Yawn yawn, wakey wakey autumn 2017

Soup season is back!

I've just made a pot of soup, and it is bubbling away gently on the hob - boiled up the chicken carcass (with bay leaf, onion & carrot chunks) from our roast chicken on Thursday night; gently sautéed leek, onion, swede and celeriac, then removed everything bar the bay leaves from the stock, added the veg, a veggie stock cube, a few chicken stock pots, the diced up left-over meat from the chicken and then decided to use a garlic and herb grinder to grind in various flavours.

I will add a little potato a bit later on, and possibly some chilli flakes just to add a bit of warmth... even if I do say so myself, it smells bloomin' great in here right now.

Just having a cuppa, then going to move on 10 gallons of wine before sitting down with beer.

 

Bloomin' lovely! I have that wee glow that only hot soup with a bit of spice can give.....

 

We had visitors today and I had done quite a bit of cooking.

We started with a French Onion soup that I made on Friday. It takes a few hours to cook the onion slowly to get it to caramelise properly. Not much else in the way of ingredients but you need to cook it in a mixture of oil and butter, with garlic, stock and alcohol (@Fat Controller please note ). The traditional way used to be with Cognac but I used some left over Shiraz. It's then topped off with toasted French bread topped with melted cheese (I much prefer to use a strong mature cheddar).

Very tender roast chicken cooked with herbs and garlic, very crispy roast spuds and vegetable stir fry (finely sliced onion, garlic, fresh ginger, mange-tout, carrots, fine beans, courgettes and mushrooms with a touch of stock). Followed by fresh fruit (mango, strawbs, melon and grapes), gluten and sugar free apple crumble (made with ground almonds and seeds) and chocolate pots (85% chocolate).

Evening meal was hot, home made salt beef sandwiches with home pickled cucumbers followed by home grown blackberry mousse.

 

Morning all on this Bonus of a Sunday morning,enjoy your day and stay safe my friends

Just took this photo

 

Aloha everyone,

We still have guests staying with us. The sun is shining brightly and all's well in Shineyland.

Lots to do but hope to get things done in the garden as well. I'm trying to finalise the last details for the tournament I'm running next Sunday but am running four other things during the week.

Keep well and have a great day

Aloha!