Thursday 16th February - a taste of childhood - crockpottery

 The 'Bored of Lunch' leek and potato soup took us both back to our childhoods,  but not in a wonderful way.

I may have left it too long, even for the forgiving timings of a crock pot. So, the resulting soup was very bland by modern tastes. For Himself, it was too much like the potato and onion soup he frequently had as a child. He grew up in a very rural farming community, in an area without electricity or mains water. They grew a lot of veg in the kitchen garden, especially potatoes. Potato soup was cheap, nourishing and filling.

For me, the memory was of a holiday in a lakeside hotel somewhere in France. My grandmother hosted us all; her three children, their spouses, the eight grandchildren and several au pairs for a fortnight. We children, aged from about 10 to babies, were given an early supper, and the first course was always potato soup.  My memory of that soup is that it was much better than this one!

Today we had chicken and coconut noodle soup for lunch. I halved the chicken and coconut milk, but forgot to halve the other ingredients; the Thai red chilli paste, sriracha, a while red chilli, the sweet chilli sauce, the peanut butter...

Illustration in the book

This was delicious, and Very Warming on such a dreich day. The chinese noodles were massively overcooked, though. The instructions were to add them 20 mins before the end of cooking (on high). Next time, for there will definitely be a next time, I will add them nearer 5-10 minutes before the end.

We were supposed to go to the hygienist today, but a few miles from home, a warning light came on in the car. We pulled over and checked the handbook; it meant anything from something trivial to something dangerous like 'airbags might deploy without cause'. We turned round; I called the dentist's to apologise and he checked carefully checked over the car. It turns out that an abbreviated explanation is displayed for just a very few seconds when the warning comes on. This time it was merely a failed numberplate light... £5 each to buy, and we'll worth paying the £15 for having them replaced.

That's enough excitement for today.