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It's been a while! Now that we're settled in and the holidays have passed (which always makes me feel a little relieved, as much as I anticipate and enjoy them), I'm cooking and baking regularly again. Hopefully this blog will be a little less neglected as well.

I have a batch of 50% whole wheat rustic bread "fermenting" in the fridge, so we'll see tomorrow how that turns out. I recall making it before maybe a year ago, and liking it quite a bit, but then I reverted back to my regular white ciabatta routine and forgot about it.

Today I made cream of leek and potato soup for lunch, halving the original recipe and planning on having it for three lunches, but it turned out being more like two "main" servings. Oh well. It is so easy and fast and absolutely scrumptious.

Cream of leek and potato soup
Serves 2
Adapted from Julia Child
2 medium leeks, white and light green parts thoroughly rinsed and roughly chopped (To get the sand out, you need to halve the leeks lengthwise almost to the root, leaving it intact, and fan them out to expose all the layers under running water.)
1 large russet or baking potato, peeled and roughly chopped
3 cups water
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 c. half-and-half
fresh ground black pepper

Bring the leeks, potatoes, water, and salt to a boil in a medium pot. Simmer, partially covered, 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are tender (depends how large you cut them). Puree, either with an immersion blender if you don't mind little chunks here and there or in a blender for perfect smoothness. Stir in the half-and-half and heat through for a couple minutes if necessary. Grind in pepper to taste and serve.

of beef and other things

Well, despite meticulous preparations, my little steak dinner Saturday night did not go off without a hitch. I (probably irrationally) blame Publix for the rotten potato, and my own sorry self for the slightly overcooked filets...at least they were still delicious and tender, and overall the meal went acceptably according to plan. I ended up using almost all Manchego for the gougères, which turned out delicious. I took a cue at the last minute from my little Julia Child compendium and made a riff on her baked tomatoes provençal, filling them with smoked trout and topping them with garlicky bread crumbs.

first course

The baked potato fans could have used a little practice first, and I have extra gorgonzola topping still in the fridge waiting to be used on a non-rotten potato...one of those between the two of us turned out to be more than enough, though. They were tasty. I also turned to Julia Child for a new spinach preparation: you sauté the spinach just til wilted and then let it "braise" for 5 minutes or so in a little cream, which never binds to it as in (what I know as) creamed spinach. So it turns out lighter but still tastes like cream, which is never a bad thing!

High on the list of the meals that tempt me away from my resolution not to use the oven on ~95 degree days are red enchiladas. I use the beef variation of the recipe in Best International Recipe and few things taste better to me with a dollop of sour cream and a squeeze of lime juice. Unable to help myself, I made a batch for lunch today---yes, in the middle of the day, using a 400 degree oven for half an hour. But the smell of the beef cooking in the sauce alone makes it worthwhile. I love that these, unlike other enchiladas I've tried, do not totally fall apart upon reheating, and leftovers actually taste at least as good as fresh. As you can see in the picture, they also lack that greasy sheen characteristic of many Mexican restaurant enchiladas... as far as enchiladas go, I consider these quite healthy: tomato sauce, lean steak, calcium-rich cheese, and whole grain corn tortillas!

Ham & egg pastries; mini palmiers

Friday night I made ham and egg puff pastry squares from CI's Restaurant Favorites at Home. I had previously made this for brunch, with a cream sauce I opted out of this time, and had an extra sheet of puff pastry from that I needed to use up. Obviously it's very hard to go wrong with 1) puff pastry 2) Black Forest ham 3) Gouda (which I subbed for the cheddar called for) and 4) soft scrambled eggs.

For the pastries, you unfold a sheet of pastry and cut out a 9" circle. This leaves you with a significant amount of scraps left over. I decided this was unacceptable and Googled around for an easy way to use them. Behold, mini palmiers: you just stack the scraps of dough on top of each other (do not squeeze together or knead them), then roll them out into a rough rectangle. Sprinkle the rectangle generously with cinnamon sugar. Starting from one short end, roll tightly halfway up. Roll the same way from the other end til they meet. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough lengthwise into 1/4 to 1/2" palmiers. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 400 for about 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Saturday for dinner I was planning another tapas sort of thing, but I was lethargic and we were out much of the day and I couldn't get excited about labor-intensive stuffed mushrooms and salt cod in tomato garlic confit, which didn't really go together anyway. I had Mike find me an easy recipe online (which means I'm really in an anti-cooking stupor), a Martha Stewart one in fact, and I ended up using the last of my precious salt cod on pan-fried fish cakes. They certainly weren't bad, but I felt a little silly.

Today we managed to sleep for no less than three hours in the middle of the afternoon (M hasn't been sleeping well, but I have, so I have no idea what's wrong with me), hence the time stamp on this post. Somehow shortly after we emerged from hibernation we were hungry, so I heated up Julia Child's cream of leek and potato soup which I made Friday, and made some small Gruyere and sauteed mushroom burgers. Yes, burgers and French soup, a classic combination. I will say the Gruyere-mushroom combination works très bien, but I think everybody except me already knew that.