The Good Life

I've had a very busy morning doing housework and cooking. I had a heap of tomatoes that Jim left here that needed eating up so I made a brew of tomato soup. That is an incredibly simple recipe. Lots of tomatoes roughly chopped added to finely diced onion with salt, pepper and herbs. This is cooked for ages then rubbed through a sieve to extract the skins and seeds. It is even yummer with garlic but I had used it all. It would make a lovely pasta sauce too, but I'd probably skin the tomatoes before cooking them down so I didn't need to rub the pulp through the sieve. I love the idea of being able to grow lots of my own veges and cook up pure, healthy concoctions out of them. Along with this goes making my own bread. Today I made a loaf of lightly herbed bread, and it was fantastic with the soup. The trouble with homemade bread is that we can never resist gorging ourselves on the loaf while it is still warm. My tummy is like a barrel! Sorry, I can't give you the exact recipe as I make it rather randomly. I always use dried yeast (never surebake), warm water and honey or sugar. Then I add olive oil, salt, seasonings and high grade flour. The amount of flour depends on how much water I happen to use.

These are my Laura Ashley strawberry cups. They are perfect for soup. I had to go to Australia to buy them. Actually, come to think of it, I would love to have some Laura Ashley fabrics in my new house. I will have to investigate. I am off to de-clutter the living room. Mr B has mowing and hacking to do in the garden. I have a cunning plan for a navy crocheted scarf that I might tackle after tea. Plus I've got to wrangle the bias binding for the NZ quilt. School tomorrow. Three weeks of term to go! XXX