Making Monday : soup

I know it doesn't look that appetising, but it is nice! so far as homemade soup is its a pretty easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy recipe too.

Roast 1 butternut squash for approx 30-50mins and about 15mins before the end, peel and cook in oil/little water some onion in a pan.  Add 1tspn cinnamon and .5tspn cloves (I like to add some chilli and today I added celery too).  Make up and add 1.5pints of veg stock and chop the roasted squash and add that for final cooking before adding fresh parsley and leave to cool before blitzing to consistency of your preference.

I like this soup.  This particular one comes from a very old Weight Watchers cookery book.   In fact I'm rather boring and tend to stick with one or two that I like and make up a batch on Monday that I keep in the fridge to last me through to about Thurs or Fri for lunches.

butternut squash soup

Reheat in microwave until piping hot and enjoy! yumm.
Something else I "made" today which I've not in ages was a big bowl of "fizzy jelly"!  Found a twin pack in the back of cupboard and had a nostalgic moment of when the lads were small - I add (usually) lemonade to mix in place of cold water (another Weight Watchers tip!) but today used some lemon & lime sparkling water.  The lads were pleased.

Monday is my day for catching up on housework and with the weather so mixed I wondered whether to hang out my towels but I'm glad I did - it was so windy they dried before my soup was made!  I love seeing the washing drying and blowing on the line and it inspired me to buy some net curtain whitener this afternoon so I could wash all the nets which are now nice and fresh.

towels on the line

The landing upstairs is fast piling up with boxes of stuff for no.1.son to take with him to Uni and over the weekend dh decided to get up into the loft to see if we did still have a box of glasses to save buying new.  While he pondered over this possibility I urged him to get up there and look! now! 5mins later I came back to find him slicing a length of cable and attaching the lightbulb from our landing light.  hurrah! he announced! has fashioned a light to see inside the loft ..
hmm
In the first instance he attempted to position the step ladders around the boxes of "stuff" and I caught him trying to leap into a gap from a funny angle with one foot dangling his flippy-floppy slipper hanging off while precariously reaching blind with said half-shod foot for the top of the step ladder which inevitably wasn't were he thought it ought to be and while HE thought it unfortunate timing that I caught this, I ranted at him that its exactly the RIGHT moment for me to be checking up on him and I duly instructed him to clear the landing, reposition the ladders and PUT something sensible on his feet!  He came back wearing his "slippy" dress shoes. which he's already had two slipping-accidents wearing hence the name "slippy" shoes .. FINALLY returns wearing sensible trainers ..
Why, I asked, hadn't he plugged IN the light he's fashioned out of cable?
He didn't it appeared want to work with it "live" while getting up into the loft ..
errm .. can you plug it IN for me, dear? he called ..
me? .. umm. ok.  is it SAFE? I ask knowing that the answer will be resounding oh! yes! quite SAFE
oh! yes! quite SAFE he calls (as I think it)
right.
that will be the "live" cable fashioned as a light that YOU didn't want to plug in, then?
just get ON with it! its DARK up here .. plug it IN please (silly woman! stop fussing!)
right.
well. clearly it was safe in so much that this time there wasn't any "bangs" or puffs of light or smoke and I have to agree it did indeed light up the entire loft and dh did find a box of glasses so thats saved us a couple of quid!
Now all I've got to do is wait for the bruising on my leg to settle on account of tripping over the boxes on the landing which is now in complete darkness after about 6.30pm on account of the lightbulb is still attached to the cable-light-thingie up in the loft ..