It's just because I'm--

Hello again!

Salad. Yeuch. Right?

I used to think so too!! Well, I've become a convert, a veritable templefoodie (thanks Nigella!) and I have to confess to being just a little bit of a health freak. I love my running, exercise - in fact, a dear friend of mine recently told me that he doubts I ever rest, and that even standing still I vibrate at a high frequency and should be insulated in a lead box on aircrafts. Anyway, restlessness aside, salad is often regrettably reduced to a lot of soupy-looking leaf, wet tomato and insipid cucumber gasping limply on the side of a plate in an effort to be valiant with one's vitamins. I am not the only one championing the rethinking of salads as delicious, rainbow concoctions both divine to look at and heavenly to eat. There will be a few "salads" popping up over the next few days, chargrilled vegetables, thai themed glories and asian inspired salad boosters. This evening we're having my father's homemade shredded chicken and gorgonzola pizzas, and I was delegated salad duty! The salad base was relatively generic - baby spinach, grated carrot and coriander, but I made a separate asian themed concoction of beanshoots, spring onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, soy sauce and nam pla. If I had a lime to hand, that would have gone in too.


You need: 


two handfuls of beanshoots
3 spring onions sliced into pennies
teaspoon dried chilli or 1 red chilli finely chopped and deseeded
1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Sprinkling of soy sauce, and of nam pla (thai fish sauce)


In a wok, or frying pan, heat a little oil and fry your spring onions, garlic and beanshoots until they all become slightly soft to the touch, then add your chilli and ginger - cook for another 1-2 minutes until mingled and then sprinkle in your soy sauce and nam pla - sometimes a half teaspoon of sugar is quite nice here, adding depth to the sauce. The soy sauce and nam pla should just coat the onions and beanshoots, not drown them. Turn the salad marinate/dressing/sauce/concotion (I still haven't found a name for it!!) into a bowl and serve either warm or chilled with your salad!!

Anyway, dinnertime for me. (yum!)
Have great evenings!
Love,
Eloise xxx

*Shamelessphotographyplug*

Here's one I made earlier!! Just a few photos of the muffins in their glory.
xxx

Blueberries and rose petals, crystals and storms.

*Insert guilty sentence about not updating blog here*

Hello! I've missed you all. Lots has happened recently, big changes and little ones, new friends, old ones lost, all sorts of things! I have a few foodie photos to share with you, and then a rather appetising recipe, if I do say so myself.

 What do you reckon? I was recently holidaying in Gozo, specificaly the village of Xaghra. The weather was incredible! The people were so friendly, and the food was unbelievable - small peppered goats cheese, warmed olives with the gentlest flavour, sweet air-cured bresaola, huge smiles of watermelon - the list goes on! Getting to to a stormy Scotland however, despite it being the month of August, I made blueberry muffins in a fit of wet-weather gloom. I'm also shortly moving to Corsica, so I am making the most of the gorgeous green aga whislt I have it! Crystallised rose petals were also on the menu - waking up at 6 am this morning had its organisational advantages, and all I had to do today was done by ten, roughly. I shall go and be disheveled and confused for a good while after I post the recipe, in order to readdress the balance!!

Here goes!

For Elo's blueberry and cinnamon muffins, you need:

375g self raising flour

90g unsalted butter

220g caster sugar

200g blueberries

teaspoon cinnamon

310ml buttermilk (Sainsbury's do this in annoyingly sized 284ml pots, so top up the buttermilk with regular milk)

1 egg, lightly beaten

12 hole muffin case, and butter to grease

Sift your flour into a large bowl, and then rub in the butter using the very tips of your fingers. Follow up with the sugar, eggs, blueberries, buttermilk and cinnamon, then mix until lumpy - don't overmix your muffins, you'll lose precious air! Grease your muffin tin, and then scoop out your muffins from the bowl into the tin and bake in a moderately hot over for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and clean to the spearing with a skewer!

The crystallised rose petals are a matter of minutes however, (those they are sticky minutes!!) the rose petals MUST be unsprayed - you really don't want to eat pesticides, and then washed and dried before you brush them with egg white (pastry brush - hello!) and sprinkle them with caster sugar. Lay them flat on some tin foil and then leave to dry, preferably somewhere warm, like an airing cupboard (where mine are crystallising quite nicely).

I hope you all have lovely weeks and lovelier weekends!!

