Day Two Hundred and Twenty Eight - Broccoli Soup

Dear all,

Today I decided to combat the early onset of sub zero temperatures with some warming soup. As locally grown Broccoli was on special offer at Metro, I thought, where better place to start than with a floret or two. I found a rather marvelous looking recipe on the BBC Good Food website which appealed due to its simplicity and the fact it said it was 'easy' and 'delicious': I like these words when cooking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/broccolisoup_76607

I started out with some garlic and oil in a large pan and immediately went off piste from the recipe by adding 3 large onions.

I then added 4 cups of chicken bouillon and threw in the broccoli that had been washed and chopped into mini florets.

I left the soup to bubble away and managed to get Luke on skype ( difficult of late as Luke rarely/ never answers his phone if he feels unsure about who is calling him).

Luke played a valuable role in the latter stages of the soup preparation and I even managed to capture a few moments of his critique on film.

Once in the blender, the soup turned a very wholesome looking brownish colour but tasted wonderful. I had added some of Ted's Orgasmic Onion seasoning to the broth which gave it a welcome boost and it made for a great lunchtime snack.

Whilst I was pottering away on the computer, I also managed to pop a scrmptious apple in the oven. I used a recipe again from the internet that was described as 'The Best Apple Crumble Ever'. You can't argue with that! I think the magic ingrediant was the walnuts in the crumble topping that really added a fabulous crunch to the desert.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/35715/best-apple-crumble-ever.html

Needless to say, both had disappeared by the end of the day and saw another key moment in my Domestic Goddess training: International collaborative cooking !

And in other news:

1. A quick shout out to Luke and his empire: http://www.looswithviews.com/

Luke Barclay is a young British author. He studied History at the University of Sheffield, before spending two years living in rural Japan, teaching English on the JET Programme. After returning to the UK he joined the BBC and spent a number of years working in factual programme making. He is the author of A Loo with a View and Good Loo Hunting. Despite appearances, he does have other interests in life apart from latrines... such as sinks, bidets and, of course, taps.