Leek & Potato Soup with Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

Day 316

Leek & Potato Soup with Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

Blogging

Back to regular blogging. I sort of schwagged out this summer, and I can't say I would commit to a blog during the summer months again, because summer is busy, and non-routine, and hectic. Some days we didn't even eat supper, and many meals were had without a single thought of snapping a photo, notably when I wasn't eating at home, or was grabbing something quick to have before taking off to do stuff.

The blog is to be over on October 18, 2015 to complete the one year of blogging. That leaves only 49 more meals. Are you sad? Or relieved? I intend to continue blogging anything worthwhile in either a new blog or in my Favorite Recipes blog but will not be continuing this one. No more Egg Salad Sandwiches - unless we stumble across a new, ingenious recipe for them that I feel must be preserved.

The Garden of Laura

So, we have been eating a lot from the garden. There is just so much food out there, it's actually challenging to not let it go to waste. We are just about to get into some serious pickling and preserving and the freezer needs to be cleaned out to make room for whatever we can freeze. But, mainly, we're eating it. Like, every day.

The garden

Leek & Potato Soup

Everything in this soup is from our garden, with the exception of the olive oil, cream and water! Which is good, because after paying bills there wasn't much left for groceries in this cheque.

Prepping veggies

Veggie Broth
7 - 8 cups water
3 small onions, halved
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of rosemary,  snipped up
3 sage leaves, snipped up
2 large sprigs of oregano, snipped up
6-inch frond of fennel
8 celery leaves plus a bit of stalk
2 large carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces.

Fresh herbs

Simmer 1 hour, strain. Pick out the carrots and onions, throw in blender with 1 cups of water.

Carrots

Leek & potato soup in progress

Vegetables
Saute in 2 tbsp olive oil:
4 leeks, sliced thinly
2 large shallots, minced

Chopped leek & shallot

Leeks (on top)

Cook separately and strain when tender:
2 cups fingerling and tiny red potatoes, diced

Fingerling (& other small assorted) potatoes

Add the broth to the sautéed leeks and shallots. Cook the potatoes separately until tender and add at the end. 

Remove 2 cups of the soup and puree in the blender; add back to the soup.

Adding the pureed veggies back to the soup 

Toss in:
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley

Add:
2 cups coffee cream

Leek & Potato Soup

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

JP's Big Daddy Biscuits

Laura used this recipe but added the following to it:
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp finely-snipped chives
3/4 cup cheddar

Then she used about 1/4 cup melted butter and 2 cloves garlic, mixed, to baste the top of each biscuit because she didn't feel as though JP's version was quite sinful enough.

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

Reviews/Comments
Laura did not let me down. I was super excited for this tonight, as it combined two of my favorite things: soup and potatoes. These were the best damn biscuits Laura has ever made!

Me: 10
Laura: 10
Missy: ?

Spaghetti

Day 306

Sunday, August 23

Spaghetti

This is the only pic I have of the spaghetti we had for Mom's birthday dinner. I keep forgetting to take  a pic of my dinner!

This plate actually has meat on it, but mine didn't because it was served separately from the sauce.

Spaghetti

Smashed Potatoes, Carrots & Broccoli/Cauliflower

Day 315

Saturday, August 29

Smashed Potatoes, Carrots & Broccoli/Cauliflower

Smashed Potatoes, Carrots & Broccoli/Cauliflower

Tomatoes & Feta with Basil

Day 313

Friday, August 28

Tomatoes & Feta with Basil

Tomatoes & Feta with Basil

Western Bagel

Day 307

Saturday, Aug 22

Western Bagel

Western Bagel

Ingredients

Eggs
Purple Marconi peppers
Green onions
Everything bagels
Butter
Cracker Barrel Jalapeno Monterey Jack cheese

Sandwich ingredients

Eggs cooking

Cucumber Sandwiches

Day 303

Thursday, August 20

Cucumber Sandwiches

Cucumber Sandwiches

Ingredients

Bread
Cucumber
Mayo
Butter

Sandwich fixin's

Sliced cucumber

Cucumber sandwich

Cheese Tortellini with Tomatoes, Garlic & Basil

Day 302

Wednesday, August 19

Cheese Tortellini with Tomatoes, Garlic & Basil

Cheese Tortellini with Tomatoes, Garlic & Basil

Leftover Roasted Veggies

Day 301

Tuesday, August 18

Leftover Roasted Veggies

Leftover Roasted Veggies

Roasted Garden Veggies

Day 300

This meal is 100% freshly picked from the garden! I mean, except for the condiments and the water it was cooked in. So simple and delicious.

