Comfort food

As the weather is turning a bit colder and the first week back at work has tired me out I decided to make some comfort food. I have some dough rising for homemade bread. It was such a success last weekend that I've decided to make it again. It's the first time I've made bread that tastes as good as the bread from the bakery. Here it is rising

You can see the air bubbles in the dough and it has nearly doubled in size. My next job is to punch it back, shape it into a round loaf and leave it to double in size again. When it has done that I'll bake it for 45 minutes at 220 degrees centigrade.

I'm also making a soup for lunch. We call it slodge in our family as we add mini pasta so it is a cross between a soup and a stew. Thinly slice an onion and gently fry it. Peel and chop 4 carrots and add to the onions. Cover with a litre of stock made with 4tsp of bouillon powder and 1 litre of water. I found that if I add 2 litres of stock, the soup is too salty. Leave to simmer until the carrots are soft. Add a couple of handfuls of mini pasta and frozen peas, stir and cook for a further 8 minutes. This will make a cheap and tasty lunch that will hopefully help to lift the spirits. You can, of course, add any vegetables that you like to change the flavours.