First soup and Sandwiches

As long time readers of this will know, during the colder months, every second Sunday, we have Soup and Sandwiches with our friends. It's a tradition we've had for the last six years. Winter can sometimes feel very long, damp and dark with nothing to look forward to!
Tonight is the first SandS of 2012. Now, the soup is always a soup, but the sandwich can be a variation on a sandwich! Tonight we're having Scotch Broth. Lloyd has been pouring over authentic recipes for days. We finally gave in and emailed my mum to get dad to tell her his one. It's the one I grew up with and remember that on Sundays dad spent most of the day making soup from the remains of Saturday nights roast. I'll post it when I have it, but for tonight we've made do with a mixture of various recipes and now it's Lloyd that's slaving away in the kitchen!

We're not having sandwiches tonight, we're having a potato tart. I found it in this months Country Living magazine (uk one) and thought it looked lovely. You can find the recipe HERE. We're using leeks instead of swiss chard because this'll go well with Scotch broth.

Here's the potatoes for the tart - par boiled

I rolled out the puff pastry a wee bit to make it come slightly over the edges of the baking trays. Lloyd had cooked up the leeks so they went on - after he'd spread the pastry with some grainy mustard.

Finally the potatoes and some gruyere cheese were put over the top. It's all ready to go into the oven when everyone arrives.

And the finished result, which was delicious - but our kitchen does not have the best light for photographing in once it gets dark.

And not to be outdone! The Scotch broth - which was so good - and we've got left overs for lunch tomorrow!

We didn't have any flowers today, so I wandered round the garden to see what I could find. Managed to get a lovely wee bunch of calendula, poppies, daisies and roses.

 It's amazing what the garden in still growing. I really should prune the roses though.