Eloise 

xxx

the chapter in which snow white eats the apple.

I think its high time I told you all a tale about the lovely dinner I've been hinting at for weeks now, when I went around to Prince Charming's house to play. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...
Sadly he brought along his noble steed and thus I didn't have him all to myself, but I was nevertheless treated to an evening of utterly delicious food, which was most therapeutic after an afternoon of torment, spent clearing up a bottle of red wine which I smashed, in true Eloise-fashion, all over the floor. I don't suffer from dyspraxia, I hasten to add, I'm just really clumsy.

So Prince Charming was presented instead with a meagre bar of Green and Blacks, a poor replacement for the wine, but he and his noble steed were also provided with jokes for the whole evening, and it was pointed out to me that I was in heels, and shouldn't touch anything, there were sockets around the room, and Oh! Look! stairs...

Prince Charming also added that he'd done a risk assessment before I arrived and said that if I wanted to enter the kitchen I was going to have to wear a high-vis jacket and a hard hat at all times. Or wrap me in cottonwool. I wasn't impressed either way.

Sitting safely on my chair away from anything breakable, I was duly served three of the most delicious courses I have ever been entreated to in this City: pea and rosemary (flower) mousse, venison casserole, parsnip puree, caramelised beetroot and vanilla (and star anise, blegh) pannacotta, served with sweet pesto, crystallised basil leaves and strawberry coulis.

It sounds fantastic, and believe me, it tasted every bit as good as it sounds. We started off with the pea and rosemary soup (in his extensive gardens Prince Charming has a rosemary bush), in mousse format - a new experience for me, chilled, and sprayed with a super-expensive impressive nozzle into my teacup! Visually impressive, palest jade green, studded with amethyst coloured rosemary flowers. It was almost a shame to eat it.

Almost.

I had no trouble daintily wolfing down my first serving, and didn't turn down seconds. The Prince and his steed had a fight with a sprig of rosemary and the steed received his dinner in a nosebag from then on.

We were then served an utterly beautiful casserole, stewed to within an inch of its life, the venison melting, and the blackberries and chesnuts were an added treat. Combined with a parsnip puree of petit filous creaminess, and sweet, caramelised beetroot, the steed keeled over in bliss, and I nearly joined him. The beetroot was allegedly a worthy adversary in the kitchen, refusing to yield to the prince, enduring torture at 200 degrees celsius, an hours boiling, before finally succumbing to his ministrations. His lordship, Gordon Ramsay, was sent an angry messenger forthwith, pending poor instruction and unnecessary toil on behalf of Prince Charming.

We sat back, post-dinner, in contented bliss, almost full and warm with sleepy fingers and toes. It had been spellbinding, and we still had dessert to go!

And so it was, laid out like a fairytale, a triumphant pannacotta, accompanied by strawberry coulis, sweet pesto, and crystallised basil leaves. Vanilla and star anise pannacotta, glorious and glistening and delicious though it was however, seemed to have adverse effects on me, given my allergy to star anise - generally met with displeasure by my stomach. Innocent of the star anise, however, I polished off pudding, and then wondered why I felt sick for several hours afterwards.

Despite my aversion to star anise, I remain indebted to Prince Charming for such an exquisite meal and wonderful company. Even his steed was mellowed by the wine and fine food, and the evening was spent in good company and high spirits, and we staggered home happily ever after.

Love,
Eloise
xxx

Campo de' Fiori

Because food is gorgeous - please click on the photo to see it in all its glory. Rome '08. I have so much to talk about in some up and coming posts! These chiefly comprise of an utterly divine dinner I was treated to (think rosemary flowers, summer, venison with the most exquisite parsnip puree, pannacotta and sweet pesto and you're almost there...) and a pistachio korma I will experiment with tomorrow for some dear friends of mine who are all coming for birthday tea! My birthday, actually, but I think it's perhaps appropriate for a foodie to celebrate occasions by cooking for others. How is the delightful month of May treating everyone?

Eloise xxx

" and drink very good tea out of a thin Worcester cup of a colour somewhere between apricot and pink..."

