Winter Warmers

Brrrr....
The so-called ‘big freeze’ is still in full swing in London...as evidenced by the gulls sitting ON the serpentine in Hyde Park – as opposed to in it! They looked rather confused, actually – made me chuckle to myself.

But, my humour was somewhat short-lived, after I very quickly began to discover, while walking through the snow and ice with a client of mine from work, that my shoes were decidedly un-waterproof!!

Yes. Cold, wet feet and soggy socks do not make for a very happy Jen. I arrived back in the office with a rather grumpy disposition, after stripping off both shoes and socks and sitting barefoot and shivering at my desk. Several cups of tea later, my teeth had stopped chattering...though despair descended on me once again when I realised I was going to have to put both soggy socks and frozen shoes on for the journey home.

Cue my wonderfully quick-thinking colleagues. It wasn’t long before my feet were rather cosily wrapped in someone’s spare pair of (dry) socks (thank goodness for the practical-minded: it never would have occurred to me to bring spare socks to work), and a mismatched pair of plastic bags to form a barrier between the dry socks and damp boots. Genius!

I tell you, I have never felt more attractive! Also, my feet made a delightful scrunchy noise with every footstep, much to my amusement and the confusion of the other commuters.

Anyways, the real point of my blogging today was to share with you my recipe for the finest (and potentially cheapest) winter-warming soup I have ever made...here goes:

You need:
· 1 tablespoon of olive or vegetable oil
· 1 onion
· 1 tin of tomatoes
· About a tablespoon of tomato puree
· 2 pints of vegetable stock
· 50 grams of lentils
· 75 grams of baby pasta shapes
· Some herbs and salt and pepper, if that’s your thing oh, and maybe some grated cheese...

Chop the onion and fry it in the oil until transparent. Add the tomatoes, puree, lentils and half the stock. Cook uncovered for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft.

Remove from the heat and blend, either in a food processor or using a hand blender. Add the rest of the stock, the pasta shapes and some herbs and seasoning to your taste. Return to the heat and boil gently until the pasta is cooked – about 10-12 mins.

Serve with a little grated cheese on top, and some yummy crusty bread. Mmmmmmm!!!

I know I don’t usually blog about food, but since it’s pretty much the love of my life (after beads), I’ve decided to add it into the mix. Try out the soup and let me know what you think. I should probably add at this stage that the recipe is not of my own design, but heavily based on one from this book, available from Amazon. Don’t be put off by the ‘student’ in the title...it’s a great book!

I’ll be back on Friday with my next Folksy Friday post. The theme will be monochrome – any suggestions for your products will be gratefully accepted. Stick a comment in the box for me...

Oh, and one last thing...check out my fist-ever scarf, knitted by me, for me! I’m rather proud of it..