It’s seems like I’ve been missing in action for the last few months. It’s been crazy! I had a milestone birthday, left a job I’d been happy in for 11 years and started a new job working longer hours.
And that was just me! My daughter left school and started a fantastic new course and our dog had some health problems and needed lots of vet visits and special care (he’s fine now).
Throughout that time I had lots of ideas for blog posts, but I just never had the time or energy for writing, until now.
Suzy Spoon’s cookbook
My farewell present from my lovely workmates was a Readings bookshop gift card (more on that in a later post). One of the FOUR gorgeous books I chose was Suzy Spoon’s Vegetarian Kitchen.
Remember Suzy Spoon? She’s the one behind the Spoon’s Vegetarian Butcher sausages. I’d heard the vegetarian butcher shop had closed down a while back, but apparently it’s gone on to bigger things, which is great.
When I planned to spend a cosy night watching Eurovision, I knew a couple of recipes from this book would be the perfect comfort food for the night.
Green split pea and smoked tofu soup
This was a really easy recipe and made the house smell great! It was supposed to be for dinner in front of the telly, but with family hovering around, I decided we’d better eat it for late lunch this afternoon.
This was a really tasty, thick and satisfying soup.
Kathy’s chocolate self-saucing pudding
I’m not sure who Kathy is, but we had her chocolate self-saucing pudding (another recipe from the same book) for dessert, and it was really good.
I made this one with dark Dutch cocoa, so it was deliciously rich.
I didn’t eat mine until it had cooled down quite a bit, so the sauce was pretty thick, but like a good chocolate pudding it had crunchy bits, steamy bits and gooey bits.
The Main Event
Watching Eurovision and eating comfort food was supposed to be the main event of the night. I’d planned to sit in my pyjamas, in front of the (gas) fire, eating my comfort food feast. But I couldn’t wait, and by the time the show started at 7.30pm I was already stuffed full! I hope I just don’t nod off and miss the show.
Just showing my rapidly increasing age, I want to point out that I am wearing my brand new, faux sheepskin Grosby Invisible Snuggle Boots. They’re not pretty, but they’re very warm and comfortable on a cold night, and they have rubber soles so I can take the dog out without changing my shoes. They’re much nicer than walking around inside a dead sheep’s skin!
A big weekend in Europe
Hasn’t the news from Europe been great this weekend!
1. 5th place for Guy Sebastian
Guy Sebastian came 5th in the Eurovision Song Contest with a song that was daggy enough for Eurovision but catchy enough to have us grooving in our armchairs. Sadly, it’s already done the earworm thing and stuck itself firmly in my brain! (Oh yeah, and Sweden came first. Congratulations to them!)
2. Ireland votes ‘Yes!’
Just when we thought it couldn’t get any more exciting… Ireland voted ‘Yes!’ to marriage equality. Fantastic news! I hope we get the chance to follow their example soon.
The Lentil Institution 
I need new slippers and these look great! Must confess I find it really hard to watch Eurovision. It’s like when I could only handle The Office (UK version) in really small doses because I would be cringing so much. There’s only so much daggy and cringy together that I can take! Congrats on the new job (and FOUR cookbooks!!!)
Thanks! Actually it was only two cookbooks – I also got a Lonely Planet and a decorating book. The best part was browsing for hours and hours, knowing I could get anything I wanted and not feel guilty. Heaven!
You sound like my husband. He can’t cope with anything awkward or cringy on TV. He has to leave the room, so he pretends he’s making a cup of tea or something. Otherwise we make fun of him.
I was up for the 5am live viewing and I voted and it was so much fun!
I am actually struggling to get Poland, Russia, Belgium and Israel out of my head. In fact I have had that damn Golden Boy song in my head since I saw it on the semis. Gah!
I am about to download Estonia’s song on my iPod, that was my favourite!
Good on you! I was too lazy to get up at that time, but I was lying in bed reading my friend’s comments on my phone. Apparently she’s never going to Portugal again because they didn’t give us a vote. 🙂 I think the Belgian song was my favourite. Anyone who can sing lying on their back has to be good!
I was looking at that suzy spoon book last weekend and that split pea soup looked fantastic – as did the chocolate pudding – sounds like a delicious dinner and a fun cozy evening – we didn’t watch eurovision this year because we had our abc sunday night shows but we have had fun watching it other years – the idea of guy sebastian in eurovision sounds so wrong – someone was saying we should have sent delta goodram and I could just seem her in a flowing gown with the wind machine going at her hair!
Haha! That would’ve been perfect! Maybe she represent us if we’re invited back again. I thought Guy was a pretty good choice though – although judging by the others, he may have been a little bit upbeat!