It was so generally cold, grey and gloomy yesterday that I made a stoemp to cheer us (well, me) up. I would like immediately to apologise to my Facebook friend, Peter. About a month ago there was an exchange on my page, with me maintaining that a true stoemp was necessarily made with leeks. Not so, he argued, and he was right. Basically, you can make a stoemp with most vegetables (together with potatoes, of course). For those not conversant with the dish, stoemp is a pinnacle of Belgian cuisine. The reason I thought it had to be leeks was because I used our old, battered version of Le Petit Comme Chez Soi, which has the leeks version and brussels sprouts only as a variant. The recipe is delicious. The leeks are first sweated in butter then stewed in well-salted chicken stock and cream. The potatoes are par-boiled and bruised (as opposed to boiled and mashed) and the two are mixed. Where does the climate change come in? Well, stoemp (a winter dish, you will not be surprised to learn) is even better re-heated, so I ate the rest of it today and today, in extraordinary contrast to yesterday, is a roasting hot day. I nevertheless had to atone for my sins and did this by running some ten kilometres under a blazing sun. Frankly, it was worth it.