Hearty Quinoa and Pumpkin Soup

Here's a very easy and warming soup recipe for you:

Ingredients:

- 500g pumpkin

- 1 courgette/zucchini

- 1/2 leek

- 70g quinoa

- 30-40g fresh ginger

- 50g sunflower seeds

- a bunch of fresh sage leaves

- salt and spices to taste

- olive oil

Procedure

Prepare the vegetables into small cubes...because it's nice to eat tidily. I really don't like it when you get those soups (which do taste nice) but that have HUGE pieces of cabbage that splash all the way across your face and down your chin. It's hard to be lady-like. This is my capricorn coming out. I'm very precise with cutting my vegetables.

Heat some olive oil in a pot and add the leek and sage leaves. Add the sunflower seeds so that they may toast in the oil as well. Wait until the sage leaves have literally cooked in the oil, and the leek is golden brown.

Add the rest of the vegetables and cover with water. Bring to the boil, add salt and whatever spices you like (I personally like turmeric and a little chilli powder, especially for heating up if it's a cold winter's night).

In the mean time prepare the fresh ginger by cutting it into small small pieces. Once the soup has cooked (check the pumpkin, and you will know when it's ready), add the ginger, cover the pot with a lid, and just let it brew for another ten minutes.

It is then ready!

Finished Stairs!

The stairs are indeed finished....finally! One of them is a bit mucked up (hadn't made the right consistency of cement), but the rest are nice....and they give you a nice massage as you walk on them. Check here for how to do it yourself.

Apple and Chestnut Cake

Since I had a lot of studying to do, I thought I'd bake a cake instead. Following past baking disasters, I think I've almost reached a state of bakery enlightenment...as the great philosophers say, "You bake, you learn". This is a wonderful autumn recipe (I'm only saying this because it's autumn now....but I'm sure I'll bake it in the other seasons as well).

Ingredients

- 100g wholemeal spelt flour

- 100g Maizena (maize/corn starch)

- 50g Chestnut flour

- 100g brown sugar

- a teaspoon of Cremor Tartar (or yeast equilivalent)

- 100g raisins

- 50g chopped walnuts

- 1 apple, peeled and cut into small pieces

- cinnamon and nutmeg (to your heart's desire)

- 3 tablespoons of maize/corn oil (or olive oil)

- roughly 230 ml water

Procedure

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix together all the dry ingredients, and then add the oil and water. Mix....the mixture should be runny enough to just be poured into the baking tray. Remember to grease the baking tray before-hand.

Bake for 50min-1hour without opening the oven, then check with a knife if the inside is cooked. Cooking times always vary, depending on the oven, how big your baking tray is...follow your instinct, listen to the voice inside your head. It's the baking angel talking.

If it is cooked, turn the oven off, leave the cake to rest for 10 minutes, and then pull it out to cool on a baking tray (take it out of the tray or it will "sweat" all the steam out and remain soggy on the bottom!).

Once cooled, have a taste, and if it's friends-worthy have a tea party!

Green Soup

I've been asked to post some soup recipes, so let's start with an extremely simple and quick recipe. This soup is good if you want to have a very light meal, or if you want to accompany a more important meal with some soup. It's heating...and it's green!

Ingredients (for 2):

- olive oil
- fresh ginger
- 2 big courgettes/zucchini
- half a leak
- a bunch of turnip leaves
- salt to taste
- water

Equipment:
- a hand-held food blender

Heat some olive oil in a pot and add the leek to stir fry. Then add the chopped courgettes and the washed turnip leaves. You can leave it all in big chunks. Add the water, pinch of salt, and ginger (which you will have cut into smaller bits - the amount of ginger is up to you, I like to put quite a bit in because I love the taste and it is especially good in winter for building up the immune system. It also has very heating qualities). Bring to the boil, and when the courgettes are soft (after about 10-15 min), turn the flame off and blend it.

Told you it was easy! If you really want to show off you can toast some sunflower seeds and sprinkle them on top.

Simple Biscuits

These biscuits really are simple to make. I can give you rough guidelines as to quantities...as usual I just estimate the amounts, hoping it turns out.

Ingredients:

- 100 g of jaggery gour (this is the unrefined sugar that you will find in Indian shops or International Supermarkets). If you can't find it you could try replacing it with dark sugar or maybe Maple Syrup (remember that honey goes toxic when heated, and I've also heard some controversial stories about Agave....)

- 50 g of small oat flakes

- spelt flour: I didn't use much at all, and I guess it can pretty much be replaced with plain flour as well.

- olive oil

- a handful of raisins

- a teaspoon of ginger powder

- a teaspoon of cinnamon powder

- some tepid water

Preheat oven to 180 degress Celsius.

In a pot, place some olive oil and then add the oat flakes and jaggery gour. Keep stirring to get the gour to melt (it usually comes in hard balls). Add some water if necessary, and keep mixing so that it doesn't burn. Once it has all melted and mixed with the oats, place in a bowl and start adding a bit of flour.....sorry! I really don't know how much I used, but not much at all! Probably half a cup. Add some more olive oil and a little bit of water. Mix it all with a wooden spoon until it's a nice ball. You should be able to pick the "dough" up in your hand without it sticking to your fingers.

Make little balls and flatten them between your hands to get biscuit shaped shapes....and then place in the oven. They take roughtly half an hour to cook, just keep an eye on them, and when they look golden brown pull them out of the oven to cool.

I just tasted one and they're lovely because they're not too sweet at all.

I'm not a builder, but....

We've been doing work in the house....well, we've paid someone to do work in the house, i.e. paint walls, build cupboards, drill things into the walls.

There's one little project, however, which I started working on yesterday evening, and am slowly moving ahead with it -- and I would like to share it with you for this reason:

If you have a set of stairs (of similar structure to mine) that you would like to personalise, OR you need to cover the steps but are reluctant to paying out loads of money for materials and for someone to do the work for you, then here's the solution. And this is obviously just one of the many options, but it gives you the right idea of how it can be done. As I said in the title, I am not a builder....this should be an encouragement to all!

Ingredients:

- white cement

- glass pebbles, stones, mosaic pieces...whatever tickles your fancy!

As you can see in the photo I've done alternate steps for now, but the effect is very pretty, and much nicer than the ugly lynoleum. I'm waiting for these steps to dry to then do the rest of the steps.

Again, I am not at all experienced with cement or any such material, so it really is a fluke that they've turned out like this. If you're an expert, you won't need me to tell you (as I have learned) that the consistency needs to be smooth, but not too runny. If it's too watery then you'll get little bubbles in the cement, even when it dries, and this makes it less compact....mmm....I have one "bad step"....we'll see what happens.

I'll be back with some recipes shortly! Autumn is a great season, and some of my favorite vegetables are coming soon!