Simple leek and potato soup

We're currently on holiday in drizzly North Norfolk.  Snuggled up this evening in front of a log burning stove watching Harry Potter, it's not so bad being on holiday in the rain.  As we only have another day of our holiday left, we're tring to use up remaining food supplies. 

Which brings us to my attempt at what must be the worlds simpliest leek and potato soup.  Here's the ingredients I had available to work with:-

3 medium sized leeks
4 medium potatoes
milk
butter
salt
pepper

I've sauteed the chopped leek and potato in butter before seasoning and adding enough milk to cover the vegetables.  I then transferred to the oven in a baking dish in the hope that by baking the ingredients they will become richer and somehow more tasty. 

The aim is to blend up the baked mixture in aspproximately 10 minutes time when it will have baked for 40 minutes at 200C.  And then we'll be serving up with the garlic bread that needs eating up.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Ooh la la

Last Monday was our first wedding anninversary.  We had decided we would stay in and so it seemed like the perfect time to cook up a fancy dinner. 

I'm not sure a beef stew, or casserole if you prefer, could be deemed as being fancy. Unless of course, it has French origins.  All things Frech seem a little bit more fancy to me.  And none more so than when it comes to food.

Which is how I came to be cooking up THE most delicious Beef Bourguignon.  I used a Rachel Khoo recipe - which can be found by clicking here.  I'll try to post the recipe soon when I have more time.

For anyone unfamiliar with Rachel Khoo, she is the one of 'The Little Paris Kitchen' which is both the title of her cookery book and the BBC2 programme which is showing in the UK on Monday evenings at 8.30pm.

Rachel Khoo.  Picture from the Guardian Website

I love and loath this Rachel woman in equal measure.  She is gorgeous, funny, and passionate about food.  She manages to be both glamourous, AND quirky.  She's cool in a chic-vintage sort of way.  For heavens sake, the woman lives and cooks in Paris.  I WANT TO BE HER. I want to speak French fluently as I mingle with the locals - my neighbours - after having moved to the beautiful city to train as a pastry chef.

Anyway.  Rachel Khoo I may not be.  But it turns out that I, like Rachel, can cook up a mean Beef Bourguignon.  When I use her recipe ;)

It may not be the prettiest of dishes to serve up, but with it's rich red wine sauce infused with fragrant rosemary and thyme, it tastes fantastic!  We ate ours with roasted root vegetables glazed in maple syrup, pan-fried green beans and creamy mash...perfection.

It's about time

Hello food lovers :)

It's about time I updated you on why we've been so rubbish in the cooking and blogging department recently.  For the last month Joe and I have been failing miserably in the culinary challenge we have set ourselves.

"Why is this?"  I keep asking myself.  A few thoughts spring to mind:

1. We keep getting ill.  Nothing serious but cold after cold after virus after rubbish virus.  If it's not me it's Joe and he if not's Joe it's Andy or Will.  All in al,l it's left me feeling like I'm running low on energy.  So there's been less effort being put in on the cooking and baking front.
2. The sun has been shining more.  Which means I've been out and about more instead of being holed up in the kitchen or sat on the sofa blogging. 
3. I've been lazy about writing up the recipes we have cooked recently and now it feels like I can't catch-up so I keep avoiding writing anything!
4. We've been having work done on the house, in the kitchen and bathroom.  It's been chaos.  Things are settling now  despite there still being decorating to be done  so hopefully this will encourage me back into the swing of things.
5. There are a limited number of things Joe is interested in cooking.  Only things he wants to eat,  which is fair enough.  The problem is, he's quite limited in what he will eat, although he is getting a litttle more adventuress as he gets older.

So, here's my plan to get back on the culinary horse, as it were.

I've decided I need some new inspiration.  This has provided me with the perfect excuse to place a order with a well know online retailer for three new cookery books.  I realise three is a bit greedy but they were a good price and I was salivating at the thought of them. I'll tell you all about them when they arrive.

I'm going to post more frequently about any food related thoughts rather than restricting myself to it always being a full recipe that we've cooked as part of this year's food challege.

I'm also going to reorganise the kitchen so it is a nicer ad easier place to be.

And we're going to cross our fingers for less illness!  We'll stick with the sunshine and work around that though :)