What's cooking?

What's cooking?
Well...not much at the moment, but lots of things have been cooking!

This morning I made

• some Thai style pumpkin/butternut squash soup. This was with a coconut red curry sauce that I found on offer. I sautéed the onion and garlic, added a bit of ginger, and chopped pumpkin and butternut squash (using up bits that had been hanging round in the fridge). Then I added the sauce, and some vegetable stock. After a zuzz with the stick blender - hey presto! Soup.
• the Hairy Dieters low fat minced beef pies. This used pizza base as the pastry, which worked quite well, and I put some harissa in the mix which gave it a bit of a kick. I made two, and one is eaten and the other is in the freezer.
• Some flapjacks - all oaty, nutty, coconutty and syruppy. Yum! I threw in some rather nasty, oversweet cereal that I'd bought, and it mixed in well. I shall use some more of this next time. Not brilliant for dieting (130 cals a bit) but still not too awful!
• A Hairy Carrot and sultana cake to have on Sunday, when Cathy (but now not Gilles and Sylvie - Mr FD has issues with Gilles at the moment. To be resolved soon, we hope!) comes for dinner.

and now, in the oven at the moment, there is

• some soda bread. I've never made this before, as it requires buttermilk, which is something I've never seen before in French supermarkets. However Cro, over at Magnon's Meanderings said he makes his with yoghurt. So I've tried that. We shall see. It is for supper tonight with the aforementioned soup and some roast pork.

   I would like a glass of beer with supper, TBH - I feel a bit down today, mostly about the job situation, as Mr FD isn't very happy with his job and I feel all guilty I'm not contributing to the financial pot, but I hope to bounce back again soon. I've only been unemployed for a week - and actually, I'm not really officially unemployed until the end of October when the paperwork goes through - so I think I'm panicking a bit too early, truth be told! Maybe this is just one of my Menopausal Feelings of Impending Doom that I get from time to time (sorry, is that TMI?!)

Anyway. At least I'm cooking!