welsh hills again

I love having a pantry and running a store cupboard.  I love opening the door and seeing everything lined up on the shelves. I love the deep slate shelf where the eggs and vegetables sit.  I love the bags hanging on the door.  And most of all I love the fact that I can always find what I need to feed my family.  Somewhere in there will be what you need to make a meal for three stretch to six or to make homemade soup on a cold February morning. This morning I found some ageing broccoli in the bottom of the fridge and converted it, with the help of the store cupboard, into broccoli and Stilton soup.  While I was chopping onions I suddenly had the urge to have some new bread with the soup for lunch.  We make all our own bread but our normal mix needs a few hours to rise.  It was half past eleven so the only chance of new bread for lunch lay in making some soda bread. Soda bread is so easy to make.  It doesn't keep for long.  Just ...

The kitchen is so very nearly ready.  Slowly we are bringing things in from the utility room and colonising the cupboards.  The worktops are in, smooth and pale hardwood, satisfyingly honey coloured against white cupboards and the dark slate floor.  We have bought the wall tiles now, also grey, a beautiful pale pearly grey.  They are just waiting for Ian to have time to do the tiling. Grey might sound a bit dreary but they are beautiful, trust me.   The dishwasher is working, alleluia.  It is all very nearly ready. And sorting out the kitchen brings all sorts of other sorting out in its wake.  This weekend was the turn of the pantry.  I love having a pantry.  I have always wanted one.  It's hard to say exactly why, in this age of fridges and freezers, but I love a pantry.   My grandmother had one and I used to love the ingredients all lined up and the pies and cakes, covered on their big plates on the slab.  This is the first...