Excellent Sunday - I was testing my new walking shoes. We did a 5k test walk yesterday, and today a 10k walk around the sunny Ealing stopping at the shops in Ealing Broadway on the way home. I found some much needed work attire. I used to be quite a keen shopper, but lately the focus has not really been there. I found two pairs of heels, nude and black, same style. I couldn't decide which colour to get, so I got both. They were quite cheap. And 3 really nice tops for work and some bits and pieces (camis, t-shirts etc). Oh, and the obligatory scarf. I love scarfs. I think my neck has become so accustomed to scarfs that I feel cold and vulnerable without one. Which is fab because once my neck becomes too wrinkly to see daylight it doesn't really matter because it never would anyway.

Back home I made husband a big pot of creamy salmon and cod chowder to keep him fed and warm while I'm gone for Monday and Tuesday in a meeting somewhere near Coventry in a place called Coombe Abbey. It looks lovely and I'll take my running gear in case there is time after the meeting for a quick run in fresh country air. It makes me think of Combe Magna and Marianne and Willoughby and the wonderful Colonel Brandon. Maybe it will start raining and I'll faint daintily while running on the moor (not sure if there is a moor there) and I'm not sweaty at all in my running pants but fresh and fragrant and Alan Rickman who's obviously not dead comes and sweeps me on his arms and so on.

I love Jane Austen (the actual books also, not just the films and Alan Rickman and Colin Firth). We watched the Jane Austen Book Club this weekend and husband pronounced it was the most boring film ever. Whenever something bad happened to someone he suspected someone else or FBI or CIA and I was trying to explain it's not that kind of a film, there is no FBI or CIA or MI6 there and the book clubbers aren't really probably trying to kill each other. I of course loved it.

Then husband watched the Hateful Eight, which I couldn't stomach. I hate Quentin Tarantino films. I think he must be mentally ill. So it looks like even if mostly dear husband and I have but one mind and one way of thinking it doesn't seem to stretch to motion picture arts.

I just realised this soup is very close to the traditional Finnish salmon soup which I make quite often, just more finely cut and mushy of texture. But ingredient and flavour wise very close. Yammy and comforting.

Salmon and cod chowder (serves 4)

Oil
1 leek
1 yellow onion
500 g potatoes
2 cups of fish stock
1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsp fresh chopped dill
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
zest and juice of a lemon
100g garden peas
140g can of corn
salt
lemon pepper
250g salmon
250g cod
2 heaped TBSP of creme fraiche

Debone your fish and remove any skin. Cube the fish and sprinkle with salt. Zest your lemon keeping the zest to one side. Juice the lemon and pour the juice on top of the fish.

Wash the leak. Chop the leak and onion. Peel potatoes and cut to small cubes. Heat oil in a pan. Add the leak and onion and sauté on medium heat until soft. Add the potatoes and continue cooking for a few minutes. Add the fish stock. Cover and cook on low to medium heat until potatoes are soft.

Add the milk and mash some of the soup with a potato masher, or you can use a hand blender. Leave about half of the soup unmashed. Add the herbs, lemon zest, corn and peas. Season with salt and lemon pepper. Cook for a few minutes and add the fish. Cook for a minute or two on gentle heat until the fish is done. Blend in the creme fraiche, check seasoning, sprinkle with fresh dill and serve with fresh bread.