Average Soup

“Mmm…onion soup (5344349906)” by jeffreyw

��Average?!��

Lovingly thrown together by your mother, in between eating lunch, sorting out laundry and calculating how much is due for this week��s school dinner money��?

Is that what you think of my home-made lentil and leek and broccoli and celery soup? Careful��nutrition devised for your warmth and comfort in this season of chills?��All quickly cut to a blend at the sharp end of my knife, then mixed with a dash of hope and finished with a spoonful of top-of-the range bouillon?

��It��s average,�� she opines, with a mischievous twinkle. I think she likes to get me up on my high horse, so I shall humour her, and wax lyrical about the ingratitude of youth, the pains that parents take.

Because I enjoy life, these days my indignation is deliberately comical, and the warnings I might issue to Seline about childish insouciance �� One day, you will discover what this is like, just you wait �� are laced with humour and not taken seriously. Thank God, we dance.

We have discovered an abundance that is available to the careful shopper at Lidl �� ooops! Other discount stores are available �� whereat you can find a pack of four enormous leeks for the price of one; onions the size of my fist, and pears so big that one would feed a family for a week. In fact, the largesse that I notice has emboldened me to experiment more with what I cook, and last week��I made a pear and custard flan. Okay, if I��m honest, the wholemeal flour base was heavy and inedible, but it didn’t collapse;��the custard was beautifully set, and the pear slices were soft and warm. Not bad, for a bit of impromptu decision-making. We ate up the custard and pear slices easily, and then threw out the base with a touch of regret. Wholemeal flour is so good for one, it is a pity it is difficult to work with.

Life is good, and far from average, these days.

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“Homemade Flan” by Cary Bass – Own work.