Happy New Year

Whilst we prefer mooring in out of the way spots it does have it’s draw-backs, the main one being the lack of local shops. This morning the fridge was almost empty so we decided to turn back towards Chester & Tesco’s. We’re now moored at Christleton, on the only remaining space before the locks which lead down into Chester and we’ll continue into town in the morning. The weather has been really beautiful, if a bit chilly, and there are a lot more boats about than there were before Christmas. I suppose many have come out of their moorings for the holidays.

I don’t buy ‘convenience’ foods, all our food is cooked from scratch, but with an empty fridge and a rumbling stomach it was a case of  seeing just what we did have and coming up with something nice for lunch.  We didn’t have enough cheese for cheese on toast but there was a slightly limp cauliflower in the veg drawer so with the addition of an onion I made cauliflower & cheese soup. It was really good too and the leftovers will do for lunch tomorrow before I raid Tesco’s. I’d taken a bag of frozen, chopped plums out of the freezer so for pudding I made a plum and almond crumble. I’ll post the recipe for that another time


Cauliflower & Cheese Soup
Enough for 4

1 cauliflower
1 onion
1 bay leaf
1 veg stock cube
¼ pint milk
2 pints water
25 - 50g grated cheddar cheese (or stilton would be nice)

Chop the onion & cauliflower into chunks and simmer in the milk and water, along with the bay leaf and stock cube, for about 20 mins until soft.
Either liquidise or push through a sieve until smooth.
Return to the pan and bring back to a simmer.
Add the cheese and stir till melted.