Squash and Thyme Soup

To be truthful, I don't feel like blogging much in light of what is happening around us all.

I'd rather be out in the garden getting the ground ready for growing, but every weekend the rain falls and the ground is too drenched to dig.  I haven't even started sowing my seeds that arrived early this month. Instead, I find myself resting at the weekends, as the working week is sometimes hard with the commuting.  I am thinking about working home for a couple of days, but that decision (due to the seriousness of coronavirus) perhaps will be made for us, sooner rather than later.

I haven't done much in the way of new or experimental cooking either, finding myself geting into reading both fiction and non- fiction books.  My most recent read was My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay. 

What I am sharing today is a bowl of Squash and Thyme Soup that I made early this year.  

Its not much of a recipe really: sauteed  a couple of onions, garlic and thyme in a little olive oil, then scooped out oven roasted squash wedges. Added some vegetable stock and simmered until thickish. Seasoned to taste. 

Topped off with some homemade croutons made from some left over bread. 

I am sharing this  Squash and Thyme Soup with  Soup Salad and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen. 

Children of the World Plates and Pistachio Cakes

My Kitchen is very quiet at the moment, not a lot going on. 

I do however have something to share that I was very pleased with.  I picked up these gorgeous plates from a charity shop a little while back.   

These are a collection from Villeroy & Boch called 'Children of the World'.  A quick internet search showed me that there are 12 of them, but I am content with what I have. 

 I found some energy to make some Pistachio cakes over the weekend.

The Pistachio Cake recipe comes from Dina Begum's Brick Lane Cookbook: Food From Everywhere.  The little cakes were dense and flavourful and were absolutely delightful to eat.  D loved them.  They were meant to get a glaze, but I decided to give that a miss.  

By the way, I have been to Brick Lane - see here - it was mostly about the graffiti art.

Anyway, I  am sharing this simple blog post with Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen series, I look forward to seeing what you have lurking in your kitchen cupboards or to see whats new.  

Jamaican Vegetable Stew with Spinners

Another recipe from the cookbook in my kitchen Original Flava Caribbean Recipes from Home.

The recipe this time was for One Pot Vegetable Stew - Jamaican style!

I've seen similar recipes made with gungo aka pigeon peas, but the recipe here used kidney beans. Other ingredients in this stew were spring onions, carrots, butternut squash, scotch bonnet, allspice, thyme and coconut milk. 

I've also been wanting to make spinners which are small long thinnish dumpling that expand upon cooking for a long while.  So was pleased with the final hearty dish, though I need more practice to make the spinners. 

This Jamaican Stew with Spinners was easy to make, especially with tinned kidney beans.