A quick catch up over lettuce soup

I'm sitting at my desk with a steaming bowl of lettuce soup (yes, you did read that right) and I'm about to write something......here.......now!!  I feel like my poor blog has been a bit neglected recently - but in fact it has just been 'life' that has keep my hands off the keyboard!!  I'm actually revelling in the silence right now.........can you hear it???  It's amazing and NEVER to be taken for granted.  Both Master J and Miss H are at school and Kindy today and Miss L is fast asleep, rugged up in her cot upstairs.

Sorry about the grainy photo but I had to sneak in and take this pic in the dark - did NOT want to wake her!!

To say the last few weeks have been busy could even be a slight UNDER exaggeration and thats saying something for me.  Mr D has been away travelling over seas and I have been running a tight ship at home.  I have to run everything like a military operation otherwise we would never get out of the front door every morning, and I would probably never make it to bed either!!

I have to say, I think I have deserve a gold star, as the whole time he was away NOTHING went wrong!!!  Seriously not one thing!!!  I have a really bad track record for things going wrong when Mr D is out of the country, so this is nothing short of a miracle!  The last trip away he did Miss L was only just born and I managed to not only get a $497 dollar parking fine but I also crashed the car (fortunately no one expect the car and perhaps my pride was hurt)!!

I can also remember a time (back in England) when Master J was a baby and Mr D was on another trip and I somehow managed to lock the bathroom door fron the inside (but without anyone in it???????).  There was no way in other than bashing it down, which I decided was not a good idea, so Master J and I had to move in with my mum until Mr D got home.  My dad was away too, so he couldn't fix the problem either!!

The time we were snowed in and couldn't leave the house for two days, also just happened to be when Mr D was out of the country!!

The neighbour and my dad trying to dig my car out of the ice, so that I could get off the driveway

Anyway we survived the last trip with flying colours!

As the weather has also definitely descended into winter (Sydney style) we have also been inundated with bugs, colds and flu's, keeping mummy very busy.  But I'm hoping to be back on top of things soon so please don't go anywhere!!

Oh and I just thought I'd throw in my lettuce soup recipe too.  I PROMISE it's worth a try!!

LETTUCE SOUP

You will need:
1/4 to 1/2 of an iceberg lettuce
2 spring onions
1 large or 2 medium sized potatoes (peeled and roughly chopped)
2 tbs vegetable stock concentrate (homemade is even better)
500g water
30 g butter
1 tsp sugar
100g cream or plain yoghurt or 50g milk
Tabasco Sauce and sprinkle of parmesan cheese to garnish

Add the water, stock, lettuce, onions and butter to the thermomix bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 9.  Add the potatoes and cook on 100 degrees for 18 minutes of speed 2.  Add the sugar and cream, yoghurt or milk and whizz for 30 seconds on speed 9 until smooth.

Serve with a dash of Tabasco, a few shavings of parmesan and some warm crusty bread.  Delicious!!  

Believe it or not, this is actually a family favourite in our house and even Mr D and the kids love it.  I won't tell you Mr D's reaction the first time I told him we were having lettuce soup for dinner though ............I'll let you guess!