Tuesday 2 February 2010

Speaking of soups and sales

Stapleford Woods Lincs, around spring 2009.
I can smell the pine from here. It's time for a trip back there before winter completely passes on and seeings it was Candlemas only last week, (depending on whom you read), I thought this weekend would be as good a time as any. The dog loves ferreting and bouncing and snuffling around in amongst the dead fern and bracken and basically cake himself in twigs and mud so he can deposit it all around the house when we get back home. But hey, such is the price of owning a border collie, (worth his weight btw for the sheer pleasure he has given us since we acquired him.)

There's nothing like soup to warm the cockles of yer 'eart when th
e bitterest winds and freezing temperatures are baying at your door and there's no other food that I take so much pleasure in making, not least because I very rarely screw it up! I have 'cream' recipes when most of the ingredients are cream coloured, mushrooms, potatoes, onions, even leeks and orange recipes, carrots, lentils and sweet potatoes (yams?) or butternut squash where everything is thrown into the pot diced or roughly chopped and sauteed with a few pieces of bacon or pepperoni, either or or even without. Having added enough water to boil and then simmer and when it is all cooked, I semi-puree it all with one of the items I couldn't do without in my kitchen, my braun blender/whisk that I bought six years ago in a sale at Curry's I think it was. Anyway here's a recipe I found for carrot and lentil soup. I'll be sipping on a mug of my own homemade carrot and lentil soup as I sew more of this patchwork throw this afternoon.... 'nom nom nom'

So I am lurving Dunelm mill and have done so ever since I was first introduced to this cornucopia of home furnishings and accessories etc by my sis and bro-in-law when we first moved here over six years ago now. I have bought bedlinen, towels, a clock, nick knacks,and even 'artists' canvases from them and a week isn't complete without a trip there, at least I must visit within the fortnight or quite simply I get withdrawal symptoms. I don't necessarily buy anything, I go for the inspiration, fabrics, furniture designs and SALES. Gracious, they had some excellent SALES on recently. Oh oh oh, I have to share two items I bought in said sale, namely this mirrored picture frame that I found for a staggering £3.50 and AND this delicious tray for £2!! Can you believe it!! Of course as is the norm, I have yet to decide what to do with them (the creative process remember!!), but when I can think beyond this chair throw/cover that I am still working on, I may paint something to place in the frame and hang the tray as a picture. It seems a shame to actually use it as a tray for goodness sake! Did I happen to mention that I am lurving this place?