A Good Cause and Leeks

By: Patricia on 4:10 PM

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      Much has happened since my last update that's been keeping me pretty busy both in and out of the kitchen. My brother-in-law recently retired from the Air Force and I had family in St. Louis for that, I've been testing out soup recipes with the cooler temperatures, lots of knitting and a little bit of stress thrown in to the mix for spice.

      As you can see in the left column of the screen, I do some knitting in my spare time and have started a charity donation event to last indefinitely for purchases through my Etsy shop. For each sale of a cat toy, I will donate one in the purchaser's name to Austin Pets Alive! here in Austin, Texas. They are a no-kill animal rescue that is working to make Austin a no-kill city for companion animals. Great organization. I contacted the coordinator of the program and I've gotten set up to donate the toys at the local adoption shows they have. I've got a couple to drop off and I'll post pics when I get them done. They are in desperate need of people to house both cats and dogs for definite periods of time (one or two weeks, three days, etc.), so if you are in the Austin area and can help, please do. These people rock.

      Okay, so on to what I've been up to in the kitchen...

      The goat and I went to the grocery store without the list last week (this happens a lot around here) and came home with a couple new things to try.

Leeks!

      Not knowing much other than they're awesome in potato soup, I bought some while on that wild grocery trip last week. I was pretty surprised at how easy they were to cook and use for how intimidating of a vegetable they've been for me. Sort of how risotto is intimidating, but that's a different post... I did a bit of research on the vegetable because I was interested in the fact that it almost stunk like spinach when i cooked it, but has a serious onion/garlicy flavor and smell. It's an odd vegeable. They grow and bloom like wild garlic does, only with beefier stalks and leaves.

      I did a basic potato soup with leeks in with the onions at the begining and blended the whole thing at the end. I like the texture of blended soups, but the extra pot involved to separate the already blended from the rest is a pain.

      This weekend I plan on making some potato soup and shopping for some Thanksgiving stuff - other than that I have no plans and I like it! I think I might even get some alone time this weekend if I'm lucky!