Recipe: Lazy Sunday Soup

This is a perfect Lazy Sunday. We've got good new books, lots of fresh coffee, fire in the fireplace, blankets and kitties for coziness. It's raining just hard enough to want to stay inside in PJs for the day. The ideal lunch? Lazy Sunday Soup. Here it is.

From the freezer, take 1 pound diced chicken breast. Throw in the microwave to thaw and have a cup of coffee.

In a medium-size pot (cast-iron is best), pour a good splash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Heat on high.
When oil is hot, toss in your thawed chicken. Stir-fry a few minutes to coat and separate the pieces.

Add 1 pouch of Lipton Roasted Onion and Garlic dry soup mix, stir well to coat the chicken. Pour in a good healthy bit of Soya Sauce. Stir and stir - everything should be dark brown and smelling yummy. Add a handful of crushed chillies/dried red pepper flakes.

Pour in 4 cups of good Ottawa tap water. :D (or whatever water is handy). Add three or four handfuls of commercial dried soup mix (beans, peas, lentils, rice, etc.) Bring to a boil.

Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and cover with a lid. Simmer for a good hour whilst you read your book by the fire (with more coffee, or a nice glass of wine if you prefer). If feeling particularly energetic, you could start your homemade bread at the same time, it will finish its first rising just about the time the soup is ready.

Ladle soup into two soup mugs, being sure to evenly distribute chicken, beans, broth. No sneaking all the chicken for yourself! Serve in lazy-boy recliners, by the fire. There will be enough left over for two more bowls - once it cools a bit, divide into two freezer containers and freeze for lunch later in the week.

That's it. It's easy. It's good. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Go make soup.

March is nearly gone!

Wow, this month has flown by. We are all well over here at the little slice of heaven that is our home. Mok went to the vet a couple weeks ago to get fixed (she pouted for about 4 hours when we brought her home, then was totally herself again). She and Squeeky are both shedding like mad with the warm weather coming on so there is a low-level cat hair cloud in the house at all times. Can't wait to leave the windows open!

Peter's been working a different shift the past couple of weeks which leaves me alone with the fuzzy children in the evenings, but it's not too bad. As always, any change in routine throws us all loopy for a bit but now we've adjusted and it's all good to have our together time, whenever that falls. And honestly things have been so busy at work lately that I've been pretty much falling into bed after dinner anyway. Not stressing, just BUSY and the days are full so at night I'm trying to empty out my brain and rest.

Brain... knitting! Not a lot of that lately, more's the pity, but a couple of projects underway. I started the Pembrokshire Pathways socks and really love the cable & rib pattern - it's slow going but very very pretty. Also a WoW - inspired baby bib for a friend's about-to-be-born-any-minute-now grandbaby (the parents play WoW, they'll get it!). Did get out to Knit Nite on Wednesday and got a few rows in on the Globe sock whilst chatting with the girls. So nice to be out and sociable now that Spring is here!

This weekend we have a visit from Peter's brother and sister-in-law, who I adore, so tomorrow is going to be all about tidying up and some Spring cleaning. The last bits of random boxes and whatnot from the move are going to be dealt with and I'm really looking forward to that. After nearly 4 months in the house, it's time to finish unpacking. Maybe we'll even finish hanging pictures!

Happy weekend!

The right tool for the job - when it works

Ok, quick late-morning gripe. I've been trying to do the simplest thing in AutoCAD all morning, and the bloody program keeps locking up on me every blasted time. This is a function that is one of the basic tools and for some reason it Just. Won't. Work! And of course this is a rush priority.

Argh argh blast and damn. Not a good way to start the work week. Grr.