So today, lovely people, I have a few indulgent recipes. I've had ever such a busy week, my assignments are starting to rear their heads, I've handed in essays, been wined, dined, and a disaster in the kitchen and am generally winding up the end of the academic year in sleep deprived style!! I have five tests and an exam coming up soon - so forgive me if posts slow down (again...oops...) Anyway! Thursday saw me hosting a movie night with some gorgeous friends, and, ever the opportunist, I spotted the chance to experiment with popcorn. Now, this was a mixed bag, I must say, as the first sachet of popcorn set fire to the microwave (shhhh!), and the second two needed maximum attention whilst popping but otherwise behaved themselves. To cut my prattling short, we would have had buttered popcorn, chocolate and chilli popcorn and Nigella Lawson's "party" popcorn, but in the end, the buttered popcorn became more of an acrid mess that spent its night on my kitchen windowsill, cooling down.

You need:

(cheat's version)
popcorn, in sachets, microwaved. And/or, set fire to.

or (virtuous cooks' version)
two handfuls of popcorn kernels per recipe,
wok oil

Place oil and kernels in a pan over a high heat. Put the lid on and hold on tight - once popcorn has slowed down its popping to roughly two seconds between pops, remove from heat. Don't remove the lid during popping though, unless you want to lose an eye in a very ignominious fashion.
For chocolate chilli popcorn:
popped corn
250g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
sprinkling of chilli flakes
Melt your chocolate (in microwave or otherwise), and stir in your double cream. Tip both chocolate and popcorn into a large bowl and then mix with your hands - I promise there is no other way of doing this, you just have to get messy. Once popcorn is coated in chocolate cream mixture, shake in your chilli flakes and mix again. It's a gorgeous combination of flavours and the chilli gives the chocolate a subtle kick, and the cream prevents the chocolate from solidifying and sticking together in clumps. It was gorgeously addictive, although I recommend you supply your guests with napkins as it makes for messy eating - and your friends might think that you work better as a serviette instead.
For "party" popcorn, hence referred to as spiced popcorn:
lashings of parika, cumin, cinnamon
2 teaspoons fine salt (unless popcorn is already salted, in which case, skip this step)
2-4 teaspoons caster sugar depending on preference.

This is perhaps more inspired by Nigella's party popcorn than derived from it, as she does over complicate it with things like melted butter, and so forth, but the flavours are gorgeous and the marriage or sweet and salted flavours with the spices is a rather more-ish combination! It doesn't take a genius to work out, to be honest, just shake everything over the popcorn in bowl and mix thoroughly (again, your paws are best for this one).

I've always had trouble with just salted or sweet popcorn being a little bit boring - so here you have the above two variations, tried and tested by a fussy bunch. The proof was in the clean bowls I had at the end of the night.

My next recipe for you is a breakfast indulgence, perfect for Sunday mornings in bed. I will confess to scoffing it this morning for breakfast but I think it makes an excellent comfort food regardless of the time of day.

You need:
4 slices of soft white bread (although I used walnut loaf as it was to hand)
two handfuls of blueberries
1 very ripe banana - smushes better
shakings of cinnamon
2 tsp golden syrup
butter
double cream

In a bowl, mash your blueberries and banana with sprinklings of cinnamon and the golden syrup and then spread the mixture onto one slice of bread. Squish down with the other slice of bread to form a sandwich and then fry in the butter until golden. Repeat. Drizzle with double cream and then scoff. Blueberries and bananas are pretty much a match made in heaven, the golden syrup and the subtle warmth of the cinnamon sweeten them slightly, and the mushy filling inside the hot, crispy bread is simply gorgeous. Do try this one. I was grinning like a fool whilst I ate it! It's actually a variation of a previous French Toast recipe, just a little pared down for quick cooking.

I hope you all have lovely lazy Sundays.
Love,
Eloise xxx

Just one of those lazy banoffee days...

Good evening all!!
I'm not sure who paid the Sun King, but Scottish skies today were glorious - not a cloud in sight and enough blue to make a sailor a pair of trousers - most welcome as today we had friends over for a gorgeous Sunday lunch - and I think I can vouch that a wonderful foodie afternoon was had by all! (marinating ourselves slowly with cheese and wine in the sunshine was definitely my favourite part...)
So today I have for you a few sunny photographs and a delightfully kitschy dessert recipe - one of my all time favourites - banoffee pie! I have to confess that at first I got my butter measurements completely skewered and melted 200g of melted butter into 200g of digestives, with interesting results and much cursing taking place as I actually read the recipe! Anyway...

