A Soup Day

It was cold and windy here this morning as we walked the dog. Not Iowa cold or Michigan cold or Canada cold, but it was cold enough to make my eyes water and nose run.  When we got home I wanted something warm and steamy to take the chill off. I looked around the pantry and in the fridge and found a leek, some shallots, chicken stock and hey I have potatoes left from the Gnocchi.  I diced up a couple of carrots and shallots, trimmed the leek and sliced it, then washed the sand out. I minced 2 cloves of garlic and went out on my deck and cut some thyme sprigs. 

Thankfully I had the presence of mind to note that I usually make soup in a very large pot...which would be a very large pot for 4 people. Since it's just the two of us, I chose the smaller saucepan and now we have about 10 servings of soup. I sauteed the carrots, shallots and leeks in some clarified butter and at the last 30-45 secs added the garlic and thyme. This smelled wonderful and already I was feeling less frosty.  Then I added chicken stock and 3 small, peeled and cut russet potatoes and salt and pepper. I let all this cook until the potatoes were tender.

At the end I added a little cream and got a bowl and spoon ready.  Potato soup!  Good on a frosty day.  Heck, I love soup any day. My friend Audrey tells me "Only freaks eat soup in the summertime!"  But I am sure she would have welcomed a bowl of this soup today.

Stay warm!  See you soon.