What's in the pantry?

potatoes and leeks photo by Kristin
To spare you another rant about Seattle's weather, I'll just say that today I wanted to make a comforting soup for dinner out of ingredients that I already had on hand.
It kind of ended up being a trip down memory lane. I had some Yukon gold potatoes and two leeks in the fridge and thought of the baked potato soup I used to make. I think that's one of the first things I made for my friend and when she started calling me "chefetta".
Baked potato soup was something served at one of the first places I ever worked as a server. Back in State College, Pa. What a lifetime ago it seems, almost 15 years!

Baked potato soup photo by Kristin
Baked potato soup:
6 small/med. Yukon potatoes, or 2-3 Russet potatoes. (The Yukons will stay a little more firm, the Russets a little more crumbly)
2 leeks well cleaned and chopped
1-2 slices of bacon (optional)
2 TBS. flour
salt, pepper
1/2 c. cream or half/half
2 1/2 c. water/chicken stock or veggie stock(or broth if that's what you have)
cheddar cheese, chives, sour cream, for garnishing

Bake potatoes in oven or microwave and let cool.(I'm going to assume most of you know how to do this:) When they are cooled, you can leave the skin on and dice them, or scoop out insides and discard skin. Set aside, covered so they don't dry out.
Dice bacon and render in heavy bottomed pan. Remove bacon to paper towel and set aside. Drain any fat excess fat leaving about 2 TBS. in the pot. Add leeks, salt, pepper and flour. Stir occasionally for about 5 min. Add a little of the water/stock and stir, scraping up the good bits from the bottom of the pot. Slowly add the rest of water/stock and cream/half-half. Stir for a minute. Add potatoes and cook until heated through, stirring occasionally and adjusting seasonings if necessary. Serve garnished with reserved bacon, cheddar cheese and any other of your favorite baked potato toppings.

*update* 3/31
I forgot to mention that if you don't want to use bacon, just add about 2TBS olive oil or butter to pot and start where it says to add the leeks etc...(after baking the potatoes and letting them cool)

I had promised photos and details of our dinner party on Friday. What a disaster! Well, in a culinary context I mean. We were to have a good ol' fashioned fondue party except my trusted recipe ended up a fondon't. (Yup, I said that) I tried following that rule of "don't make anything you haven't before for a dinner party" and see what that got me...

Roasted potatoes photo by Kristin
I made these pretty roasted potatoes, sliced veggies, picked up a baguette, and my friend had some pulled roasted chicken. All this for dipping into silky, velvety, stick-to-your-chin-but-you-dont'-care cheese. The cheese just seized! Would not melt smoothly at all. I think the wine may have been to acidic, but I don't really know for sure. It was just a giant blob. We just had a laugh(I tried to anyway!) and sliced up the cheese(it tasted like fondue) and continued with dinner. The chocolate fondue was delicious, but I stayed away from helping with that one...

Strawberries for chocolate fondue photo by Kristin

The stars of the evening still loved me anyway.

The stars, Fiona and Detroit photo by Kristin

Thanks Erica and Casey for a great time!

Blaaah-gging

Seattle sky photo by Kristin
Yay!(read with extreme sarcasam) This is what Seattle looks like again today. This is the time of year when I have to try really hard to get out of bed instead of hanging a sign around my neck that says "wake me when the sun finally shines" I have to make little adjustments here and there, like taking photos of the rain so that i can "appreciate" it.

Pink working lunch photo by Kristin
One of the things I love about our kitchen is that it's on the southwest corner of the building and even when it's really grey outside, we get quite a bit of light. So for the past two days, I've been doing studio work on the kitchen table to take advantage of this.

Pink sunshine-substitute photo by Kristin
I also made a pretty pink strawberry smoothie(yay for spring and strawberries!) to match the colorways I'm using and served it to my self in a piece of stemware for extra specialness.

Everyday-ness photo by Kristin

And, trying to see something in the everyday things helps to stave off the lethargy of five months of the cold and grey.

I'm looking forward to tonight. We are going to friends for a little dinner party. Photos and details to come this weekend....

In a pinch...

google image said this pix came from here.

The bestest, fastest, creamiest and not-so-bad-for-you pasta sauce is an ounce of goat cheese mixed into cooked pasta/veggies with a half cup of pasta cooking water. So good when your expected delivery of food has items that are "unavailable" when you were planning on them to be there for your no-fuss dinner.

Monday

Kind of a lame title of a post, but I'm exercising the principle of "if you don't have anything nice to say..." . That's how I feel about most of today after a "mishap" in the studio. But, enough about that and on to the food portion of the day.

I had intended on making the lentil soup my friend sent me a recipe for, but only could muster up a half assed attempt at it because I kinda forgot to eat today. I managed to saute some onion and carrot and pour some veggie stock over them before dumping in a package of pre-cooked beluga lentils. Maybe not my most whole hearted attempt, but it was still better than canned soup in my book.

Lame-day lentil soup refuse. Photo by Kristin
The day got better after I ran some stairs and went to my friend's house for dinner. She has a goal this week of cooking only with the things she has on hand. We had ravioli with meat sauce and a fabulous spinach salad filled with fruit and nuts. My task was to bring things to round out the salad(fruit and nuts) and some wine. Everything was so simple but so delicious too.

Fabulous red counter! Photo by Kristin
That's her kitchen counter above. I loooove the red laminate!

