Leeky Potato Soup

During the winter, Seattle gets very little sun. In fact, it's almost solely the winter that gives Seattle its reputation of a dreary and rainy climate. Many of us are whiners too. And I'm not an exception to this. I hate the rain. I hate the gray skies. I hate the cold.

Today was exceptionally cold. My hot coffee was clenched in my hand as I braved the farmers market. My coffee would be frigid before I completed the full circle around the market. This time of year the farmers market, while still crowded, feels like a world of root vegetables, and kale...lots of kale.

So I got a bag of mixed "salad" greens from Collinswood Farm, this was basically a mix of several different kinds of kale and some other winter greens. I peeked over to see what else they had to offer. "OMG cute leeks!" Their curly cued little leaves all over the place, these will make a good soup.

So when life gives you potatoes and leeks, you make potato leek soup. I sauteed four diced shallots, four diced garlic cloves, and three stalks of celery in some butter. Threw in four large, finely diced, yukon gold potatoes. Added about 6 cups of chicken stock. 1 cup of milk. 1/2 cup of heavy cream. The white part of the leeks, thinly sliced. One large stick of rosemary, leaves taken off and chopped. Three bay leaves. Salt and pepper.

I don't have an immersion blender. I thought about running it through a blender but that seemed like a lot of work. I liked it chunky anyway. No big deal.

Okay wait. Let's talk about stock for a moment. I keep a freezer safe ziplock type bag in my freezer. This is where I put my stock veggies. Stock veggies include the ends of carrots, celery, onions, leeks, etc. These are basically the totally edible parts of these vegetables but not really the attractive parts. Also, several friends have told me that you need to add onion skins to your stock to give it that golden color so I throw that in there too. When my frozen bag of misfit veggies is full, I can just dump it into a stock pot, fill it with water, and simmer all day. Voila! Veggie stock. Chicken stock is just as easy, use less veggies and a leftover chicken carcass. You should freeze your stock in small portions if you aren't going to use it right away. Oh yeah, you'll also want run your stock through a strainer. Weird, people don't like biting into chicken bones, onion skins, or your ugliest carrot nub.

So the potato leek soup was creamy, and chunky all at the same time. While I let the soup simmer I made a batch of these beautiful little cookies and read a little bit of "Anarchism and Education" by Judith Suissa.

Perfect potato leek soup.
Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
Bacon grilled cheese sandwich.
Bards Beer.
And thinking, lots of thinking.

Not bad for a lazy Sunday.