You need:
200g butter
250g digestives/plain biscuits
Can of dulche de leche or premade caramel (roughly 375ml)
4 bananas
300ml double cream
25g dark chocolate for grating!
A flat tin with a removable bottom
Melt your butter in a bowl in the microwave, and place your digestives in a plastic bag and them beat them to a fine pulp with a rolling pin - this is a great stress reliever! Mix your biscuits into the butter until it's all absorbed and then flatten the mixture into the tin so you've formed the base for your pie. Onto this, spread your dulche de leche, and then, if you are making it the day before, let these two layers set slightly in the fridge - mine chilled overnight which made for a firm base. Next, slice your bananas into pennies and place these on top of the caramel in concentric circles. Whip your cream slowly using a hand mixer (doing it the old fashioned way will give you unbelievable armache, honestly.) and then fold it over the bananas so it becomes your fourth layer. I grated some dark chocolate over the top of the pie, but you could decorate with left over banana pennies if you fancied. You can serve it at room temperature for softer caramel or pop it back in the fridge - whatever tickles your fancy!

After lunch we all staggered out into the garden for cheese and grapes (two of my favourite foods) and I spent the rest of the afternoon in a Cambozola-fuelled haze, soaking up the sun.

I hope you've all had beautiful days - I'm going to polish off the last of that pie!
Love,
Eloise xxx

Stormclouds make for sunny Easters

Best advice you ever heard, huh?











Happy Easter you wonderful people! Thank you for coming along for this intrepid bloggy ride - you make it all worthwhile!
Love,
Eloise xxx

In two shakes of a lamb's tail we'll have duck-egg skies, my love.

Hello, beautiful people!!
How are you all today? I've had a very lovely day tramping around Scottish countryside with lovely friends in the aftermath of the freakish snow we've been entreated to - and making friends with ghosts, goats, and fruitcake coloured pigs! (As well as baptizing lambs...)

So, for cold paws and rosy cheeks I prescribe...soup! But not just any soup!


For pea, baby spinach and tumeric soup you need:
3 diced onions
2 tsp tumeric
2 pints veg stock
225g baby spinach leaves, washed450g frozen peassalt and black pepper
3 tsp lemon juice

Heat some oil in a big pan and fry the onions until soft. Add the tumeric and peas and stock and simmer until are just cooked (keep the lid off if possible to retain the beautiful crisp green colour). Take off the heat, add the spinach raw and liquidise with a hand blender or otherwise! Return to heat add salt and pepper and the lemon juice, heat and serve. By not cooking the spinach you retain more vitamins as it wilts gently in the heat of the soup and as this serves six roughly you can freeze individual portions for consumption at your leisure!
I was most delighted that my nailpaint matched the duck egg hue of these beautiful bowls.

Perhaps a sign of sweeter skies to come?

Happy eating!Love,
Eloisexxx

Sun, sea, salmon, bellydancers.

Hello there lovelies!


I know it's been ever so long since I posted but I have a few moments to spare and this little blog of mine could do with an update! I've been so busy these last few weeks, studying and working equally hard, playing harder, and generally making the most out of these last few weeks of term before Spring break kicks in! I go home this Saturday and I can't wait - home cooking galore and general loveliness will abound! I've been mega busy with my University's dance show (I teach a bellydancing class, and thought you might like to see a few photos of us in our glittery glory...)


In light of the gorgeous weather, I've been inspired to try some lighter recipes, as winter is losing its grip on the world I am less inclined to want to curl up in my bed with a bowl of something hot and soupy. Although, saying that, does anyone know of a supermarket that stocks Miso soup?! I am having serious cravings and the only place that seems like it might stock it is the ever-elusive Oriental hypermarket lurking somewhere in my city...


Anyway! I have been experimenting with things like salmon en papillote, which is essentially salmon baked briefly in tinfoil with the addition of herbs and a little seasoning to bring out the flavours. Cooking it this way means that you retain all the juices and your little fishy doesn't dry out!!


You need:
Salmon steaks, one or two per person, depending on your appetite (mine just isn't worth talking about)
Tin foil.
Butter, unsalted (or oil, but I doubt the flavour would be as good)
Rock salt and cracked black pepper,
lemongrass, a pinch of oregano, fresh dill... whatever combination of fresh or dried herbs takes your fancy - fresh coriander, finely sliced spring onions and bashed up cardamoms lends the salmon a subtle asian flavour!


