I'm back!

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. A long time.

In which I have done so many foodie things: I started making my own bread (I seem to have got out of the way of that again), I've made pretzels, my first pies, baked several times for my choir, and just recently got a vegetable box.

I've done some non-foodie things, too, that might help with the blog: learnt more about blogging software, more about writing for the web, more about using Facebook and Twitter to publicise the blog. And I now have a digital camera, though I'm ambivalent about using it for food. I don't exactly prioritise presentation and if it's hot, dammit, I want to eat it. We'll see.

The vegetable box

The box (which is from Abel and Cole) is for two reasons. No, make that three. I'm working from home now, and it helps to provide a little bit of interest when it arrives. Two: it challenges me. I have chard, for crying out loud. I enjoy working out what I can do with it, and seeing if it takes me in directions I didn't expect. And three: it helps me eat healthier. I have all this veg, which I don't want to see go off, so I eat less meat and less all-round rubbish. I'm even snacking on carrots and celery. Mum would be so proud (hi Mum!). It seems to be working, though my actual weight will remain a closely-guarded secret until such time as I hit my target.

So I think it's only right that I kick off the resurrected blog with a recipe I never would have considered without the veg box, that reminded me there's really something very soul-enhancing about cooking, and that tasted absolutely fantastic.

Caldo verde

I first had this at my friend James' house, whose dad is an amazing cook, and so it was the first thing I thought of when I had kale.

I used the Hairy Bikers' recipe, cut down by about half (I'm a constant cutter-downer when it come to recipes). The old muddling-through you used to see on this blog in its Livejournal incarnation is still there. It calls for a potato masher, which I don't own (why mash potatoes when they are so lovely boiled?). Never mind, I'll use a spoon, I thought. Yeah, that was hard work. So it wasn't so much a potato base as lumps of potato. No matter; it made fantastic autumn soup. Try it. It will make you feel better.