Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

This soup is wonderful. On my top 5 soups I think!

The following will serve 4 to 6 people:

Ingredients:

25g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large leek, thinly sliced
55g plain flour
1.2 L vegetable stock
3-4 carrots, finely diced
4 celery sticks, finely diced
2 parsnips, finely diced
2-3 potatoes, finely diced
3-4 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
300 ml single cream
350g extra mature cheddar, grated
black pepper

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion and leek for 5 min, stirring frequently.

2. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 min. Add a little of the stock and keep stirring, then slowly add the rest of the stock. Scrape the bottom of the pan so that the flour does not stick.

3. Add the vegetables and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the bayleaf.

4. Stir in the cream and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Do not boil.

5. Add the cheese a little at a time, stirring constantly. Do not boil. Season with plenty of black pepper.


There is no need to add salt as the soup will be salty enough with the stock and cheese.

Serve with a nice home-made bread!

Meals of the forthcoming week

Here is a selection of meals we are planning to make this week:

- Potato and broccoli curry with basmati rice
- cereal galettes
- Cheesy vegetable chowder (new!)
- Lentils and vegetables (new!)
- Creamy stuffed mushrooms (new!)
- Lentil croquettes

Come back later in the week for photos and recipes!

Chilli and cheese bread

Chilli & cheese cake/bread

I cannot decide if this is a bread or a cake, as it can be eaten on its own but is also really good as a sandwich base.

Ingredients for 1 cake/bread

160 g plain white flour
190g corn flour
150g grated extra mature cheddar
250g plain yoghurt
135ml milk
2 eggs
1 red pepper, diced
1 red chilli pepper, chopped
60g butter
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven at 200 degrees and grease a 20cm diameter baking form.

2. Sieve the flours, baking powder and salt in a big bowl. Add the cheese (save some to sprinkle on the top of the form).

3. In a different bowl, mix together the joghurt, milk, eggs, pepper and chilli. Melt the butter and add to this bowl. Mix well.

4. Add the yoghurt mixture to the first bowl with the flours and cheese. Mix well.

5. Pour into the baking form, sprinkle with cheese and place in the oven for ~30min.

PS: Tastes nicest cold and is great as a snack on its own.

Cycling

We decided to go for a ride yesterday, training for our Cycle Cuba challenge. We had a very nice afternoon and the weather was perfect for it. We cycled 33 miles (~55km) in 2.5 hours. Here was our itenerary:

Leamington Spa
Offchurch
Cubbington
Weston-under-Wetherley
Hunningham
Birdingbury
Leamington Hastings
Stockton
Napton-on-the-Hill
Southam
Harbury
Leamington Spa

It was nice to get home for a nice cup of tea!

our pixie apples

We have picked our apples today. I cheated a bit by picking one 2 weeks ago (I could not wait). It was really nice if a bit sharp. We have not tried today's yet, as we have decided to take them to work tomorrow.

Given the size of the tree, we have had 6 apples altogether this year.

Don't they look yummy?

Kitten photos

Well, she more like a grown-up cat than a kitten now, let's face it!

What she loves to do:

- pulling the socks drying on the clothes drier
- sitting in the shower cubicle and listening to the foam
- trying to go onto the kitchen table by climbin UNDER the table cover (right, WHO would spot her under there???)
- climbing up the curtains up to the rail
- hiding in the washing machine
- lying on the laptop (only when being used, obviously!)
- scratching/banging the door at 5am to come upstairs with us
- chewing our wrists (almost looks like she's hugging my arm on the picture below, don't be fooled!)

little devil... but she can also be sweet and cudly!

A day in London

It is such a great feeling not to have to study!

We went to see Ratatouille at the cinema and I really enjoyed it! It is entertaining and makes a good point about food.

On Thursday, we took the train to London as I had appointments at the General Consulate to register our marriage with the French Authorities and apply for a new passport. I applied for a new ID card at the same time, as I realised last week that it had ran out of date.

We bought a bite from Paul's. It was the best sandwich I had in years, literally. I had a 'Méditerranéen': artichokes, red peppers, basil, mozzarella, salad, olive oil in an olive ciabatta bread. Trave had a sesame white baguette with brie and lettuce, and found his equally good. It is a bit pricey, but hey, anything would be expensive in South Kensington so you may as well eat something nice :D

Between the two appointments we walked to Hyde Park, wandered for a bit, and after the second appointments, we went to the Science Museum (which was entirely free), before taking an evening train back home.

A very nice day! I should have my new passport within 4 weeks.

I'm back online!

The exam is over. Let's hope I have passed and won't need to go through all this again in 6 months!

So, back to the cycling, cooking, and capturing our cat's cute and mischievous behaviour. We cycled to Garden Organic Ryton last weekend, to fill up our 5L Ecover washing-up liquid, handwash and shower gel, only to find out that among these, they only offer refill for washing-up liquid ;(

We still had a nice day. We had lunch there and it was absolutely delicious again. And the weather was nice this time so we had a walk around the gardens where I took this picture of a thistle.

Revising

3 days to go...

Concepts are spinning in my head: performance indicators, control loop, Sargent's 5 Cs, Mintzberg, TQM, Porter's 5 Forces, 4 Cs, Boston Matrix, you name it!

I have two strategies to calm my nerves:

- eating dark chocolate (full of magnesium)
- stroking our cuddly kitten/cat (supposed to be good against stress!)


Please keep your fingers crossed for me!