Preheat your oven to around 200-220 degrees celsius (sorry Americans, I could never convert things). Take your salmon and place it in an A4 sized sheet of tinfoil, and lie it skin/scales side down. Make sure the shinier side of the foil is on the outside. Take your sea salt and pepper and rub it into your salmon, using as much as you wish - though I recommend going easy on the salt as not to impare the flavour of the fishyfish! Scatter your herbs over the top of your salmon. Don't fret if some fall to the side, it'll all steam up in its foil boat. Pop a knob of unsalted butter on top of that, and then scrunch your tin foil into a little silver boat shape, leaving room for the salmon to steam away underneath. Slide this into the oven and give it twenty minutes to cook, checking it as you please. It'll be ready when it flakes under pressure of a fork and is a pale pink colour - the butter should have melted and all the herbs will have imparted their flavours. This could be enjoyed hot from the foil at a barbecue, or eaten cold and flaked in a salad - what matters is that the salmon has retained its moisture and tastes really bloody delicious! (Not to mention that it's a swizz at a dinner party - just pop it in the oven and you have twenty minutes to do your make up!)


I like this served with roasted sweet potatoes chopped into chunks and seasoned with paprika, salt and pepper. Melting blue cheese over anything is always a good idea and the crumbly pungency of the cheese lends itself well to the softened sweet potato. If you're feeling wild and dangerous, scattering some chopped pecans over the top makes for a killer combination.


Anyway, the joys of my next linguistics class are calling - so until next time, lovely readers.
Have wonderful days!
Love,
Eloise xxx

Gratitude...

Evening lovelies!

How are you all? I never got round to making those scones, sadly, and this time I'm just going to exalt the virtues of ramen, food and dirt, reduced sections and the gym. And really, really amazing moments that spring out at you, from nowhere.

So.... I was a total spanner today, and managed to mix up the days for an interview I have tomorrow... I went to help out at work this morning and left at two to go and grab a quick sushi lunch before I ran back to uni for my interview, which is tomorrow! Durrr. Anyway, depsite my major thickness, I did score some ramen for lunch, which is, and I'm almost ashamed to say it, the Korean version of supernoodles. But SO much better. It is, I reckon, up there on my top ten comfort foods list. So this is, yes, a supernoodle, the armpit of most food counters, but this hole-in-the-wall sushi place I go to jazzes it up with water chestnuts and spring onions, a poached egg and crab sticks. I know. I know. But still! Delicious. You've just got to try it to believe me - and it makes you feel good!! The only thing that beats the ramen feeling is a warm salty pretzel with mustard. End of.

What are your favourite comfort foods?

I also received my first organic veg bag from the shared planet group on campus! It was a lovely surprise to get so many dirt covered, earthy, wholesome looking fruits and vegetables! I have apples, oranges, and pears, leeks, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, fresh ginger (awesome!!), potential turnips (need washing to define true nature) and other lovely things! I've shared a few potatoes and carrots with a friend of mine who's slow cooking us brisket of beef for tomorrow's dinner! Very exciting.

A quick psalm to the joys of the reduced sections! ...Avocadoes, raspberries and PAIN AU CHOCOLAT! All for nice student-prices! I do love a bargain and tomorrow on top of the tonnes of fruit I must consume already I shall be wolfing down my pain au chocolat in a very non-studenty manner. Although that being said, in a photo recently taken by my work colleagues in the coffee shop's birthday party, I'm rocking a studenty look...

Now, the philosophical gratitude part.

Today, sat on the bus coming home after my ramen, I struck up a conversation with an older lady, kind and sweet. All I said was something along the lines of sitting beside someone with lots of bags. I think she wanted someone to talk to, because for the next fifteen minutes of my life I experienced one of the most honest, genuinely interested conversations of my life. What did we talk about? The weather. My city. University. The snow. An interview. She smiled at me with such open interest and she seemed to enjoy talking to a stranger so much that I wonder if maybe she needed someone to take interest in her for a church. I waved at her as I got off the bus. She wished me good luck. I don't know her name, and I doubt I ever will. But that woman made me weep and grin with gratitude for the indomitable, ever surprising human spirit. She was so genuinely interested in my life - something utterly insignificant in hers. She created the brightest moment of my day. Something about the conversation made me sit up and be thankful for all the little pleasures and surprises in everyday life. Ramen. Conversation. The first sip of tea in the morning. The untold kindness of strangers. Sunshine, even if brief. Smiles. The knowledge that comes from being serene and secure.

