This past weekend was brutally cold and I remained cocooned in my house. No way in hell was I going out to run in -30ºC (with the wind chill) no way, no how. For the first time this year, I decided to make a fire in slow burning wood stove. Man, the wood I have is fairly useless. Burns just like that (snaps fingers). My cubby holds three large loads of this wood carrier doohickey.
I burned the whole lot Saturday. Sunday was supposed to be warmer and I thought I’d go for a run and then fill up the cubby for the next cold snap. ‘Parently the cold snap wasn’t done. Whilst the kids were still snoring, I lugged in the three loads, snow-covered, and got that fire going again. Thankfully snow doesn’t make it that wet. It was a few degrees warmer than Saturday…
I decided to make a leek and potato soup, which got me to ruminating as I chopped. I remembered how I followed Pol Martin’s recipe for Crème de poireaux (cream of leek), having graduated from the Sel et Poivre magazines to real cookbooks. Sel & Poivre was fine and dandy but often included ingredients such as custard powder rather than include how to make the custard. Funny thing is, in another recipe from a later issue, there was a recipe for crème pâtissière (pastry cream/custard)! I used to take out both copies so I could combine them. Especially after having searched high and low for the prepackaged powder crap (and finding it lacking).
Anyway, back to my soup. I remembered cutting the veg rather small, and never puréeing it in the end. It never mentioned to purée it and so I didn’t. I no longer have the book – frankly, because this was the only recipe I ever tried in the otherwise dull and lacklustre book and I now know it off by heart and have probably modified it since, anyway – so I cannot confirm that that part of the recipe was omitted. Not so much a crème then, was it? However, I remember really liking it and receiving no complaints. Funny then, that was the only time I didn’t whizz it up into a smooth and creamy texture, adding a swirl of cream and a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley. (I have also since figured out that the veg didn’t have to be cut so finely, especially since it was going under the immersion blender, or blender, that I no longer have.) And then Sunday’s soup. On a whim, I chopped everything fine and left it as is. No cream necessary. I loved it. And guess what? Different audience, still no complaints!
As much as I could have remained in my cocoon for yet another day, I instead checked my fire and decided that it was warm enough(ish) to go out there, well-bundled up. By 2:30 pm, I grabbed my camera, hopped into my car and determined where I would walk. On a whim, I parked near the “country road” and started walking. Realising I’d have to go a good ways before seeing anything, I trudged back to my car. Off to the bird sanctuary, instead. Note to self, these boots, while warm, are so heavy. Time to go shopping.
I parked on the street behind another car, having noticed the parking lot was pretty full. Ugh. I long for the days when I worked shifts and could come here on a weekday. It’s way too people-y on the weekends.
I took a good many photos, some of which ended up on the Facebooks and the Instagrams and I shall share them here, saving more for another post… 😉
A Dalectable Life 