This is...a recipe I would like to share

Well it's more guidelines than a recipe for vegetable soup!

You will need

an onion,
some potatoes,
water,
a variety of vegetables
salt and pepper
milk

1.Chop up your onions and potatoes and boil them in some water until tender. Ensure that your water just covers the potatoes.

2.Chop up the rest of your veg and add it to the water. I tend to leave things that don't need as much cooking until later to go in - things like mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes etc. I tend to boil root veggies for longer.

3. At this stage you will probably need to add some milk - be careful as it tends to like to boil over so keep an eye on it. After about 20 mins your potatoes and other root veggies should be cooked so add your softer veggies for about 10 mins.

4. Get a hand whisk and whisk it all down so it is smooth. You will be able to tell if it needs more milk/water by the thickness. Personally I prefer thicker soups but add liquid until it is the consistency you want it.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste. That's it!!

You will have noticed that I haven't given any specific weights for the ingredients mainly because I tend to use leftovers or things that are hanging about at the bottom of the fridge nearly past their best! Experiment with ingredients too - lettuce added to potato, onion and peppers makes a very good soup. Basically as long as you have potatoes and onions as a base then you can make really nice soups - they are cheap, nutritious and served with nice bread and maybe some cheese on the top, delicious!

For other delicious recipes and more This is players check out Angela at Three Buttons.

This is...... my favourite film (s)

I know it's a day late but....

I couldn't just pick one so it had to be 12 Angry Men
and The Shawshank Redemption.

And I have just watched Gallipoli whilst writing this.

This is......

....my favourite kitchen gadget. The humble breadmaker!

It gets used a lot in this house - we make all our bread with it (well apart from last week when I just had to have tiger bread from Asda!) The thing I love most about it is that you can set a timer so that the bread will be finished at a particular time - it's lovely to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread on a morning. In fact I am going to put some on in a minute before bed!

I couldn't do a post about kitchen gadgets and not include Walter the washing machine :) He is a very clever washing machine and tells me when the coin trap needs emptying or the inlet pipe is blocked.

For more players of This is then check out Three Buttons.

This is......

........my favourite fabric/craft shop.

Well I don't actually have any pictures of Sams so pictures of the things I have made (and one from Anya) from items from Sams will have to do! Sams isn't a proper craft store but more of a scrap store that takes surplus items from companies and offers them to others (for a tiny fee per year) so that they don't go into landfil. I LOVE it there as there is always something different every time you go and you can never really plan which makes for a better rummage in my mind. It is tempting to grab lots of things though because you are never sure whether they are going to be there again - but for £3 a bag, £5 for 2 bags or £13 for a shopping trolley full it's well worth it!

I also love charity shops too for a rummage and fab fabric and my local post office is good source for the books I turn into envelopes and tags.

Thanks to Handmaiden for this weeks theme and to Three Buttons for the idea!

This is........

......my favourite book as a child - I read it and re-read it hundreds of times (and I'm not kidding about the hundreds of times either!)


I love all the Roald Dahl books but this has got to be my favourite. Mr Twit is disgusting and I loved the fact that he saved his food in his beard. And Mr and Mrs Twit were so nasty to each other too - it made me laugh so much. I can't wait until Anya is old enough to read it.

Just thinking though too if we are talking about children's book in general then my favourite as an adult has to be Philip Pullman's Northern Lights Trilogy - just magnificent and again I'll be introducing them to the girls when they get older. Go and search them out if you haven't read them yet.

Thanks to Potty Mouth Mama for this weeks theme and to Three Buttons for coming up with the idea! And apologies because it is 3 days late!

This is......

....my most treasured childhood possession. Pink Ted! He was (sorry that should be is) a much loved teddy bear and now my girls like him too - in fact Tara was carrying him around today giving him drinks as he was her 'pink baby'. Pink Ted has had quite an adventurous life - he came on the log flume with me at Blackpool Pleasure Beach when I was about 4 - he liked it more than I did!

And even though he is pink you can definitely tell he is a boy - well I think so anyway!

Thanks to Three Buttons for the 'This is' idea and to Teacups on Treetops for the theme.