads and making a huge leaf pile under the trees. In two years time it will have turned into wonderful leaf mould. There are still lots to gather and if it is pleasant tomorrow I'll get the girls to help me. Looking forward to it already.

And what of my inner life? Well... I'm still trying to come to terms with what appears to be the new world order and the rise of the right. At least I'm not dreaming about killing that man any more. Negative energy Nelly, negative energy.