Roasted Garden Veggies

Ingredients

Linzer Delikatess potatoes
Caribe potatoes
Roko potatoes
Cosmic Purple carrots
Imperial carrots
Tendersweet carrots
Chioggia beets
Shallot
Parsnips
Yellow beans
Parsley
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano
Sea Salt
Black pepper
3 cups water

Washing Veggies

It did take about 30 minutes to clean the veggies, which thankfully Laura did outdoors with the hose, but after that there was very little prep.

Laura washing veggies

Vegetables in colander on the sidewalk

Chopping Veggies

Chopped off the ends and stalks, chopped veggies into similarly sized pieces and into the roast pan it went. Laura's beets are cool...they have targets when you slice them!

Chopped beets

Chopped veggies in roast pan

Cooking Veggies

I cooked this for an hour or so. Slightly more cooked than usual, but I was also pickling, so I forgot about it being in there for awhile.

Roasted veggies

Reviews/Comments

I give it two thumbs up. Perfect 10. Laura too. And, Missy tried some and gave us a favorable report as well! But then, what's not to love? Missy and I had ours with some lovely ladies (Lady A pickles) and Laura stuck to butter, sea salt and pepper. Can't wait for lunch tomorrow...again.

Savory Vegetable Hand Pies

Day 299

After a day of making jam and harvesting some things from the garden, we were completely starving and ready for a yummy reward.

Savory Vegetable Hand Pies

Savory Vegetable Hand Pies

Vegetables and cheese in a savory pastry. Mmmm. All Laura's idea and doing. We used a few things from the garden and some organic produce from the store.

Filling Ingredients
Vegetarian chicken breast, fried & diced
Carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
Mushrooms, chopped
Broccoli, chopped
1 large shallot, chopped
Cheddar, grated

Vegetables sautéing

Pastry Crust
2 cups flour
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
2 tbsp minced flat-leafed parsley
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 cup cold water
1 egg

Combine flour, cheese, parsley, sugar and salt in a medium bowl, then cut in butter until you have coarse crumbs. Gradually add water until a ball can be formed.

Ball of pastry dough

Divide into 4 equal parts, roll each out into a 7" disc.

Making hand pies

Add a handful of grated cheddar to each disc, followed by about 1 cup of cooked "chicken" and vegetables. Fold the pastry around the mixture and seal edges using water.

Egg wash

Lightly beat the egg and add 1 tsp water and brush over each hand pie. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.

Savory Vegetable Hand Pies

Reviews/Comments

I knew this was going to be good, but they were still surprisingly amazing. Maybe it was because I was soooo hungry, but I savored every mouthful. Lunch is going to be sooo good tomorrow.

Boston Pizza: Spinach & Artichoke Dip

Day 299

This is not really supper, just a disappointing snack that was ordered from Boston Pizza. If you've been following along, you may have noticed that Spinach & Artichoke Dip is one of our new favs. We have ordered it from BP a few times now and made our own at home a few times as well.

Since we're jamming today, and the kitchen is a mess of berries, jars and jam ingredients, we decided it might be better not to simultaneously try to cook supper, so we ordered out to tide us over until after the jam-making is done.

Spinach & Artichoke Dip

Normally, we split an order of BP spin dip with an extra order of bread, because there is always plenty of dip to share. Today, I opted for a Pita Pit falafel sandwich and Laura got the BP spin dip with the expectation that there would be leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Not to be! When I brought it home, she opened it and asked, "Who ate the other half?" I looked and here is what I saw:

Boston Pizza Spinach & Artichoke Dip

This is less than half the amount of dip they usually served with this order. This pic was taken before we even touched it. I feel like we got ripped off today. This is not $10.95 (+ tx & tip $14.23) worth of food! Boooo. Probably won't be getting this again.