I'm grateful for all of this and so much more.

Thank you,
Eloise xxx

365 bright mornings and starlit nights.

Hello there readers!

Firstly, huge apologies are due for being truly awful and busy and not posting for ages, Christmas came at me with a vengeance and I was duly swamped with all its treats and family gatherings and vast quantities of snow, as befits the season! I hope you've all had really wonderful, comforting holidays and are enjoying the beginning of a very blessed 2010!

I've cooked so much and been treated to such delicious food that a lot of what I've made escapes me, but I am going to share with you a recent (and slightly scary) passion for avocados! In a fit of comfort food desperation, I raided my fridge, stopped by Peckham's and came up with a goats cheese, avocado and caramelised red onion pizza, with dough made from scratch. I was pretty pleased with this one, I must say, as it looks so damn pretty when it comes out of the oven, golden and bubbling! I had a real problem trying to find dough recipes that contained relatively normal ingredients that I could cut down to make a portion for just one person, so I'd maybe just make the full thing next time (I hate cooking for one) and then freeze the extra portions so that you have dough on hand for whenever you fancy some proper, homemade pizzas. I'll apologise now to any steadfast Italian mamas out there - I have no Italian blood and I'm therefore probably doing this all wrong, if you have any improvements, let me know, otherwise we'll just use the one I've got here for you.

It'll serve two (pinched courtesy of Delia Smith with a few alterations.)

175g plain flour
tsp salt
tsp dried yeast
tsp sugar
tbsp olive oil
120ml warm water

Sieve all of your dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the middle with your fingers. Into the well pour the olive oil and your warm water and mix this concoction into a dough.Many advise starting with a wooden spoon and then your hands and this seems to be the success story of the moment. Once the dough becomes elastic and stretchy, roll it into a ball and place it back into the bowl, covering it with a dry, clean tea towel, leaving it at room temperature until it doubles in size, which is roughly an hour. The dough can then be rolled out on a floured surface and smothered with whichever toppings take your fancy! Obviously for me my cravings dicated crumbled goats cheese (roughly 100g), sliced ripe avocados (1) and overcooked red onions (1). As simple as could possibly be, you over cook your onions and then spread them over your rolled out dough, top that with the avocado slices and then crumble your goats cheese over the top, brushing the top of the pizza with olive oil so that it becomes bubbly and golden - a little bit like a champagne pizza, if you fancy. As I made only one pizza I only used one of everything else, so feel free to double the ingredients as you please.

Today I also made broccoli and almond soup for lunch - and it's pretty good, if I do say so myself. When at work, I'm usually treated to the vegan version of this, which is just brocolli and almonds, essentially, but the almonds lend the broccoli soup a nutty, grainy sweetness after they're toasted and it's healthy(ish - after the addition of the wine and the cream...). It makes a lovely starter or a lovely lunch, whichever one you fancy.

You need...

2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
2 heads of broccoli
225g potatoes
30g butter
700ml vegetable stock
75ml white wine
150ml single cream
75g toasted almonds (flaked, but you'll blitz them later)

First, toast your almonds in a pan, keeping a close eye on them. They need to be golden brown at the edges, but left too long they can quickly char themselves, leaving you an angry bunny. Pop them in a bowl and then melt your butter in the pan, adding your chopped onion and garlic, frying until soft but not brown. You can roughly chop all the ingredients for this soup by the way, apart from the potatoes which need chopping into small chunks so that they cook quickly. After you've softened your onions add the white wine and stock along with the potatoes and then bring to the boil before simmering for 5 minutes. Add your chopped broccoli and simmer for another 6-8 minutes, or until soft. Finally, add your toasted almonds and the cream, and then blitz with a handheld blender or similar until smooth, then season to taste! It's a gorgeous soup, a pretty pale green colour which would go superbly with some homemade croutons, not that I've been so daring as to try that myself.

I'm also about to embark on making some Indian Scones, so I may post later on today, with the addition of some photographs I've taken over the holiday season to share with you!

Thank you for bearing with me through this unnatural silence, haha!

Lots of love and New Year wishes!
Eloise
xxx