As I am feeling ever so springy, last night I made a garden vegetable soup. First, I cooked the veggies (celery, carrots, zucchini, red bell pepper, scallions, an obscene amount of garlic, and a jalapeno - seeds and all!) in a bit of grape seed oil. This softened them up nicely and caramelized them to add flavour. Then, I poured some Australian Vignot (a 2007 Zonte's Footstep, delicious!) into the vegetables and let that reduce (while I helped myself to some of the wine, as the saying goes: I love to cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food!). Then I added crushed tomatoes, a bit of water, and salt and pepper to taste. That's it!

After dinner, I noticed the bag of organic, unsweetened shredded coconut in the cupboard and I had to do something with it - anything! So I found a recipe for coconut macaroons on the Martha Stewart website - she tends to be so great for simple recipes - and after a few little changes (unsweetened coconut instead of sweetened and no chocolate chips), my apartment smelled like a tropical paradise - or crowded beach full of tanning oil, whichever you prefer...