Trees and peas

Looking out onto our new deck and beyond

We are getting settled into the new apartment after the big move last weekend. Thanks to our wonderful friends who arrived with cars, trucks and seemingly boundless energy it took less than 3 hours to move all our stuff, including the plants! I will post more detailed pics and descriptions of the new house soon, once we get the last of the pictures hung and the clothes unpacked, but here's a few teasers. We really like the new place. Lots more room, more light and more airflow. It also feels like we're living in the tree tops so we have dubbed new home "the tree house"!

The windows above our couch and the treetops!

In food news I came across some pea shoots in the store yesterday and figured I'd give them a whirl. Turns out they're really tasty, like a slightly less peppery water cress. I figured I'd make a brothy soup and throw the pea shoots in at the end.

So I used a pho base (beef stock, star anise, cinnamon, garlic, soy sauce) and added some sliced bamboo (Jo thinks I'm part panda based on my bamboo intake), some dried shitakes (rehydrated in the broth to add more umami to the soup), some fresh ginger and then the pea shoots.

The soup came out well and the shoots were wonderful! Could have done with some duck though ;)