eliza acton's apple soup

 It's been such a long time since I last posted any recipes or things like that, so here's something of the kind but something different at the same time. Yes, you read right; apple soup. Yes, it's a savoury soup made of apples. It is as strange as it sounds, but it also tastes quite good! I had this with my mum quite a while ago, and although for me it's definitely something I'm not used to (le mother seemed to really like it!) I think I will be making this again. Before writing this I did a bit of research on le internet, and I found soups with apples in them, but used only together with other ingredients, like broccoli or carrot, to add some extra flavour. So if you fancy being brave and trying something new, this would be the perfect thing. The recipe is from one of my favourite cook books at my mum's place, and it suggests serving the soup with rice. I don't know if you're meant to have it separately or put it in the soup, so we had rice in a gravy boat, haha! And we also had Karelian rice pasties because we were in Finland and I love a good Karelian rice pasty. It's also suggested on a menu list for May, so now's pretty much the best time to try and eat this lil' soup.

 This is how you make it:

~340g (cooking) apples
2 pints beef/mutton/vegetable stock
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons (long grain) rice

If you've actually made a proper stock, remove any fat from the surface. Wash the apples and chop them roughly, without removing peel or core. Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan, add the apples and cover the pan with a lid. Simmer the soup over low heat until the apples are tender. Pour the soup through a sieve, but try to get as much of the pulp as possible through as well. (I suppose, as the book is from the 70s, you could now actually just remove the core of the apple and then use a food processor, a blender or something like that at this point, I just wasn't that clever when I was making this, haha!) Stir in the ginger and season with salt and ground pepper. Re-heat the soup and remove any scum. (What a nasty-sounding word, but you know, all the foam &c. And again if you use modern kitchen appliances, this might not be necessary..) While the soup is cooking, boil the rice in plenty of salted water. Drain thoroughly and keep the rice warm. Spoon the soup into bowls, and serve the rice separately.

Hope you like it if you ever decide to give this a go!

project 365: 138-144

138 Rewriting and revising all the notes.

139 First exam done!

140 Far too many books and documents that I had to learn.

141 Some days my hair's actually quite nice, some days I have no idea what is going on with it. I've actually been thinking I might need to start straightening my hair, but I'm pretty sure I've either given my straighteners to my mum or sold them. Genuinely think it's been  at least six years since I last straightened my hair, haha!

142 Very happy to have done my last exam and finished uni!

143 Now I can finally start reading non-uni books, which is quite exciting:-)

144 I've had this giraffe ring for years, but I rarely wear it as it's a tiny bit too big. Might try giving it more use though because it is cute!

project 365: 131-137

I'm a bit bummed that I couldn't keep to my schedule, and last week's project 365 photos are now a day late, but, you know, life happens. I was dying in bed all day on Sunday and revised all day on Monday, so there wasn't too much time to spare for editing and posting. But I've still been doing this project every day, which is good and I'm almost half-way through! How exciting.

 131 Took some outfit photos in my favourite place and there was lots of lil' flowers, too.

 

132 I'm doing grandma chic quite well at the moment, if I do say so myself.

133 Leftover spinach pancakes for lunch! I may have made enough pancake batter so that I had pancakes for three days..

134 In addition to pancakes, jaffa cakes have been my latest food obsession. Does anyone else eat something for weeks without getting enough of it and then go off the food for a while, haha? That's me. I eat in phases, and now's definitely a 12-jaffa-cakes-a-day phase.

135 Emotional times. If you don't share my love for Steven Gerrard, I don't want to hear your opinion. Really.

136 Half a day of revising, but after the disastrous Liverpool vs. Crystal Palace game everything went downhill and I spent the rest of the day watching TV and films with my housemates.

137 Like I said, I spent all of Sunday in bed dying of a migraine. I'm not too fond of not-having-a-good-head life. And my head's been really bad lately. Anyway, here's a not at all interesting fact: my favourite position to lie in bed is on my back with my feet up. Also, a good reading position. Although, I mainly do it when no-one's there to see me 'cause it does look weird. But not weird enough not to share on le internet. If you have a foot fetish, you're welcome, and if you hate feet, I'm sorry!

V&A

 A puppy coming out of a flower, because why not?

 I don't know why but I want/need this wine cooler in my life.

All of this belongs to you. I feel like that is a really nice museum sentiment.

 A bit annoyed at myself for thinking I'd remember what the story behind this was, and now I can't even remember the name of the statue..

 Love this ceiling, the colours are stunning.

 Felt a spiritual connection with the middle angel. All the other angels seemed to have a purpose of playing an instrument &c. whereas the middle one is just posing there as if he either had no clue or just had a fabulous attitude.

I've been meaning to visit the Victoria & Albert museum for so long that it really was high time I did it. And I wish I had done it ages ago because now I'm in love with the place. It is so beautiful and everything is so visually pleasing. I found out that I have a thing for the colour combination of white and gold, as well as for pictures of myself in centuries-old mirrors. I rediscovered the feelings I had in the period in my life a few years back when I was really into keys. I also thought about the strange(ish) fact that queen Victoria is always portrayed in her later years and the sculpture of a young Victoria is probably one of my favourite things at the V&A. A bit envious of that rose flower crown, too. If you've seen my selfies with Victoria and Albert on Instagram, you might have been reminded that they're my favourite royals. I half on purpose forgot that I was recommended to have a scone at the V&A, so now I have a reason to go back soon. If I lived any closer, I could see myself spending a lot of me-time here, haha:-) So beautiful.

project 365: 124-130

124 I've been trying to tidy up my room, which is taking so much more time and effort than it really should.. But I found my mum and dad's wedding photo that I keep in my wallet. How cute. It's so strange to me that my mum is actually a couple of years younger in the photo than I am now.

125 Also re: tidying, I was trying to organise all of the paper things I've acquired over the past few months. Because, obviously, I need to keep them all.

126 Wearing my favourite print, and the pile of books on my bedside table has become a lot smaller since I don't have to have all the books for research on it anymore. Hooray!

127 Only realised my shoes and purse match while walking to go vote. Accidentally matching outfits make me happy, I suppose.

128 Post-GE feelings.

129 I ordered myself a graduation ring! Actually going to cry if I've measured my fingers wrong and it's not the right size.

130 Hope you all remembered your mothers, if you were celebrating Mother's Day yesterday. And if you're from the UK, you should still call your mum, she deserves it. (Tip for people considering having children: have them with someone from a different country/country with different holidays, and you'll get to celebrate two Mother's Days (and Father's Days) and possibly get more presents. My mum's clever like that.)