Russian soup - the recipe

I thought that I should include the recipe, just in case someone other than me is reading this blog. (Thank you - but don't you have anything better to do?)
Ingredients: potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic, butter, salt and pepper, water
1. Wash and chop all the vegetables.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan.
3. Add vegetables and small amount of water with salt.
4. Boil gently (covered.)
5. When almost cooked add pepper and hot water, gently simmer to finish off.
6. Add more salt and pepper to taste as necessary.
Enjoy!

I feel a little like Tita in "Como Agua Para Chocolate", telling the story alongside the recipes for the year. I think Laura Esquivel's wonderful novel is called "Like Water For Chocolate" in English and is well worth a read. It's one of my favourite books. The film's pretty good too, amazingly. (Films of novels are so often poor imitations but this one isn't.) Can't remember if it's in English or Spanish. Sorry.

16th August 2004