Midwinter fed up of cold and not seeing neighbors comfort food

As with a lot of neighborhoods, winter, even in a friendly place like mine, is when you rarely see the neighbors.  Nobody's outside having a nice chat and swopping cuttings and gossip.  The news everywhere is terrible, and I can only do so much activism. It's not so fun.

But comfort food does help.  I have a go-to soup that's easy to make, makes a lot, and never fails me.  It's just mixed vegetables. One big can of diced tomatoes (in season it would be fresh, but oh well), two or three cans of different sorts of beans, big chunk of parmesan cheese rind, garlic, onions, basil pesto, tomato paste, bit of curry powder, salt, chicken broth.  No recipe, really, just follow usual procedure for soup.  It's great, makes a lot if you want to, and you can freeze it.  This week it's cannellini and pink beans.  I like to use the stick blender toward the end just to break down enough to have a nice texture.

And it's good now and then to have a simple chocolate cake.  This is just that one everyone has, named crazy cake or something like that, I don't like that name, maybe we could call it easy chocolate cake, very simple stuff. Just flour, vanilla essence, cocoa powder, oil, baking soda, salt, warm water. I add in half a cup of crushed walnuts. And finish it with a water icing of cocoa powder and confectioner's sugar, water.  Note the cook has already tested this one.