Laura rates it a 5 overall. Out of 10. That's not good.

Broccoli au Gratin

Day 294

We had this alongside last night's leftovers, of which there wasn't much since I also took some to work for my lunch, but we were excited to have what was left to go with our broccoli tonight.

Broccoli au Gratin

Broccoli au Gratin

Original recipe
This was made using our garden broccoli! We had it one other night, but this time Laura harvested seven of the nine heads, which were small, but already showing signs of going to seed. More broccoli will grow back.

Broccoli

I followed the recipe to a T but next time I will use more salt and more cheese. This one contains 3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar and 1/4 cup grated Swiss.

Ingredients

Broccoli
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 1/2 cups coffee cream
1 1/2 cups water
Sea salt & pepper
3/4 cup cheese

Topping
1 1/2 cups panko crumbs
2 more tbsp peanut oil
1/4 cup cheese

While it's cooking in the bubbling milk (we actually used half coffee cream and half water), it looks really yummy.

Broccoli simmering in cream

Broccoli au Gratin

Reviews/Comments

Ignore the unflattering photo of the broccoli. It was a really yummy dish and I'll definitely make it again. But let's talk about our carrots.

Last night, I didn't give much of a review, so tonight I would like to elaborate some on the carrots. O. M.G. They are sooo amazing. They're sweet, and tender and carroty, and Laura says they were the best carrots she'd ever had in her life. They weren't earthy like carrots usually are, and even though she doesn't usually love carrots, she thought they were the best thing on her plate last night, even better than the green bean casserole. And the best thing is, there are lots more in the ground!

Roasted Vegetables & Green Bean Casserole

Day 292

Clearly I don't have enough time for daily blogging during the summer. Noted. I generally do remember to take the pics, but time just gets away from me, most notably during the weekends. This past weekend, for instance, I traveled to Westbrook, ME for a wedding.

Roasted Vegetables & Green Bean Casserole

Roasted Vegetables

Everything from the garden, then roasted in 1/2" water at 350 degrees F for about 40 minutes.

Garden stuff

Ingredients
Carrots
Parsnips
Potatoes
Garlic
Fresh herbs: the Scarborough Fair combo (parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme) plus oregano

Roasted vegetables

Green Bean Casserole

Inspired by our beans from the garden! There is really no better way to eat green beans. Just steam the beans, put them in a casserole dish, pour the soup over top and finally, sprinkle the fried onions over everything. Bake about 20 minutes at 350.

Steamed green beans

Ingredients
Green beans
Homemade cream of mushroom soup (recipe can be found here)
French's fried onions

Green bean casserole

Roasted Vegetables & Green Bean Casserole

Let's Back Up

On Saturday, at the wedding itself, I had some great food, mostly finger food, plus some mac n cheese, but I didn't get a pic, because I didn't realize at the time that it was supper. On the way home, I stopped in Hampden where I took a pic of a fantastic lady - Wendy Pace - making some peach salsa, but that's as close as I came to seeing any food preparation the entire day.

Wendy making peach salsa

After I came back from the wedding trip last night, I had some of Laura's pitas with some spinach/artichoke dip she had made, but failed to take a pic. But tonight, I was in full blogging spirit, so here we are.

Let's Back Up More

The evening before the wedding, Laura and I cooked some veggies from the garden, but I was super busy getting ready for the trip and went to bed early in order to get an early start for a long drive. The evening before that, I was away visiting a relative from the time I got home from work until at least 10 pm and I think I skipped supper that night. No, wait. I think we ordered something. And the evening before that, on Wednesday, it was Eggs Florentine.


Wednesday, August 6: Eggs Florentine
Old stand-by for us.

Eggs Florentine

Friday, August 7: Garden Veggies
Everything from the garden: potatoes, yellow beans and Swiss chard.

Fresh garden vegetables

Reviews/Comments

What on earth is better than this? Hardly anything. Sooo yummy. Got a 10 from us both.