Girl's night 1 photo by Krisitn
And two photos of our girls night date dinner. We liked both pictures so why not show them both? ( She teaches music to elementary school kids and the flowers are from one of her students. So cute!)

Girl's night 2 photo by Kristin
She asked me for suggestions on what to make the rest of the week with what she had in her kitchen and we came up with a possible weekly feature--"What's in Sarah's Pantry?" It makes sense since the last post was about and item in J's pantry. Let me ponder a bit on that, but I'll probably give it a go! This is not a new idea--I've heard it on The Splendid Table on the radio where people call in with random things they have and the host has to think of something on the spot. I guess this can be my version of that. Send me a list of things you need to use and I'll see what I can come up with!

ps thanks again for dinner pretty lady!

Tech talk

If you've tried to leave a comment here and haven't been able to, I apologize. I've been trying to figure out how to fix that. It seems to work for my mom if she picks her "profile" as anonymous. If that works for you, please leave your name somewhere in the comment if you'd like me to know it's you! This may not work for everyone, (I haven't been able to comment on another friends blog no matter what I try) so I will continue to investigate.
Thanks!

By request

A friend has requested some ideas for the box of couscous she has in her pantry. I usually have a box too, for a really quick starch. I think it's something I use more in the summer to make tabouleh* and other quick salad-y dishes. But if Eugene in anything like it is here in Seattle(still kinda cold with more rain for tomorrow), then she may be craving something warm and comforting.

photo by Krisitn
To start, making the couscous is pretty much how they say on the box. Instead of water, I use broth or stock, whichever I have handy or in the fridge and a healthy dousing of olive oil--maybe a tablespoon or so. Bring them just to a boil and stir the couscous in, cover and remove from the heat. Five minutes later it's done. One cup of uncooked couscous goes a long way, so sometimes I just make half. Also, with broth/stock you probably won't need any salt. If you're using water, add a pinch of salt.

Here are some things to put on top:
Moroccan inspired:
Saute an onion in olive oil with salt, pepper, a couple of dashes of cinnamon, cayenne(just a little if you don't like too much spice),zest of a lemon and some thyme. Cook them for about 5-7 minutes then add a can of tomatoes(diced,pureed or whole ones that have been broken up) a can of drained chickpeas, and a hand full of golden raisins. Some cooked, cubed chicken would be great too, if you have any and/or want to. Cook until heated through, check for seasoning and serve over couscous garnished with chopped flat leaf parsley and/or mint and sliced almonds if you have them.

The roasted vegetable stand-by:
Roast your favorite chopped veggies that have been tossed in olive oil, squeeze of tomato paste, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes and grated garlic on parchment lined sheet in 400 oven for about 20-30 mins. Serve over couscous topped with parmesan cheese, or feta, maybe with a drizzle of pesto.

The clean-your fridge:
Things like that jarred bruschetta topping from Trader Joe's we had last week can be mixed in the couscous w/ a can of white beans or chickpeas and some cheese to top off. For when you have a little left in the jar, it's a good fast lunch. I haven't been to T.J's in a while, but good ones to try are caponata(has chunks of eggplant), sundried tomato spread, olive tapanade...I found these can sometimes be a little salty, so mix a little in and taste to see if you need to add more.

*Tabouleh:
Tabouleh is traditionally made with cracked wheat berries, but whole wheat couscous is faster. This one involves a lot of chopping, but I love it. Finely chop one bunch flat leaf parsley and one bunch of mint. Mix these into cooled, cooked couscous with chopped red onion, chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and lots of olive oil and lemon juice. I sometimes add chopped cucumber too. I try to let it sit in the fridge for a little while so all the flavors have a chance to get good and yummy. This is great alone or topped with chicken or shrimp or served with hummus and carrot sticks. And of course, garnished with feta cheese.

As a stuffer:
Use cooked couscous in recipes for stuffed veggies. For the upcoming tomato season, find a nice big tomato and cut off the top. Scoop the middle out and reserve if there's a lot of flesh. If it's mostly seeds, I don't use it. Chop the reserved tomato and mix with couscous, drained canned tuna, chopped fresh basil or flat leaf parsley, salt and pepper, olive oil and lemon juice and capers(optional). Fill the cavity of the tomato with this mixture and it's ready to eat!

Ok J, hopefully these will spark something for you. They aren't really in recipe format as I was typing it out as I was thinking of them. If there are any you'd like in a more standard format, let me know and I can send them to you.

First day of spring

For dinner on this first night of spring, I decided to make something simple, using things I had on hand. I mainly needed to figure out how to use the beautiful baguette I received on Wed.

spring peas photo by Kristin

I also had some thawed chicken and crunchy fresh veggies in the fridge.

spring chicken salad sammie photo by Kristin
These became the ingredients for an easy chicken salad sandwich. I poached the chicken with lemon and thyme, shred it, and mixed it with radish, raw spring peas and a little mayo.
The baguette was crusty and chewy and the peas popped in your mouth with the freshest burst of flavor. Poaching the chicken kept it nice and moist and the radish provided a little zing.
Very simple and satisfying.
Since the weather was very un-spring like, I whipped up two individual sized pear crisps and topped them with vanilla ice cream. Comfort food for the cold rain...

pear crisp a la mode photo by Kristin

And J, to answer your comment from the previous post:
Farro is a grain that closely resembles barley in flavor and texture. I think it's the oldest known grain, but now is used more in Italy and Asia. It's chewy and nutty and delicious! Maybe they have it at the Kiva?