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Pumpkin is a wonderfully forgiving vegetable. It patiently sits in the darkness of your larder (that also doubles as a garage in our house), waiting for months on end until you feel ready to use it. Every now and then there's hope that the end is near. I brought it into the kitchen for a few days in early January, planning to make Johanna's wonderful blue cheese and roasted pumpking quiche again, but eventually took it back to its place in the garage. In early February, we had to move the pumpkin indoors again, as the temperatures fell way below -20ºC and we needed to make sure the pumpkin survived the coldwave. But still it didn't make it to the kitchen and was returned to the garage a few days later.The pumpkin was finally brought into the warmth of our kitchen a week ago. The...

Any self-respecting Burns Supper begins with a proper Scottish soup - either Scotch Broth or Cock-a-Leekie. As the latter is a) considerably cheaper and b) considerably easier, then that's what I made for our Burns Supper last weekend. Amazingly, so few ingredients (a chicken, some leeks and some juicy prunes) can result in such a flavoursome soup. I did dig out my Marigold bouillon powder - you know, just in case - but didn't have to touch it after all.The amounts given below are the ones I used. If you want to follow the exact amounts given by the Scottish foodwriter Sue Lawrence, then click on the photo above.Cock-a-leekie (Cock-a-leekie supp ehk šotlaste kana-porrusupp)Adapted from Scots Cooking: The Best Traditional and Contemporary Scottish Recipesby Sue LawrenceServes 10 as a...