What a day!!!

We had rain and strong winds all day long. Perfect weather for homemade soup and bread. Carrot and cumin soup (recipe here) in new-to-us soup bowls (50c each from Sallies!) - also spot the teatowel which was bought here! I know I've posted about this soup before but it really is great. It tastes awesome and you can have it hot or cold, which with the very changeable weather we've been having recently is a God send!

The bread is Tomato Scofa Bread from The Optimum Nutrition Cookbook:




It's so easy that I thought I'd post the recipe too:

Tomata Scofa Bread

225g plain flour

pinch salt

3 level teaspoons baking powder

black pepper

4 sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped (I would use more next time)

2 tablespoons freshly chopped chives (I didn't have any but would add to the flavour)

150ml milk

2 tablespoons sun dried tomato oil

1. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder
2. Grind in black pepper to taste
3. Stir in sun dried tomatoes
4. Mix milk and oil together
5. Add to dry ingredients and gently combine
6. Roll out dough to 1" thick and form into round about 6" diameter
7. Score into 6 triangles
8. Bake in oven at 220 degrees for 12-15 minutes
9. Break and enjoy immediately

They say "the proof of the pudding's in the eating"!

Maia has been having some very disturbed nights recently. Last night she had a dream about the witch who was coming to get her. I mentioned that we could make a dreamcatcher so we did. Now I don't profess to know anything about dreamcatchers or what they should be like but ours, of course, had to feature the things we have recently acquired.

Number one being this:

a $2 bargain from the local Sallies. We also ventured out to the Toy Library this morning and one of the toys was a box with lots of art things in. One of them was a star paper punch so naturally this occurred:

I have to confess I have never used a paper punch before and rather enjoyed it, in fact we now have about 50 stars in a dish on my desk! The 'finished article' hanging up:

I don't know whether it will make one iota of difference to her dreams but we had fun making it, and if she does still have bad dreams then I really don't mind a warm little body snuggling into me!

Then just because it was cold, grey and pretty miserable outside we decided to light our fire. The first fire of the year in our new woodburner. Craig managed to scrablle together a few pieces from the woodshed and produced some lovelt atmospheric fire! (Note to self: get the firewood ordered next week before it really does get cold!)

So that's where I'm headed now - to sit in front of a roaring fire and crochet - bliss!! x