Ahhh - soup

It rained today. Very welcome it was, too. Not enough though. You know you need more rain when the soil looks nice and damp but if you stick your fingers into it it's bone dry under the surface.

Of course baking hot & humid weather plus a bit of rain does have an effect on the vegetables in the allotment. Specifically the lettuces. They bolt (all the varieties) and there's not a lot you can do with a lettuce once it's bolted. Most of the leaves will have turned too bitter for salad. You can make a very nice soup from them. It just so happens that I really love soups & stews, so that's not so bad. But it's hellish difficult finding a recipe that doesn't contain butter or cream.

Not that I'll be the one cooking it of course. Anybody who's read the incident of the bacon sandwich knows that the sensible thing to do is keep me well away from the cooker... and any other naked flame. Unless of course you actually want to burn the house down (claiming on the insurance, perhaps).

No I don't cook. I re-heat. I nuke. I can throw together a bloody good salad or three. I can even chuck a whole load of stuff into a pressure cooker, boil it for fifteen minutes and call it stew. But I don't do the preparing-from-scratch-and-cooking-properly thing. I do, however, find the recipes, buy the ingredients and do the washing up afterwards. We have this agreement - my cousin doesn't mind doing all the cooking as long as she doesn't also have to decide what to cook and then clean up. Apparently that's the wearisome thing about cooking, not the doing it but actually thinking about what to do in the first place.

I do have a really good recipe that doesn't have butter & cream in it. I've had it for years. A friend in Cardiff gave me it after I told her how much I enjoyed the soup she made. The only trouble is I've never been able to read it. It's in the weird foreign language you see. One with far too many consonants and not nearly enough vowels. (I refuse to treat "w" as a vowel!!) Of course speakers of that language probably consider it the proper language for this country and English as the strange foreign tongue.

I think I'm probably going to have to type it out carefully and then look pleading and hopeful (not easy to do on the 'net) and beg some friends, who do have a knowledge of the tongue-twister language, to translate for me.

The language??

Welsh. *g*

Ze

BtVS

• Chapter 6 (conclusion) of Distance by Jinxgirl (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  
• Chapter 5 of The Prophecy of the Interficio by liljemsey (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  
• Chapter 7 of Let Me Love You by SauconyFiveOoh (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  
• Chapter 1 of Stolen Innocence by invalid_reality (BuffynFaith.Net).
  
  Criminal Minds
  
• Last Chance by sofia_lindsay (Women in Kevlar).
  
  
• Chapters 7 & 8 of Broken Glass by Carly Carter (C M Femslash).
  
  
• Chapter 10 of Growing by amichevole (C M Femslash).
  
  
• Chapter 2 of Two Worlds Collide by quick_as_zoe (C M Femslash).
  
  CSI:Miami
  
• Chapter 9 of Decisions by sinjenkai (Women in Kevlar).
  
  DC Comics
  
• Unresolved Emotional Tension by aural_stimulatn (Bats Femslash).
  
  
• Popsicles!!! by BradyGirl_12 (DCU Femslash).
  
  (Kim Harrison's) The Hollows
  
• Part 5 of Undisclosed by xMerteuiLx (ivy-rachel).
  
  
• Chapter 1 of Skeletons in the Closet by sincity13 (ivy-rachel).
  
  Law & Order: SVU
  
• Break in the Case by hawkbehere (Alex_Liv Lovers).
  
  Legend of the Seeker
  
• Loved by yummypumpkins (LotS Femslash).
  
  
• Hunting Season by Sina (LotS Femslash).
  
  
• Everyone Needs A Theme Song! by synergyfox (LotS Femslash).
  
  
• The Cat Conundrum by hibernate (LotS Femslash).
  
  
• The Pink Skirt Job by hibernate (LotS Femslash).
  
  NCIS
  
• Chapter 1 of Indelible by quick_as_zoe (NCIS Femslash).
  
  Original
  
• I Held Her As She Wept by S. Anne Gardner (The Athenaeum).
  
  
• Chapter 11A of Blood Lust by sinjenkai (Saffic).
  
  
• Chapter 15.12 of Flowers of Edo by Nene Adams (Her website).
  
  
• Parts 1 to 3 of Assignment: Destiny by S Derkins (Her website).
  
  Rizzoli & Isles
  
• The Mating Behaviour of Dr Maura Isles by TheFutilitarian (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Part 3 of An Ordinary Day by megmorg7 (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Assume the Position by Janine (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Game Night by Meg (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Parts 9 & 10 of Getting There by Meg (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Parts 2 & 3 of Ad Vitam by author18 (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Geometry by author18 (Jane_Maura_ff).
  
  
• Time by lynxycrowy ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Shopping by klutzy_girl ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Unreturned Feelings by klutzy_girl ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Chapters 1 & 2 of The Queen and Her Knight by luna_dove ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Lazy Sunday by seriousfic ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Ignorance Isn't Always Bliss by Katie ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Questions by alyssa ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  
• Jo Friday Meets Bass by storm_8 ((Rizzoli & Isles LJ).
  
  Star Trek: DS9
  
• Reflections by sophie grace (Where No Woman).
  
  Voyager
  
• A Good Day to Die by Michelle Marquand (The Athenaeum).
  
  Xena Warrior Princess
  
• Coaxing the Consort by Mayhem Incarnate (The Athenaeum).