A day in the kitchen

I was feeling inspired to cook something a bit more time consuming for dinner tonight (that's not actually true - I haven't had a chance to go to the butcher, and the cupboards are generally a bit bare so I thought I'd use up some tinned tomatoes...). Anyway, I made a recipe for spicy tomato and lentil soup, which I think was originally from Saffron restaurant. I have made it a couple of times before, one of the best bits is that you have to dry roast a heap of spices and the smell fills the whole house - yum.


Then you crush them up in a mortar and pestle. I had to crush them in the fry-pan using our pestle, as the mortar smashed in the earthquake.

Anyhoo, I made a loaf of bread to accompany it...


And if that wasn't enough I made a loaf for an after dinner treat. I used a recipe for a date and walnut loaf from Edmonds cookbook, but it ended up being date and random-assortment-of-nuts-from-the-cupboard loaf, as we didn't have enough walnuts. I added almonds and pecans and they seemed to work quite nicely.

Needless to say, Matt is one happy camper tonight.