WINTER SOUP

It snowed during the night, but only two centimetres. Pretty this morning, and not too cold.

I made myself the most fantastic soup for supper last night, quite by chance really, adding bits and pieces of not much to not much... I started off with a free range chicken carcass that had quite a bit of meat left on it one way and another. I put it in a large saucepan with water, obviously, an onion, a clove of garlic, some leftover boiled rice and some salt. Boiled it very gently for a few hours. Took the meat off and shared it between Ellie and me. She thought that was a good idea! Put the meat back in, set it to boil, added the zest and juice of one (organic) lemon, and when it was boiling, I created a swirl in the saucepan and added a beaten egg (could have added more). Sort of my version of avgolemono. Then I put cubes of rather stale wholemeal bread into the bottom of a large (thai soup size) bowl, and ladled the soup over it and added freshly ground pepper. It made a very hearty, tasty, comforting supper on a cold winter's evening. Cost me nothing, and when I'd got the whole bowlful inside me, I didn't need anything else.

It always amazes me that people don't make more soup. There are all sorts of soups you can make for next to nothing that are really satisfying. You can even make soup out of vegetable peelings if you wash the vegetables before the peeling... A ham bone, or a couple of marrow bones, or a carcass, or the broth left after a pot au feu, a queue de boeuf or a poule au pot with a few noodles added to it... or a real country soup of split peas and cubes of smoked ham, or cream of lettuce just made with the outside leaves of a salad and a potato and a bit of cream,  I could go on and on. The very best of course is my Mum's poireau pomme de terre! And these are just the simple ones.

I saw a report on the television yesterday about soup, and it showed various people buying cartons of soup at the supermarket. Some are no doubt quite acceptable. But the lady was saying, I don't have time to make soup. Time to make soup? Precisely, it doesn't take time to make soup, you bung everything into a saucepan and the soup makes itself. Especially now you can just whizz it through at the end with a soup mixer. If she'd spent the time she'd taken going to the supermarket and buying the carton actually making soup, she'd probably have saved time.

When I was a child, I didn't much like soup. Not because of the soup really, but because my mother wouldn't let us drink until we'd finished our bowl. It "went against the wind" according to her. One of her quaint beliefs... But to me it was pure torture not being allowed to help it down with water. My children didn't like soup when they were little either. To such an extent that I gave up making it. Now I have soup almost every day in winter, and even in summer, cold soups. So good, and makes my food budget go so much further!

By the way, I found out yesterday that I was actually making a minute amount of money from the adverts on my blog! So I'm going to post more often to increase the traffic if you see what I mean. And I also wanted to say that I don't actually choose the ads, so dont worry if you see sexy Philippino ladies etc., I haven't gone quite barmy! Don't hesitate to click, I may get rich...

WILL WINTER EVER END?

Well yes, it will eventually, of course, and we are only in February. But we have had an incredible amount of snow this year, since December virtually non stop. Sometimes a few centimetres, sometimes a few flakes, but not a week without. Just before Christmas, the weather had been so mild, I had geraniums still in flower on my front terrace, and I have a good picture of red geraniums covered in snow! But the frosts in January soon put paid to that.



Now we have hail at some point almost every day, even when the weather looks quite mild. Yesterday, for instance, the morning looked set to be really lovely, quite mild. I organised a walk on the beach with Ellie and my friend from pottery, Marcelle. On my way to Ste Marine, to the beach, it hailed heavily, quite large stones. And then once at the beach, it was lovely again, the sun quite warm. It was Ellie's first time at the beach (Ellie is my new dachshund puppy, for those who have not been following). She didn't seem to mind the sand at all, was not interested in the water, didn't notice it in fact, but loved picking up long bits of seaweed and running off with them (I forgot my camera!). And driftwood. And shells. So definitely a success, and 40 minutes' walk in the sea air exhausted her for the rest of the day, so I had peace and quiet!


I bought salt to spread on my back terrace, which the night previously had been lethal with frozen rain. I spread the salt at 19h30 and then it started to rain. It rained all evening, washed away the salt and this morning at 6h00 when Ellie felt the urge, the terrace and steps were completely glassy, really dangerous. So I didn't even try to go down to the garden, she had to pee on the terrace, that was dangerous enough. But I've just discovered that there is about a 5°C difference between the back and the front of my house, the front terrace is not frozen at all, nor is the water in my little watering can. So she'll just have to learn to go out there for the moment without putting our lives in danger! This is all fascinating stuff isn't it!